Motorsports Fueling Women’s Passion for Off-Track Car Experiences

Today’s car companies have many irons in the fire. Not only are they tasked with engineering, manufacturing and selling the cars of today and tomorrow, but they also have their hands in clothing and accessories collaborations, movies and motorsports.

Motorsports have been a foundational interest in the auto industry since its advent. In recent years, the audience for car racing has hit new highs, thanks in large part to the widespread use of social media amongst drivers and teams, and the success of Netflix’s Drive to Survive docuseries about Formula 1 (F1) racing.

Jerry Bruckheimer’s new film, F1, is looking to ride that high to box office success. The movie stars Hollywood’s Brad Pitt, Damson Idris and Kerry Condon as well as F1 drivers Max Verstappen, George Russell, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Lewis Hamilton, who co-produced the film with Pitt, Bruckheimer and others.

Mercedes-Benz plays a prominent part in the film, just as it does on F1 circuits across the globe. Its performance arm, Mercedes-AMG, is an official promotional partner of Apple Original Films and Warner Bros. Pictures. The company’s SL, G-Class and GT are featured on screen, as are the Mercedes‑AMG Official FIA F1 Safety Car and Medical Car. Mercedes-AMG also worked with the production team to create the race cars used in the movie.

A new model, the 2026 Mercedes-AMG GT 63 APXGP Edition, was created to align with the movie. Its name and styling celebrate the film’s fictional APXGP Formula 1 team.

Mercedes-Benz USA Chief Marketing Officer Melody Lee, who will be appearing on stage as part of Newsweek’s Women’s Global Impact event on August 5 in New York City, told Newsweek, “I think it’s going to be a great classic American, July 4th blockbuster.”

Lee sees the impact of the movie going further than just the box office. “I think that one movie is going to be great for the sport, for all fans of the sport, and I think it’s going to bring new fans to the sport,” she said.

A study released late last year by Nielsen Sports revealed that F1 is the most popular annual sporting series with an audience of 750 million viewers. Over the last three years, interest in F1 has grown 5.7 percent globally, with approximately 50 million new fans following the sport since 2021.

Women are at the core of that movement. Women comprise 41 percent of the F1 fan base, the study revealed. Further, 16–24-year-old females are the fastest-growing fan segment.

Appealing to audiences young and old (and in between) is one of the reasons why Mercedes got involved in the film.

“If you’ve been around for 140 years, like Mercedes-Benz has when it celebrates that anniversary next year, there’s an understanding that the brand has to appeal to multiple generations. It cannot only sell to the ones that can afford the car. It also has to sell itself as a dream and as an aspiration to the younger generations,” Lee said.

“That’s why I always talk about my 11-year-old, who has posters of cars that he has no money to afford. But, that kid is already dreaming about Mercedes-Benz. He’s already dreaming about McLaren. He’s already dreaming about other car brands. It’s really incumbent upon us as an aspirational brand to ensure that we’re thinking as much about the next generation as we are about the ones that are here now. So that’s the only way we preserve the legacy of 140 years,” she continued.

Mercedes-Benz is leveraging its motorsports presence in new ways this year. The company activated at the Miami Grand Prix, creating a hub that showcased the strength of the brand while giving enthusiasts a trackside seat for a weekend full of action, including the F1 Academy race.

F1 Academy is a series where budding female race car drivers compete against each other on the same circuits where F1 competes. Its efforts are led by famed former racer Susie Wolff and supported by other global racing superstars, including Jamie Chadwick. Mercedes fields a team in that series, led by 21-year-old driver Doriane Pin, who finished with the Vice Champion title last season and currently sits atop the series’ standings.

This year, F1 Academy is getting the Netflix treatment that F1 has. It is the subject of its own docuseries, F1: The Academy, produced by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine media company.

Women’s interest in cars off the racetrack is growing too. As part of her job, Lee has participated in Mercedes-AMG driving experiences throughout the U.S. “I went to the one in Sonoma [California] last fall, right before Pebble Beach, and then I went to the AMG’s On Ice that we did in Crested Butte, Colorado this past February. And one of the most interesting things that I saw is that there are women who are signing themselves up for these programs.

“No longer, is it a partner or a spouse or a daughter that’s tagging along with a guy for the program. There were women there who had brought themselves there on their own, and even drove by themselves… These women are coming out because of this rising interest in performance and technology and motorsports and all of it coming together. We will continue to use AMG Experiences as a platform for women,” she said.