Turns out people really are interested in Formula One racing when it is actually a competitive race and not one team blowing away the field. The numbers came in for the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix and NBCSN scored a whopping 55% increase for the 2015 version of the race won by Ferrari-driving Sebastian Vettel over Mercedes-driving Lewis Hamilton by 8.5 seconds versus last year’s version of the race won by Hamilton by 17 seconds over his Mercedes teammate and 24 seconds over Vettel. Hamilton went on to win nearly every race in 2014 as Mercedes dominated the F1 field last year.
This year, however, Vettel and Ferrari took advantage of the heat in Kuala Lumpur and effectively used a savvy tire and pit stop strategy to defeat Hamilton and the result was a more interesting race that was supported by the USA television ratings for NBCSN which showed it was up 55% over last year’s Hamilton blowout and was the most-watched overnight F1 race in 18 years in the USA – despite its obviously unfriendly live telecast time of 11:30 p.m. on the West Coast.
The 2015 Formula One season continues with the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai at 10:30 p.m. [PDT] on NBCSN on April 12, 2015.