F1's global television audience continues its upward trajectory, with Brazil emerging as the standout market after an extraordinary 18 million viewers tuned in to the British Grand Prix across TV Globo and SportTV3 earlier this month.
That figure represents the highest audience for any single F1 race in any individual market globally since 2020, and the largest British Grand Prix viewership in Brazil in eight years.
The Brazilian audience boom has been building all season. Total TV audiences have grown significantly year on year, with some race weekends delivering audiences up to five times larger than in 2025.
The return of F1 to Globo's free-to-air network after five seasons on the smaller Band network has been transformative, restoring the sport to the country's most-watched broadcaster.
Brazil's 71 million-strong F1 fanbase, the largest of any global sport league in the country, now has a homegrown driver to rally behind in Gabriel Bortoleto.
The 21-year-old Audi driver, the first full-time Brazilian on the grid since Felipe Massa's retirement, has helped reignite national enthusiasm.
By mid-season, Globo's cumulative F1 reach had already surpassed the total viewership Band achieved across the entire 2025 campaign.
While the structural shift to Globo explains much of Brazil's audience explosion, Bortoleto's presence cannot be understated.
British GP
Key markets firing on all cylinders
Brazil is not alone. In Italy, TV audiences are up 27% through the British Grand Prix compared with 2025, buoyed by Ferrari's competitive SF-26 and Kimi Antonelli's surge to the top of the drivers' championship.
The Japanese Grand Prix delivered Italy's highest audience since 2017, while the Belgian Grand Prix recorded its best Italian viewership since 2019.
In China, weekend TV audiences for the Chinese Grand Prix more than doubled year on year, with increased coverage and a growing fanbase sustaining strong performance throughout the calendar.
The Monaco Grand Prix, always the sport's showpiece event, reached nearly 80 million viewers globally, up by double digits versus 2025.
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