ABM_1 - Flipbook - Page 62
FEATURE
WOMEN IN AUTOMOTIVE
Women love motorsport:
Retail must catch up
Natasha Bird, journalist and founder of Tough Crowd
W
What’s changing now is not only who
influences car purchases, but how women
are engaging with cars themselves. While
still mostly anecdotal at this stage, it seems
that there is a marked rise in women enjoying
performance vehicles.
Fashion influencers, like 'Real Housewives
of New York' star Sai De Silva, for example,
are spotlighting Bentley Continental GTs
in between black tie galas and runway
show posts.
Driving culture
As representation grows, women are
not only watching the sport, but
actively participating, identifying with
it, and spending time and money
around it.
Clearly this matters commercially.
According to More Than Equal, 56%
of female motorsport fans are
more likely to buy from brands
that sponsor women in the
sport – a direct link between
women’s engagement and
purchasing behaviour.
The pipeline from ‘fan’
to ‘buyer’ and potentially
then to ‘driver’ is becoming
more visible. Women already
influence 70% to 80% of all
consumer purchasing decisions,
including cars, and automotive
is certainly feeling the knockon effect of their growing
enthusiasm for driving
culture.
Access and representation
Aston Martin’s DB12 featured among Women’s
Worldwide Car of the Year 2024 winners.
Actress Sydney Sweeney has built a personal
brand around restoring a vintage Ford Bronco
and a 1965 Mustang, proving that female
enthusiasm stretches to the toolkit too.
Luxury car ownership is increasingly part of
a broader female lifestyle narrative.
When it comes to everyday cars, it
will come as a surprise to nobody (I
hope) that the brands which actively
produce female-focused marketing
campaigns report higher female buyer
representation. OEMs like Mitsubishi,
Mini, Lexus and Volvo are reporting
as much as 55% women purchasers,
strides ahead of those that haven’t
factored women into their
media plans.
The message is clear:
the assumption that
women lack interest in
cars, particularly fast,
technically sophisticated
ones, has never matched
reality. What was
missing was access and
representation. The question
is no longer whether women
want to drive; it’s whether
the industry will create the
environments, experiences and
products to meet them where
they want to be.
omen’s interest in motorsport,
particularly in Formula 1, has
skyrocketed.
But has this surge in
female engagement with
competitive driving begun to
reshape the profile of today’s
car buyer? For those in the
automotive industry, it’s certainly a question
worth asking.
In case there was any doubt, a recent
Global F1 Fan Survey shows women now
represent upwards of 40% of Formula 1’s
audience, a stat which has nearly doubled
within four years. Visibility has been a brilliant
catalyst: women are now in strategy and
engineering roles, in broadcast teams and,
crucially, driving in F1 Academy, F1’s womenonly incubator series, which gives young
female racers meaningful pathways inside
the motorsport ecosystem.
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AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS Q4 2025
