Andrew Little

Turkey just signed a deal with Formula 1 worth around $200 million. Turkey is the one doing the paying. The fee buys the right to host a race once a year for five years, starting in 2027. Turkey walked away from F1 once before. After 2011, the race was dropped because Turkish organizers refused to pay the higher hosting fee F1 was demanding. The fees have only climbed since. Today, hosting an F1 race costs an average country $30 million to $40 million a year. Newer entrants pay $50 million to $60 million. Qatar pays $55 million. Saudi Arabia pays over $50 million. Even Monaco, which got a sweetheart deal for decades, just renewed at roughly double its old rate. Most contracts also include a 5% bump every year, baked in. Spread across five years, Turkey’s bill likely lands somewhere between $165 million and $220 million. The fee is only the entry ticket. The host country also pays for the track, the maintenance, and the entire event operation. F1 keeps everything that follows: the TV rights ($1.21 billion in 2025), the global sponsorships, and the trackside ads. The host country gets ticket sales and a few local sponsorships. Nothing else. These hosting fees alone bring in about $1.03 billion a year for Liberty Media, the company that owns F1. That is roughly 27% of F1’s total $3.87 billion revenue, and the steadiest income the sport has. Whether 50,000 fans show up or 300,000, the host pays the same flat amount. Some countries have already learned what happens when this gamble goes wrong. Korea lost $37 million on its 2012 race and never came back. India lost $24 million in 2013 and disappeared the same way. Australia loses money on its race most years, but the state government keeps writing the check because Melbourne pulls in around $150 million in tourism over race weekend. Turkey is making the same bet. In 2024, a Turkish company paid $118 million for a 30-year deal to run Istanbul Park. For years, the site had mostly operated as a car dealership instead of a racetrack. President Erdogan personally pushed for the return. Liberty Media bought F1 for $8 billion in 2016. By 2024, takeover offers were valuing it at $20 billion. The hosting fee model is the engine doing most of that work. Turkey just bought a ticket to keep it running.