Female Fans in Formula 1 : A Qualitative Study of Spanish Female Fans’ Behaviours, Attitudes, and Motivations towards F1 and its Consumption through Twitter

Sports fandoms, historically, have been categorized as a male domain, even in academic studies. Therefore, as Formula 1 has been a sport with a remarkable increase in digital engagement and women are one of their main target audiences, I study Spanish F1 female fans’ behaviours, attitudes, and motivations towards F1 and Twitter as part of their fan experience. Through nethnographic methods, where semi-structured interviews and participant observations have been central, I try to gain knowledge about individual experiences as well as the functionality of the F1 Twitter community. It is illustrated that F1 female fans cannot be considered a homogeneous group by applying a postmodern feminist approach where identities are considered to be fluid, fractured, and in constant flux, distancing from previous feminist ideals that promoted binary and determinate gender concepts. Raney’s affective, cognitive and social/behavioural sets of motivations are employed in order to contemplate F1 female fans' motivation for consuming F1 and choosing Twitter as the social network to follow the sport. Moreover, Jenkin’s participatory culture is taken into account to analyse the F1 Twitter community. Patterns regarding becoming a fan due to Alonso's success and family ties, common interests in information and shared F1 popular knowledge are encountered. However, diverse usage of Twitter and different levels of sense of belonging to TwF1 are also displayed. Hence, I conclude that more research is needed to gain a better understanding of them because despite displaying different facets, F1 female fans are ‘authentic’ fans who should be taken into consideration by sports, media and fan studies in addition to sports organizations and fellow fans.