Briatore credited Liberty Media with completely transforming F1's popularity in the United States after purchasing the sport in 2017 . He noted that before Liberty, F1 had essentially no meaningful US presence after the Indianapolis deal ended . Under Liberty Media, F1 has grown to host three US races (Austin, Miami, Las Vegas), attracted American manufacturers like Ford and Cadillac, and seen a dramatic surge in viewership driven in part by the Drive to Survive Netflix series . Briatore specifically praised his fellow Italian, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, for making F1 "much stronger" during this period .
Briatore has proposed expanding the Sprint format from the current six events per season to all 24 rounds on the calendar: "24 races, 24 sprint races" . His rationale is that Friday practice sessions are "useless" for fans — "people who come to watch the races don't come to see engineers testing setups" . He argues that if F1 won't put a Sprint in every weekend, it should abolish Friday running entirely . He has also floated an even more ambitious idea of a 48-race season (24 Grands Prix + 24 Sprints) to give drivers "something to drive for" . Liberty Media is known to favour expanding Sprints to 12 events in the longer term, though no change is planned for the 2026 season .