The modern, post-Drive To Survive Formula One fanbase is like the ultimate monkey’s paw situation for oldhead F1 fans who dreamed that one day F1 would be “cool” and appeal to attractive young people. It happened! F1 is in vogue. But having something you love become suddenly cool usually comes with the uncomfortable realization that this doesn’t make you cool. I say this because I went to a McLaren F1 launch party at the Abercrombie & Fitch flagship store in New York and it was full of scenesters and D-list influencers, many of whom didn’t seem to know or care much about the sport. Is this a sign of an F1 that’s still ascendent or a sign that F1 is set up for a fall?
We’ve already written about how the success of Formula One has made it difficult for pre-existing fans to access the sport and I don’t want to belabor the point. This is the price of popularity, and we now have three races in the United States when we used to have exactly zero. As a long-time casual fan of F1 this seems like a great outcome and a net good thing.
I was also not shocked that a McLaren F1 party at an A&F in 2024 was a loud, Fierce-scented spectacle of quasi-hip, wannabe model/actor types shoving down free drinks and race-themed appetizers. I may be old enough to remember when A&F had half-nude dudes outside its stores, but I’m not completely out of touch. I went with friend/contributor Parker Kligerman and Kristen Lee and we all agreed that we were there somewhat ironically. In that sense, we had a great time. Whether you were there for the party, or to quietly mock the party, it delivered.
What was the actual point of the event? Here’s what the RSVP said:
The A&F “Paddock” will feature cocktails, passed bites, music by Austin Millz, and the world’s first public viewing of McLaren‘s all new 2024 F1 livery! Please note that we will be offering gifting post-event instead of an onsite gifting.
Was this the world’s first viewing of the already-revealed livery? Maybe. I can’t seem to find any other live shots of the car and this was definitely in person and obviously the new livery. It looked great on the show car. I love the “Chrome” wheels (get it? Google Chrome!) and McLaren orange-and-black always works. The main sponsor, besides Google, is a Crypto exchange, which seems a little passé in 2024. Also on the car is a baffling mix of brewers, boring SaaS companies, and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
A genuine McLaren employee from Great Britain saw Parker and me checking out the car, perhaps because we were the only ones not using it as a prop, and talked to us a little bit about the season, the sponsors, and the races she enjoyed. She also clarified that the point of the party was to listen to music (the DJ did great and played Jamiroquai’s “White Knuckle Ride” I think), drink cocktails (I had the “APEX” which was vodka and orange juice with Campari), have a passed bite (they were race-themed, it was cute, the Italian braised short rib on polenta was the winner) and maybe buy a t-shirt.
Oh, yeah. Abercrombie isn’t on the cars, but the company does have a tie-up with McLaren and is making shirts and other gear. The shirts look fine and there’s even an MP4/4 sweater (get excited Adrian). A&F has seen its stock rise more than 250% as it targets “young Millennial and Gen-Z shoppers heading back to work, school and social lives after the pandemic.” I’m a geriatric millennial so my view is less important.
How do I know this crowd wasn’t full of die-hard F1 fans? Parker noticed a super handsome guy who turned out to be Swedish and, yes, was a model/actor and we chatted him up for a bit. Did he have a favorite race?
“Uh, Dubai. They have one in Dubai right? I love F1!” he enthusiastically answered.
F1 doesn’t have a race in Dubai but it has one in Abu Dhabi, which is what I’m sure he meant. Also, last year that was just another race where Max Verstappen beat a Ferrari by like 20 seconds, but I don’t want to be a pedant.
Parker wrote about the party in his motorsports newsletter:
As a 9-year-old, I would have cut a toe off to be this close to an F1 showcar and know F1 cared back. But they don’t… on this night, they wanted Betty-Influencer and Joey-YouTuber to take some pics & by chance the merchandise will end up in the shot. All perfectly placed and planned for this eventuality.
It definitely felt like that. Everyone was trying extra hard to look cool and there was very little talk of F1, if you could even talk over the DJ. But there wasn’t zero talk of F1.
We ran into Sarah Hannigan and Tiggy Valen of F1R THE GIRLS, which is a podcast about F1 from a “fresh, female perspective.” They were quick to admit that a pandemic binge of Drive To Survive got them into the sport. But, like, who cares? I’m certain they watched more F1 than I did last year and they clearly love the sport. Parker frequently mentioned that it would be hard to imagine a NASCAR event so easily pulling such a young, diverse, female-skewing crowd to one of its parties.
Parker’s piece ends with this important point:
F1 in America may be playing dangerously close to the sun. I hope we can avoid it taking all the other motorsports with it.
There’s that old Yogi Berra line about a restaurant being so popular that “no one goes there anymore” and that’s certainly a risk for F1. What if tennis becomes the next cool thing? What then?
While F1 may stay young and cool forever in America, that’s not usually how it happens with trends. No one wears Livestrong bracelets anymore. People don’t regularly go disco dancing. When was the last time you saw a Koosh ball? Just look at modern baseball, which can only sustain a few celebrity players and is losing fans overall. It used to be America’s pastime and now the sport is trying to figure out how to make games shorter.
F1 may not always have the cultural currency it has right now (especially if F1 continues to be a bunch of dickholes) and Drive To Survive isn’t guaranteed to last forever. The loss of it means risking all that’s been built up in the last few years.
I’m sort of hopeful that this might not happen. Pretty much everyone who went to the Rolex 24 noticed that the crowds were actual crowds and, in fact, it was a record year for the race. While Sarah and Tiggy are die-hard F1 fans, we had a good chat about the first Indy Car race they attended (Laguna Seca) and they were planning to see a NASCAR race in the future.
In some ways, this is the dream. Back in the late ’90s I’d have been pretty excited to discover that A&F was selling a shirt with Giancarlo Fisichella on it.
It’s very easy, especially as an aging nerd, to scoff at the many people at this event who probably had no idea how F1 actually works and probably believed the F1 car there was a real F1 car. It’s far less work to turn my nose down at the folks who came to the sport through DTS than it is to try to extend a hand and bring them into the great world of motorsports.
But we have to do it. If this moment fails then Parker is right, it might just doom motorsports for the rest of us, and I love motorsports. Plus, I have no more right to claim F1 or IMSA or any other racing series because I got there first. There will always be old fans and new fans and it’s the responsibility of older fans to bring the new fans in and not turn them away.
This has got to be one of the most bizarro articles I’ve ever read at the autopian. And yet, somehow it wasn’t fictional, nor was it written by Torch. Umm… congrats, I guess!
I’m only 22, and I’ve already started falling out of F1. I was a pretty dedicated McLaren fan through my teen years, but between my personal interests changing and the prevalence of more cringey crap like this, it just doesn’t really hold my attention anymore.
The most surprising thing here to me is that Abercrombie and Fitch is still… a thing? I was in middle/high school at what I imagine was the peak of that brand’s influence, and I just assumed that by now it would have if not died, become somewhat irrelevant. Or is this because of the 20 year rule and we’ve just circled back?
Maybe I’m just unaware of their existence because A+F was king of the malls, and with all the malls basically being dead, I haven’t seen (or smelled) a store in at least a decade.
Edit: Some quick research shows me that A&F only has a single remaining store in Upstate NY, and that’s 4 hours away in Rochester. They were in nearly every single mall when I was a kid, so I guess that explains why I thought the brand was dead.
Abercrombie and Fitch is over 125 years old. It started off as a high-end outfitting company (think Teddy Roosevelt, Ernest Hemmingway type shit). You could get everything you needed from them for your safari you were going to take, or could make a big dent in filling in your “cabin” that you just built in Idaho; guns included. Heck, the gun that Hemmingway commited suicide with actually came from A+F. It wasn’t until a couple of bankruptcies and brand sales later that it became a primarily teen-focused fashion brand in malls in the ’90s.
I did know some of the brand history, I just wasn’t aware that they somehow survived their latest dive into obscurity.
It is one of the more entertaining brand evolutions when you think about it.
Company histories are weird. Patagonia and North Face exist because dirtbag climbers started making & selling gear, initially just climbing gear. Nokia was a rubber company. Target was the discount offshoot store of a department store that no longer exists.
Here are my predictions:
Apple slowly evolves into being an actual fruit company.
REI becomes the 2090’s version of Abercrombie.
Whole Foods becomes Hole Foods selling only bagels and donuts.
Ford has basically stopped producing cars, in the next decades it will stop producting trucks and SUVs too, pivoting to its etymological roots and becoming a guild for river crossing guides.
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I don’t care for F1. Never did. But this was an entertaining read. Thank you.
As an introverted engineer, if ever there was an event that perfectly describes my own personal hell, this is it. While I can appreciate car shows, musical events, and perhaps even fashion shows (if I really, really stretch the definition of the word “appreciate”), I cannot understand the appeal of an event that combines the worst aspects of all three. Then again, most people cannot understand why I get excited talking about troubleshooting techniques for electrical systems, so the odds are very high that I’m the strange one…
F1 is meh to me. Which sucks because it wasn’t always that way. But too much money and the quest for fame tends to ruin a lot of good things eventually.
The girl in the top photo is interesting though. (nice tongue.) The Col. appreciates a woman with good oral skills…and something tells me that she might be quite talented.
For some reason I get the feeling that her other job is trying on new bikinis and underwear on her You Tube Channel. Which is just fine. YMMV.
Influencers?
“What the hell does that even mean?” -Frank Costanza
Hipster (Doofuses)? No Thanks!
Ahem…
I have a Koosh ball. Several, in fact. And I only turned 53 yesterday!
Also, that MacLaren MP4/4 sweatshirt SHOWS it comes in black, but when I clicked on the option, it didn’t come up. Sorry Adrian.
Happy Birthday!
Thanks!!
After F1 flipped the bird to Andretti today, they can count on one less fan. They’ve proven that it’s no longer a sport, just entertainment. I’ll watch real racing – at IMSA and IndyCar, where you don’t know for sure who is going to win ahead of time.
Weird stuff going on here. Clicked on Jack’s comment to approve and the counter went from zero to five “likes” with one click. Interesting.
Those are the likes that occurred between you opening the page and clicking like. 4 other people liked it in that time.
Don’t lie. Everyone knows it’s the Russians using Chinese Tik-Tok malware from their servers in Singapore.
I feel like if Ecclestone was still running F1 then Andretti would have got in, because it would be easy for them to know who to bribe. Liberty Media is a big faceless corporation, so it’s harder to work out who to give a bung to.
F1 has been more about money than competition since the 70’s.
You know right out of the gate on the writing here, that guy wasn’t shirtless, he just intentionally didn’t button his shirt up as this signals to the opposite sex that he is a greasy dipshit that should be avoided at most costs.
But I now know you were implying that there were probably others and the AnF shirtless model thing is well known.
Glad Fancy Kristen got to kick it.
How can F1 become less accessible to older fans with 3 races and wannabes VS zero races?
I’m kinda in the very young Gen X/ancient millennial age group, so this kind of shit is most certainly not for me, and that’s ok. I don’t care about being “cool”. However, F1 has been one of my favorite things for at least 25 years, probably more, but doing that math reminds me of how old I am. I bring this up, because as a long-time fan, I am really starting to hate what F1 is becoming. I was never one of those people who wished F1 was more popular. I didn’t care (and still don’t) if there was a race in the US, and I certainly never wanted a fucking F1 reality show. I actually preferred when F1 was practically unknown in the US.
I haven’t been to an F1 race in a while, and I don’t see that changing. I’ll still watch, sure, but I have absolutely no interest in sharing oxygen with this brand of dreadful, vapid human while ALSO paying a small fortune for the privilege.
From my standpoint, IMSA is more accessible, more relevant, more interesting, and a LOT less expensive, plus they race at proper tracks, not a bunch of garbage street circuits. I only wish they had more races on the calendar.
Can’t stand F1 – too many lame faux-luxury sponsors, all the drivers have goofy euro hypebeast haircuts and clothes, general pretentiousness, stupid expensive tickets status chasers. Perfect fit for A&F as a brand partner though demographic-wise.
I still love F1, but everything you said is correct.
Umm… Tennis IS cool.
I followed F1 sporadically and without much depth but will admit Drive to Survive got me into actually following it the last few years. I am curious how much completely new interest there is or if it’s mostly folks like me who already had an oar in but are now following in depth rather than just occasionally checking in. It’s always surprising to me when I talk to people who are into car racing and aren’t car nerds (and I have met a couple of them.) And whatever boom there is in popularity doesn’t really seem sustainable to me without the kind of deeper engagement that comes from geeking over the technical aspects-which is a frustrating deficiency of both Drive to Survive and F1 presentation itself. But maybe I’m wrong?
Also seems ironic (unless this is my elder millenial bias) that A&F is also not an especially popular brand anymore? They’re trying to take two unpopular brands and grow them together?
I get this was purely for exemplary purposes, but while Livestrong bracelets were quite the fad, the guy who inspired them also turned out to be a cheating, doping, lying, petty sociopath who now gives talks to tech and finance bros on how to deal with the feds if you’re ever charged with a crime. Just wanted to make sure that qualifier was out there…
True, but a lot of those accusations could be levelled at F1 too. 😉
I’m always happy to hear about any race series be successful but I have a bad feeling this isn’t going to end well for F1. I can’t help but think this all feels a bit like NASCAR’s big mainstream popularity boom in the late 90s/early 2000s and we all know how that ended up.
Which lead to a 6 million increase in attendance over the 2022 season. Sometimes less is more.
Love going to a game in person, will not watch on TV.
The pitch timer is one of the best things MLB has ever done. Should have been done decades ago. Baseball is still way more fun in person, but it’s a lot less painful to watch on TV now.
As a Pirate fan I protest your statement it is very painful either way. Frankly we built a tax payer funded very expensive fireworks stadium where they play baseball sometimes.
As a Tigers fan, I understand your pain.
Yeah, it’s even worse that our football and hockey team are going in the same direction.
You mean during VS post covid? I say 6 million is miniscule in a sport with so many teams each playing about 1,000 games a week.
2022 saw higher attendance than 2019, 2023 attendance numbers were 6 million over that.
True but from 2004 thru 2017 the attendance was higher than 2022. So more fluke than growth
Not when the average age of attendees is dropping and repeat attendees are increasing (meaning not one off tourist visits to games). With the eventual demise of RSNs which means no more blackouts of games, those numbers will continue to rise.
Maybe I doubt it.
Wait, A&F is cool again? What about Hollister? Is Hollister cool again? Are we going back to 3 popped collars being the coolest guy you know in your teens? Cuz that guy was awesome.
I can’t wait to tell the yutes how cool A&F was back when I was in school. That’ll cool things off.
I was at the mall with someone this past weekend and ended up going into both Hollister and A&F for the first time since the popped collar polo days of my early high school years. I was genuinely impressed, both stores had clothes that I would actually consider wearing that felt decent quality and weren’t terribly expensive. There was none of the flashy, preppy style stuff I remember from the late 2000s, it was pretty much all retro inspired or more subtle stuff.
Mr. Lockleaf, we’ve got a “Jeanco”? “Jinco”? On line 2
It does seem cooler then the Chip Ganassi Racing Indycar x Hollister party at The American Dream Mall, that I went to last week.
But was it as cool as the Sheldon Haudenschild World of Outlaws party at the Circle K?
No Shoes, no shirt, no service, no ESBMW. If I’m here to party, I will not be constrained by a top layer, and I will not be constrained by those authoritarians down at Circle K.
Amen brother. I see the aging demographic every time I go to a race. We all need younger fans coming in to sustain the sport.
This is why I love this place–a complete and total moral allergy to automotive gatekeeping, a general position that is rare in meatspace and virtually non-existent on the internets. More of this big-hearted optimistic attitude would make a lot of stuff a lot better.
“…Also, last year that was just another race where Max Verstappen beat a Ferrari by like 20 seconds”
Not doing much to dispel the impression that F1 is nothing more than a high speed parade where nothing happens and nobody passes anyone. Until this changes, F1 will never actually be cool.
I don’t know, the races were Max starts at the back of the grid are pretty fun.
Do you think we could crowdsource enough funds to pay F1 to put him at the back of every race? Then, as a consolation maybe allow him an extra 20HP or something (if he needs it) and just see what happens.
“There will always be old fans and new fans and it’s the responsibility of older fans to bring the new fans in and not turn them away.”
This is really the big takeaway from this whole motorsports popularity surge. Especially if you’ve been a fan for a few decades, you know how dark it can get. Maybe there are a lot of fans who don’t get it like you do, or don’t dive as deep, but the more we can make those folks feel comfortable, the more strength the sport as a whole has to endure those dark periods and come out the other side successfully. Let’s not muck this up with a bunch of silly gatekeeping. Help others see what’s great about this stuff.
Abercrombie & Fitch? Shotguns and canoes right?
Benetton was one of my favorite teams and they were actual constructors as much as Red Bull is a constructor. Of course, that was back in the arrow when you could have a porn magazine and a rolling paper company sponsoring a team.