I’ve never been one for sports. I wasn’t born with a natural athletic ability and I certainly didn’t care for physical activity of any kind (honestly, I still don’t). So you can imagine my surprise when I found myself not only interested in a sport but actually watching it live. Enter Formula 1.
The Netflix show Drive to Survive (DTS) piqued my interest, and the races, excitement and energy hooked me. But as thrilling as the world of F1 is, it can be equally frustrating.
Motorsport has long been a male dominated industry. Across drivers, engineers, journalists and fans, it began as a sport made by men for men (like a lot of sports), but it’s 2023 and well, you know the rest. Over time, I’ve found myself falling deeper into the world of F1 and what I never anticipated was a division of ‘real’ and ‘fake’ fans and well, men and women.
In recent years F1’s popularity has sky-rocketed, thanks in large part to DTS. The docuseries has also created a divide between those who are ‘real fans’ and those who are ‘DTS fans’, a label that seems to be typically used for women.
It’s rare to see a sport where such labels are so important. There’s an absurd expectation within the community, placed predominately on female fans, that if you can’t name all the world champions then you aren’t genuine – that you’re more interested in drivers’ appearance than their performance on the track.
An incident involving the co-hosts of popular F1 podcast Pitstop is a perfect example of this double standard. In April, ‘new fans’ Jake and Fab appeared as guests alongside F2 driver JM Correa on another racing themed podcast, Screaming Meals. The episode, entitled Who is JM?, saw the Pitstop boys say verbatim, “no one gives a f*** about your racing,” and “all people want to know is what you guys [drivers] do outside of the racing”.
A lot of F1 fans were pissed off, TikTok went crazy with criticism leading to a dramatic drop in rating for the Pitstop podcast. An official apology was posted to their Instagram with a promise to do better. But the issue runs deeper than a couple of disrespectful comments.
Any female podcaster or creator who said something similar would have been bullied off the internet. No woman would get away with saying what they did, because it plays into every single assumption ‘old fans’ of F1 believe about women who watch the sport.
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As a female fan of F1 there’s no room for error. Men are allowed to make mistakes in a way that women are not. They’re acknowledged as fans of the sport without first being subject to 20 questions on the topic, they’re able to say the wrong thing, post a half-assed apology and continue their careers with the negative comments in their rear view.
Female fans are regularly subjected to backlash from male counterparts; comments like “DTS fan,” or “you don’t know anything about F1” are commonplace. Search “being a female F1 fan” on TikTok to find an endless supply of videos on this exact topic. Gatekeeping fandoms isn’t a new concept, but holding the keys to the kingdom hostage over someone’s gender is a little too 1950s for me.
This isn't the only example of a double standard in F1. Grid girls have long been a staple of the sport, only being banned at the start of the 2018 season for being “at odds with modern day societal norms”.
While scrapping them caused controversy for putting women out of work, anyone watching F1 could see that the place of a man was behind the wheel and the place of a woman was not. Again, we arrive at the same conclusion: men are able to do anything they set their mind to, but women have a place and that place is not equal to men.
Not enough has been done to encourage women to enter F1 or show that they have a place within the industry. But F1 wouldn’t be where it is today without women; marketing departments wouldn’t run without them and some of the best strategists in this sport are women.
Races showcase 20 male drivers on the grid, male engineers and team principles, but if you’ve ever watched an episode of Grill the Grid on YouTube, you would’ve heard a women’s voice from behind the camera. There are so many amazing women in motorsport, pushing the boundaries and breaking the glass ceiling.
Lissie Mackintosh is a fantastic example of a content creator and presenter who is opening the sport up and making the F1 community a safe space for everyone. Her platform is designed as a place for all F1 fans, talking about the sport in a way that is accessible and welcoming.
Despite her 200k+ followers on TikTok and multiple partnerships with F1 teams, Mackintosh has opened up about having to defend her place in the paddock on race weekends to those who don’t believe she belongs.
DTS has ushered in a new era of F1 fans, with millions of younger viewers (and lots of women) being introduced to the sport. To see a sport that you love grow in fans should be a win-win. Why does it matter how someone was introduced to it?
F1 can and should be enjoyed by everyone. Whether you’re drawn to the engineering and technology behind the cars, the strategies employed by teams, or the sheer adrenaline rush of the races – you’re a ‘real’ fan of the sport.
