Book reviews

Revving Up the Future: Unveiling F1’s Role in Shaping Global Media Dynamics

September 4, 2025

Hans Erik Næss
Department of Leadership and Organization,
Kristiania University of Applied Sciences, Norway

*Raymond Boyle & Richard Haynes*
**Streaming the Formula 1 Rivalry: Sport and the Media in the Platform Age**
212 pages, paperback
Oxford, Oxon: Peter Lang Publishing 2024 (Communication, Sport, and Society)
ISBN 978-1-4331-9817-5

Over the last ten years, Formula 1 (F1), the apex of international motorsport competitions, has undergone a significant transformation in its identity. Following the acquisition of the Formula One Group in 2016-17, Liberty Media, a US-based media giant, along with the F1 teams, has reimagined the sport from an exclusive club for die-hard fans into a cultural phenomenon accessible to everyone, from grandmothers to children. In 2024, the global fanbase has reached 824 million, with 6.5 million fans attending the 20 races, and each team now valued at over 1 billion US dollars (Brittle, 2024).

This shift can be attributed to three main factors. Firstly, the sport took a bold step in redefining its image, moving away from the exclusivity that, under Bernie Ecclestone’s long-standing leadership, risked depleting its legacy. Secondly, it ceased its disputes with the motorsport’s governing body FIA over commercial rights and technical regulations, aside from personal conflicts between FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem and key F1 personnel, which held little interest for anyone outside the F1 teams. Most crucially, it embraced the convergence of media, business, and commercialization to harness F1’s potential as a global sport, a vision Ecclestone first pursued in the 1980s when he transformed it into a television sensation. This third aspect is the primary focus of Raymond Boyle and Richard Haynes, two experienced sports industry academics, in their book, which delights my academic sensibilities like a child in a candy store. The detailed exploration of F1 through interviews with key figures is a refreshing complement to broader studies of motorsport focusing on macro trends and institutional structures. It’s intriguing to hear from industry insiders and consider media accounts of the sport’s evolution, as they seem reluctant to take credit for any of it. Even the leaders of various F1 teams, appear humble about their efforts for turning F1 into a global media spectacle.

Given the book’s inclination towards Anglo-Saxon sources and viewpoints, the expansion of F1 into the Middle East and the untold narrative of China’s emergence as a motorsport power could potentially offer additional perspectives to the authors’ predictions.

Conversely, the extensive emphasis on detail may render the book somewhat disjointed, a perception further accentuated by the numerous research questions presented on page 7. These inquiries encompass subjects such as entertainment business models, “soft power”, the platform economy, and sports fandom. Although the book addresses each of these topics, a deeper analysis and theorization by the authors regarding the evolving interaction between media and Formula 1, would have been intriguing—if indeed a definitive answer exists. For example, are we heading towards a global fan archetype? Given the book’s inclination towards Anglo-Saxon sources and viewpoints, the expansion of F1 into the Middle East and the untold narrative of China’s emergence as a motorsport power could potentially offer additional perspectives to the authors’ predictions. Regarding the Anglicization of popular culture motorsport, another illustration is two recent movies about the sport: the Hollywood flic F1 featuring Brad Pitt and numerous F1 drivers, which overshadows Rapide (or Fast in English), a French film about 17-year-old Max (a girl, not multiple F1 champion Verstappen) whose aspirations of becoming a F1 driver are hindered by patriarchal hierarchies and gender discrimination. Lastly, the call for further theorization of the global sport media landscape is justified by the authors’ evident familiarity with the sport media literature, as demonstrated by their reference list and utilization of existing research to contextualize their study. Thus, this represents my sole unmet expectation in relation to the assertion made on page 11: “the book argues that F1 is a for-profit media entertainment business, and while distinctive in some ways, in others the sport represents the logical endgame of the journey elite sports have been on for many years.”

But although the theoretical reasoning for this claim could have been more advanced, the empirical support is excellent. According to the authors, F1 has honed three specific strategies to feed its resurrection. The first involves controlling the narrative. Since storytelling is essential for popularizing any sport, the commercial entities behind F1 needed to make it more accessible without oversimplifying it. Consequently, teams were required to adopt—and some even advocated for—a new method of incorporating technology into their operations. This approach, exemplified by the Netflix series Drive to Survive, played a crucial role in F1’s rebranding. The series allowed the personalities within F1 and the soap opera-like elements, as noted by several key informants in the book, to be fully leveraged. Although there is a risk of soap operas becoming self-parodic, the success of “Drive to Survive” and the rise of devoted fans of F1 personalities like Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton demonstrate that entertainment is as vital for survival as the competitive aspects. Under the subtitle “Faking it?” in chapter 5, this is evident in for example a scene from Drive to Survive discussed on page 133, which nearly deceives viewers into thinking they are witnessing events in real time.

Lando Norris of Great Britain and McLaren F1 Team leads the race start during Formula One Austrian Grand Prix, June 29, 2025. (Shutterstock/Jay Hirano)

The second strategy is to make this storytelling financially rewarding by providing a wide range of options for consumers or sports fans while establishing a business model that is largely insulated from the unpredictable actions of, for example, Premier League club owners (Csiszar, 2022). As Sam Tickell and I have discussed in other contexts (Næss & Tickell, 2024), F1 stands out from other world championships by blending business, sport, and entertainment into a package that can be both profitable and predictable for investors. It is this distinctive blend that enabled F1 to establish a decade-long agreement, worth at least US$1.5 billion, with the French luxury brand LVMH group in 2024. The combined business and media strategies that make this partnership appealing are thoroughly examined in chapters 3 and 5, which also meticulously document the efforts to penetrate the US sports market—historically a challenging area for F1.

The third aspect, which may seem contradictory, is involving key stakeholders in the sport’s governance when commercial interests are involved. Initially, as discussed in chapter 3, the relationship between Formula One Group owner Liberty Media and the British press was less amicable, but it soon improved as it became more beneficial to maintain a friendly rapport. Similarly, while Liberty recognizes the influence of car brands like Mercedes and Ferrari, as well as driver profiles like Lewis Hamilton, F1 teams understand their reliance on a shared platform to stay relevant throughout the season. Coordinated through the Concorde Agreement, Liberty runs the platform, strategy, and global commercial deals, while the teams serve as content creators, brand ambassadors, and independent media hubs—enhancing, supporting, and sometimes challenging Liberty’s portrayal of the sport. Consequently, the authors’ assertion that this redefines sport is not only supported but also highlights how the competitive nature and history of other sports can either be a significant disadvantage or a major advantage when utilized by astute media strategists.

Overall, this book is a valuable contribution to the study of motorsport, the media industry, and why F1 represents the future exchange model for many elite sports, as claimed by the authors on p. 11. Although I wish there was more focus on the theoretical implications of these changes, the book’s rich empirical content and engaging narrative about the inner workings of F1 and the dynamics of global entertainment businesses make it essential reading for anyone interested in the powerful influence that global media and sport can exert to highlight their significance.