The fans reshaping Formula One

Formula One has entered a new era. A sport once dominated by men has recently seen a new wave of enthusiasts that are reshaping the landscape of the fandom - women. Although the sport dates back to the 1950’s, figures show that female viewership has only seen a significant rise since 2018. So why have we seen such a rapid increase of female fans recently? And how do they see F1’s female future?

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said that, in 2022 40% of F1 fans were women, up by 8% since 2017. Not only this, more women are attending races,  with F1 travel company Grand Prix Tours saying that they now represent 50% of their client base.

Evie James, 18, started following the sport this year after discovering it through social media. She said: "It’s so addictive, the adrenaline, the highs and lows and I love talking about it, even to people who don’t watch it.

"I’ve never followed any sport in my life but there’s something so special about Formula One."

Megan Aspirall, 19, has F1 in her family as her grandmother worked in the sport and, growing up, she would often watch races with her grandparents.

"I always loved watching the races with them, so I started looking into it more so I could talk to them about it but then I got absolutely obsessed. It’s been two years now and I haven’t missed a single race," she added.

The recent increase of Formula One's popularity cannot be discussed without mentioning the 2019 Netflix docuseries, Drive to Survive. In 2021, the sports cumulative audience was up 4% from the previous year, reaching 1.55 billion people.

A record number of more than 108 million people tuned in to watch the finale - a 29% increase from 2020. Moreover, the show has been credited for bringing in US audiences. In a New York Times article, ESPN said overall viewership had grown from around 547,000 in 2018 to almost one million in 2021.

The show has been praised for making a sport, historically perceived as elitist and secretive, more accessible by humanising drivers, providing technical explanations and actively welcoming a new era of fans.

Evie said: "Getting into a new sport can be overwhelming, especially something like Formula One which is so technical, so the Netflix documentary was a good way to help me to understand."

According to a YouGov survey in 2023, Drive to Survive viewership was relatively evenly gendered, with females making up 46% of all viewers. However, some women say that there is a negative view on females who are F1 fans due to discovering it through Drive to Survive.

Megan said: "When people say ‘you’re just a Drive to Survive fan’, it feels like they’re saying ‘you’re just a girl’. It doesn’t have any validity to it and it feels like a subtle way to say ‘you’re just a woman, you wouldn’t get it.'"

The increase of Formula One fans has made way for a boom in its popularity on social media, with data suggesting that since 2023, online platforms are now the main way in which people are discovering the sport. Additionally, RTR Sports Marketing reported last year that 70% of F1’s Instagram followers were female.

"There isn’t just one way to be an F1 fan anymore," content creator Toni Cowan-Brown told CNBC.

"Drive to Survive sparked this interest in F1 during lockdown, which people then took online, creating this community of content creators who were able to show people a totally new side of the sport."

Liberty Media Corporation, the owner of F1, has leant into this social media growth, relaxing notoriously strict licensing rules and often inviting content creators into the paddock to bring audiences closer into the F1 inner circle.

Megan said: "It’s so important that girls feel confident about liking the sport and being fans and it’s so positive to see female content creators because they’re Formula One fans and proud in their femininity."

At present there are no full-time female drivers on the grid, with the last one being Giovanna Amati in 1992. There are women who work in F1, such as Sky Sports presenter Natalie Pinkham and Red Bull strategist Hannah Schmitz but, as yet, the 20 full-time drivers are all male.

Megan said: "There are women in F1, but there aren’t drivers and I think younger girls watching it might not actually see themselves represented on the grid. They might think that they comment on a race or work in a team but there’s still no female actually driving."

In 2023, former racing driver Susie Wolff was appointed managing director of F1 Academy, a series that aims to develop female drivers and prepare them to progress to higher competitions. Last year F1 Academy’s Bianca Bustamante was signed by McLaren as the first female member of their Driver Development Programme.

Although steps are being made, Evie and many other women say it needs to move faster. "I think if you looked at the sport 20 years ago it was very different," she said.

"There are more female mechanics and engineers so it is moving but I think it needs to move faster and we need a woman on the grid."

As the female Formula One community grows, women are reminded that there is a place for them in the sport. Girls On Track UK is a joint initiative between F1’s governing body, the FIA and Motorsport UK with the aim of inspiring and encouraging women to get involved in motorsports.

They hold regular events for schoolgirls to give them their first introduction into motorsports. Girls on Track UK programme manager, Jenny Fletcher said: "It’s education in an all-female safe space about the breadth of opportunities out there within motorsport. We want to show that that it’s not just for boys."

They also have a large community group, acting as a support network for women with an interest in motorsport.

She continued: "The shift in the number of girls that are wanting to study mechanical engineering is staggering even in the last three years.

"Quite often I say to these young ladies, being female is your superpower. Sometimes it’s hard to believe when you’re the only girl on your course but if you can work through it, you are standing out for a good reason."