Silverstone is heading into its biggest Pirelli British Grand Prix weekend in years.
Ticket sales are up 14 percent on last year with search activity surging 143 percent year-on-year, according to new data from ticket marketplace viagogo.
The race has climbed to fourth in the UK’s event ticket rankings, underlining how far Formula 1 has embedded itself into mainstream British sporting culture since Liberty Media’s takeover a decade ago.
The growth is mirrored globally, F1 ticket sales on viagogo grew 19 percent between 2024 and 2025, with 2026 demand already running 74 percent ahead of last year’s pace across 160 countries.
“We now have 160 countries that bought tickets in the 2025 season,” Shaun Stewart, Vice President of Open Distribution at viagogo, told select reporters, including Sector.
“It puts them (F1) third just behind the NBA and football in the middle of a World Cup in regards to just how international the demand is.
“This trend of global interest in F1 as a sport does not seem to be slowing down. Plus, with more cars on the track, it’s become even further reaching in regards to its interest.”
Nowhere is that shift more visible than in the UK.
In 2023, 54 percent of British buyers on viagogo purchased tickets for their home race at Silverstone.
By 2025, that figure had dropped to 23 percent and the trend points to a fanbase that has moved well beyond seasonal loyalty to a single event.
This trend of global interest in F1 as a sport does not seem to be slowing down. Plus, with more cars on the track, it’s become even further reaching in regards to its interest.
Shaun Stewart
Silverstone remains central to the British F1 calendar, but the data suggests UK fans have become some of the sport’s most active global travellers.
That international expansion is matched by rapid growth in emerging markets.
Argentina, China, Turkey, and Italy lead viagogo’s ranking of fastest-growing F1 ticket markets between 2023 and 2025, with Franco Colapinto’s place on the grid with the BWT Alpine F1 Team closely linked to Argentina’s position at the top of the table.
Stewart said the sport’s fastest-growing markets rarely develop in isolation from what’s happening on track and pointed to Mexico’s Sergio Perez sitting out the 2025 season as proof.
“Checo’s season off, not racing in Mexico City and suddenly there is less demand for that race,” he said.
“He was a hometown hero that everybody showed up for. The growth in Argentinian demand, I think 100% is correlated with Colapinto.”
Abu Dhabi topped viagogo’s rankings for international attendance in 2025, attracting buyers from 119 different countries.
Qatar, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain are recording the sharpest growth in overseas attendees, up 73 percent, 53 percent, and 47 percent respectively over the past two seasons.
