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.
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 F1’s fanbase was shrinking, and the sport’s social media presence was non-existent thanks to outdated restrictions that made it impossible for teams and drivers to post freely.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). Read on to know more about the fangirlification of F1 on The Nod.
