US viewership: F1 delivers strong Spanish GP audience as Nascar struggles with rain delay

• Spanish Grand Prix averages 1.1m viewers, a 10% YoY increase
• Nascar drops to season-low of 1.88m viewers for New Hampshire
• IndyCar has released no information on Laguna Seca audience

Last weekend’s Formula One Spanish Grand Prix on ESPN was the second most-watched edition of the race in US TV history.

The race averaged 1.1 million viewers, up from an audience of one million in 2023. The ten per cent increase represents the fifth consecutive event this season with comparable year-over-year (YoY) audience growth.

It means overall average viewership for the series has reached 1.25 million after ten races, highlighting the positive growth that Formula One is enjoying. The series averaged 1.11 million viewers for the 2023 season.

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While it was good news for Formula One, Nascar’s race in New Hampshire was hit by severe rain delays.

This saw 1.88 million viewers tune in on USA Network, an 83 per cent increase compared to last year’s race which was held two weeks later in the schedule and delayed until Monday due to rain.

This makes New Hampshire the lowest-watched race of the 2024 Cup Series regular season so far. The last New Hampshire race held on a Sunday was in 2022, which averaged 2.4 million viewers.

The rain delays in New Hampshire saw IndyCar’s race at Laguna Seca demoted to CNBC, historically not great for attracting an audience. The 2022 event in Nashville also suffered this fate and averaged 121,000 viewers.

At time of publication, IndyCar had not released official figures or responded to requests from BlackBook Motorsport for the information to be released.