Apple succeeded when it brought Formula 1 to the big screen last year.

It hopes many of those viewers will watch on their televisions and mobile devices when the season begins this weekend with the Australian Grand Prix, as Apple TV begin its stint as F1’s U.S. broadcast partner.

Apple reached a five-year deal with the global motorsports series last fall, averaging $150 million per year. ESPN, which had carried F1 races since 2018, paid nearly $90 million during a three-year extension signed in 2022.

“We certainly think that over the next five years, we have a great opportunity for Formula One and Apple TV to grow the sport significantly. In the U.S., it’s grown quite a bit, but at the same time it’s still relatively small to the size of the fan base,” Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, said last week. “We would go into theaters when we were testing the (F1) movie, and we would ask people to raise their hand if they’d ever watched a race, and very few hands went up. But after they watched the movie, if you ask them, do you want to go see a race or you want to see a race, basically, all the hands went up.”

“F1: The Movie” grossed $189.6 million in the U.S. and $633.3 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing sports film of all time. It received four nominations for the March 15 Academy Awards, including best picture.

Ian Holmes, Formula 1’s chief media rights and broadcast officer, said the potential Apple brings beyond just showing the races was another important factor.

“I’d say we are probably the only sport in the world whose audience is getting younger and more female-skewed, and that couldn’t be more represented than currently in the U.S.,” he said.