Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are the richest people in the United States of America. Both businessmen are always actively looking for new business and investment opportunities. Both billionaires are reportedly considering buying the commercial rights to Formula 1.
Over the last 10 years, the value of Formula 1 and the participating teams have grown rapidly. This has attracted a lot of businesses to sponsor teams in Formula 1. We are actively seeing teams announce new partnerships with various sponsors.
Now it has been reported that American billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are considering buying the commercial rights of the sport.
Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are both at the Miami GP today 👀 pic.twitter.com/GkgygXrv5p
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) May 6, 2023
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos were spotted at the Miami Grand Prix last weekend. Elon Musk was a guest in the Red Bull garage while Jeff Bezos was standing with the McLaren team. Musk was also seen having a conversation with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sullayem.
Who owns the commercial rights to Formula 1 currently?
The commercial right to the sport is currently owned by American company, Liberty Media who purchased the rights back in 2017. They reportedly paid somewhere close to $5 billion. Since then the sport has grown rapidly, mostly thanks to Netfix’s Drive To Survive series which premiered in 2018.
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund tried to buy Formula 1 for “well over $20 billion” last year, according to @business.
That’s 2.5x the $8 billion enterprise value that Liberty Media purchased F1 for in 2016.
And while I’m glad Liberty said no, Saudi Arabia isn’t going away. pic.twitter.com/QpkyRpIHL2
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) January 20, 2023
A few months back Liberty Media was offered at least $20 billion for the commercial rights. The offer was made from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. The offer was reportedly rejected as Liberty Media did not want to sell the rights to Saudi Arabia due to its controversial laws.
Are Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos buying Formula 1?
The deal with Liberty Media is set to expire at the end of 2025. So we could see investors making arrangements to buy the rights to the sport. However, it has been speculated that Musk and Bezos may not be buying out the rights entirely but instead will be part owners.
The owner of Tesla and SpaceX is currently worth over $175 billion, while the founder of Amazon is worth over $130 billion. There is no doubt that either one of them can afford to buy the commercial rights to the sport in its entirety. But it is unlikely they would do that as Musk is already managing a number of businesses while Jeff Bezos stepped down from his CEO position at Amazon to focus on his passions. It is unlikely that managing Formula 1 is on either of their bucket lists.
Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk interested in buying Formula 1
What kind of changes you believe they will bring to F1 if they takeover !? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/O5AozStsQK
— MenaGrandPrixEN (@MenaGrandPrixEn) May 12, 2023
If either or both of them take over, we could see some major changes in the management of the sport. We saw Elon Musk make some major changes after he took over Twitter.
There have been reports that Stefano Domenicali is considering removing certain iconic tracks from the calendar over the coming years. Fans who have been following the sport for decades are not in support of these decisions.
We also saw Domenicali introduce a new Sprint weekend format at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix a few weeks earlier. This also did not sit well with fans. These decisions by the CEO of Formula 1 could lead to him losing his job if Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos take over. Let us now wait and see if Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are seriously considering buying Formula 1.