Greg Maffei believes Liberty Media could cash in on Formula 1 very soon with the “easy money” already being made since its acquisition in 2017.
Maffei had served as Liberty Media’s CEO and President as the sport sky-rocketed in its appeal since taking over the reins from Bernie Ecclestone.
A targeted campaign to bring F1 to the United States, coupled with Netflix’s immensely popular docuseries ‘Drive to Survive’ quickly upped the sport’s stake in the global market.
F1 started being traded publicly on the stock market, and with rising interest and soaring popularity, the sport today boasts a net worth of a staggering $30 billion.
US has three Grands Prix venues (Miami, Austin and Las Vegas) with F1 also announcing a return to Africa with a race confirmed to take place in Rwanda by the 2030s.
But Maffei believes that the “easy money” has already been made by Liberty Media, and therefore, it won’t be long before the Company cashes in on the sport’s commercial rights with another private sale.
With Liberty Media now having acquired the commercial rights to MotoGP, F1 might be a project that has run its course in terms of expansion and profitability.
“I’ll say F1 is gone,” Maffei said at Sportico’s Invest New York 2026 conference when asked if F1 would still be traded on the stock market in 2028.
“The easy money’s been made. The EBIDTA (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is up three times in eight or nine years.
“It’s not going to go up three times again in the next eight or nine years.”
Back in 2017, Liberty Media paid around $4.6 billion to CVC Capital. The asking price would have surely grown multifold since.
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