The engines are revving, the drama is brewing, and somewhere, Christian Horner is probably up to something. What we mean is that the 2025 Formula One season has officially begun, and if the Melbourne Grand Prix was any indication, we’re in for chaos. Lando Norris finally secured the first win of the season with McLaren, rookies faced a baptism by fire with multiple DNFs, and Louis Vuitton signed a decade-long partnership—because nothing says high-speed racing like high fashion. But beyond the pit-lane politics and Lewis Hamilton’s bold leap into Ferrari red, there’s a bigger revolution happening in Formula One (F1): the sport is having its fandom era, and women are driving it full throttle.
For decades, F1 was a gentleman’s club. The grandstands were filled with polo-clad men sipping overpriced champagne, the paddocks were playgrounds for billionaire playboys, and the only women on the grid were holding umbrellas for drivers who couldn’t be bothered to apply their own sunscreen. But then? The internet happened.
From pit lane to pop culture phenomenon
The transformation of F1 into a fandom-fuelled cultural juggernaut can be traced back to 2016, when Liberty Media stepped in to drag the sport—kicking and screaming—into the world today. F1’s fanbase was shrinking, and the sport’s social media presence was non-existent thanks to outdated restrictions that made it impossible for teams and drivers to post freely. Liberty scrapped those rules, and suddenly, the entire internet had front-row access to F1’s high-stakes, high-drama world, courtesy Netflix’s Drive to Survive (DTS).
The docuseries, which launched in 2019, took the high-stakes world of F1 and turned it into a reality show with plot twists, intense rivalries, and just the right amount of slow-motion drama. Suddenly, casual viewers weren’t just watching races—they were analysing radio messages like FBI agents and debating the emotional depth of Charles Leclerc’s longing stares.
TikTok exploded with content creators ranking drivers’ paddock fits like it was the Met Gala. Instagram became a constant stream of driver vacation photos (because obviously, we need to know where Pierre Gasly is at all times). Reddit was flooded with fan theories that made Marvel conspiracies look low-effort. And the teams officially embraced the chaos, turning drivers into pop culture icons, pit walls into reality TV confessionals, and launching collabs like Aston Martin’s TikTok creator mentorship programme.
According to a 2022 Statista poll, 30 per cent of current F1 fans started watching the sport because of the show, which means a solid chunk of the audience didn’t grow up idolising Senna—they got hooked because Daniel Ricciardo said, “I’m a car mechanic,” and smiled directly into the camera.
And these weren’t just any new fans. They were young, engaged, and—most notably—women, who now make up 41 per cent of F1’s fanbase, with the biggest surge in the 16 to 24 years age group. And they didn’t just show up; they took over.
“The show has brought a new type of fan to the sport,” says Tiggy Valen of the Paddock Project, a podcast (one of the many female-led ones that have popped up over the past few years) that dissects the chaos of the paddock. “We see this demographic care increasingly more about diversity, representation, and sustainability, which is pushing teams and F1 to shift their focus.”
The fangirl economy
The rise of female fans has transformed F1 into a pop culture minefield. TikTok is flooded with edits of Carlos Sainz looking like a Roman statue and Wattpad is drowning in fanfiction where Max Verstappen is your misunderstood childhood best friend. “The goal of any sport is to grab eyeballs,” says Antara Shankar, 29, a video editor from Mumbai and F1 fan. “No one is watching Drive to Survive in a vacuum. The relatability factor and memes just help people take an initial interest in Formula One.”
And then, there’s the merch revolution. Gone are the days of oversized, boxy zip-ups that made fans look like walking sponsorship deals. Enter The Grandstand Project, founded by Sherry Ma, who saw the lack of stylish F1 apparel and decided to fix it. Her pop-up shop in Vegas was a massive hit, proving what the sport’s execs have been slow to grasp: women aren’t just watching F1, they’re also investing in it.
Even the race experience itself is getting a glow-up. Off to the Races, a Barcelona-based travel company, is redefining the Grand Prix weekend for female fans who prefer VIP hospitality over beer-soaked bleachers. Think Michelin-starred meals, pre-race glam squads, and private Mercedes sprinter vans turned party buses. Founder Alexandra saw a gap in the market and filled it...with champagne.
Gatekeeping? We’re not slowing down
Of course, not everyone is thrilled about the fangirlification of F1. Women in the fandom are constantly interrogated about their knowledge, subjected to “name three drivers” tests, and dismissed as “DTS fans” (as if that’s a bad thing). But for fans like Navdha Dhingra, a Delhi-based marketing professional, F1 has become more than just a sport—it’s a community. “I initially hopped on the bandwagon because of FOMO. But I started picking up on the technical aspects quickly. Eventually, I realised it isn’t just about having the fastest car—it’s about having a reliable team, the right strategy, and the unpredictability,” says the 38 year old. Now, even though she’s moved cities, from Mumbai to Delhi, she still finds herself in post-race group chats with friends, dissecting every overtake, pit-stop blunder, and chaotic radio message like it’s a weekly book club.
Meanwhile, newer fans like 24-year-old Sruthy Sreekumar from Kottayam refuse to let the gatekeeping get to them. “I spend a lot of time researching the sport since I’m new to it. My friends have been very welcoming, but I do come across a lot of comments that target women for liking the sport based on a driver’s looks. It doesn’t faze me. I know what I’m in it for.”
Let the purists cry into their vintage race programmes. Women didn’t turn F1 into a billion-dollar business—Liberty Media did. But they did make it more fun. They turned paddock fashion into a sport of its own, made team principals into meme icons, and ensured Carlos Sainz’s hair got the respect it deserves. If the old guard wants to gatekeep, fine. The rest of us will be too busy analysing Lewis Hamilton’s latest runway look and debating whether Ferrari’s strategy team is secretly sabotaging itself for sport.
