- Women ages 16 to 24 are the fastest growing demographic of Formula 1 fans.
- F1 races are made up of events that take place over a whole weekend.
- The in-person race experience offers significantly different perspectives compared to catching a race on TV.
Last spring, just as I was about to graduate from college, I tore my ACL. As I sat, mostly, stressing about what to do with my life, I desperately needed a new interest. That’s when I went to Netflix and turned on the docuseries “Drive to Survive.”
Soon enough, I found myself fully immersed in everything related to Formula One.
Just over a year later, I was at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal with my dad — he wore a Ferrari hat and I wore a Mercedes hat.
My dad, Jeremy Keith, was able to get tickets from one of his colleagues and I convinced — well, more like begged — him to bring me with him. So, that’s how the two of us ended up taking a quick trip to Canada last weekend.
Our sunny weekend in Montreal was spent cheering at the race track, eating delicious food and spending quality time together for Father’s Day.
The race itself was full of exciting moments: a crash between two teammates, a teenager getting his first podium and the untimely death of a groundhog.
F1’s changing viewership
Throughout the weekend, as my dad introduced me to those in our group, he made it clear that I was the bigger F1 fan out of the two of us.
A 24-year-old woman probably isn’t who you typically picture when you think of fans of motor sports, but it turns out I’m not alone.
Over the past few years, the viewership and fandom of motor sports has grown. By the end of the 2024 season, global interest in the sport had grown by 5.7%, or 50 million new fans, since 2021, reported Forbes.
Among those new fans are a surprising cohort: At the end of the 2024 season, Forbes reported that women ages 16 to 24 years are the fastest-growing demographic of F1 fans.
And at the end of 2024, 41% of the total fan base for the sport was female, up from 37% in 2018.
That’s likely thanks to social media.
“With a younger fan base, the popularity of F1 racing has exploded across social media platforms. For example, on race weekends, there could be upwards of 40 million social media interactions, many of them from young women,” according to Forbes.
I often spend race weekends scrolling through TikTok and X, pausing on posts about F1, whether they’re memes, fan edits, informative posts or conspiracy theories. Most of the posts I see are from women my age.
The spike in popularity is also thanks to Netflix’s “Drive to Survive” docuseries, which follows the teams and drivers throughout each season of the sport — my gateway into F1.
Podcasts are also drawing in new fans. I am a frequent listener of “Fan Behavior” and also enjoy listening to “The Red Flags Podcast.”
Another major piece of media that will likely help draw more fans to the sport is the upcoming “F1″ movie starring Brad Pitt that releases next weekend.
Yes, the fact that a majority of F1 drivers are attractive, young European men doesn’t hurt its appeal to young women, but we really do enjoy the sport itself. Some of my friends and I can name every driver and team, rattle off stats and explain more technical parts of the sport, such as tire hardness and DRS.
What the Formula One race experience is like
For those unfamiliar, an F1 race isn’t just a one-off event — it’s a full weekend affair.
On Friday, the drivers take part in two practices; on Saturday, there is a third practice and qualifying; then, on Sunday, the race happens. Each race weekend also includes other types of races, known as supporter series that take place before and in between the F1 events.
Since becoming a fan of the sport I have watched almost every televised race, but being there in person was a completely different experience.
Our seats weren’t just your typical grandstand seats — thanks to the company that gave us our tickets, we were in one of the track’s nicest box suites. Our seats were right by the track’s first corner and where the drivers come out of the pit lane.
We arrived in Montreal on Friday evening and attended events at the track on Saturday and Sunday. The race in Montreal takes place at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, named after a Canadian former F1 driver.
Along with the Formula One events, we also watched the races for one of that week’s supporter series, F1 Academy, a female-only race series for ages 16-25 meant to help them advance in the world of racing.
The F1 Academy races showcased a lot of aggressive driving and fiery outbursts from drivers on their radios. Both races I watched had multiple crashes and safety cars.
It was also very, very loud — which seems obvious, but it’s not just the cars that are loud. The commentating and music that plays at the track also has to be very loud so it can be heard, I spent much of the time wearing earplugs.
Only a small portion of the 4.361-kilometer track is visible to attendees. Our seats had screens that we could turn to after the cars passed by in order to see what was happening the rest of the time.
From our seats, we were able to see the drivers come out of one of the straight sections and smoothly make their way around the first turn, sometimes completing masterful overtakes on the turn.
One thing about the track in Montreal is there are groundhogs, which are often seen on and around the track during race weekend. On Lap 12 of the 70-lap race, seven-time world champion and Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton unknowingly ran one over.
“I didn’t see it happen, but I heard I hit a groundhog so that’s devastating,” the driver said in an interview with Sky Sports on Sunday. “I love animals, and I’m so sad about it. That’s horrible. That’s never happened to me here before. But the floor, basically the right side, there’s a hole in it and all the vanes are all gone.”
My personal highlights from the race weekend
One of the most notable moments that happened during the race was when the two McLaren drivers, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, were battling with each other for fourth place.
When Norris overestimated the amount of space on the outside of his teammate and tried to overtake him, he hit both Piastri and the wall, his car skidding until it stopped on the grass in perfect view of my seat.
While the moment was devastating for Norris, and for my friends who are his fans, I was just excited that I was able to see him right in front of me as he got out of his car and dejectedly made his way back to the team garage.
Piastri, my favorite driver, was able to complete the race and finished in fourth.
I spent much of the weekend explaining that while Piastri is my favorite driver, his team, McLaren, is not my favorite team. My team is Mercedes.
By the end of the race, I was ecstatic because both Mercedes drivers ended up on the podium, George Russell won and 18-year-old rookie Kimi Antonelli took third place.
My biggest hope for the race was to see Antonelli get his first podium, and he spent a number of laps being chased by current championship leader Piastri. The teenager ultimately outdrove Piastri, and my months of manifesting paid off.
