It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time, not all that long ago, when Formula One was not the darling of the motorsport world that it is today.
Video content was largely restricted on social media, making viral moments nothing more than a marketer's fantasy. In-person attendance in 2016 was 65% of what it was in 2022, and in the United States in particular, it was half. Television ratings in the U.S. that year were 38% of what they were last year.
Then along came Liberty Media, which completed its purchase of F1 in January 2017.