Cadence Ville comes from a family that is passionate about cars and motorsports. Her maternal grandfather was an auto mechanic. Her father's family owned a classic car museum and race track. But she only started watching Formula 1 in 2020. And once she did, she was hooked.
“Instantly,” said the 26-year-old Formula 1 content creator from Victoria.
“It was exciting not only to drive on the track, but also to realize that so much goes into developing a car, the rules are so complex – and just everything that goes with it.”
Formula 1 has disappeared in Canada and the USA from niche motorsport to mass obsession in just a few years, thanks in large part to the Netflix documentary series Ride to survive.
It has become a global entertainment powerhouse, lifestyle brand and pop culture phenomenon. This shift is driven in part by a new wave of content creators like Ville who are supporting sports online. They post memes and reactions to race, delve into history and help explain the rules of the sport to new fans.
Ville started creating content in 2024 under the username @cadencebraking. She now has over 100,000 subscribers. on Instagram and TikTok.
“There is so much social media in Formula 1 – there are a lot of women in that space,” she said.
“It also gives all the professionals in motorsport, all the women working in motorsport, another place to talk about their work and their journey.”
Tiggy Valen, California-based Formula 1 content creator and presenter Project Paddock podcast, began creating content in 2022—what it calls a starter pack of 101 types of explainer videos. At the time, she says, almost everything else was high-tech, inaccessible to new fans and led by British men over 40.
“The goal was to build this educational platform for people,” she said.
“How do I sit down and watch a Formula 1 race for the first time? When people say DRS” [drag reduction system]what does it mean? Or how many people are actually working on the car and in what capacity?”
Valen's second goal? Bring your fans together.
“When people became fans of Formula 1 in the US in the early 2020s, there was no real community around it,” she said.
“We wanted to create a community of mostly women who enjoyed the sport and didn’t have many people in their lives to talk to about it.”
It is now one of the fastest growing sports in the world and its fan base younger and more diverse than ever: 42 percent of fans are now under 35 and 41 percent are women. Moreover, now the share of female fans is three out of every four new fans.
“We've gone from a boring old rich white guy sport to one of the most eclectic fan bases of any sport,” said James Hinchcliffe, Canadian racing driver and F1TV analyst.
The six-time IndyCar winner is surprised not only by how much the Formula One audience has changed, but also by how quickly it has happened, given the sport's 75-year history.
“I'm not even sure how much of it was done with a conscious question of, 'Hey, how do we make this more appealing to a female audience?' … I think people are just saying, “Hey, this is an exciting and exciting and different thing that I haven’t even thought about before.”
This new fan base has revolutionized the sport, making the once secretive, male-dominated world of Formula One more accessible and open than ever.
“For a long time in Formula 1 there was no interaction with the outside world – it was very closed. This could only be seen on TV.“said Bernie Collins,Sky Sports F1 Analyst and former Head of Race Strategy for the Aston Martin F1 Team.
“Now, I think they've done their best by interacting with social media, with short clips, trying to create short content that people can easily consume.”
Today's drivers exposed their abs on the cover of British Vogue And talk openly about mental health. Reigning World Drivers' Champion Max Verstappen when not on the race track runs a popular Twitch channel with 477,000 subscribers. Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton established himself as a celebrity and fashion iconhaving struck deals with brands Lululemon and Dior.
“The fact that Formula 1 and [parent company] Liberty Media was able to do that and how they were able to really embrace the online side of things and the culture of content creators,” Hinchcliffe said.
This also means that Formula 1 has become big business. Now the average team worth over 5 billion Canadian dollars. Even Alpine, the top-performing team in 2025, is worth more than $3 billion. almost twice as much as in 2023.
“The data shows that women have more purchasing power,” Walen said. “Not only do they come in with energy and enthusiasm, but they also buy merchandise.”
And sports took notice. Teams have partnered with beauty brands such as Charlotte Tilbury and Elemis, sponsorships traditionally dominated by big tech and betting companies.
“This helps change where the money comes into Formula 1,” Valen said. “It helps change the perception that sports only belong to certain types of people or brands.”
This new audience wants more than just fresh sponsorships and fan events; they also want to see themselves reflected in sports.
Gone are the days when so-called “grid girls” walked around the racetrack (a custom that ended in 2018). Women are making their mark on the sport by taking up more senior technical positions in Formula One teams – positions that have traditionally been held by men.
“There are so many women in the crowd – and then you see them on the pit wall and in the garages,” Wille said. “You hear them on the radio, women like Bernie Collins and [engineer and F1TV presenter] Ruth Bascombe, who came from these very prestigious positions in Formula One.”
Laura Müller became a Formula 1 driver first female racing engineer when she was appointed by Haas in early 2025. Recently, Red Bull Chief Strategy Engineer Hannah Schmitz stood on the podium next to driver Max Verstappen when he scored an unlikely victory thanks to her call from the pitwall.
And in 2022, Formula 1 launched the F1 Academy, a women's racing series at the level of Formula 4, led by former professional racer Susie Wolf. All 10 Formula 1 teams now each sponsors one F1 Academy driver. (Another documentary series created by Reese Witherspoon's production company about these drivers. launched on Netflix earlier this year.)
Women now make up 38 percent of the workforce in sportsup from 28 percent in 2017. However, they still make up a higher percentage of the lowest-paid jobs (53 percent) than the highest-paid jobs (31 percent).
However, Valen believes changing fan demographics are helping to shift the needle on representation.
“I think the fans… especially new fans and especially female fans – making their voices heard,” she said. “I think they're holding the sport accountable in a way that it hasn't been held accountable in the past.”
