V8s are coming back to F1 while NASCAR's Anduril 250 finds a circuit partner
Jeff Gordon to Bloomberg: F1's U.S. boom is the rising tide lifting NASCAR, IndyCar, and every series in between
It was an exciting week of motorsport, and it’s only going to pick up as we enter the warmer months. Formula 1 is back (kinda). It’s May, so that can only mean one thing for IndyCar. NASCAR has an exciting season on its hands. New partners are flowing into motorsports everywhere we turn, and it’s all just the beginning.
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Liberty Media’s Q1 Drops Today: F1 Up 53%
Reported this morning. Formula One Group hit $711M in Q1 revenue (up 59% YoY); F1 alone climbed 53% to $617M with Adjusted OIBDA more than doubling to $172M. MotoGP, the $4.2B Liberty acquisition that closed last July, posted $94M (vs. $75M a year prior) but is still bleeding $24M in operating losses. CEO Derek Chang framed it as the start of Liberty’s “long-term strategy for MotoGP.” FWONK rallied more than 5% on the open to over $93. Worth flagging: three Q1 races vs. two last year, and the full 2026 calendar is two events shorter after Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were dropped over geopolitical tensions.
Read the full report here.
Anduril 250 NASCAR race to be held on ‘Qualcomm Circuit’
NASCAR named Qualcomm as the Official Circuit Partner of NASCAR San Diego Weekend presented by Anduril, with the new 3.4-mile, 16-turn street course at Naval Base Coronado now officially branded the Qualcomm Circuit. Construction begins late May ahead of the June 19–21 debut. It will be the first NASCAR track ever built on an active military base. The Cup Series runs the Anduril 250 on Sunday, June 21, with the Truck Series taking Friday’s Navy Community Day and the O’Reilly Series racing Saturday.
The corporate stack is the story. Anduril, the defense AI firm building Pentagon contract revenue at speed, owns the weekend. Qualcomm, a 40-year San Diego anchor repositioning around AI chips and edge computing, takes circuit naming rights and will deploy intelligent computing and advanced connectivity across the event. Both companies are treating the venue as a live demonstration of their enterprise. NASCAR is treating both companies as long-term ballast. Chicago’s street race never quite found its commercial footing across three seasons. San Diego comes in with a captive military audience, two anchor sponsors with operational roots in the host market, and a patriotic format that lines up cleanly with the Cup demographic.
Sky Sports Drops £1B to Keep F1 in the UK Until 2034
Sky and Liberty extended their UK and Ireland broadcast deal five additional years through 2034, with Italy renewed through 2032. Reported value: £1 billion ($1.4B), a 55% jump over the previous £645M agreement. The current deal still had three years to run, making this the earliest renewal since Sky picked up F1 in 2012. The strategic read: F1 just locked in its biggest European broadcaster before Apple’s U.S. blueprint could trigger a bidding rethink in other markets. Italy is the smart play. Sky Italia’s audience is up 25% this season on the back of Kimi Antonelli, with his Chinese GP win drawing 1.2M on Sky and another 1.4M on TV8.
FIA Confirms V8s Return by 2031
Mohammed Ben Sulayem told reporters during the Miami weekend that V8 engines will return to F1 in 2030 or 2031. The current 2026 hybrid regs, the ones Liberty and Audi just bet billions of dollars on, are being walked back inside their first month of competition. Four of six manufacturers (Mercedes, Ferrari, Honda, GM, Audi, Red Bull/Ford) need to approve a 2030 switch. If they don’t, the FIA can unilaterally force a 2031 implementation. Ben Sulayem called it a “no-brainer” with “very, very minor electrification.” Audi just spent €600M acquiring Sauber to build a hybrid works engine. GM is mid-build on its own power unit program in Charlotte. Both companies’ multi-year roadmaps were oriented around an engine formula that may now have a five-year shelf life.
Coca-Cola Returns to 23XI Racing
Coca-Cola signed on as the Exclusive Beverage Partner of Bubba Wallace and the No. 23 team, debuting a co-branded paint scheme with Hardee’s at Watkins Glen this Sunday (May 10). The timing is built around Coke’s 140th anniversary. The structural story is more interesting. 23XI Racing was the named plaintiff that just forced NASCAR into permanent evergreen charters last December, and a charter’s market value reportedly leapt from $45M to nearly $100M overnight on the news. Coca-Cola’s return signals to the market that the most aggressive team in the sport, the one that took the league to court, is now fully bankable to legacy Fortune 50 sponsors.
Miami Pulls 275K and Cadillac Debuts at Home
Miami International Autodrome set its third straight weekend record at 275,000 attendees, with Hard Rock Stadium adding a 50-foot-tall, 264-foot-long super-yacht hospitality structure inside Turns 5–9 and a five-deck MSC Yacht Club suite. Race-day premium suites cleared $10K. The result on track: Mercedes’ Antonelli took his third win of the season. The result off-track: Cadillac ran its first race on American soil with a Stars-and-Stripes livery, a Tommy Hilfiger-fronted team kit, and a sponsor lineup that already includes Jim Beam and Tenneco. Per their CCO, no title sponsor by design. They’re keeping the position open. With the Miami GP locked in through 2041 and Liberty’s U.S. flywheel spinning, GM appears willing to wait for the right number.
Around the Horn
Marsh signs on as F1’s first Official Risk Partner in multi-year deal
Modelo joins RFK Racing as ‘Official Cerveza’ with Watkins Glen primary on Keselowski’s No. 6
Ryan Blaney signs long-term Team Penske extension; team also renews Menards deal
Sam’s Club becomes Official Sponsor of NTT INDYCAR Series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
OnlyBulls digital wallet takes title sponsorship of IndyCar’s Portland race
RFK Racing comes up empty on its charter hunt; Keselowski says fix could run $40M to $80M
Verstappen calls FIA’s revised 2026 regs “a tickle,” still threatening to walk
NASCAR Cup ratings dip at Texas despite sold-out grandstands; Elliott takes second 2026 win
Jeff Gordon tells Bloomberg the rise of F1 in the U.S. is lifting all of motorsports
NASCAR Silly Season opens with static moves and bigger questions still pending
F1 Grid Gigs presented by American Express returns, expanding to five races and launching in Miami
Apple TV reports F1 viewership “way up” against ESPN’s last season as U.S. takeover continues
Toto Wolff says 2026 regulation critics “should hide” after Miami delivered a “spectacular” race
Andy Street rejoins Kyle Busch as crew chief of the No. 8 in his second stint inside seven months
Katherine Legge confirmed for Indy 500 in HMD-Foyt entry with e.l.f. Cosmetics primary on the No. 11
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