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: * J.P. Morgan Payments [https://bit.ly/acquiredJPMPf1pod] * ServiceNow [https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26] * Vercel [https://bit.ly/acquiredvercel26] * Statsig [https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26] Links: * Sign up for email updates [https://www.acquired.fm/email] and vote on future episodes! * The Formula by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg [https://www.amazon.com/Formula-Rogues-Geniuses-Reengineered-Fastest-Growing/dp/0063318628] * Drive to Survive on Netflix [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] * F1 The Movie on Apple TV [https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/f1-the-movie/umc.cmc.3t6dvnnr87zwd4wmvpdx5came] * Adrian Newey, How to Build a Car [https://www.amazon.com/How-Build-Car-Autobiography-Greatest/dp/000835247X] * Senna documentary [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1424432/] * Worldly Partners' Multi-Decade Formula One Study [https://worldlypartners.com/businesshistory] * All episode sources [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ysqphcScUdKoP3zTyGEqyrlZK3_m_YVhgjfXp7sTNZ8/edit?usp=sharing] Carve Outs: * Cirque du Soleil Echo [https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/echo] * Super Bowl LX Mic'd Up [https://www.nfl.com/videos/best-of-mic-d-up-super-bowl-lx] * Tonal [https://tonal.com/] * Princess Peach: Showtime! on Nintendo Switch [https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/princess-peach-showtime-switch/] * Daloopa for historical financial data [https://daloopa.com/] More Acquired: * Get email updates [https://www.acquired.fm/email] and vote on future episodes! * Join the Slack [http://acquired.fm/slack] * Subscribe to ACQ2 [https://pod.link/acquiredlp] * Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store [https://www.acquired.fm/store]! 00:00:00 Start 00:00:37 Intro 00:05:52 Origins of F1: Britain, Italy, and Monaco 00:30:43 Bernie's Entrance 00:37:42 Bernie Consolidates Power 00:50:33 F1 as a Global TV Sport (Except America) 01:08:08 F1's Incredible Engineering Achievements 01:19:34 Senna's Crash and a New Era for Safety 01:33:18 The Many Owners of F1, and Bernie's Liquidity Drama 01:57:48 FOTA: The attempted breakaway series 02:05:07 RedBull, Mercedes, and Reinventing the Sport 02:42:33 Liberty Media buys F1 and Brings it to the Modern Era 03:05:03 Drive to Survive 03:26:45 Apple, TV Rights, and Success in America 03:41:52 F1: The Business Today 03:56:23 Analysis: Why Did F1 Work… and Was Bernie Necessary? 04:05:40 7 Powers 04:08:23 Bear vs. Bull Cases 04:16:32 Quintessence 04:20:08 Carve-Outs + Outro ‍Note: 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.