Liberty Media CEO declares that F1 is not for sale

Putting an end to recent speculation Greg Maffei, the CEO of Liberty Media — the owners of Formula 1 — declared recently that the racing series was not going to be sold.

Speaking during the MoffettNathanson Inaugural Technology, Media and Telecom conference, Maffei discussed not only the rumors that Liberty Media would be selling F1, but also their excitement over the growth of the sport in recent years.

“Is there any chance we’re going to sell this thing and incur corporate tax? That should stop any discussion that anyone says that our friends, the Saudis, are going to buy it next week or something like that? If anybody knows us, they should know that’s just not in our cards,” said Maffei at the conference.

Liberty Media purchased F1 back in 2017. There was speculation during the winter that the Saudi Public Investment Fund was looking to purchase F1, with Bloomberg reporting that the PIF approached F1 with an offer of $20 billion for the racing series.

That reporting led FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem to push back on the idea:

Sulayem’s statements drew a harsh rebuke from Liberty Media, and F1 itself. In a letter sent to the FIA from F1’s chief legal officer Sacha Woodward Hill, and Liberty’s chief legal officer Renee Wilm, the comments from president Ben Sulayem were “unacceptable,” and “overstep the bounds of both the FIA’s remit and its contractual rights.”

The letter also referenced an agreement between F1 and FIA, wherein F1 “...has the exclusive right to exploit the commercial rights in the FIA Formula One World Championship”

In their view, the comments from president Ben Sulayem encroached on those commercial rights: “Further, the FIA has given unequivocal undertakings that it will not do anything to prejudice the ownership, management and/or exploitation of those rights. We consider that those comments, made from the FIA president’s official social media account, interfere with those rights in an unacceptable manner.”

Maffei’s recent comments further dispel the idea of a potential sale.

But rumors of a sale were not the only topics that Maffei addressed. The Liberty Media CEO discussed at length ownership’s excitement over the direction of F1. Discussing the recent Miami Grand Prix, Maffei had this to say. “I hope if anybody else was there you had the same kind of thing but we got very good feedback,” he said. “There were 90,000 fans a day and 270,000 fans over the weekend so capacity was up substantially and prices were up substantially. So pretty good for them too. The gate was up about 25%.”

As for the future of the sport both in the United States, and globally, Liberty Media sees growth in both areas. “We are very enthused about where Formula 1 is now but [also] where it’s going as well. You look at the big revenue streams there, all have good direction,” he said at the conference. “In broadcasting we have increased fans and we have increased distributors who want to push the product, including new digital distributors and the like. We have promoters who are our partners.”

“We have been able to add a few races and there’s maybe a little more room left there. And then sponsorship has grown dramatically. We’ve opened up the number of global sponsors. I think we’ve gone from five to 12 of our biggest sponsor types,” Maffei added. “We are continuing to see traction there and I think we’re well set up. We have a new opportunity with what we’re doing in Las Vegas where we will be the promoter and we have a opportunity to learn about something and hopefully set the bar.”