In 2018, Method One‘s social media footprint sat at a wholesome 18.7 million followers. A big portion of immediately’s grid had been simply making a reputation for themselves within the quickest motorsport competitors on this planet — others had been nonetheless, properly, kids — and solely round 13 p.c of that international fanbase was beneath the age of 35.
In 2025, F1’s social following sits at properly over 100 million, and the variety of F1 followers beneath the age of 35 has tripled. Wish to take a guess which genre-defining Netflix docuseries hit our screens round seven years in the past?
Drive to Survive put F1 — as soon as thought-about an unique sport, geared in the direction of males and costly to observe — on our doorstep. The present, following every of the ten groups across the globe by the cleaning soap opera politics, high-speed thrills and Actual Housewives-esque fallouts that formed the game, is now deemed one of the profitable docs of all time; an Emmy-winning piece of tv with a cumulative 700 million viewers.
What the groups have achieved since is a few of the shrewdest enterprise ever brokered in sports activities historical past. “F1 is a cultural phenomenon. It transcends sport,” begins Rob Bloom, chief advertising officer at Aston Martin Aramco Method One crew. “It’s leisure on a world degree and I believe it’s achieved that higher than every other sport within the final decade, largely pushed by [U.S. media conglomerate] Liberty Media and their method, which could be very fan-first. However I additionally suppose that groups are additional driving that agenda.”
Aston Martin is owned by billionaire businessman Lawrence Stroll, who pioneered the crew’s 2021 rebrand after some years often called Racing Level. It’s now the fastest-growing crew on the grid. Per Nielsen, Aston Martin — fronted by two-time drivers’ champion Fernando Alonso and youthful expertise Lance Stroll — now has a complete fan tally of 454 million, up 68 p.c from 5 years in the past. “There was the Drive to Survive period,” continues Bloom. “[But] we actually need to be the crew that claims: Have a look at what Aston Martin’s achieved to take that chance and run with it.”
And run with it they’ve. Aston Martin’s followers are actually youthful than the F1 common, based on the crew’s knowledge: over half (54 p.c, to be actual) are beneath the age of 35, in comparison with a median of 44 p.c for the remainder of the grid. As if the numbers couldn’t get any extra spectacular, almost a 3rd of Aston Martin’s followers are girls; a demographic accelerating sooner than the vehicles and one which the crew are unpatronizingly and actively pursuing.
So what’s the technique? Put merely, Aston Martin’s advertising department are doing cultural collabs like no different crew. By pulling the model into music, trend and movie, they’re making good use of the now 1000’s of world manufacturers determined to get in on the frenzied — and profitable — F1 motion (see: Apple and Brad Pitt, who’re round $629 million richer after the discharge of F1: The Film).
Amongst a few of Aston Martin’s more moderen pair-ups are occasions with Nigerian singer-songwriter Tems, a merchandise pop-up in London with The Rolling Stones and a Miami home occasion, headlined by Aussie DJ Dom Dolla, for 700 followers in Wynwood. One of many extra buzzier collabs, a team-up with Pixar’s Toy Story introduced final week, has limited-edition Aston Martin helmets, hoodies, and mini Buzz Lightyears up for grabs to “get outdoors of that sporting story.” Continues Bloom: “It’s about us driving that agenda of how we are able to embrace newer, youthful followers and provides them alternatives to have interaction within the sport and Aston Martin in sudden methods.”
This type of cultural literacy outdoors of the game has allowed Aston Martin to seduce followers who would possibly in any other case have deemed F1 an out-of-reach expertise. And what’s actually received the ball rolling is the celebration of their feminine fanbase by first-of-its-kind collabs in magnificence and social media.
Rob Bloom (L) and Jessica Hawkins for Aston Martin.
Aston Martin Aramco F1 Workforce
Earlier this yr, Aston Martin made British model ELEMIS its first official skincare accomplice, kicking off a multi-year partnership that blends the science of skincare with the high-performance world of F1. “These are international client manufacturers who’re recognizing that the game has this broader attraction to a more moderen, youthful, more and more feminine viewers,” beams Bloom. “But when they’re going to accomplice with the crew, they’re selecting Aston Martin, as a result of we’re exhibiting up in way more fascinating methods.”
“Us saying ELIMIS… That was a breakthrough second,” says Jessica Hawkins, Aston Martin’s head of F1 Academy and driver ambassador, and the face of the ELIMIS deal. “It was a very nice contact to see my two worlds colliding — my world as a girl that’s fascinated with skincare together with my ardour and my sport. The 2 have, usually, by no means been aligned, however I believe that simply reveals how far the game has come.”
Hawkins was the primary girl to drive a contemporary F1 automobile in virtually half a decade. After an early foray into single-seater racing, she switched to stunt driving earlier than becoming a member of W Collection, the all-female motor racing championship that had its final season in 2022. Hawkins is in her sixth yr with Aston Martin and, amongst different duties, mentors the crew’s F1 Academy driver, the 19-year-old star of Netflix’s F1: The Academy sequence Tina Hausmann.
“If I believe again to how I began, [it’s] as a result of I noticed [people karting] within the distance someday, and I begged my dad to let me have a go,” says Hawkins about paving a path in motorsport as a girl. “If I hadn’t seen that kart circuit within the distance and requested my dad to let me have a go, would he have taken me karting? The reply might be no — not as a result of he’s a foul dad, however as a result of possibly I used to be feminine and he presumed that I wouldn’t be fascinated with motorsport. It was seen as such a male-dominated spot. Which it nonetheless is, to a point. However,” she continues, “we’re lots additional ahead than what we had been a couple of years in the past. I believe that ladies are beginning to see Method One and understand that it’s a sport for them as properly.”
At an Aston Martin pop-up in July final yr in honor of the British Grand Prix, lots of of followers had been requested to come back seize an “Aston Matcha” — the web’s new favourite drink, a shiny inexperienced powder comprised of tea leaves — and a present bag whereas inspecting an actual F1 automobile in the midst of Covent Backyard, considered one of London’s busiest vacationer hotspots. Round 70 p.c of attendees had been girls.
Every week later, Aston Martin dropped AMR25 Actual Match: a world-first collaboration with nail polish model Glaize for followers to select up a nail gel matching the vivid racing inexperienced of the crew’s beloved automobile. The inspiration? The 30-odd billion views on a TikTok hashtag referred to as #nailtok.
“What’s actually essential to me is that the entire crew is dialed into what’s taking place in tradition proper now,” says Bloom about constructing a crew that’s tapped into tendencies, viral crazes and the ever-noisy social media dialog. “It doesn’t imply that I personally need to be throughout every little thing, however I really need the crew to be coming ahead saying, ‘Look, I’m seeing this. I’m listening to this. This has simply occurred on this planet round us — right here’s a possibility.’”
“We’re getting good suggestions from our followers,” he continues, lauding the crew’s partnerships with TikTok and the app’s prime creators (the 44-year-old Alonso, by the way in which, was topped Spain’s finest public determine on TikTok at an awards ceremony in 2023). “The response to the Toy Story drop was superb on social media, and it’s all contributing in the direction of us being the fastest-growing fan base in Method One.” Granted, the on-track success “hasn’t kicked in,” says Bloom, however vital new rules coming into play 2026 have the complete crew decidedly assured.
For Hawkins, a driver nonetheless in contact with the younger lady that begged her father to let her go karting, Aston Martin is strictly the place she needs to be. “We’re leaving a constructive change [wherever] we go,” she tells THR. “We’re all the time on the forefront, and so they’re placing the belief in girls to do it.”
