Liberty Media chairman John Malone has admitted that Formula One could be sold if the right offer arrived, stressing that shareholder value will always dictate the company’s decisions. Speaking on the Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast, Malone said: “It’s a public company. If somebody gets carried away and they want to buy it and they’re willing to pay more for it than the board thinks that they can deliver to the shareholders, then we would sell it.”
The statement highlights Liberty’s pragmatic stance. Since acquiring F1 in 2017 for $8 billion, Liberty has presided over a commercial boom. But the championship is not off-limits should an investor meet the right valuation.
Rumours swirled in 2023 that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund had tabled a $20 billion takeover bid, though this was never confirmed. What is clear is F1’s financial trajectory: Liberty’s NASDAQ-listed FWONK shares have risen from around $30 at the time of purchase to nearly $100 today.
FIA Speaks up
At the time FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem took to X to make his feelings known about such a sky high value. “I think they should have a plan, also,” he said. “Whoever it is should have a plan, not just the money. I’m just looking at the rationale behind it, the logic. You have to have a plan.
“Up to now though, it’s rumours. But I believe also the FIA should be part of talks, or offer advice, because the FIA owns the championship. We lease it [to FOM], it is true. But I just want to ensure we have clarity so we can go forward.”
The suggestion the championship was not theirs to sell bright a swift rebuke from FOM, who issued Be Sulalyem with a ‘cease and desist’ warning that should the value of the investment fall due to the FIA presidents comments, they would seek legal recourse with the FIA.
The president of the FIA also revealed the amount agreed for the 99 year lease of the rights to Formula One. “My God, if I take $20 billion for that, I think the FIA had a raw deal,” he said. “If I’m being honest, you cannot convince me that $300 million for 100 years, and a $20 billion valuation [is correct]. These numbers, it just doesn’t make sense when you go and digest them.”
Liberty bullish on sale potential
Yet John Malone is clear, if the right offer comes along which wold probably be in excess of double the amount Liberty paid, the sport would be sold. “I think the shareholders seem to love it right at the moment,” Malone added. “It’s really performing well. It has exceptionally good economic structure. It will be a very large free cashflow generator, which underwrites its high valuation. And there, perhaps, will be incremental synergistic add-ons. It still has a big brand to drive.”
Liberty has also undergone a leadership transition. Greg Maffei stepped down as CEO in December 2024, prompting Malone to temporarily step in before Derek Chang was appointed chief executive in February.
“With the original Liberty Media, I had my dream team,” Malone said. “And now, I think with Chase Carey on board, Bob Bennett back from the original dream team and Derek playing the CEO role, I think this is a terrific executive team. And I just really enjoy watching them do their stuff.”
Liberty expansionist plans
That structure underpins Liberty’s wider motorsport expansion. Alongside F1, the company now owns MotoGP after completing its acquisition earlier this year, making Liberty the controlling force across both two- and four-wheel global racing.
Commercially, Formula One has rarely looked stronger. Under Stefano Domenicali’s stewardship, the series has secured long-term deals with circuits including Miami, Spielberg, Albert Park and Bahrain, while adding global partners such as Aramco, AWS and Crypto.com.
Looking ahead, the expiration of F1’s U.S. broadcasting deal with ESPN in 2025 could invite bids from tech giants like Apple, already linked with the sport via the Brad Pitt film F1: The Movie. Malone sees a broader trend at play.
“I think social networking eventually also becomes streaming entertainment,” he said. “I think you’re seeing the beginnings of that with Google’s YouTube, where effectively they have the combination of subscription entertainment – they’ve been experimenting with driving penetration with sports, [like] out of market NFL – but they have a massive user base of user generated [content]. That constitutes a massive funnel for them to drive whatever they want to drive. And of course, advertising has become a very big game for the big tech guys.”
F1 sale option remains open
Formula One Group’s financials reflect its upward trajectory. In the first half of 2025, the business reported \$1.6 billion in revenue and \$442 million in OIBDA (Operating Income Before Depreciation and Amortisation), compared with \$367 million in the same period last year.
For now, Liberty Media is enjoying the rewards of ownership. But Malone’s comments underline that if the right bidder steps forward, Formula One’s future could involve another change of hands.
It is an oddly fitting metaphor for modern Formula One that the sport itself could be sold like a driver’s sponsorship deal — highest bidder wins. Liberty bought the series for $8 billion, rumours once pegged it at $20 billion, and John Malone has made clear that if the price is right, history’s most valuable garage sale will be held.
The irony? Teams spend billions fighting over tenths of a second on track, while their commercial rights holders casually discuss selling the whole championship over a podcast. “It’s a public company,” Malone reminded us, which is Wall Street’s polite way of saying everything has its price — including Lewis Hamilton’s old trophies, if they could be bundled in as “synergistic add-ons.”
Whether the buyer turns out to be Saudi Arabia’s PIF, Apple, or another corporate giant, Formula One is increasingly less about pole positions and more about market capitalisation. Does it matter who owns Formula One, provided the product on track continues to thrive? Or is there a risk that every new change of hands chips away at the sport’s soul, reducing a world championship to just another tradable asset in the portfolios of billionaires and funds? In an era where everything has a price, is Formula One in danger of becoming priceless to everyone except its shareholders?
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Felipe Massa insists he still has a claim on the 2008 Formula One world championship and believes the courts will eventually award him the crown. The Brazilian, who lost the title to Lewis Hamilton by a single point at Interlagos, is preparing to take legal action based on the infamous “Crashgate” scandal from that year’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Massa’s case rests on the events of Singapore, where Renault ordered Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash deliberately, triggering a safety car that swung the race in Fernando Alonso’s favour and destroyed Massa’s afternoon. Pitting under the safety car, the Ferrari driver was released with the fuel hose still attached, dropping him from the lead to the back of the field. Hamilton collected eight points for second place, Massa left empty-handed, and by season’s end the title was gone.
Now, nearly 17 years later, Massa claims the race should have been annulled, which would have handed him the championship by five points. He has secured a UK High Court hearing for late October 2025 as he claims Bernie Ecclestone and FIA president Max Mosely conspired to cover up the scandal…READ MORE ON THIS STORY
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