Why Formula 1 has more girl fans than ever

Fashion is a medium that allows us to immerse ourselves in new lives and discover passions we might never have considered. And just as the blokette core initiated fashion girlies to the world of football, and Motomami, one of the most successful albums of 2022, spawned a fleet of female fans of racing motorbikes and biker jackets, Formula 1 has started to attract women's attention more than ever, a trend also reflected in the increasing involvement of motorsports personalities in the fashion industry, and a growing participation of celebrities and influencers at the latest Grand Prix events. During Miami's race, last Monday, the paddocks were swarming with well-known faces from the entertainment world, including, apart from DJ Khaled and the Jonas Brothers, Emily Ratajkowski and Alix Earle, both papped in Rosso Ferrari outfits. Vips and top models' presence at an event of such popularity shouldn't come as a surprise, but as many have pointed out on Twitter and TikTok, it is remarkable to see just how much in the past year even races like the one in Miami have managed to achieve such resonance.  

If on TikTok the hashtag #formula1 counts almost 34.4 billion views, the credit for this falls mainly on the rebranding of F1, which began in 2016. Before the American company Liberty Media Corporation invested in the event, in fact, public interest in the event was declining dramatically, with a drop in ratings of more than a third since 2008. According to recent data, the Formula 1 world now counts one of the most loyal and numerous sporting audiences ever - around 1 billion fans. Liberty Media and Stefano Domenicali, President and CEO of Formula 1, have cleverly exploited social media to repaint the then démodé image of the event, but what they might not have expected, however, was the passionate love with which women have entered the world of F1. In an interview with the German media Audio, Motor und Sport, Mercedes sports executive Toto Wolff revealed that the growing popularity for motorsport comes mainly from the 15-35 year old demographic, 40% of which is female.

Emily Ratajkowski a Miami per il Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton in Valentino

Daniel Ricciardo in Thom Browne, Met Gala 2023

Chanel Resort 2023

Tommy Hilfiger Spring 2018

Moschino Spring 2016

GQ Italia, Agosto 2022

Ferrari Spring 2022

The catwalks were not slow to pick up on the potential of this trend, either. Until 2018, F1 aesthetics were translated into clothing collections into leather leggings, flame prints and Hot Wheels-style chequered patterns - as was the 'alt' style that was fashionable at the time - while lately, the fashion industry's approach to the style codes of motorsports has a whole different image. Chanel's Resort show 2023, for example, presented a vast selection of racing car suits in Monaco promptly paired with designer helmets; Valentino hired Lewis Hamilton as its ambassador, wrapping him completely in Pierpaolo Piccioli's signature colour theme, Pink PP; Thom Browne chose Daniel Ricciardo as one of its guests at the Met Gala; Palm Angels announced its collaboration with Haas F1 as entertainment curator, and GQ put the Ferrari team on the cover for the first time, one year after the automotive house launched a fashion brand.

It must be said that, if the fashion world is proving to be so interested in the automotive world, it is also because the main protagonists of F1, such as Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris, and Fernardo Alonso, share apart from the same profession also a conventionally attractive appearance and a charismatic personality, as demonstrated by the video interviews that continue to go viral on social media. By posting on their very popular Instagram profiles - Hamilton's account is followed by almost 33 million people, Leclerc's almost 11 million - some of the designer outfits they wear around the world, the F1 drivers have become real stars. Reaching the same following of football players like Bellerín and Irvine or basketball players like LeBron James and Chris Paul, the key faces of F1 now represent  fashion houses a publicity opportunity too inviting to be ignored, further fuelled on TikTok by the “Formula 1 wife” trope videos, imagining what it would be like to date a pilot, by the Netflix series in production since 2019, Drive to Survive, which documents the fascinating ins and outs  of the Grand Prix, as well by the latest events in the world of the F1 greats, including the wedding dubbed on TikTok «royal wedding of Formula 1» as it was between Chloe Stroll - sister of Aston Martin driver, Lance, and daughter of the team's owner, Lawrence - and Australian snowboarder Scotty James. And so now Formula 1 has become fashionable, both for the reckless who like to speed at over 200 km/h, and for the more timid who prefer to watch the race from the sidelines, perhaps whilst sipping champagne.