Formula 1 is three competitions in one: a 200mph battle of the world's best race car drivers, the world cup of engineering where thousand-person teams spend hundreds of millions designing cars from scratch, and — as one of our listeners perfectly put it — the “Real Housewives of the Garage”, a soap opera of billionaire egos, team politics, and paddock drama that makes for incredible reality television. It's also the world's most popular annual sporting series with over 827 million fans globally — a fact that would shock most Americans, who until a recent viral Netflix series had barely heard of it.Today we tell the story of how a chaotic, deadly, and gloriously dysfunctional European racing series became one of the greatest business stories in sports. For decades, brilliant engineers and daredevil drivers dedicated their lives (and too often lost them) to a league controlled for 45 years by a single man: a former London car dealer named Bernie Ecclestone, who centralized power and extracted billions, while also undeniably single-handedly making the sport successful. Then, in a move no one saw coming, the American company Liberty Media bought the whole thing in 2017, installed a team of Fox Sports and ESPN veterans, and did what Bernie never would — professionalized it. All of a sudden famously money-losing F1 teams turned into real businesses, with the average team valuation today clocking in at an astounding $3.6 billion. Buckle up for one of our most-requested episodes: the wild story of Formula 1.Sponsors:Many thanks to our fantastic Spring '26 Season partners:<ul><li><a href="https://bit.ly/acquiredJPMPf1pod">J.P. Morgan Payments</a></li><li><a href="https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26">ServiceNow</a></li><li><a href="https://bit.ly/acquiredvercel26">Vercel</a></li><li><a href="https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26">Statsig</a></li></ul>Links:<ul><li><a href="https://www.acquired.fm/email">Sign up for email updates</a> and vote on future episodes!</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Formula-Rogues-Geniuses-Reengineered-Fastest-Growing/dp/0063318628">The Formula by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg</a></li><li><a href="https://www.netflix.com/us/title/80204890?s=i&trkid=13747225&shareType=Title&shareUuid=45562EBF-7469-47D9-AB12-03CEEEAD7505&trg=cp&unifiedEntityIdEncoded=Video%253A80204890&vlang=en">Drive to Survive on Netflix</a></li><li><a href="https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/f1-the-movie/umc.cmc.3t6dvnnr87zwd4wmvpdx5came">F1 The Movie on Apple TV</a></li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-Build-Car-Autobiography-Greatest/dp/000835247X">Adrian Newey, How to Build a Car</a></li><li><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1424432/">Senna documentary</a></li><li><a href="https://worldlypartners.com/businesshistory">Worldly Partners' Multi-Decade Formula One Study</a></li><li><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ysqphcScUdKoP3zTyGEqyrlZK3_m_YVhgjfXp7sTNZ8/edit?usp=sharing">All episode sources</a></li></ul>Carve Outs:<ul><li><a href="https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/echo">Cirque du Soleil Echo</a></li><li><a href="https://www.nfl.com/videos/best-of-mic-d-up-super-bowl-lx">Super Bowl LX Mic'd Up</a></li><li><a href="https://tonal.com/">Tonal</a></li><li><a href="https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/princess-peach-showtime-switch/">Princess Peach: Showtime! on Nintendo Switch</a></li><li><a href="https://daloopa.com/">Daloopa for historical financial data</a></li></ul>More Acquired:<ul><li><a href="https://www.acquired.fm/email">Get email updates</a> and vote on future episodes!</li><li><a href="http://acquired.fm/slack">Join the Slack</a></li><li><a href="https://pod.link/acquiredlp">Subscribe to ACQ2</a></li><li>Check out the latest swag <a href="https://www.acquired.fm/store">in the ACQ Merch Store</a>!</li></ul>00:00:00 Intro00:05:52 Origins of F1: Britain, Italy, and Monaco00:30:43 Bernie's Entrance00:37:42 Bernie Consolidates Power00:50:33 F1 as a Global TV Sport (Except America)01:08:08 F1's Incredible Engineering Achievements01:19:34 Senna's Crash and a New Era for Safety01:33:18 The Many Owners of F1, and Bernie's Liquidity Drama01:57:48 FOTA: The attempted breakaway series02:05:07 RedBull, Mercedes, and Reinventing the Sport02:42:33 Liberty Media buys F1 and Brings it to the Modern Era03:05:03 Drive to Survive03:26:45 Apple, TV Rights, and Success in America03:41:52 F1: The Business Today03:56:23 Analysis: Why Did F1 Work… and Was Bernie Necessary?04:05:40 7 Powers04:08:23 Bear vs. Bull Cases04:16:32 Quintessence04:20:08 Carve-Outs + Outro‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Podurama

Home

Trending

Personal

Your Podcasts

New Episodes

My Files

Favourite Episodes

Tags (Folders)

Recently Played

Bookmarks

Followed Playlists

Formula 1

Acquired

AI Chapters

AI Insights

Reviews