Austin was the second-highest USGP TV audience ever

Last weekend’s United States Grand Prix in Austin's Circuit of The Americas was the second most-viewed U.S. Formula 1 race of all time, according to ESPN’s figures.

The race was broadcast on ABC and the full telecast averaged 1.2 million viewers, leaving it second only to the 2007 USGP at Indianapolis, which averaged 1.4m on FOX.

Those figures make it the third most-viewed Formula 1 Grand Prix on ABC on record dating back to 2001, as well as the fourth most-viewed grand prix on ESPN Networks on record since 1994. The figures also make the race ESPN’s highest-rated since it regained rights to F1 in 2018.

The race itself pulled in 1.5 million viewers on average from lights out to the end of the podium ceremony, and was the most-viewed race of the season so far, surpassing the French Grand Prix (1.1m) and British Grand Prix (1m) earlier this summer, largely thanks to it being the first race on the U.S. timezone since 2019.

Compared to the last race at COTA two years ago, last weekend’s event saw the TV audience increase by 42%, while the season as a whole now averages 945,000 viewers per race. That’s up 55% on the 2020 average, and 40% on 2019 (672k).

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Chris Medland

While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.

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