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Chapter 1: What changes are happening in Formula One's management?
Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Business Wars ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app. It's March 2017 in Melbourne, Australia, and the final preparations are underway for the opening race of the Formula One season. The buzz of a busy garage floats through the open windows of a sleek hospitality suite.
Outside, mechanics in silver uniforms move around a Mercedes Formula One car with military precision. Inside, two men sit across from each other at a small table, the tone quieter but just as intense. A few months ago, U.S. entertainment giant Liberty Media bought Formula One for more than $4 billion. Now, it wants to usher in a new era for the sport.
Sean Bratches is the Liberty executive charged with making it happen. but he can't do it alone. He needs the race teams to buy in as well. Today, he's here to sell his vision to one of Formula One's most powerful figures, the famously competitive Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff. Bratches leans forward. The product on track is phenomenal, but the fan experience? We think it can be bigger.
Wolff's expression tightens. How? How? Bracha's gestures towards the garage outside. Well, for starters, fans never see this. The paddock, the garages, why not let people experience it? Absolutely not. Well, that's a clear answer. You see that car? Every millimeter of it is intellectual property. If rival engineers enter our garage, they can photograph it, copy something, steal our ideas.
We cannot allow that. Okay, fair concern, but what if fans don't roam the paddock? What if they're guided through? Guided? Yeah, maybe in golf carts. Golf carts? Yeah. Fans ride through the paddock, a quick loop, no stopping, no wandering into restricted areas. We'll keep them moving the whole time, maybe a few carts linked together, like a little train.
Sean, you're describing something that belongs on a Hollywood studio lot. Come on, is that a bad thing? Of course it is. This is the pinnacle of motorsport, the greatest competition in the world, not entertainment. Outside, the mechanics step back as the Mercedes fires up. Ratchas glances out the window, then back at Wolf. And he smiles, because the Mercedes boss is dead serious.
But he's also completely wrong. Formula One has always been more than a sport. It's a high-tech, high-speed spectacle that oozes drama. For decades, most of that drama has stayed hidden behind closed doors. But Liberty Media is out to change that. They want to bring Formula One into the modern entertainment era. But not everyone in the sport is ready for the show.
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Chapter 2: How is Formula One planning to attract American fans?
The reaction is mixed. Some fans embrace the added drama. Others complain that the format cheapens the value of the full season, allowing a driver who has dominated for months to lose the championship with a single bad race. And for newcomers to the sport, the shifting rules and elimination rounds can be hard to follow. At the same time, NASCAR tries to broaden its appeal.
It shines the spotlight on drivers who graduate from Drive for Diversity, a program aimed at supporting talented drivers from underrepresented backgrounds. But the initiative sparks backlash among some fans who see it as politics intruding into the sport. Drivers from the program like Daniel Suarez and Bubba Wallace find themselves having to justify their place on the grid.
And there's little evidence, at least at first, that a more diverse driver pool translates into a more diverse audience. But while NASCAR tinkers with its product, Formula One is planning a complete overhaul. Ahead of the 2017 season, F1's new owner Liberty Media commissions a global brand study. The results are sobering.
Formula One has millions of loyal and passionate fans, but outsiders see the sport as distant, complicated, even intimidating. It's too technical, too obsessed with engine specs, tire compounds, and aerodynamic minutia. To many, F1 fandom is dominated by middle-aged men debating gear ratios and fuel strategies. That image is reinforced by the company Formula One keeps.
Race weekends are saturated with luxury brands promoting watches, champagne, private jets, and financial services, products that most fans can only dream of affording. For Liberty Media, the brand study's message is clear. Formula One needs to open up. Under Bernie Eccleston, the sport had been tightly controlled. Access to television footage was restricted.
Drivers, teams, and broadcasters were warned against sharing clips online. That approach might have worked in the analog era, but it's a disaster in the digital age. So, Formula One rips up its playbook. Instead of limiting content, it floods the internet with it. Official social media accounts offer fans a look behind the scenes. Teams and drivers are encouraged to interact directly with fans.
And there are no more cease and desist letters every time Lewis Hamilton posts race footage on Instagram. The goal is simple. Make Formula One visible again. And social media is just the beginning. It's 2017 at Formula One's broadcast center, just outside London, England. Inside a dark screening room, media consultant David Hill lowers himself into a chair.
Beside him, the sport's top TV producers are already in their seats, waiting for the giant flat screen to flicker into life. At the front, Formula One's lead producer stands beside a DVD player remote in hand. Hill folds his arms. So, this is your best one? Yes, it's one of our favorites. Good. Let's see what Formula One looks like on TV.
Hill is a veteran of sports broadcasting with more than three decades of experience, producing NFL and NASCAR coverage for Fox. He's just been hired by Liberty Media to improve Formula One's TV ratings. And today, he's here to take a hard look at how the sport appears to viewers at home. The race begins. 20 cars sit on the starting grid.
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Chapter 3: What challenges does NASCAR face with its aging audience?
Bill the audience first, worry about monetizing it later. The ESPN deal keeps Formula One on American screens. The revamped broadcast attract some new viewers, but not many. Compared to the previous year on NBC, ESPN's first year of Formula One coverage goes up by just 3%, far short of what Liberty Media had hoped for.
Still, there's no sense of panic because one major piece of Liberty's media strategy hasn't launched yet. It's about to open the hood on Formula One and give fans something they've never had before. Unprecedented backstage access.
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Chapter 4: How did Formula One's brand study influence its strategy?
A quick note about the recreations you've been hearing. In most cases, we can't know exactly what was said. Those scenes are dramatizations, but they're based on research.
And if you'd like to check out more, we recommend The Formula by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, The Dow of a TV Lifer by Joseph Ben-Khan of Essis, and Formula One's Pivotal Year by Samuel Aguini and Josh Noble of the Financial Times. If you'd like to hear more about the high-stakes drama of F1, you can listen to the audiobook version of The Formula right now on Audible.
I'm your host, David Brown. Scott Reeves wrote this story. Our senior producers are Jenny Bloom and Emily Frost. Our producer is Tristan Donovan of Yellow Ant. Karen Lowe is our producer emeritus. Our managing producer is Desi Blaylock. Research by Marina Watson. Fact-checking by Gabrielle Jolet. Sound design by Kyle Randall. Executive producer for Audible, Jenny Lauer Beckman.
Head of creative development at Audible, Kate Navin. Head of Audible Originals North America, Marshall Louie. Chief content officer, Rachel Giazza. Copyright 2026 by Audible Originals LLC. Sound recording copyright 2026 by Audible Originals LLC.