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Forbes’ new episode on the business of Formula 1 lays bare what many conservatives already suspected: modern F1 is less about racing and more about cashing in on a global entertainment machine. The show bluntly notes that investors are “racing” to buy in, and that the ten teams on the grid now average roughly $3.6 billion in value — numbers that would make any Main Street small-business owner raise an eyebrow.
The episode focuses on the Las Vegas Grand Prix to show how the spectacle is manufactured — the security, hospitality, logistics, and control-room precision that keep the lights on and the corporate guests comfortable. That behind-the-scenes infrastructure is impressive, but it also exposes how much of the sport’s energy is funneled into servicing VIP suites and sponsorship activations rather than the people who fix and build things in America.
Make no mistake: the money is staggering and growing, and journalists from credible outlets are reporting that total team valuations now dwarf many traditional American sports franchises. That isn’t an abstract statistic — it’s real cash being funneled to global elites who treat a race weekend like a rolling corporate retreat.
The buying spree isn’t hypothetical. Tech CEOs and private-equity types are sliding into team ownership, chasing prestige and branding as much as competitive glory. American entrepreneurs are rightly drawn to upside, but when owners move from software startups into race-team boardrooms the sport tilts further from a competition of skill to a competition of wallets.
Corporate sponsorship is the oxygen that keeps this system alive, with global brands pouring tens or hundreds of millions into deals and hospitality packages that blur the lines between sport and advertising. For everyday patriots who believe in fair play, it’s worth asking whether sport should be turned into a marketing platform for multinational conglomerates at the expense of grassroots athletics and community investment.
There is a perfectly reasonable business case for the boom: governance changes like spending caps and smarter revenue sharing have made teams more investable, attracting outside capital and professional management. Conservatives can appreciate fiscal discipline and investor confidence, yet we should also demand transparency and accountability when billions are at stake and public resources are sometimes leveraged to underwrite these events.
At the end of the day, Americans who work hard for a paycheck should view the F1 takeover with a mixture of admiration and skepticism — admire the ingenuity and entrepreneurship, but be skeptical of the cultural and financial trade-offs. If sport is to remain a place where merit matters, we must guard against turning every playing field into a corporate showroom and insist that the gains from this boom benefit more than just the people behind the velvet ropes.
