(March 7): McLaren Racing chief executive officer Zak Brown said the valuation of every F1 team is now worth “well north” of £1 billion (RM6 billion), thanks to changes made under the ownership of Liberty Media Corp.

Brown’s comments come as F1 rides a tidal wave of popularity in the US and a rapid growth in revenues. That wasn’t the case before Liberty took over, according to Brown.

“Half the grid is profitable,” said Brown during a panel at Bloomberg Power Players Jeddah, powered by Asharq. “They weren’t five years ago.”

That success has put Liberty in a position to be choosy about who gets to join F1. In January, Michael Andretti’s bid to join the series in 2025 with General Motors was turned down. 

“What Liberty is wanting to do is protect the value of the 10 teams that exist,” Brown said. “We’re now in a position where pre-Liberty you had teams falling away. Now post-Liberty era there are teams lining up that want to get into the sport. So I think Liberty is just seeing how, when and if they want teams to enter.” 

Liberty Media has invested heavily in marketing the sport in the US since buying the sport in 2017. A string of deals and rising valuations has followed, with popularity soaring largely due to the success of the Netflix documentary series Drive to Survive. 

Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll late last year sold a stake in Aston Martin’s Formula One team to US private equity firm Arctos Partners, which also has stakes in the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club owner Fenway Sports Group. The sale valued the F1 team at about £1 billion.

Brown said F1 could consider its next leg of global expansion by looking at rotating races, which allow the circuit to tap into new markets. The current calendar of 24 Grand Prix races per season is maxed out, he added.

“If we needed to dial up a few more races, I’d say Asia is an important territory,” said Brown. “If we had more markets to go into I’d say a race in Asia, India, South Africa. That would really give us a global footprint.”