Formula 1 is making serious moves in the United States, and its new broadcast partner Apple isn't worried about going head-to-head with the NFL. While F1 viewership on Apple is already outpacing last season's numbers on ESPN, the sport still has a long way to go before catching up to the NFL's massive average of 18.7 million viewers per game. But Apple's Eddy Cue isn't losing any sleep over it. "We are not focused on the NFL," he said in a recent interview with Racer.com.

That's a notable stance, especially since F1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali has been vocal about measuring the sport's American ambitions against the NFL. Domenicali has called the NFL the "Everest" of U.S. sports, with a long-term goal of making the league take notice of F1's growth. Cue, however, takes a more grounded approach: the NFL isn't the right benchmark yet, and fixating on it would miss the bigger picture.

"There is the NHL, there is Major League Baseball – there is a lot of stuff to get to the top," Cue explained. "My viewpoint around it is there is a huge amount of growth. It's a much younger audience than any sport. Female participation is way up – both young and female on Apple is way up."

The numbers back him up. According to the 2025 Global Fan Survey from F1 and Motorsport Network, 47% of new U.S. Formula 1 fans are between the ages of 18 and 24, and more than half are female. That demographic profile doesn't look like any established American sport – it looks like a sport primed for explosive growth.

This comes on the heels of F1's landmark five-year deal with Apple, reportedly worth over $140 million per year. The partnership follows the Brad Pitt F1 movie and aims to capitalize on a decade of surging North American interest. Unlike broadcasters that offer fragmented NFL packages, Apple becomes a one-stop shop for F1 fans in the U.S., making it easier to attract new subscribers. Cue has championed this all-in-one model, arguing that fragmented sports rights have made the viewing experience worse for fans.

The bet Apple is making isn't that F1 will overtake the NFL overnight. It's that F1's young, diverse, and rapidly growing fanbase represents the future of sports viewership – and that's a race worth winning.