ESPN closed the final season of its coverage of Formula 1 in the United States with an all-time viewership record.

The broadcaster has revealed that it experienced an average of 1.3 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC for each race in 2025.

The 2025 season featured a tense intra-team battle between McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. A late surge from Red Bull's Max Verstappen added to the excitement at the end of the season, with the drivers' championship coming down to the wire at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. While the Red Bull driver took the final victory of the year, Norris's third-place finish at the Yas Marina Circuit was enough to clinch his first drivers' title.

For ESPN, the tense season finale in Abu Dhabi brought in an average of 1.5 million viewers, peaking at 1.8 million, according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel data.

Average ESPN race viewership per F1 season

2018 – 554,000
2019 – 672,000
2020 – 608,000
2021 – 948,000
2022 – 1.21 million
2023 – 1.1 million
2024 – 1.1 million
2025 – 1.3 million

It was announced in October 2025 that F1 had signed a new US broadcasting rights deal, which would see the coverage move in the United States to Apple TV from 2026.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

The Disney-owned broadcaster had held the broadcasting rights to F1 in the US since 2018 and also had a stint of broadcasting the championship from 1984 to 1997.

"We’re incredibly proud of what we and Formula 1 accomplished together in the United States and look forward to a strong finish in this final season. We wish F1 well in the future," a statement from ESPN read at the time.

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali added: "I think that our duty is to look into the future and try to make sure that F1 can have the right platform of developing our growth. And therefore I really want to thank ESPN for what they did today together, because they invested in us when no one was really ready to invest in us many, many years ago."

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Honda's 2026 Formula 1 engine is almost here, but before we slip into our Christmas food comas, the Japanese manufacturer has offered the first hint at what next year's power unit will sound like. 

An audio clip, posted by Honda and shared by Aston Martin on social media, has received huge praise after the sound of the 1.6-litre turbo V6 was recorded on a test stand. You can cleanly hear the honky bark of Honda's power unit as it rips through its rev range. On the downshift - lightning quick - burbles can be heard as the revs blip.

Within hours, the video received over 200,000 likes on the Aston Martin Formula 1 team's Instagram account, with it also collecting over 2000 comments. "Okayyyy Honda we hear you LOUD & CLEAR," one commenter posted as another added: "Best sounding engine since the V8 era."

Unfortunately, Honda and Aston Martin failed to give any more information on the build, but the sound was good enough to keep us all going for the time being.

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A post shared by Honda Racing F1 (@hondaracingf1)

From 2026, F1 will see a substantial change in the regulations. One of these changes sees powertrains increasing their reliance on electrical power, and many fans have been worried that this would result in a softened soundtrack on track. Fortunately, Honda's tease has partly put this worry to bed, with it suggesting that these new powertrains will have plenty of character when the time comes while also being more sustainable. 

With the 2025 season coming to an end, Honda will join Aston Martin, which will become a works team for the 2026 season. This comes after a long stint of success with Red Bull, with the pairing achieving four drivers' and two constructors' championships. Red Bull will instead bring Red Bull Powertrains, backed by Ford, into 2026.

As with everything in F1, Honda's time in the championship has been mixed overall, but its peaks have been incredible. It won its first grand prix in 1965 and saw success through the late 1980s and early 1990s with Williams and McLaren. 

The Red Bull Racing team celebrate and Thank Honda

Since then, Honda struggled when it powered McLaren in 2015, but its partnership with Red Bull was a prosperous one, with it powering all of Max Verstappen's championship wins. 

With Aston Martin now adopting what has been a very successful manufacturer, supporters of the team will be more than happy with what they're now seeing - and hearing. 

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