For First Time, ESPN+ Will Stream Two Alternate View Options for Entire Season
All F1 Academy Races, On-Track Sessions to be Featured on ESPN+
As the FIA Formula 1 World Championship celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2025, ESPN begins its eighth consecutive year of F1 coverage with this weekend’s season-opening Formula 1 Louis Vuitton Australian Grand Prix. The race will air live on Saturday, March 15, at 11:55 p.m. ET on ESPN and in Spanish on ESPN Deportes.
For what many observers anticipate will be one of the most competitive F1 seasons in years, ESPN platforms will again air live coverage of all 24 races, with the races airing on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC. All practice and qualifying sessions and the six F1 Sprint races in 2025 also will be available for fans on ESPN platforms and ESPN Deportes is again the exclusive Spanish-language television outlet for F1 in the U.S.
For the first time, ESPN+ will offer race fans a full season of alternate viewing options, with two unique streams available for every race:
- Driver Tracker — a live, interactive tracker that plots the location of all drivers on track in real-time.
- Onboard Cameras Channel — an option that moves to different drivers’ perspectives throughout the race.
In addition, ESPN+ will simulcast live stream the five races that will air on ABC.
All live race telecasts will continue the commercial-free presentation used over the past seven seasons, a format that has set ESPN’s coverage apart and proved very popular with viewers. Mercedes-Benz returns as the race telecast presenting sponsor, while Liquid IV will again be the season-long pre-race Grand Prix Sunday telecast presenting sponsor. Heineken returns as sole sponsor of the pre and post-race coverage on ESPN’s signature news and information program SportsCenter.
Again in 2025, ESPN’s Laurence Edmondson and Nate Saunders will provide complete coverage of every F1 race across all global digital platforms, including exclusive interviews with drivers and team principals, as well as breaking news and in-depth analysis. ESPN’s coverage of F1 includes a dedicated site that reports on the championship year-round. ESPN’s F1 reporters also contribute to the video podcast program Unlapped, which appears year-round on the ESPN F1 YouTube channel. Also connected with the ESPN.com/F1 website are social handles @ESPNF1 on X, @ESPNF1 on Instagram and ESPNF1 on Facebook.
ESPN also will produce a countdown show for the Miami Grand Prix that will stream live in the hour prior to the race telecast on ESPN’s YouTube and Facebook accounts, as well as on ESPN3 and the ESPN App.
Last week, ESPN announced a collaboration with Academy Award, Golden Globe, and 14-time Grammy winner Lady Gaga, launching its first 2025 F1 season promo campaign featuring “Garden of Eden,” a song from Gaga’s new album MAYHEM. Throughout the F1 season, ESPN will spotlight additional music from the release.
The past three F1 seasons on ESPN platforms have been the three most-viewed in history on U.S. television. An average of 1.1 million viewers watched races across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC during the 2024 season, tying the 2023 season average for the second most-viewed season. The all-time record average of 1.2 million viewers was set in 2022. The 2024 season included multiple viewership records, led by the Miami Grand Prix in early May, airing on ABC, setting the all-time U.S. television F1 record for a live telecast with 3.1 million average viewers. Seven races in 2024 set event viewership records and 11 races saw year-over-year viewership gains over 2023.
The growth of Formula 1 television audiences in the United States since the championship returned to ESPN platforms in 2018 remains a sports success story. Average viewership has essentially doubled from 554K in 2018 to 1.1 million in 2023 and 2024, a total increase of nearly 100 percent.
F1 Academy and Support Series — ESPN+ will have live streaming of all seven rounds, including races, practice and qualifying, for F1 Academy, a Formula 1 series to develop and prepare female drivers to progress to higher levels of competition. The first F1 Academy action of the season will be March 21-23 at the Formula 1 Heineken Chinese Grand Prix with the series racing as part of both the Miami and Las Vegas F1 weekends in the U.S. The Las Vegas round is new this season.
ESPN+ also will continue live streaming of all Formula 2, Formula 3 and Porsche Supercup races during F1 race weekends.
Formula 1 Louis Vuitton Australian Grand Prix on ESPN Platforms
(all times Eastern)
| Practice 1 | Thursday, March 13 | 9:25 PM | ESPNEWS / ESPN+ |
| Practice 2 | Friday, March 14 | 12:55 AM | ESPN2 |
| F1 Show | 3:10 AM | ESPN3 | |
| Practice 3 | 9:25 PM | ESPN3 / ESPN+ | |
| Qualifying Pre-Show | Saturday, March 15 | 12:15 AM | ESPN3 |
| Qualifying | 12:55 AM | ESPNU | |
| Ted’s Qualifying Notebook | 3:00 AM | ESPN3 | |
| Grand Prix Sunday (pre-race) | 10:30 PM | ESPNEWS / ESPN+ | |
| Race | 11:55 PM | ESPN | |
| Driver Tracker | 11:55 PM | ESPN+ | |
| Mixed On-Board Camera | 11:55 PM | ESPN+ | |
| Checkered Flag | Sunday, March 16 | 2:00 AM | ESPN3 |
| Ted’s Race Notebook | 3:00 AM | ESPN3 | |
| Race (re-air) | 3:00 PM | ESPNEWS | |
| Race (re-air) | 9:00 PM | ESPNEWS |
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(Drivers photo courtesy Formula 1)
Media contact: andy.hall@espn.com
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