This Friday, the F1 Chinese Grand Prix will kick off in Jiading. Formula 1 is finally back in Shanghai this year, and China's first driver, Zhou Guanyu, will also make his home debut. F1's narrative of China no longer feels like a straight man sport.
文|Brad Adgate
With the start of the new season of Formula 1, the sport is becoming more and more popular among women. F1 has attracted an overwhelming male fan base for years, but with the new ownership, the sport is no longer a boys' club. In November 2022, F1 CEO Stefano Domenigali said that 40% of F1 fans worldwide are women, an 8% increase from 2017.
Liberty Media acquired Formula 1 in 2017 for $8 billion, including debt. Since then, the group has been actively promoting Formula 1 to attract new fans. Social media, Netflix's hit Drive to Survive, and initiatives to promote women's participation in the sport have all helped increase young women's interest in the sport.
Other initiatives by Liberty Media include the provision of dedicated video-on-demand services and gaming esports platforms. These strategies have also led to an increase in fans, promos, sponsorships and last year's return to Las Vegas after a 40-year absence. According to Liberty Media, F1 revenue in 2023 increased by 25% year-on-year to $3.222 billion. In addition, the event's operating profit increased by 64% to $392 million from $239 million in 2022.
In 2023, Liberty Media established the F1 Academy, with the goal of giving female drivers the opportunity to compete in higher-level motorsports. Women must be between the ages of 16 and 25 to participate in the college. Previously, the last woman to compete in Formula 1 was Italian driver Lella Lombardi in 1976. Liberty Media also helps fund the cost of the car. Another initiative by Susie Wolff is to add more women to the race team staff. In addition, the influx of young F1 drivers has also helped attract new fans.
Crowds at F1 events are also on the rise. 2022 was the first year that all F1 races were open to the public for the first time since the pandemic, with 22 races attracting a total of 5.7 million fans. After that, in 2023, the total number of visitors reached a record 6.15 million. (By comparison, in 2019, the last year before the pandemic, the total audience for all 21 F1 races was 4.1 million.) In addition, in 2023, the average weekend audience for F1 events exceeded 270,000, up from 195,000 four years ago.
Cindy Riccio, Executive Vice President and General Manager of CRC, a female-owned PR agency 360PR+, said: "The F1 Academy, a project developed by F1 to promote female drivers in motorsport, is a shrewd business move: 40% of F1 fans are women, contributing to the total viewership of the 2022 season of more than 1.5 billion.
Charlotte Tilbury has just become the first woman to sponsor F1 to launch a beauty brand, which intends to use its global reach to highlight the talented drivers of the F1 Academy, publicize their achievements and showcase the myriad opportunities for women on and off the track in motorsport. It's an exciting time for us to connect women to the male-dominated sport of racing, with many women actively participating in discussions about drivers on TikTok and Instagram. ”
As the fan base gets younger, the popularity of F1 cars on social media platforms has exploded. For example, there can be more than 40 million interactions on social media during a race weekend, many of which come from young women. In addition, in October last year, RTR Sports Marketing reported that 70% of F1 Instagram followers were under the age of 35. Female driver Chadwick has hundreds of thousands of followers on multiple social media platforms.
Another big reason for the growing popularity of Formula 1 is the Netflix show Drive to Survive. Premiered in 2019, the documentary series gives fans a behind-the-scenes look at the sport through interviews with drivers, team officials, and commentary from F1 experts.
A 2022 survey by Statista found that 30% of F1 fans cite Fast and Win as the main reason that led them to the sport.
The explosion of Fast and Fast coincided with the rise in F1 TV ratings. According to Nielsen, more than 360,000 viewers who didn't watch any F1 races in the second half of 2021 started watching the sport next year because of Netflix shows. According to F1, Fast and Fast is the most popular Netflix documentary series in 33 markets in 2022.
The popularity of F1 among women is part of a growing trend in sports. Nielsen reported that earlier this year, Taylor Swift attended Super Bowl 58 with a record 58.8 million female viewers, a 9% increase from the previous year. In addition, the percentage of female viewers reached 47.5%, surpassing the previous record of 47.1% for Super Bowl 69. More than half of the female spectators at the big games are under the age of 35.
Earlier this month, Iowa's Caitlin Clark broke the career scoring record for college basketball players, both men and women. Her record-breaking game was watched by an average of 3.4 million viewers, the most-watched regular season women's college basketball game since 1999. Because of Clark, the average viewership of a women's college basketball game on Fox this season has surpassed that of a men's game.
This article is translated from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2024/03/11/heres-why-formula-1-racing-is-growing-in-popularity-with-women/?sh=528bd4ba137c
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Header image source: Getty Images
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