🏎️ FAN GIRLS ARE THE FUTURE 

Make-up artist-turned-founder Charlotte Tilbury was recently announced as an official partner of F1 ACADEMY. Not only is it the beauty brand’s first global sports sponsorship, Charlotte Tilbury is the first beauty brand to sponsor the project, which was created to foster female talent within the sport. The F1 Academy, led by Susie Wolff, launched in 2023 and is currently supporting 15 female drivers aged 16-25.

F1 sponsors are typically brands associated with the sport in some way (think motor oil or engine parts), making Charlotte Tilbury’s involvement a significant departure. But what does it tell us about where motorsports – and other male-dominated sports – are headed?

💡 OUR TAKE

Star-struck girls have always been the most visible contributors in creating fan culture – from The Beatles to the meteoric rise of K-pop, the star system they chose to advocate ultimately shapes the category culture, dominates broad-based culture and influences commerce. And it looks like they’ve chosen (mainstream) sports as their next target. 

For years, F1 had attracted an overwhelmingly male fanbase but with docuseries like Netflix’s phenomenally successful Drive to Survive (DTS) and other initiatives by the owners to attract new fans, women now account for 40% of the global F1 fanbase (up from 8% in 2017). And what’s a fandom without the creative freedom to develop your own IPs and grow your own mini fandoms  – there are currently 19.1K Wattpad fanfics tagged with ‘Formula 1’, and the Two Girls 1 Formula podcast sits at the intersection of ‘fast cars, hot gossip & pop culture’. 

It’s not just Formula 1 that’s benefiting from female fan culture. We’ve previously explored how Taylor Swift’s attendance at the Super Bowl LVIII saw a record total audience of 58.8M women – a 9% increase on the previous year (more than half of the female viewers were under 35). Closer to home, Japanese volleyball is proving a hit among female fans and, in South Korea, women make up 55% of fans of professional sports.

It’s highly possible that these women are finding a similar sense of belonging typically felt in boy-band fandoms, within traditionally masculine sports communities – making entry feel less intimidating and the overall experience more enjoyable. And it seems that, for many, these new fandoms are forging and fulfilling the growing need for niche, vertical communities that offer emotional connections while complementing existing passion points – proving that the basic principles of fandom (community and autonomy) endure regardless of the cultural space it’s present in.

Surprising brand sponsorships – such as this and Prada dressing top pick Caitlin Clark at the WNBA Draft – can be a win-win for both parties. Compared to their male counterparts, female sports fans are more willing to open up their wallets for experiential expenses such as travel, game tickets, merchandise, food and beverages, and fan clubs – making them ‘not just a committed enthusiast, but a committed consumer.’

As more female fans turn their attention to new sporting verticals, how can your brand keep the fundamental rules of fandom at the heart of your partnerships and programs?

For those of you born before 1997, ‘fax, no printer‘ is Gen Z speak for ‘undeniable facts I agree with’