The 2024 Miami Grand Prix was a surrpsie smash-hit with an equally surprising winner as Land Norris rose to the occasion to dethrone Max Verstappen and the television broadcast set a Formula 1 record for American audiences.
ESPN reported that the live ABC broadcast of the Miami Grand Prix was watched by an audience of 3.1 million, the largest in U.S. television history for F1.
This shatters the previous record of 2.6 million set by the first edition of the Miami GP in 2022 and is a massive 48% increase over the 2.1 million that tuned into last year’s race.
Race viewership peaked at 3.6 million and the 18-49 age demographic averaged 1.3 million viewers across the race broadcast.
Not satisfied with just a single record, the Miami GP weekend also set a record for the most-watched Sprint race by a U.S. television audience since the format debuted in 2021.
An average audience of 946,000 viewers tuned in to watch Verstappen edge clear of Charles Leclerc on ESPN during Saturday’s Sprint, beating the previous record set by Azerbaijan in 2023 (883,000 viewers).
Over half a million viewers tuned in to catch qualifying with an average of 625,000 catching the Saturday afternoon action on ESPN.
Miami Dolphins CEO and Miami Grand Prix managing partner Tom Garfinkel also revealed that the weekend attendance was at least 275,000 people and that tickets had sold out for the third straight year.
Record television viewership and a sellout crowd, combined with a surprise result will no doubt bring joy to Garfinkel and his Miami GP management team amid F1’s growing presence in the United States.
Miami is now one of three U.S.-based Grand Prix events, sharing the limelight with Austin, Texas and Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Miami International Autodrome still has 10 years left on its initial contract but Garfinkel sees the Hard Rock Stadium becoming a permanent fixture on the F1 calendar.
“We’ll be here a long time,” he said via USA Today. “I would expect us to be here past the 10 years.”
Based on the evidence from this weekend, Garfinkel is probably right.
