With the Formula 1 (F1) season reopening in May with the Miami Grand Prix, the 2026 race lineup leans increasingly more towards American media consumers. Despite there not being an American driver in the F1 lineup since 2024 with Logan Sargeant, F1 looks to expand into American media, a recent shift reflected in Campo’s F1 community.
While F1 has long been an international phenomenon, its popularity in the US has remained relatively niche since its inception, often overshadowed by traditional US motorsports like NASCAR and IndyCar. The sport’s US viewership has more than doubled under Liberty Media, largely driven by the production of the hit Netflix show “Formula 1: Drive to Survive.” “When ‘Drive to Survive’ came out, people just started gravitating towards it that weren’t car guys,” senior and F1 club member Lex Ramani explained.
At Campo, the growth is reflected in the creation of the Formula 1 Club in 2023. What may have once been an uncommon interest centered around engineering and European racing culture has now evolved into a growing student community. As Ramani explained, “20 years ago, if you watched F1 you were a car guy…now you get people who watch F1 and then become curious about cars, or become curious about engineering…So I think it’s a beautiful thing.”
The appeal of F1 lies in its unusual intersection of sports and engineering. At Campo, these two groups come together to discuss these seemingly contradictory topics. “The F1 club does a good job bringing together both sides of the community,” Ramani said.
Despite F1’s explosive growth in the US, its expansion has limits. The sport’s branding remains heavily tied to wealth and exclusivity. As Bernie Ecclestone, former CEO of the Formula One Group, famously said, “Younger audiences are not a priority because they don’t buy Rolexes.”
Newer regulations aimed at sustainability and safety may limit the sport’s thrill-appeal to fans. As F1 shifts towards hybrid engines, longtime viewers believe these changes reduce the unpredictability and engineering ingenuity that once defined F1 racing. “People are sad and scared that there’s going to be less exciting races, less overtakes, less feats of power from each car,” Ramani explained.
Furthermore, unlike the NFL, where league revenue is split evenly among all 32 teams, F1 distributes money unevenly through the Concorde Agreement, a private agreement between teams and Formula One Management. Top-performing teams and historically significant ones like Ferrari get larger percentages of revenue. This creates what some fans describe as a positive feedback loop, as winning teams receive more money and sponsorships, allowing them to continue to outperform losing teams with less money. For any sport, predictability is bad for business; however, the long-term view is that the best will prevail, and it’s up to each team to make the most out of every opportunity.
Nonetheless, F1’s momentum shows little sign of disappearing; the 2023 season marked the first time in over 40 years that three F1 races were held in the US. Whether F1 can maintain that growth long term, however, remains uncertain. Its longevity will ultimately depend on whether it can evolve from a trendy media phenomenon into a lasting piece of American sports culture.
