Field Notes
Quick takes, observations, and analysis from the grid. For deeper dives delivered right to your inbox, head over to our Substack newsletter.
Bahrain pays the hosting fee and keeps ticket revenue, leaving Malaysia with a visitor-spending test that excludes the highest cost of a permanent return.
The multi-year deal starts with Formula 1 in 2026, then expands to Scott Dixon’s Arrow McLaren Indy 500 entry in 2027.
Plus, special guest Chip Ganassi joins the show
Apple paid a premium for U.S. rights after three years working inside Formula 1, but Eddy Cue’s pitch also left room for Netflix
The 2026 wordmark honors Bruce’s childhood garage
The cruise line keeps a three-race annual plate buy and swaps Barcelona, Austin, and São Paulo for two calendar returns plus Spa.
The LVMH champagne maison takes Albert Park naming rights after Qatar Airways, continuing Melbourne’s post-COVID title rotation.
F1’s biggest product may be a place where clients, brands, and media can meet with a reason to stay
Hill has reasons to enter the paddock. LVMH’s experience shows how much work begins after the agreement.
Formula One’s 2027 calendar reveals the series’ commercial direction
From the Business of Speed LIVE | 16 September 2026
The multi-year deal puts Rakuten on the car and driver kit and Symphony embedded in the organization
The multiyear deal gives Jesse Sisgold’s studio priority on Hamilton’s slate. A funded original will show what Dawn Apollo can build after F1.
The multi-year deal covers Formula 1, IndyCar, Hypercar, and F1 Academy, with Accelerator included.
MATCH Hospitality helped turn the British Grand Prix into a portfolio of premium experiences
Barilla put 220 members of the Formula 1 community at one table on the Monza grid
From Business of Speed Show Live | 10 September 2026
Sports properties keep handing premium access to the biggest creators they can find.
At 26, Lando Norris is moving from audience ownership into the brutal economics of junior racing
Prime Video, Disney+, Netflix, and Fox Nation are buying more motorsport documentaries as racing becomes a year-round subscriber and retention product.
The Middle East pays the most to host Formula 1. Now missiles are landing where the paddock sleeps.
Finance and fintech sponsors on the F1 grid grew 70% in a single season. The money is real, the strategy is deliberate, and the mix tells you where financial services marketing is headed.
Watches and racing have shared DNA for a century. Shami Kalra built a brand that proves you don’t need six figures to carry it.
Pricing out risk as an investment strategy
The Sport, the Business, the Culture
The Sport, the Business, the Culture
The Sport, the Business, the Culture
F1 and golf share the same customer. McLaren wants to sell to them twice.
Nico Rosberg and the Luxury of Control
And that single move may have solved motorsport’s most persistent business problem
The most interesting things I've stumbled across this week
What a $150M-a-year platform bet actually looks like.
$3.87B in revenue, 6.75M fans, and a stacked 2026
FOX brings back SPEED
Three developments in the last week have reshaped the Formula 2 silly season. Here is what moved and why it matters for the F1 pipeline.
Lewis Hamilton wants to be unavoidable
The internal tension between Red Bull's chassis and powertrain divisions is shaping their 2026 campaign more than any regulation change.
Apple is building F1’s first three-tier distribution architecture
Why creative leadership is no longer optional in motorsport, especially for F1.
The numbers everyone is citing miss the structural advantages baked into IndyCar's new media agreement. Here is what the deal actually does.
Is Toyota Buying an F1 Team Without Buying an F1 Team?
The turnaround at Woking is not about one hire or one concept. It is about a systematic rebuild of engineering culture that took three years to show results.
He's preparing racing for life after him
Eight Sleep x Aston Martin partnership signals something bigger
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