Join us F1 girlies on the pit wall (you’ll know what that means soon!) and get prepared for your newest sport-meets-drama-meets-pop-culture obsession – Formula 1. Here’s how to get into F1 like a pro!
If, over the last few years, you’ve thought to yourself ‘why the hell is everyone into F1 all of a sudden!?’ my gal, you are far from alone.
As far as F1 goes I’m a new fan that, yes, has come from the Drive to Survive era – and in the space of four years, I’ve gone from completely ignorant to a proper all-in, invested and somewhat fanatical fan who even manifested her way to Melbourne for the Australia Grand Prix last year (I’ll take any spare last-minute tickets anyone has lying around for this year, thank youuuu).
Me at the Australian Grand Prix last year!
My husband has always followed and loved F1, waking up at 3am to watch races on the telly and passionately yell a lot of ‘go go GO’s and ‘yes, yes YES! NO!’s at the screen. Eventually his passion, and the cultural zeitgeist that is DTS, made me a little curious. The rest is speedy, sexy history.
If you’ve been wanting to become an F1 fan, but you had no idea where to start, then consider this your sign to jump on board one of the world’s most passionate fandoms, for the perfect combination of sport, drama, style and storytelling.
Why is F1 so great?
1. It’s a soap opera on wheels
Yes, the cars go 350 km/h – ‘tis VERY fast – but the real fuel of this sport is human drama. F1’s structure is weird – you have 11 teams with two drivers each, who are technically teammates. But as you both have the exact same car, your teammate is actually your biggest competitor because no F1 driver wants to be slower than their buddy. Cue some very interesting, testy and at times, gnarly dynamics.
Then you have the heads of the teams – the team principals who behave like all of the Kardashians at once (sometimes, even Kanye). They’re characters (team Gunther for life) and they’re as pivotal to the sport as the drivers.
Of course F1 is also set amongst the backdrop of huge money and glamour, with contract battles, shifting loyalties, strategic meltdowns, *colourful* radio messages and other subplots that you’d expect from The Bold and the Beautiful.
2. It fits the way a busy woman’s brain works
I think the reason women really do love F1 is that it fits how our brains function, and we can recognise everything else under the surface of fast cars driving around the track. We’re so good at balancing all of the other variables that make a car just that little bit better than its rival – it’s decisions like how many pit stops and when, the balance between grip and speed with tyre choices, whether or not teammates help each other.
All of this combines to absolute edge-of-your-seat stuff (and a lot of you sitting on the couch yelling at your team because clearly, you know better than the team of highly-paid strategists).
Then there is all of the dynamics from above that, more often than not, play out on the track – and that’s BEFORE anyone has sped off from the starting grid.
3. You can make it as simple or as complex as you like
F1 is a kind of like a Goosebumps book – the ‘choose your own adventure’ ones. If you want to enjoy it on the surface, you absolutely can. Pick a driver you like the look (let’s be honest about it, it’s fine) or personality of, understand who is fighting who, and enjoy the racing.
If you want to go deeper there is a whole universe. Aerodynamic philosophy. Engine performance. The aforementioned tyre strategy. Weather patterns. Safety car timing (this one can REALLY f-up a race and a lot of the time, it’s luck). Why one car is dominant for three seasons straight, while another struggles to get into the points? There’s fans who follow it like high-pressure chess, and fans who follow it like a glossy TV show and you really can pick your own path.
4. It’s sexy!
There’s no way around it – the sport is visually stunning. The drivers are stylish, with athletes such as Lewis Hamilton turning the paddock into a fashion runway every week, and other drivers just simply gorgeous. A lot of the time, the street circuits are beautiful, especially pinnacle race Monaco where you cannot BELIEVE how those cars fit around tiny tiny corners.
Imma just leave this very lovely picture of Carlos Sainz here…
And, of course, the cars – they’re works of art as much as they are of engineering, true glamour wrapped in carbon fibre. New and special liveries are highly anticipated and the accompanying team merch is coveted globally. I have a whole list of F1 jumpers I’m desperate to buy!
5. There’s a Kiwi!
We have a genuine homegrown reason to care about F1 – Liam Lawson is one of the grid’s most exciting young drivers who has already been through the wringer during his time at the top of the sport. He’s already impressed the paddock with calm, precision and maturity far beyond his age – but he was also sensationally dropped into Red Bull’s junior team, Racing Bulls (yup, Red Bull have two teams) after only two races last year – a decision that was quite frankly utter BS. But he’s soldiered on with solid results, and he’s proven to be a divisive character in the F1 world, and very fun to support!
Yay Liam!
6. Women are leading its growth
This is the BIGGEST shift in the sport in decades. The idea that F1 is “for men” has been totally demolished by the stats – recent global surveys show that around 40 to 42 per cent of the F1 audience is now female, up dramatically from the previous decade, and women make up roughly three quarters of all new fans. Gen Z and millennial women in particular have become the sport’s growth engine (sorry, pun intended).
This growth is tied to storytelling and access. The sport’s audience increased to around 750 million global fans in 2024m with a large part of that rise coming from women engaging with the sport through social media, podcasts, documentaries and digital coverage – and Drive to Survive, of course. F1 responded by expanding its content offerings and launching initiatives like the F1 Academy to support female drivers.
7. It really *gets* content – and community
F1 is the most chronically online sport on earth and it’s so fun to follow and be part of. Teams run polished, witty social channels that differ dramatically in tone and content. Drivers produce behind-the-scenes clips like mini travel documentaries, engineers explain technology in digestible videos and teams jump on social trends. There’s meme accounts, analysis accounts, fashion accounts and “I am just here for the driver goss” accounts. It makes your doomscrolling FUN and INFORMATIVE which gives it a little depth, surely?
The amount of online content means you can follow F1 without sitting down for every full race. It fits into your feed naturally, and the internet picks up the wildest moments immediately. It’s the rare sport that understands that modern fandom lives on social platforms as much as on the track, and it’s created a massive online community where you feel like you really belong, and your opinion matters.
Handily for us, the team that is wildly lauded to produce the best content is Visa Cash App Racing Bulls (that is GENUINELY their name, I’m sorry to say) and Liam’s faux grumpiness with admin constantly pestering him to film TikTok dances and ask questions is the most Kiwi thing ever.
Ok you’ve sold me – how to get into F1?
1. Watch Drive to Survive
Super obvious, but super true – it’s genuinely the best onboarding tool and marketing project in sports history. Drive to Survive is a behind-the-scenes documentary (drama) that introduces drivers, teams and rivalries in a way that explains all of the drama, without requiring any prior knowledge. It turned millions of women especially into F1 fans because it humanised the paddock, and gave context to the politics, the pressure and the personalities – and because it’s genuinely structured like a reality show, so it felt familiar and new at the same time.
Start with Season 1 if you want the full arc, but you can drop in anywhere.
2. Pick a team
This makes race day 100 percent more fun. Choosing a team doesn’t lock you in for life – but start somewhere! (But maybe wait a beat until you buy merch!)
Here’s high level vibe check:
If you want steady excellence that prioritises winning over anything else, look at Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team or Red Bull Racing.
If you want emotional chaos, sex appeal, iconic branding and apparently eternal disappointment, it’s Ferrari.
If you want to support an underdog with heaps of history behind it and two very nice (and yes, gorgeous drivers) go for Williams Racing.
If you want to support Liam and absolutely froth memes, Racing Bulls are your jam.
Or, if you want to support New Zealand’s original F1 team, be patriotic and go for McLaren, founded by legendary Kiwi driver Bruce McLaren (I support both McLaren and Racing Bulls, with a side of Williams).
Just maybe don’t pick Aston Martin. You’ll know why when you watch Drive to Survive.
3. Learn the basics
The fundamentals are simple, and once you understand these, the season makes complete sense.
Race weekends follow a pattern. There are two or three practice sessions where teams test the car and gather data. Then qualifying, which is a timed session deciding the starting order for the race. Then the race itself, which awards points to the top ten finishers.
Tyres are a huge part of the sport. Teams choose between soft, medium and hard tyre compounds. Softer tyres are faster but wear out quickly. Hard tyres last longer but are slower. The choice can completely change the outcome of a race, and wet weather tyres are HUGE gamechangers (well, as is the weather). Wet races mean that literally anything can happen, with surprise podiums and unexpected winners.
Pit stops are where teams change tyres or make quick adjustments. The fastest pit stops take around two seconds, while a slow stop can drop a driver several places. The world record for a pit stop is held by McLaren, at 1.8 seconds – to change FOUR tyres.
Once you grasp these pieces, you can understand why a team pits earlier than expected, why one driver is suddenly faster near the end, or why someone who qualified 12th finished 4th.
4. Follow these creators for information AND fun
The sport is full of excellent online storytellers who make it easy to stay informed and/or entertained:
@WTF1: Light-hearted news, memes and daily F1 chatter.
@f1troll: Memes! Content! Fun!
@f1gossipofficial: Shockingly, a gossip-forward account that follows the humans around F1
@f1bestmomentsdaily: Really good clips and explainers of F1’s elements
@f1planet: Great for news and accompanying information
@itscarolinescorner: An awesome creator who makes parody videos about driver personalities
@f1: of course!
And if you want a local community of F1 fans, head to Kiwi influencer @kasiastanicich and join Paddock Club, where the chat is all things F1!
About the Author:
Kelly Meharg (Bertrand) is the co-founder and head of commercial at Capsule. She’s responsible for managing Capsule’s integrated and sponsored content, and works with our partners to bring to life stories that resonate with and have real value to our readers. She also loves writing about the zeitgeist, as well as penning slightly sarcastic and irreverent pieces on whatever’s vibing in news, entertainment, lifestyle and travel.
Kelly has been a journalist for 15 years, starting her career in the automotive industry before moving into women’s media. She spent almost 10 years at New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, finishing as deputy editor, as well as stints editing Food, Taste and custom content titles. She also loves (pretty much) all sport and is passionate about all things netball, league and F1. She lives in Auckland with her husband.