Apple can help F1 become part of U.S. culture – Domenicali

Formula 1 CEO and president Stefano Domenicali believes the new broadcast partnership with Apple can help the sport become part of American culture.

Apple will take over from ESPN as the United States broadcaster in 2026, starting a five-year deal that will see the sport switch from a traditional cable broadcast platform to a streaming service. Apple also promises to offer further reach and content opportunities through its many other products, and Domenicali says the sport was looking for a partnership that would help it become more prominent in the U.S. beyond viewing figures.

“In the U.S., to be relevant, you need to start to be part of the culture,” Domenicali said. “You wake up in the American houses and you talk about the sport, you talk about the events. And that’s really the aim that we want to have together with Apple.

“Apple is more than a platform. It’s a social movement that, with their technology, with their vision, has identified something unique, of which we really rely on in order to pass the message of F1. For the next five years, they’re going to be our voice, our main partners in a market that we believe will enable us to grow dimensionally and also positively in a very important way.

“When we talk about Apple, I believe we’re talking about not only technology, not only connectivity, we’re talking about social relevancy. And therefore, we need to think in a way that without a social relevant platform, we cannot grow in the dimension that we want to grow in a country like the U.S.

“Therefore, it’s a perfect match to be, hopefully as soon as possible, socially relevant in a way that everyone can wake up at the beginning and think about Formula 1. As you’re thinking about NFL or NBA or MLS, maybe you may think that I’m crazy, but that’s really what should be our target.

“People thinking about our sport, not only as a sport, but also as something that is more than that. And that’s really what we would like to do together with our friends of Apple.”

Apple’s senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue, says the potential for F1 to gain a bigger following in America is substantial, based on the successes of the most popular sports.

“When you look at it, I think it’s come from a very small number to a great number,” Cue said. “But when you compare it to other sports in the U.S. – certainly the biggest sports, which I think F1 is and should be in the U.S. – the growth opportunity is huge.

“It’s exponentially huge. It’s not about adding a few. You can exponentially grow the sport. So I think the opportunity is really great. What some people look at as a negative at times – which is all of the time zones and things – I look at as a positive, because many times you’re not competing with other sports in the U.S. from that standpoint.

“And so we’ll get a lot smarter of how we lead one thing to another and in different pieces. But we think it’s going to grow by a lot. Motorsports in general has been growing in the U.S., but F1 specifically is the best in the world.

“We’ve got a lot of great ideas and plans. As you know, we brought some new technology to F1 for the movie. And as I look over the next five years, it’s going to be very, very exciting to innovate and come up with new things. And we can try things – it’s very easy when you control all sides of it. So that’s what we have together in this partnership.”

Both F1 and Apple say they are confident that the move will not see a detrimental drop in viewing figures, partly because of the added value from the technological side of Apple.

“When we talked about the different Apple services and what the deal could become or evolve into, it’s not just in terms of from that sort of different service situation,” said Ian Holmes, F1’s chief media rights and broadcasting officer.

“We’ve already spent time during the filming of the movie, looking at new camera technologies, which ultimately help us create a better product. Clearly, there is certain AR [augmented reality] and VR [virtual reality] opportunities that we can explore. So it’s very much a relationship across technology as it is content.”