Good morning. If F1 has suddenly appeared on your radar over the past few years, it’s due to a few factors: Liberty Media, team CEOs like McLaren Racing’s Zak Brown, consumer shifts, and the increasing role that sports play in corporate marketing. Liberty Media acquired Formula 1 racing from a consortium of investors in 2017 at a valuation of $8 billion and has since tripled that value through partnering to create U.S. races, Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive series, an F1 movie, the F1 Academy woman’s circuit, fashion, influencer marketing and broadcast reach that will further expand with an Apple partnership next year.
“We were a very exclusive sport, ‘look, don’t touch,’ and Liberty brought a new way of thinking,” Brown said in the latest Fortune Leadership Next podcast. “We figured out how to let people in the tent to engage with the sport”—be it the drivers, the team, the technology, the drama off the grid or the idiosyncrasies of the sport itself.
At the Formula 1 Heineken Las Vegas Grand Prix this weekend, I saw evidence of both the democratization of the sport and the move to a two-tiered experience economy in which brands tailor special packages for the top. LVMH is now F1’s global luxury partner and many individuals I met had flown in from across the world and paid thousands of dollars to see the race from the Paddock Club and suites like House 44, F1’s collaboration with Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton and Soho House. High-end American Express cardholders could sample ‘The Only Caviar’ with co-founders Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul and Michelin-star chef Diego Sabino at the Aria resort. At the same time, more mainstream consumer brands are also backing F1, like PepsiCo, LEGO, Disney, and Hello Kitty.
The 10-team sport generated more than $2 billion in direct sponsorships last year and is accelerating in value; top F1 teams are worth more than most NBA franchises and European soccer clubs. Exhibit A: Mercedes team principal and part-owner Toto Wolff’s deal last week to sell a 15% stake to CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz, which values the team at $6 billion.
McLaren, meanwhile, has gone from facing insolvency five years ago to making a profit of $61 million last year, with more to come, thanks to a new sponsorship deal with Mastercard that will reportedly bring in around $100 million a year. But the ultimate measure of performance is still on the track. McLaren saw drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri get disqualified after placing second and fourth in the Vegas Grand Prix because officials found both cars had technical infringements. That’s heartbreaking for McLaren and makes for good TV in a season in which Brown’s team has already secured the top place but individual drivers are still battling for first. As Brown put it on the podcast: “We’re in the sports and entertainment business.” Click here to listen to the podcast on Apple or Spotify.
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at [email protected]
Top news
Ukraine peace deal
Ukrainian and American officials say they’ve made positive progress on a U.S.-drafted deal to end Russia’s invasion after many Ukrainians initially claimed the accord was too favorable for the Kremlin. President Donald Trump has imposed a deadline of Thursday for the deal and lashed out at Ukraine as talks progressed, accusing it of being ungrateful for American support.
White collar unemployment
Americans with four-year university degrees now make up a quarter of the unemployed, a record, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. College grads’ unemployment rate of 2.8% in September—up half a percentage point from a year ago—reflects the recent slowdown in white collar hiring.
Tariff backup plan
The White House is reportedly drafting backup plans should the U.S. Supreme Court strike down President Donald Trump’s tariffs on the basis that he doesn’t have the power to impose them unilaterally. The alternative avenues for enacting levies will likely be slower or more limited in scope.
Tariff risks fade
Meanwhile, on earnings calls, executives are talking less about tariffs risks than they were earlier this year as the levies’ true fallout takes hold. A WSJ analysis of 5,000 earnings calls found that of calls that mentioned tariffs, about 20% mentioned associated risks in November, down from a high of roughly 55% in mid-June.
Britain’s new media giant
The owner of The Daily Mail will buy rival newspaper, The Telegraph, in a £500 million deal that will create a new right-leaning media giant in the U.K. as the Reform Party gains popularity as a counter to the ruling Labour Party.
Shein’s first store
Shein’s first physical location in Paris is rattling lawmakers and fellow retailers who say the Chinese ecommerce giant’s ultra low prices pose an existential threat to traditional department stores.
Pershing Square to go public
Bill Ackman is preparing to take his hedge fund management company Pershing Square public along with a new closed-end investment fund, Pershing Square USA. Both could launch as early as the first quarter of 2026 if market conditions permit.
Massive AI companies come together
OpenAI, Nvidia, and other tech companies have joined forces in the Stargate Project, a massive $500 billion undertaking to build advanced AI infrastructure in the U.S., with backing from the federal government. Although the collaboration is praised for bolstering national AI capabilities, a Yale legal expert warns it may violate antitrust laws by allowing major rivals to coordinate closely in ways that could reduce competition, increase prices, and stifle innovation in the tech industry.
The markets
S&P 500 futures were up 0.25% this morning. The last session closed up 0.98%. STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.39% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.12% in early trading. Japan’s stock market is closed today. China’s CSI 300 was down 0.12%. The South Korea KOSPI was down 0.19%. India’s NIFTY 50 is down 0.42%. Bitcoin was up at $86K.
Around the watercooler
‘It didn’t have to be this way’ — Top economist warns affordability crisis will continue as tariffs and immigration crackdown send inflation higher by Jason Ma
The analyst who once predicted the ‘end of capitalism’ sees Zohran Mamdani as a ‘day of reckoning coming in’—and corporates only have themselves to blame by Nick Lichtenberg
Shark Tank star Robert Herjavec says the best Gen Z career advice comes from Mark Cuban—it’s that nobody cares if you’re ‘passionate’ by Preston Fore
As Google eyes exponential surge in serving capacity, analyst says we’re entering ‘stage two of AI’ where bottlenecks are physical constraints by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Claire Zillman.
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