Why F1’s female fan-base has quadrupled since 2017

When I was 17 I had nobody to talk about Formula 1 with. My friends dismissed it as a boring sport where the cars just go round-and-round in circles. I’d say the names Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, and I’d be met with a series of clueless looks.

Fast-forward to 2025 and you can have a conversation with just about any woman in my age group, and they will know about F1. They can name most drivers and will have at least watched one episode of Drive to Survive (DTS).

The statistics also back this up. According to F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, 43 per cent of fans are under 35 and women make up 42 percent of the fanbase. That compares to 10 per cent being women according to a fan survey in 2017.

So, why has female interest in F1 sky-rocketed since then? The obvious answer is Drive to Survive and F1’s increased presence on social media. Liberty Media loosened the reins on F1 after the tight control Bernie Ecclestone exercised over the sport, and since then have opened themselves up to a whole new demographic.

I will attempt to explain the rise in F1’s female fanbase through my own conversations with recent converts and observations of the sport’s online space.

While I cannot offer a full explanation that encompasses every woman’s experience – without writing an entire dissertation – I will try and reflect on three different reasons that explain this growth.

F1 opens up to the world

When Liberty Media opened F1 up to the world, all they had to do was let their sport shine. Which is precisely why DTS has become so successful.

Part of DTS’s appeal was the way it condensed information and made the complex world of F1 easier to understand. It gently familiarised fans with the rules, strategy and team tactics in a palatable format.

DTS viewers were then familiar with F1’s rules before they watched their first live race, which is more likely to keep them engaged if they already have an understanding of the sport and can focus on the action.

Crucially, the personalities of the drivers were allowed to shine in DTS, making them accessible to fans for the first time. This humanised the F1 grid, allowing new viewers to invest in their favourites as they glimpsed into their private worlds off the racetrack.

Prior to DTS, F1 was not marketed towards women. Grid girls, an 80 per cent male presenting lineup using jargon only understood by petrolheads and lifelong fans; this all ensured the sport was gatekept and built for the entertainment of men - and the few women who could adapt to their culture.

Liberty Media transformed that narrative. By making F1 accessible they naturally brought in a new audience. Women always had the capacity to like F1, the sport is exhilarating regardless of who you are! What prevented them from enjoying it before was the barriers in place. Liberty Media and DTS finally helped to smash them down.

Online F1 community

A by-product of DTS has been the growth of the online F1 community, also known as ‘stan accounts’. Any girl who was a teenager during the 2010s will be familiar with 'stan culture' on Twitter, whether they observed, interacted with or ran their own accounts dedicated to their favourite bands, singers or actors.

Since DTS however, every driver’s personality has started to shine in the same way Taylor Swift or boyband members do to their fanbase. Their team radio phrases have been condensed into bitesize TikTok clips, devoted fans assemble edits and fight their driver’s corner as if it is a full-time job.

Drivers also benefit from this, with their popularity opening doors to luxury endorsements, talk show appearances and elevating them to the status of a ‘celebrity’.

Usually, this is sneered at by some older men, who relegate stan culture to the unserious and embarrassing actions of teenage girls, reducing these young women to ‘not proper fans’.

What some people fail to understand is that these stan accounts construct a community of young women, speaking to other people like them with a shared interest. In this digital world, young women build lifelong and solid friendships, bonded by their shared love of F1. No wonder more girls want to be a part of that!

As young girls feel emboldened to express their love for the sport in their online communities, more women feel that F1 is a fun place for them, somewhere they can be heard and feel accepted, a contagious ideal.

F1 culture

It is not just the sport itself, but the culture around it that has helped attract a new audience. From the F1 Academy stars to the partners of drivers, the culture around F1 is being led by women.

A prime example of this is the interest in Leclerc’s girlfriend Alexandra Saint-Mleux, who has 2.5 million followers on Instagram – that’s more than Lance Stroll, Gabriel Bortoleto and Liam Lawson for reference.

Saint-Mleux’s world is likely to connect with female fans crossing over into beauty, fashion and lifestyle content, her Instagram a perfectly curated snapshot of luxury travel and style.

Her presence in the paddock – much like the Charlotte Tilbury car in the F1 Academy – tells women their interests also matter and also deserve to take centre stage. It communicates that it is okay for women to love motorsport, strategy and the technical aspect of the sport, while also enjoying lifestyle content and fashion.

Not all women are interested in this kind of culture, obviously, but it explains in part how F1 is becoming a more accommodating space for women and not just catering to a male audience anymore.

The F1 Academy stars are also helping to pave the way for increased female viewership. More than just being the same gender, these racing stars possess likeable personalities and stories that allow you to invest in their careers.

Much like the Lionesses in football, women can connect with the experiences of F1 Academy drivers who make them feel more comfortable in the motorsport community, a sport they are accepted into as a lifelong viewer.

There is still a long way to go in regards to female inclusion in motorsport. Women still tend to act as ‘window-dressing’ for F1, but Liberty Media have triggered a shift that shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.

The growing interest of female fans is Liberty Media’s greatest achievement and if they continue to nurture this involvement further, it will become a defining feature of F1's legacy.

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