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<\/p>\nFormula One\u2019s fanbase is rapidly changing, becoming younger and more diverse, and so is how they\u2019re connecting with the sport.<\/p>\n
According to the sport, 43 percent of its 820 million-plus fans worldwide are under the age of 35, and 42 percent identify as female, which is an increase from 37 percent in 2018. And the new four-part, weekly YouTube series \u201cPassenger Princess,\u201d hosted by Amelia Dimoldenberg and produced by her own creative studio Dimz Inc., is just the latest shift in F1\u2019s media strategy to meet the evolving fanbase, building off the success of Netflix\u2019s \u201cDrive to Survive\u201d and the F1 movie.<\/p>\n
The series, debuting on Wednesday on Dimoldenberg\u2019s YouTube channel, serves as an entry point to the sport, one that requires no prior knowledge of F1\u2019s technical jargon or the key power players. Through four episodes, some of the fastest drivers in the world give up control of a road car and teach Dimoldenberg how to drive. The drivers show flashes of their personalities, and the hope, as with \u201cDrive to Survive\u201d and the F1 movie, is that the viewers will be intrigued enough about the product to learn more, possibly watching races, highlights or engaging with digital content.<\/p>\n
In an effort to bring more fans to the sport, F1 has handed creative control to an independent creator.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmelia has one of the most distinctive and entertaining voices in culture today and we love the quality, originality, and global content she produces, so we\u2019re thrilled to be putting her in the driving seat on a Formula One track and offering some help from a few good drivers we know,\u201d Ian Holmes, F1\u2019s chief media rights and broadcasting officer, said in the news release. \u201cThis original series is another way for F1 to entice a new audience into the exciting world of racing.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to a recent fan survey conducted by F1 and Motorsport Network, which received more than 100,000 responses from self-identified fans, 39 percent of respondents found F1 through friends and family, 24 percent through television coverage, 12 percent through social media, and the same amount for driver interest. However, 10 percent of respondents discovered the sport through \u201cDrive to Survive.\u201d As pointed out in the survey results, \u201cMany newer and younger fans are discovering Formula One through social media, and streaming video \u2014 entry points that now shape how they connect with the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPassenger Princess\u201d could become another one of those introductions to F1, as a short-form YouTube series. It\u2019s about exposing different aspects of the sport to new audiences.<\/p>\n
The idea for the new YouTube series originated with Dimoldenberg, the host, producer, and creator of the global sensation \u201cChicken Shop Date.\u201d In March 2024, Lando Norris was the first (and only, to date) F1 driver to appear on the series, where Dimoldenberg interviews celebrities in a format that\u2019s framed as a date at a local chicken restaurant. The moment only came to be after Dimoldenberg\u2019s fans \u201cwere just begging, pleading, to have a Formula One driver on the show,\u201d she told The Athletic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t watch Formula One, so I was hesitant. And then I sort of gave in and got Lando on because I sort of thought he had a very cute personality,\u201d Dimoldenberg said. \u201c(I) had him on the show, and it did really well, the episode, and I got a bigger audience from it in terms of Formula One audience crossover.\u201d<\/p>\n
The video has accumulated 4,427,966 views as of the evening of Tuesday, October 14. She added, \u201cIt was just a really fun episode, and I really enjoyed making it, and so I thought it\u2019d be fun to try to do another series with Formula One drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n
In came \u201cPassenger Princess.\u201d She pitched the idea to F1, and according to Dimoldenberg, they not only gave the green light but also \u201csort of gave me the reins to create the show that I wanted.\u201d Dimoldenberg, who doesn\u2019t have a driver\u2019s license, thought it could be a fun series to have F1 drivers teach her how to drive.<\/p>\n
The two sides collaborated on the final list of drivers who would be tasked with teaching Dimoldenberg how to drive. She and her team first conducted their own research, identifying drivers with charisma and strong on-track performance, before consulting F1 on the talent booking side for their suggestions. The requests were then sent out to the drivers after the collaborative list was formed, and the waiting game began to see who would be interested in participating. According to Dimoldenberg, \u201cA lot of them were, which was great.\u201d<\/p>\n
The filming took place during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. It was the first F1 weekend she had attended, and she left the experience feeling \u201cvery lucky to have got to drive on that track.\u201d Ollie Bearman, who is featured in one of the episodes, invited her to Haas\u2019 garage to watch qualifying, and \u201cthat\u2019s where I really sort of fell in love with the sport, because watching all of the engineers put the car together, you realize that it is literally like equal parts man as it is machine,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s such a team effort that goes into it, and it\u2019s incredibly focused and strategic and specific.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to Bearman, George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz are all featured in the episodes, each reacting quite differently to the task at hand. One of the recurring lessons \u2014 and the biggest one she said she learned \u2014 was how to turn on the car, given she drove automatic cars in the series. While this is common in the United States, manual is more frequently used in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
And as far as the most helpful instructor, that would go to Russell or Bearman (who has publicly admitted to failing his first driving test). Dimoldenberg said the Haas rookie \u201cwas really helpful because he was patient with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why I knew this series would be so funny, because sports people, they are so competitive, and they take it so seriously, obviously, because as they should, but also it\u2019s all they know, all they\u2019ve ever known since they were children,\u201d Dimoldenberg continued. \u201cSo it\u2019s really funny when they\u2019re put in a situation where there\u2019s someone who doesn\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing or a situation is out of their control. It just creates a really funny dynamic, so I knew it would be really, really fun to have me, who doesn\u2019t know how to drive, leading the sort of experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
And she can confirm: \u201cThey don\u2019t like being in the passenger seat.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Dimoldenberg said she didn\u2019t think she\u2019d be ready for interviews like this a few years ago (via F1)<\/p>\n
Without giving away spoilers, fans of Dimoldenberg will feel a sense of familiarity while watching the series as she used her unique interviewing style to ask a range of questions, including ones about the lessons, F1-related questions, and more casual, fun ones that feel as if you\u2019re chatting with a friend. Mind you: Either she or the F1 drivers were navigating Spa while conducting the interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do feel like I wouldn\u2019t have been able to do this series like five years ago, for example. I feel like, because of how challenging it was, it needed someone who had experience in interviewing people within a short frame of time,\u201d Dimoldenberg said, \u201cand being able to direct a situation, because I had an amazing director, Will, who worked with me on this, but when I was in the car, I was on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n
She had only 15 minutes with each driver, roughly within the standard media availability window for F1 weekends. A driver\u2019s written media sessions on Thursdays are typically scheduled for 10 minutes. So in the span of two hours, they recorded four episodes, each roughly eight minutes long. By contrast, the \u201cDrive to Survive\u201d crews spend all season filming and conducting interviews and have to edit hours upon hours of footage down to 10 episodes that range from 40 to 45 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat, to me, was insane, that I had to get a really good interview and also do all these maneuvers and have a beginning, middle and end of an actual episode in that amount of time,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I feel like it\u2019s a testament to the prep we did beforehand. But then also, like, how I\u2019ve grown in my role and my confidence that I could do something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
To pull this off, it required a few different briefings and plenty of preparation ahead of time, such as storyboarding the episodes and narrowing down the maneuvers. Dimoldenberg not only watched different interviews the drivers have done and read F1\u2019s website, but she also watched \u201cDrive to Survive\u201d and spoke with her friends who are F1 fans to see what questions they thought should be asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe beauty of my interviews is that I don\u2019t actually have to be an expert,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m acting as the viewer in a way. I feel like so many people love my interviews because they feel like it\u2019s what it would be like for them to also go on a date with someone, or what it would be like for them to drive in a car with Formula One. So I feel like I don\u2019t need to be an expert at everything Formula One, but I definitely need to know a lot to then make it seem like it\u2019s just sort of easy and off-the-top-of-my-head-type thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPassenger Princess\u201d created another entry point to Formula One as the storytelling efforts surrounding the sport continue to broaden. In a way, the short-form YouTube series fills a content opportunity while exposing the sport to another new audience, on the heels of the F1 movie. There isn\u2019t a significant amount of content available in this type of format \u2014 a less-than-10-minute YouTube video with commentary \u2014 and if the idea is to showcase the personalities of the sport in an environment where the audience doesn\u2019t need to be an expert, Dimoldenberg can meet that moment. After all, that\u2019s her typical content style.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like a lot of my audience are not familiar with Formula One, and I feel like this is a really great way for them to experience some of the characters within the sport, and then, potentially, also want to follow it themselves,\u201d she told The Athletic. \u201cBut regardless of them being a fan of the sport, this series has been created, like everything that I do, with the intention that you don\u2019t have to know who the people are within it, who I\u2019m interviewing, to enjoy watching.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s simple \u2014 \u201cPassenger Princess\u201d is about Dimoldenberg learning how to drive from some of the fastest people in the world, and you get to see the drivers\u2019 personalities in a way that you typically don\u2019t in this high-pressure, competitive environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just super excited for people to see it, and for people to see and just hopefully to laugh and to be entertained, and for them to maybe get an insight into Formula One, if they didn\u2019t know before, and maybe also get a few tips for their driving skills if they want to pass their test.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula One\u2019s fanbase is rapidly changing, becoming younger and more diverse, and so is how they\u2019re connecting with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,569,578,576,577,12716,82,575],"class_list":["post-214676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-culture","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-motorsports","tag-sports","tag-sports-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}