Apple ‘thrilled’ by early performance of its F1 coverage

Apple has been thrilled by the way its new partnership with Formula 1 has started from an audience and coverage perspective, according to its Senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue.

F1 changed its broadcaster partner in the U.S. at the end of the 2025 season, switching from ESPN to Apple TV at the same time as the new regulations were introduced. Ahead of the first home race on the Apple platform, Cue says the first three rounds exceeded expectations and has received encouraging feedback from customers so far, with F1 saying viewing figures are up on the same races from 2025, without providing any numbers.

“It's been exciting,” Cue said. “It’s a little nerve-wracking because we have such great admiration for Formula 1 and the team there. Going live, we wanted to do a great job and grow the sport. We're off to a really good start. Customers are loving the quality of the video, audio, all the new features, multi-view, all these new things we've done.

“We're incrementing all the time. So this week, I just heard a bunch of IMAX theaters got sold out to go watch the race, which is very cool. Apple News, which is the number one news site in the United States, if you go to it during the race, we're going to have a live broadcast right inside of Apple News.

“We're thrilled with how it started. Obviously, now we come to Miami and a great time zone, [whereas] those first three races are the hardest races all year from a time zone perspective.

“We picked up a lot of viewers on Saturday, a lot more. Not only did we do well in the races, but I had a feeling… I've always felt like Saturday is such a big day that once you start learning about the sport, you definitely want to watch on Saturdays. Obviously, this weekend is the best with the Sprint race and qualifying. So we're thrilled right now with how it's done.”

Cue promises further innovation from Apple as the year goes on, adding to a Tubi altcast of this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix and newly launched regular shoulder programming.

“We are all in. Even the first three races – which are the worst time frames that you can look at of all the races that take place, most of it's middle of the night for the East Coast – we were all in, Our marketing and what we were doing," he said. "We believe there's huge advantages to going on in the morning.

“Early mornings from that standpoint. There's no competition at that time either. So we will continue to push the sport through all the races. And I think the storylines will only get better as time goes on too. Look, it's unfortunate we had this five-week delay. There's a great story going on right now. There's a 19-year-old kid leading the whole thing, which is asinine if you think about that. And so we're excited. But rest assured you're going to see us innovating and doing new things pretty much in every race.”

There turn to action in Mimai with new rule revisions provides new storylines for Apple to explore, Cue says. Alastair Staley/Getty Images

Cue says the way the new regulations have been a central talking point so far this year has not had a negative impact for Apple, as it shows the wider passion and interest in the sport’s technology.

“Whenever there's questions, controversy and all that, it's always good because it generates interest and so there's conversation and that's rarely a bad thing from that viewpoint," he said. "I haven't seen anything that's concerning. I think whenever you have new regulations, you have changes going on from that standpoint.

“It's early in the season. Having watched since I've been a little kid, there's always questions and issues in those types of moments. I guess [Max] Verstappen’s car was pretty good today in practice, so that's always a good sign! But it's awesome. This is the first race with all these changes that the teams have made, which is why I was excited to watch practice today too.

“[Charles] Leclerc coming in fastest. There's all these questions of Ferrari was really fast in the turns but wasn't very fast on the straightaways – with the new changes that were made, it should be faster on the straightaways, and those are all great topics that people have [interest in]. Whenever there's that kind of stuff, there's a lot of interest.”