F1’s 38% Revenue Fall in Q2 2026 Isn’t What It Looks Like

F1 Q2 2026 revenue fell 38% to $764 million, and on its own that number tells you almost nothing useful. Five Formula 1 Events took place in the quarter against nine in the same period last year, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia both wiped from the April calendar by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Liberty Media’s season-based accounting recognises revenue proportionally across the calendar, so fewer races in the window means a smaller slice of the season booked, not a 38% smaller Formula 1 business. Strip out the race count and the picture underneath is a business still growing: sponsorship revenue up 32.1% year on year to $840 million in 2025, a ten-year Las Vegas Grand Prix extension through 2037, Pirelli locked in through 2028, and Stefano Domenicali pointing to attendance, audiences and digital impressions all up season to date.

Key Points: F1 Q2 2026 Revenue

• F1 Q2 2026 revenue fell 38% to $764 million on five races versus nine in Q2 2025. H1 revenue fell 15% to $1,381 million on eight races versus eleven
• Liberty recognises season-based revenue proportionally across the calendar (5/22nds booked in Q2 2026 versus 9/24ths in Q2 2025), and says the drop was partially offset by contractual fee increases and new sponsors
• Net earnings from continuing operations fell to $8 million in Q2 2026 from $386 million in Q2 2025, with Q2 2025 benefiting from major financial-instrument gains, including foreign-currency contracts tied to the MotoGP acquisition, alongside a much lower tax rate
• 2025 full-year sponsorship revenue grew 32.1% to $840 million versus 2024. Media rights revenue grew 8.2% to $1,212 million
• Las Vegas Grand Prix extended ten years through 2037. Pirelli partnership extended through 2028. ServusTV Austria broadcast deal renewed
• Bahrain Grand Prix rescheduled to Malaysia for October, taking the assumed 2026 calendar to 23 races. Consolidated leverage rose from 3.0x to 3.4x over the quarter

The Number That Grabs the Headlines

F1 Q2 2026 revenue was $764 million against $1,226 million in Q2 2025. Adjusted OIBDA, Liberty’s preferred profitability measure, operating income with depreciation, amortisation and one-off items like stock compensation and acquisition costs added back, fell 61% to $139 million. Operating income dropped to $73 million from $293 million. Team payments fell from $513 million to $316 million. Those are the headline figures and taken alone they look like a business in retreat.

Five Formula 1 Events took place in Q2 2026 against nine in Q2 2025, which breaks the comparison before any accounting nuance gets applied. The Bahrain and Saudi Arabia Grands Prix, both scheduled for April 2026, did not happen because of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Liberty accounts for F1 on a season basis, recognising revenue and costs proportionally against the assumed calendar as races happen. In Q2 2026 that meant 5/22nds of the season’s expected fees booked. In Q2 2025 it was 9/24ths. The maths behind that mismatch is doing most of the work in the 38% figure.

The half-year numbers tell the same story with less drama attached. H1 2026 revenue was $1,381 million, down 15% on $1,629 million in H1 2025, on eight races recognised against eleven. H1 Adjusted OIBDA fell 30% to $311 million. The gap should narrow as more of the season is recognised through the remaining quarters, although the final comparison will still reflect a 23-race calendar against 24 in 2025.

What Liberty Says Is Happening Underneath

Liberty’s own filings are specific about what’s offsetting the calendar drag. Primary F1 revenue, the combination of race promotion, media rights and sponsorship fees, decreased due to fewer races recognised in both periods. That decrease was partially offset by underlying contractual fee increases and revenue from new and renewed sponsors. Media rights revenue also had a tougher comparison than it first appears, since Q2 2025 included one-time revenue tied to the release of the F1 movie that had no equivalent this year.

Other F1 revenue, the hospitality, freight, licensing and Grand Prix Plaza income, decreased on lower volume from fewer events, but was partially offset by higher hospitality revenue at recurring events, growth in licensing revenue and growth in activities at the Grand Prix Plaza site in Las Vegas. The parts of the business Liberty controls, hospitality, licensing, Grand Prix Plaza, kept moving up even as the scheduling gap took its toll elsewhere.

The claim is measurable, and it lines up with the sponsorship and media rights trends sitting underneath the headline number.

The Money That Isn’t Going Anywhere

Formula 1’s full-year sponsorship revenue grew from $636 million in 2024 to $840 million in 2025, a rise of 32.1%, according to Liberty’s own trended results grid. Media rights revenue grew from $1,120 million to $1,212 million, up 8.2%. Race promotion revenue grew from $1,001 million to $1,034 million. Every one of F1’s three primary revenue streams moved in the same direction across the full year, and none of that growth depends on how many races happen to fall inside any single quarter.

The commercial announcements inside this release back that trend up with commitments rather than projections. The Las Vegas Grand Prix has been extended ten years through 2037. Pirelli’s tyre supply partnership has been extended through 2028. Formula 1 renewed its broadcast agreement with ServusTV in Austria on a multi-year basis. Those are moves from a business locking in partners for the next decade, backed by where the audience numbers are heading.

The Bahrain Problem

The calendar disruption traces to one cause. The Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix, both originally scheduled for April 2026, did not take place as a result of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Liberty’s Q2 and H1 results were both prepared on the basis of an assumed 22-race calendar for the year, reduced from the 24 events originally planned.

Subsequent to the quarter closing, Formula 1 announced that Malaysia will host the Bahrain Grand Prix in October, lifting the assumed 2026 calendar to 23 races, one fewer than the 24 held in 2025. On the same earnings call, Domenicali said F1 continues to expect Qatar and Abu Dhabi to proceed as scheduled for the rest of the season, with a return to a full 24-race calendar expected in 2027. Liberty has said plainly that if the conflict persists, additional calendar changes may still be necessary. That’s the one genuine uncertainty sitting inside an otherwise reassuring set of numbers, and it isn’t going away on its own.

What the Calendar Doesn’t Explain

Net earnings from continuing operations fell to $8 million in Q2 2026 from $386 million in Q2 2025, a collapse that has nothing to do with how many races were held.

Three things caused it. The effective tax rate jumped to 76% from 16%, driven by settlements with tax authorities and non-deductible interest and losses. Interest expense rose to $68 million from $49 million, up 39%, the cost of servicing the debt taken on to fund the $3,659 million MotoGP acquisition. And realised and unrealised gains on financial instruments swung from a $160 million gain in Q2 2025 to a $1 million loss in Q2 2026. Within that total, foreign currency forward contracts, the ones Liberty used to lock in the MotoGP purchase price, moved from a $227 million gain in Q2 2025 to a $2 million gain this year, a one-off benefit tied to a specific transaction that was never going to repeat.

But the leverage increase is real. Formula 1’s ratio rose from 2.3x to 2.7x and consolidated leverage from 3.0x to 3.4x, even as Liberty’s total debt fell by $134 million during the quarter, with cash rising $133 million over the same period. MotoGP leverage moved the other way, falling from 4.7x to 4.5x. Both businesses remain in compliance with their debt covenants, and MotoGP’s June refinancing cut the margin on its Term Loan B to 2.25%, though the Term Loan A margin had already stepped down in May and stayed there. The higher leverage ratios reflect weaker trailing earnings despite lower absolute debt.

Elsewhere in the Release: MotoGP

MotoGP sits inside the same release with a cleaner quarter on paper. Q2 revenue reached $170 million, down 2% in US dollars but down 5% on a constant currency basis, seven races held in both periods. H1 revenue reached $264 million, up 6% in dollars but up just 1% at constant currency. The gap between the dollar and constant currency figures comes down to the US dollar’s weakness against the Euro flattering the numbers. The same effect shows up in profitability. Adjusted OIBDA rose 3% to $76 million in reported dollars during Q2, but fell 2% at constant currency. Across the half year it rose 10% reported and 5% at constant currency.

MotoGP refinanced its Term Loan B in June, cutting the margin to 2.25%, and funded a $114 million debt reduction in the process. The Term Loan A and revolving credit facility margins had already stepped down in May and held steady through the June refinancing. New five-year agreements with all manufacturers and teams now run through 2031, alongside renewed agreements with Malaysia through 2031 and Silverstone through 2028, and the appointment of CAA as global sponsorship agency.

Coffee Corner Take

38% is the number making the headlines, and on its own it’s a misleading one.

Five races against nine explains the vast majority of that drop before you get anywhere near the commercial performance of the business. The filing lays out the race count differential and the proportional recognition maths in the same section as the headline number, not buried in a footnote, which is why the accounting explanation holds up under scrutiny rather than reading as a stretch.

The 32.1% sponsorship growth over the full year is the number that tells you more where F1 is heading. Media rights up 8.2%. Race promotion up 3.3%. A ten-year Las Vegas commitment. Pirelli locked in for three more years. None of that happens if the underlying demand for F1 as a commercial property is softening. Companies don’t sign a decade-long extension on a declining asset.

Bahrain is the one thread worth watching on this call. Liberty has already had to reshuffle once, and they’ve said plainly that more changes might be needed if the conflict continues. The Malaysia reschedule shows the sport can move fast when it has to, but whether it needs to move again before the year is out depends on the conflict, not on Liberty. That’s a real operational risk sitting inside a set of results that otherwise reads clean.

The earnings number is where the calendar defence runs out. $8 million net earnings against $386 million a year ago comes down to a tax rate that jumped to 76% from 16%, the extra interest cost of the MotoGP acquisition debt, and the disappearance of last year’s large financial-instrument gains, including the currency forwards used around the MotoGP acquisition. None of that is hidden, Liberty puts it in the filing in plain terms. It just isn’t the headline.

MotoGP is the quieter story in this release and possibly the more interesting one long-term. A year into ownership, Liberty is refinancing at better terms and locking manufacturers and teams into 2031. CAA now runs the sponsorship pipeline. That’s what professionalising a newly bought sport looks like from the outside. The constant currency numbers are a reminder that the dollar figures need reading carefully. But the direction of travel, longer contracts and lower borrowing costs against a season producing some of the tightest racing in the sport’s history, is the right one.

Four fewer races in Q2 explain most of the 38% revenue drop. Sponsorship growth of 32%, a Vegas deal through 2037 and Pirelli through 2028 are the numbers that say what F1’s business is doing this year.