https://noellefaulkner.com noelle faulkner Thu, 25 Dec 2025 10:05:33 +0000 https://noellefaulkner.com en https://noellefaulkner.com/Mobile-header Tue, 04 Oct 2022 02:09:58 +0000 noelle faulkner https://noellefaulkner.com/Mobile-header NOELLE FAULKNERis a writer, strategist and creative generalist working in culture, automotive, futures + trends and consumer intelligence. ︎ I tell stories, solve problems and help others unearth and shape meaningful narratives.&nbsp; My practice sits at the intersection of things that move us physically,emotionally and towards the future. ︎ Here, you’ll find a selection of my (publicly) published work and projects, and an overview of what I do. &nbsp; ︎ WHO AM I? SAY HELLO ︎︎︎ noelle[at]noellefaulkner[dot]com︎︎︎&nbsp;representation:&nbsp;nadine[at]witness[dot]company ︎︎︎ instagram ︎︎︎&nbsp;twitter ︎︎︎ linkedin ︎︎︎ spotify https://noellefaulkner.com/ABOUT Sat, 12 Mar 2022 23:57:20 +0000 noelle faulkner https://noellefaulkner.com/ABOUT ABOUT ME Some days, I work as a writer, cultural intelligence strategist and researcher. On others, a speaker, interviewer or trends, futures and content consultant.︎ <img width="3189" height="2205" width_o="3189" height_o="2205" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7b3b591618218a72363c4b32029bf9eff66fbec3cf89b0b57029427d349e2265/Noelle-Headshot-B-W-202004.-Mid-Resjpg.jpg" data-mid="137029701" border="0" data-scale="70" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7b3b591618218a72363c4b32029bf9eff66fbec3cf89b0b57029427d349e2265/Noelle-Headshot-B-W-202004.-Mid-Resjpg.jpg" />&nbsp;Over the past 17 years, my work has spanned luxury, culture, arts, fashion, travel, design, society, business, technology and more; with specialised experience in the automotive industry, luxury, futures + trend navigation, and the gap between these categories.&nbsp; &nbsp; Using a multidisciplinary approach, I solve problems, bring clarity to the future and tell stories. My work seeks to capture the curiosity of emerging audiences, placing brands, shifts and information within a storytelling context that goes beyond the obvious. Mostly, I look for the interesting patterns that occur when the above things intersect with culture, and communicate how these signals help us to better understand the world around us. &nbsp;Click here to see a sample list of my past/present clients + contributions. For brand, social and speaking work, I am represented by Witness The Company.&nbsp;Please&nbsp;contact nadine[@]witness.company I am currently open to new opportunities, and my CV is available upon request.&nbsp; Say hello noelle[at]noellefaulkner[dot]com &nbsp; Find me on social media @noelleflamingo <img width="5472" height="3648" width_o="5472" height_o="3648" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/86ad200377d3ab1935bfadbc9dd4e9264e3a53d5acf616237efc9c0cad02d54e/SemiPermanent_250522_CARD-16_2343.jpg" data-mid="144853134" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/86ad200377d3ab1935bfadbc9dd4e9264e3a53d5acf616237efc9c0cad02d54e/SemiPermanent_250522_CARD-16_2343.jpg" /> <img width="1340" height="893" width_o="1340" height_o="893" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/05f16f62d8bb42f538451343afc17faa31d24f10fa4abe95408b0c238e6ac3c6/SL300.jpeg" data-mid="137029699" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/05f16f62d8bb42f538451343afc17faa31d24f10fa4abe95408b0c238e6ac3c6/SL300.jpeg" /> <img width="5000" height="3333" width_o="5000" height_o="3333" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dfb400bd6e6d7bf1e35dbe385e68615e1c826d617544e172e097be133bf62ed8/DAMO8314.jpg" data-mid="154778688" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dfb400bd6e6d7bf1e35dbe385e68615e1c826d617544e172e097be133bf62ed8/DAMO8314.jpg" /> <img width="960" height="958" width_o="960" height_o="958" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/134d7e3df84164001fc34be85fcd80429880e9d215b23a19a296d5e3553695fa/Ferrari-Drive-Day.jpg" data-mid="139851855" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/960/i/134d7e3df84164001fc34be85fcd80429880e9d215b23a19a296d5e3553695fa/Ferrari-Drive-Day.jpg" /> <img width="2320" height="3088" width_o="2320" height_o="3088" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4ed3828f0e4716cb3358f5b97df86b8b1c942c4a02d92d5894baac2cf1624205/7EE9D2D8-B1D0-462C-B000-62E951F1F5BC.jpg" data-mid="154778561" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4ed3828f0e4716cb3358f5b97df86b8b1c942c4a02d92d5894baac2cf1624205/7EE9D2D8-B1D0-462C-B000-62E951F1F5BC.jpg" /> https://noellefaulkner.com/BYLINES-AND-PAST-PRESENT-CLIENTS Wed, 30 Jun 2021 04:19:19 +0000 noelle faulkner https://noellefaulkner.com/BYLINES-AND-PAST-PRESENT-CLIENTS Clients + Contributions VOGUE Australia, China, Korea, Brazil and Russia GQ Australia and India ELLE Australia Harper's BAZAAR Australia, Arabia, Singapore and Spain Future Women Robb Report&nbsp; Porsche The Australian&nbsp; The Future Laboratory Marie Claire Australia&nbsp; The Future Laboratory / LSN: Global VOGUE Living WGSN&nbsp; The Guardian 10 Magazine and 10 Men Magazine Universal Music Group Sony Music Warner Music Group QANTAS Magazine Bulliet Whiskey evo Australia Unilever Ferrari&nbsp; Lamborghini&nbsp; Audi MECCA Cosmetica Broadsheet DOLLY (as one of the Dolly Doctors) Buro 24/7 CHRONO Mercedes-Benz Studio Ma LYNX National Gallery of Australia Type 7 (powered by Porsche) L'Officiel Grazia iD Magazine WHEELS Magazine WhichCar Wish Magazine Unyoked So Frenchy So Chic https://noellefaulkner.com/Clients-Contributions Tue, 20 Dec 2022 07:13:15 +0000 noelle faulkner https://noellefaulkner.com/Clients-Contributions Clients + Contributions; Bylines + Brand Work &nbsp; VOGUE (Australia, China, Korea and Brazil) GQ (Australia, United Kingdom and India) ELLE (Australia) Harper's BAZAAR (Australia, United Kingdom, Middle East, Singapore and Spain) Esquire (Australia and Middle East) Forbes (Australia) The Australian The Future Laboratory / LSN: Global Present Company&nbsp; VOGUE Living The Local Project&nbsp; Side Note&nbsp; Gourmet Traveller&nbsp; The Road Rat&nbsp;Ferrari Lamborghini Audi Bentley WGSN&nbsp; The Guardian 10 Magazine and 10 Men MagazineCartier&nbsp; Future WomenRobb ReportPorsche Marie Claire Australia Universal Music GroupSony Music Warner Music GroupQANTAS Magazine Bulleit Whiskey evo AustraliaUnileverMECCA Cosmetica BroadsheetDOLLYBuro 24/7CHRONO Magazine Semi Permanent Triptk Present CompanyEsses Magazine&nbsp;Mercedes-Benz Studio Ma LYNX National Gallery of Australia Type 7 (powered by Porsche)L'OfficielGrazia Magazine iD Magazine WHEELS Magazine WhichCar Wish Magazine Unyoked So Frenchy So Chic https://noellefaulkner.com/How-Oscar-Piastri-and-the-McLaren-F1-team-are-helping-to-save-the Thu, 25 Dec 2025 09:59:32 +0000 noelle faulkner https://noellefaulkner.com/How-Oscar-Piastri-and-the-McLaren-F1-team-are-helping-to-save-the How Oscar Piastri and the McLaren F1 team are helping to save the Great Barrier Reef Esquire Australia, August 2024 (link) The ocean is the hottest it's been in 400 years and climate scientists are warning us the reef is on a one-way track to decay. In an unconventional yet very cool partnership, we get an inside look at how F1 technology can help repopulate Australia’s aquatic natural wonder. <img width="1280" height="1920" width_o="1280" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5c62b649ce6fbd93352d634aae1f4c52d7c20da43142a87e8d35de4e3379c748/op-gbr-mlaren-hero-1.jpg" data-mid="242151998" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5c62b649ce6fbd93352d634aae1f4c52d7c20da43142a87e8d35de4e3379c748/op-gbr-mlaren-hero-1.jpg" />When it comes to ‘moments I thought I’d never find myself in’, bobbing around in the Coral Sea in a stinger suit and snorkel next to Formula 1 driver, Oscar Piastri, turtle-spotting and discussing the state of the Great Barrier Reef, has got to be up there. Like many unexpected positions I’ve found myself in, I’ve ended up here out of raw curiosity, because since McLaren Racing announced a sustainability partnership with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation earlier this year, I’ve been wondering (and frankly, quite skeptical) about how this pairing came to be. What business does an F1 team have talking about sustainability? It turns out that just like any other relationship found within the ocean: this is a symbiotic one. As Piastri tells me, it’s a partnership that’s rooted in a shared interest in data, optimisation, engineering and achievement. As for why he’s fronting the campaign? Well, as someone admittedly still growing into his role model era, what better avenue to do so, than helping bring awareness to the plight of one of his home country’s most vulnerable and ancient natural wonders? At around the same size as Italy, the Great Barrier Reef is home to more than 9,000 biodiverse species. Its decline, led by mass coral bleaching events, invasive species, pollution, overfishing and extreme weather is happening right in front of our eyes, and scientists have been warning us the window to save the reef is closing. Scientists have already sounded the alarm this year when they witnessed the most extensive and extreme mass bleaching event on record, and the fifth one to occur in eight years, caused by global heating. But just a few weeks ago, another new report came out that showed ocean temperatures in the Great Barrier Reef are at the highest they’ve been in four centuries and without major action to rapidly cut greenhouse gas emissions, said the scientists, “we [as in our generation] will likely be witness to the demise of one of the Earth’s natural wonders.” <img width="1920" height="1280" width_o="1920" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fdd53e92c041e288f8ddbbcd4f538f0fa68dbd0333ed6754b802f130d2c6d01d/op-gbr-build-3.jpg" data-mid="242151996" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fdd53e92c041e288f8ddbbcd4f538f0fa68dbd0333ed6754b802f130d2c6d01d/op-gbr-build-3.jpg" /> The thing about coral reefs, however, is they might have survived for millions of years, due to their natural resistance and ability to recover. But in recent times, the ‘beating hearts of our oceans’ have become the most vulnerable ecosystems on the planet. And now, thanks to the ongoing frequency of severe stressors, they need help. The Great Barrier Reef Foundation is the leading organisation working to restore the reef through growing and harnessing a nursery of heat-tolerant baby corals – think IVF but for coral – which are deployed annually into the water with the hope they’ll flourish and bring life back to the reef. The issue is that this method, despite its high success rate, is a technological and labour-rich process that takes time to see success. And as anyone who has worked with government or large-scale corporations knows, securing funding and a helping hand can be just as time-consuming, red tape-wrapped, powerpoint-heavy and laborious as growing and fostering the delicate marine lifeforms themselves. <img width="1920" height="1280" width_o="1920" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e53fbce88385c9833390c789fecab78b1d85d9d19903ff71f17b9409132ca333/op-gbr-build-2.jpg" data-mid="242151995" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e53fbce88385c9833390c789fecab78b1d85d9d19903ff71f17b9409132ca333/op-gbr-build-2.jpg" /> According to the foundation’s managing director, Anna Marsden, this is made even more difficult by the rise of greenwashing – which is at an all-time high, by the way – and, together with a lack of patience and an increased trepidation in the sustainability sector. “I don’t want people to greenwash, of course, but the result is that there is a timidness now in sustainability plays, and that is hurting causes,” she says. “People want results, and I think there is a lack of people seeing best practice and how it can be done.” As it turns out, McLaren would view it differently. Instead, the British racing team noted the similarities in the two organisations’ processes and viewed the issue as a problem to help solve – and as Mardsen points out – one that could help pave the way for others to follow via a path of innovation and proof-of-concept. For context, McLaren Racing has its own climate contribution programme, which is part of the company’s goal of achieving net zero by 2040. But it also has a lesser-known sector called McLaren Accelerator, a crack team of bright minds and in-house experts that repurpose their on-track and performance engineering know-how and learnings to a range of wider applications. McLaren has the most partners of any racing team, so its reach spans multiple industries, from sport to tech to wider industrial applications. As unlikely as it might seem, McLaren and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation figured out they operate in similar ways. <img width="1920" height="1280" width_o="1920" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f4b522d29b6eab2b012a2da8fc34b9c35319f142cae99203d042635060d4ac1f/op-gbr-build-1.jpg" data-mid="242151994" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f4b522d29b6eab2b012a2da8fc34b9c35319f142cae99203d042635060d4ac1f/op-gbr-build-1.jpg" /> “We understand that it could be [seen as] strange,” Piastri tells me of the partnership. “Even for me, when I was learning [about it all], the parallels in our working environments and the mindsets are incredible in terms of how similar they are.” The 23-year-old driver points out that in Formula 1, teams work hard to continuously optimise and evolve the car, in pursuit of speed and with cost efficiency (and budget caps) front of mind. He noticed that within the non-profit organisations, this was a similar situation. “For me, the objective of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation is along similar lines: trying to grow the best corals they can, that are going to be resistant to the changing world, as many of them as possible, as quickly as possible and in the most cost-efficient manner.” He adds, “So whilst it’s a very different topic, the same principles very much apply. And I think that’s where McLaren can help to try and boost the project and add value to it by extending our values in racing, and the methodologies and technologies that we use, into a very different project that will ultimately leave the world in a better place, which I think is a great thing.” You may be wondering by now how McLaren came to work with the foundation. Well, speaking to the grassroots nature of the British company, the partnership all started with cable ties. “One of the team members was watching a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef one evening and he came to me and said I should talk to them and the guys in the racing team’s supply chain team,” Kim Wilson, McLaren’s sustainability director, tells us. “He’d emailed them because he had been concerned about cable ties being used to attach coral fragments onto frames – he wanted to know if they were biodegradable and if so, did they have a good supplier because maybe we could use them?” Turns out, the cable ties being used were from a different reef – and for the record, mortified the Australian non-profit – but the conversation sparked a wider one around data, supply chain and engineering – and the conversation went from cable ties to a full-blown knowledge sharing programme. McLaren offered up its engineers and technical experts to take a look at the foundation’s coral production line-of-sorts and optimise how it could be sped up and automated for a better result and survivability. Just like we see on the track, the partnership is an ongoing consideration of how data can be used better, based on whatever goal the foundation is trying to achieve. <img width="1280" height="1920" width_o="1280" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/83a77232951f3e48863156897f96220d14565a6ff830610b333ee8d853c79244/op-gbr-build-4.jpg" data-mid="242151997" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/83a77232951f3e48863156897f96220d14565a6ff830610b333ee8d853c79244/op-gbr-build-4.jpg" /> “As a driver, you have a natural instinctive way of driving, and I guess, a natural talent in some aspects. But without data, I don’t think any of us would be the drivers we are today,” Piastri notes. “For us, there are a lot of changes we make on the car, where we end up just trusting the data and trusting the numbers that it’s going to be faster.” Data that is fast and digestible is important, he says, but ensuring accuracy is even more so. In practice, racing cars and growing corals, aren’t that dissimilar. “Corals do whatever the hell they want,” Cedric Robillot, executive director of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, and who helps lead R&amp;D, quips in response to Piastri talking about data and car setups ahead of a race. “You make a change and you can have no idea – the full moon was too bright or whatever,” he laughs. “To be honest, it can be the same for us,” says Piastri. “Especially overnight, like from FP2 to FP3. Or if we have a night race, for example, like Abu Dhabi, where we have FP1 in the middle of the day when the track is 50 degrees and FP2 when it’s 25. You change a whole bunch of stuff on the car and you’ve got no idea if it’s because the track has less dust on it, whether it’s colder weather, if its because you’re driving better or because the car is actually better.” He adds, “You’ve got all of those different factors that you can’t always know. So you end up just having to trust the numbers are going to be right.” It’s this mentality that the team have applied to the work with the reef. Beyond the assisted growth and survival of baby corals and the reef, the partnership highlights two things. One: how companies with diverse backgrounds can look at their processes and consider how they might actively help to move sustainability projects along. And two: how elite athletes, particularly those with young and passionate fanbases, like Piastri, can rotate their gaze towards supporting the world in which they travel so extensively – not unlike how Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel have used their platforms. But remember, this is only Piastri’s second year in F1. “In my first year, in Formula 1, I was incredibly focused on on trying to establish my career,” says Piastri. “I am still putting an incredible amount of effort into doing that. But I think for me, other topics outside of Formula 1 and motorsport are important. As you know, Lewis [Hamilton] and Seb [Vettel] have been champions of various topics outside of the sport, so I feel like, with time, I’ll grow into that more and more,” he says. “I think also there is sort of a growing, let’s say, onus on athletes, in general, to be able to speak about more than just what they do on the track . . . For me, this one in particular, is quite close to home, because it is home. And, I think it would be a genuine shame for, not even generations to come, but current generations, to not be able to see one of the most beautiful parts of Australia.” Photography: Courtesy of McLaren https://noellefaulkner.com/The-Shock-of-the-New-Inside-Jaguar-s-Rebrand Thu, 25 Dec 2025 09:15:14 +0000 noelle faulkner https://noellefaulkner.com/The-Shock-of-the-New-Inside-Jaguar-s-Rebrand The Shock of the New: Inside Jaguar's Rebrand Esquire Australia, January 2025 (link) (PDF)Last year, Jaguar’s viral rebrand had critics asking, “What were they thinking?!” We joined the British carmaker’s Miami launch to find out what’s under the hood of its new all-electric era, and where it intends to go from here. <img width="1920" height="1280" width_o="1920" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4db83382cea5b7b6792ee208c790cb66491c1e9c72be7b826fdafae23730542a/jaguar-mag-story-1.jpg" data-mid="242151818" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4db83382cea5b7b6792ee208c790cb66491c1e9c72be7b826fdafae23730542a/jaguar-mag-story-1.jpg" />It was the launch that shattered the internet: Jaguar 2.0. Mocked by Elon Musk and his Teslarati, analysed endlessly by thought leader-tagged LinkedIn profiles and the subject of group-chat commentary that reverberated around the world for weeks. And not all the feedback was positive. Jaguar’s response? “We’re delighted to have your attention.” The British marque is entering its all-electric, low-volume, new luxury era with an attitude that’s unbothered, intentionally disruptive and confident. The above retort came from Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) chief creative officer Gerry McGovern at the reveal of the Jaguar Type 00 design concept at Miami Art Week last December. But it may as well have been an affirmation to accompany Jaguar’s audacious ambition to appeal to a new generation, striking through mediocrity and upholding the creative philosophy set by its founder, Sir William Lyons: “A Jaguar should be a copy of nothing”. “We weren’t expecting that sort of backlash [to] the teaser,” McGovern says, referring to the viral video, which, instead of a car, featured a cast of eight creatives and saw the brand accused of many things, including succumbing to the so-called ‘woke mind virus’. “Everybody got the blame for it, but I was the one who chose the characters. I wasn’t trying to start this whole ‘woke’ thing. We needed unique characters that didn’t look like everybody else; individuals that didn’t care how they were perceived, that were a copy of nothing. The last thing I was thinking about was whether they were androgynous or asexual or whatever.” <img width="1024" height="576" width_o="1024" height_o="576" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ba14846801c793123adcfe1a7ccfadc7552a0a9428f870add88c88542a5a6056/JAGUAR_TYPE00_DETAIL_021224.jpg" data-mid="242151814" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ba14846801c793123adcfe1a7ccfadc7552a0a9428f870add88c88542a5a6056/JAGUAR_TYPE00_DETAIL_021224.jpg" /> Like it or hate it, the teaser certainly made an impression – more than 300 million views in a matter of days, to be exact. It also led to hateful comments, including death threats directed at Jaguar staff. But this isn’t Jaguar’s parent company JLR’s first ride in a keyboard-warrior rodeo. The 2019 Defender was met with old-school purist pushback upon its launch. So, too, Jaguar’s original icon of youth, the E-Type (1961- 74), a car that sits in MoMA’s design collection and one that Enzo Ferrari once described as the “most beautiful car ever made”. Today, both are considered design icons that reflect the energy, desire and stylings of their times and as McGovern, who namechecks David Bowie, Vivienne Westwood and architect Richard Rogers as his creative heroes, confidently affirms, “Controversy has always surrounded British creativity at its best”.The Jaguar Type 00 design concept is the physical manifestation of the marque’s future design DNA and sets the tone for Jaguar’s electric cars of the future, starting with three new models that will roll out in the coming years. Type 00 and its sister vehicles – the first of which is a four-door GT – won’t appeal to everyone, but that’s the point. Says McGovern: “This desire to want to be loved by everybody will kill you because you just end up with mediocrity. It needs to be disruptive, or it doesn’t have a future.” In the metal, the butterfly-doored coupe is a dramatic symbol that refreshingly pushes against the norms of electric-vehicle design as we currently know it. The new Jaguar follows the similarly modernist principles seen on its distant cousins, Range Rover and Defender, but with an added dash of drama or modern exuberance that subtly injects emotion, counterbalanced with simplicity. After all, Jaguar is famous for its emotionally charged sports cars, sleek and feline saloons and athletically sculpted SUVs. Note the use of bold colours, graphic and linear light signatures, the dramatic roofline and long bonnet, as compelling evidence. <img width="1024" height="576" width_o="1024" height_o="576" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f9495828e8031e229e006ffd105ce9622ca7693ddceb6ad1e96a7f9000813d2c/JAGUAR_TYPE00_BIRDSEYE_16x9_021224.jpg" data-mid="242151813" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f9495828e8031e229e006ffd105ce9622ca7693ddceb6ad1e96a7f9000813d2c/JAGUAR_TYPE00_BIRDSEYE_16x9_021224.jpg" /> Inspired by contemporary architecture, the Type 00’s futuristic interior is minimal, with interesting materials and an abundance of light and space doing the heavy lifting. Framed by three brass bars along the doors and centre spine, there are two retractable screens set under the windshield and a centre console that’s carved from travertine stone. Details about the unnamed electric GT (arriving next year) are scant, but McGovern says he’s not in the business of revealing concepts if they can’t become realities, so we can expect the high-performance hero car to mirror the styling, drama and presence we see here – within on-road reason, of course.One of the fairer public critiques of Jaguar’s viral relaunch revolved around an assumed erasure of heritage. In fashion, we are used to maisons reinterpreting and redefining house codes as fast as the creative director doors revolve. Yet in automotive, where so many historic nameplates are hinged on legacy, there’s an expectation that new eras will be defined by the old; hence the leaping cat key fob clutching. According to Jaguar managing director Rawdon Glover, deviating from the marque’s past and its connection to its community is an understandable, but false, accusation. “I have always felt really strongly that one of the things that differentiates all true luxury brands is their sense of provenance and heritage, whether that’s a sense of place, iconic people associated with [the brand] or iconic projects,” he says. “One of my seminal experiences was when I went to Gucci Cosmos in Shanghai [in 2023]. It was effectively a retrospective and a celebration of Gucci’s history. It was done in such a thoroughly modern way. It reminded me that treasuring heritage is the only thing that differentiates you from the competition.” <img width="1920" height="1280" width_o="1920" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/694dd2b7a1625e2610013332dcd061fe6b02bc0fa5a41b001ca2aee6925b84cc/jaguar-mag-story-2.jpg" data-mid="242151815" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/694dd2b7a1625e2610013332dcd061fe6b02bc0fa5a41b001ca2aee6925b84cc/jaguar-mag-story-2.jpg" />Right now, we’re witnessing a wave of compelling, mass-market vehicles emerging from China, and soon the high-end players will follow. In this sense, luxury is being defined by technology, which leaves culture, storytelling and all the romantic levers that build aspiration and multigenerational affinity to a nameplate on the table. “The challenge for Jaguar over the last 25 years is that it has hung on to some of its traditions, probably too [firmly],” says Glover. “It’s almost been bound by them, so it’s about getting that balance [so we are] respectful, mindful and nurturing it, but in a completely forward-thinking way.” Right now, heritage is showing up in the use of the historic ‘Type’ nameplate, the concept’s London Blue hue, which references one of the most famous E-Type paint colours, and the energetic, youth-centric approach to design. Jaguar’s storied past in performance and motorsport-derived development is still alive and well in Formula E. The Jaguar TCS Racing team is currently defending its 2023-24 Teams World Championship and will be racing in the electric open-wheel series for at least the next three seasons. While all that hasn’t been quite enough to satisfy the critics, Glover reminds them it’s only early days. “When we launched here in Miami, we wanted it to be 95 per cent forward-looking,” he says. “As we move forward, you’ll see us weave narratives and demonstrate how what we’re doing has plenty in common with where we’ve been.” Key to this will be new flagship spaces arriving in luxury shopping neighbourhoods around the world, starting in London and Paris. In a similar vein to the way fashion houses use flagship boutiques to tell stories and world-build, Jaguar plans to use its bricks-and-mortar destinations to introduce itself to a new audience; this will include reinterpreting its symbols, celebrating its history and hosting artist collaborations and exhibitions. “This will all be part of the narrative to make sure that people can join the dots and see that we haven’t left our heritage behind,” says Glover. “We haven’t abandoned it, but we’ve got to look forward. Because to make sure there’s another 90 years of Jaguar history, the context has to be relevant, desirable and reach new audiences.” Contemporary art will play a starring role in Jaguar’s future, as hinted by its presence at Miami Art Week. Across two locations, the marque held immersive exhibitions featuring collaborative works by New School Collective artists Ibby Njoya, Campbell Addy, Yagamoto and Patience Harding, and fashion designer Aaron Esh. This was the result of a year-long creative cultural exchange between the British artists and Jaguar’s Gaydon-based HQ. <img width="1024" height="576" width_o="1024" height_o="576" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b8d1fd1959f2291364d36549343831c963704bc97b8697d6ae4913ab6356b4f4/JAGUAR_TYPE00_SEATS2_021224.jpg" data-mid="242151812" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b8d1fd1959f2291364d36549343831c963704bc97b8697d6ae4913ab6356b4f4/JAGUAR_TYPE00_SEATS2_021224.jpg" /> The Jaguar design team says the artists injected a fresh energy into their processes, and, in return, the team shared its knowledge, experience and thinking with the artists. “There’s been loads of creative cultural interplay between our design teams and these artists,” confirms JLR design director Richard Stevens.“When you start to see our boutiques, our spatial experiences and every manifestation beyond the car, it will be born out of that cultural connection with people who are moving and shaking in the art world.” To many long-time fans, this all might feel like a departure from the old ways, but there’s a strong argument for boldness and disruption, for times have changed and Jaguar is not alone in trying to capture the attention of a new generation. Every automotive brand is seeking fresh ways to redefine relevance through engaging with culture, be that gaming, music, wellness, architecture or sport. Jaguar is speaking the same language it always has, albeit in a dialect that art, fashion and their satellite categories are fluent in. It just means that, going forward, instead of taking place at a car-meet or in a dealership, these conversations will happen in digital spaces, at art shows or next door to a Louis Vuitton store. <img width="2464" height="3366" width_o="2464" height_o="3366" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fd63c9e0f65ce4c880918f15cc2aa30d1d1ecc48e93ecb7db510e60ed743818b/ESQ10_FF_JAGUAR-AFDW-p1.jpg" data-mid="242151830" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fd63c9e0f65ce4c880918f15cc2aa30d1d1ecc48e93ecb7db510e60ed743818b/ESQ10_FF_JAGUAR-AFDW-p1.jpg" /><img width="2464" height="3366" width_o="2464" height_o="3366" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6e875769c54643623b208ab8c90345418ff66932850324eaef85db24c8128517/ESQ10_FF_JAGUAR-AFDW-p2.jpg" data-mid="242151831" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6e875769c54643623b208ab8c90345418ff66932850324eaef85db24c8128517/ESQ10_FF_JAGUAR-AFDW-p2.jpg" /> <img width="2480" height="3366" width_o="2480" height_o="3366" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2cee5cbf1184c517b9ace186565478acee085ca76e00719f3f1f655c9e66b494/ESQ10_FF_JAGUAR-AFDW-p3.jpg" data-mid="242151832" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2cee5cbf1184c517b9ace186565478acee085ca76e00719f3f1f655c9e66b494/ESQ10_FF_JAGUAR-AFDW-p3.jpg" /> https://noellefaulkner.com/Big-in-China-The-rise-of-the-Chinese-car-via-the-Shanghai-Motorshow Thu, 25 Dec 2025 08:05:34 +0000 noelle faulkner https://noellefaulkner.com/Big-in-China-The-rise-of-the-Chinese-car-via-the-Shanghai-Motorshow Big in China: The rise of the Chinese car, via the Shanghai MotorshowEsquire Australia, July 2025 (link) (PDF)Esquire goes deep inside the world’s biggest motor show to experience the chaos and innovation, and see how China is shaping the future of our roads. <img width="1296" height="818" width_o="1296" height_o="818" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/38323b50c8f2a40bbfb63c3aec0b5c761a826eb8d447c449d0557a070b9473de/Screenshot-2025-12-25-at-20.29.52.png" data-mid="242151849" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/38323b50c8f2a40bbfb63c3aec0b5c761a826eb8d447c449d0557a070b9473de/Screenshot-2025-12-25-at-20.29.52.png" /> Auto Shanghai is not for the weak. It will push your limits of sensory overload, tolerance for crowds and put the most passionate car enthusiast’s level of sustained interest to the test. Picture this: it’s midday on a Wednesday, in April, in Shanghai, China. I’m inside the enormous two-storey, four-leaf clover-shaped National Exhibition and Convention Center, in what I imagine being thrust, Tron-style, into an IRL TikTok feed would feel like. On one side, a slowly rotating platform with a waterfall-like feature rains down over a futuristic pearly sedan. Conversely, a giant capybara mascot bounces joyfully before a capybara-themed EV hatchback, complete with matching plushies stuck to the doors, mirrors, steering wheel and rear windscreen wiper. It is one of two capybara-themed cars I’ve seen so far. The other is covered in fluffy brown fur and has ears, not unlike the Mutt Cutts car from Dumb and Dumber. Not so far away, past some enormous and futuristic helicopter-like EVTOLs (Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) concepts, Boston Dynamic-esque dog robots dressed as lion dancers sit in the uncanny valley of robotic cute-meets-terrifying and perform a traditional dance routine. I am suspicious of their intent to woo me and find myself asking if this is a form of ‘copaganda’ (probably). The lion bots are neighbours to a troupe of all-male dancers in black suits and white gloves performing a Bob Fosse-meets-K-pop-like routine in front of a small boxy car, that’s meant to evoke what, exactly, I’m not sure. The dancers move sharply and gaze ahead with no emotion, offering the audience – including myself and seven live streamers who are talking non-stop into their tripods – absolutely zero hints of context. Nobody applauds. I feel like I’m stuck in a dream. Now in its 21st iteration and held every two years, Auto Shanghai is the biggest, most innovative and most fascinating mobility show in the world. With over 16 exhibition halls, totalling the spatial equivalent of three MCGs, it spans five days and showcases more than 1360 vehicles, over 100 brands and welcomes an estimated 1.3 million visitors and 1000 exhibitors through its doors. There is nothing else like it, a reflection of the enormous influence, economic power and innovation China is flexing across the car industry. The show’s size, frenetic energy, futuristic visions and near-infinite information dumps collide head-on with language barriers and culture shocks to create a bewildering, overstimulating, but incredible experience. Though, to be very fair, it’s A LOT. &nbsp; <img width="1536" height="1024" width_o="1536" height_o="1024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/93f1e79f7ced211e0b1ff390f7afdc373940031fceae6cea61a882b9cbb380e3/shanghai-cars-5-1536x1024.jpg" data-mid="242151654" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/93f1e79f7ced211e0b1ff390f7afdc373940031fceae6cea61a882b9cbb380e3/shanghai-cars-5-1536x1024.jpg" />Moving at speed China is now the biggest and fastest-moving car market in the world. Last year, it produced more than 31 million vehicles, six million of which it exported around the world, including 4.6 million petrol/diesel fuel vehicles and 1.3 million NEVs (New Energy Vehicles). As the top global producer of electric passenger cars, The People’s Republic took over Japan’s passenger car reign in 2024, a move driven by EV uptake, China’s expertise in batteries and supply-related technology, as well as Russian exports – a market that both Japanese and Western automakers withdrew from, in response to the war in Ukraine. There are currently around 150 brands fighting for attention in China. This number has shrunk in recent years from at least double that, replicating the fight for survival that we once saw in the West. In the past, this consolidation might have happened over the space of 50- plus years, whereas China has seen it happen around 10 – a testament to the speed at which manufacturing, design, innovation and marketing now move. Some of this is thanks to recent innovations in robotics and software-defined automation, with manufacturers now able to operate automated, 24/7 assembly lines, completely run by robots, with maybe one or two humans holding an iPad, doing quality checks, or programmers working behind the scenes to ensure the automated software is working as expected. The speed is so fast that where traditional/legacy automakers might see a new car be designed, developed, engineered and launched to market in four years, here, it’s expected to be achieved in two. As a side note, this, according to a designer (who asked to stay anonymous), partly explains the large amount of replica or West-inspired vehicles we often see emerging from the region, which I’ll highlight a bit later. <img width="1536" height="1024" width_o="1536" height_o="1024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0b7cbe49a23e473e888e1eb1d926dfc010ad01efdca4a546f3448d45e8d42b1b/auto-shanghai-11-1536x1024.jpg" data-mid="242151653" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0b7cbe49a23e473e888e1eb1d926dfc010ad01efdca4a546f3448d45e8d42b1b/auto-shanghai-11-1536x1024.jpg" />2025, year of the Chinese car As you might have expected, it’s a very interesting time to visit China for business relating to its biggest volume export. I had some spicy Apple Translate-enabled conversations with taxi drivers who had strong opinions about America, Donald Trump and the tariffs, proving that wherever you go, there’ll always be a politically opinionated taxi driver ready to rant at you about their ideologies. The general consensus is that Australia, as a free-trade partner to the Chinese automotive industry, is a friend, and speaking to many of the major local manufacturers at the show, the desire to bring their cars Down Under is something they are extremely proud of and curious to discuss. The car industry here operates in a bit of a different way to the rest of the world. At the top, so to speak, there are the Central state-owned manufacturers who are directly owned and controlled by the Central Government: FAW, Dongfeng and Changan. Then, there’s the local state-owned manufacturers, which are controlled by municipal governments, rather than the Central Government: SAIC, GAC, BAIC, JAC and Chery. SAIC (which MG sits under), for example, is owned and controlled by the municipal government of Shanghai; and Chery (the parent company of Australian newcomer Jaecoo) is controlled by the municipal government of Wuhu. Finally, there are the privately owned companies and a few smaller start-ups. Some of these are already familiar to Australia, like major players BYD and Geely (parent company of Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, Smart, Zeekr and more), as well as GWM, Nio, Leapmotor and Xpeng, all of which are either already operating in our market or expected to be soon. The best answer to ‘How many Chinese car companies are in Australia?’ is, ‘More coming’. China now builds 80 per cent of all new electric cars sold in Australia, compared to near-zero six years ago. Fun fact: this also includes Teslas, and it’s a known industry secret that the Chinese-built models are of much better quality than the US-made ones, sometimes even impacting resale. <img width="1536" height="1024" width_o="1536" height_o="1024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8b9f976999b1ed095001911626491cfc238807187bc10298b69ca6d302c87846/shanghai-cars-4-1536x1024.jpg" data-mid="242151652" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8b9f976999b1ed095001911626491cfc238807187bc10298b69ca6d302c87846/shanghai-cars-4-1536x1024.jpg" />Why us? Well, Australia is an excellent testing ground for brands wanting to expand to the West. Our market is relatively small; we’ve got around 68 car brands (again, it’s ever-changing) fighting for around 1.2 million new-vehicle sales annually. Compare this to the US, which, pre-tariffs, would see 15 million deliveries a year and we’re small fry. We have similar road-safety rules, buying patterns and customer profiles to other major markets like the US, Europe and the UK, as well as diverse road conditions, and high salaries for consumer spend. The key factor – Australia being a relatively car-centric nation with a small population – means Chinese brands can toe-dip into Western operations through us, and test various strategies. That is, should they make the investment to suit our roads. Like New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, India, the UK, most of South-East Asia and a handful of smaller nations, our steering wheels are on the right, so for something to come here, the car’s layout has to be redeveloped. Because of our market share, distance and government-regulated safety and design rules, we’re not always at the top of some of the legacy manufacturers’ delivery lists, with waits for some new cars taking years. For consumers wanting a new car immediately, this is great news, as China’s fast pace means it’s able to deliver now, en masse and with plenty of choice. “The rapid growth and strategic consolidation of Chinese automotive brands and sub-brands is reshaping the global market – Australia included,” Carlo Zoccali, global chief commercial officer of Fully Charged Show &amp; Everything Electric – consumer car shows held in Australia and around the globe – tells me at the show. “Companies like BYD, Geely, SAIC with MG, Chery, GWM, Zeekr, Xpeng, Leapmotor, Deepal and Changan are no longer just emerging players; they’re establishing real momentum.” Another important factor to consider is the way new strategic partnerships are being formed. Many Chinese car companies have engaged in joint ventures with some of the traditional brands of the West, including Volkswagen Group, Jaguar Land Rover, BMW/MINI and more. “These partnerships,” Zoccali says, “show a willingness to collaborate and co-develop”, and help to leverage the speed at which traditional brands can meet the emerging market demands, all while utilising China’s increasingly sophisticated manufacturing processes. “This wave is not slowing down, with other strong Chinese brands heading to our shores,” adds Zoccali.“The RAPID GROWTH of Chinese automotive brands . . . is RESHAPING the global market” How adventure and luxury are emerging The Shanghai auto show is more than just a car conference; it’s a cross- section of how China itself is evolving. Because the car – and this becomes glaringly obvious if you spend more than a few minutes on the ground here – is not just a mode of transport. It’s also a societal mirror, which reflects our ambitions, aspirations and identities across its polished surface. There are a few key differences between the way car culture has historically evolved in Australia and China. For example, China didn’t experience the same Golden Era of the combustion engine, perpetrated and accelerated by media and Hollywood (think: Elvis, James Bond, James Dean, Mad Max, etc.); and it experienced a slower uptake of ownership culture than other regions in the world. But since Audi became the first European premium brand to enter the region in 1988, Chinese car culture and consumer perceptions have been shaped around the new and the innovative. Aside from the non-stop overstimulation of fashion shows, dance troupes, cosplay characters, live classical music performances and more traditional Chinese theatre performances, the markers of culture are everywhere here. Some of the most popular stands belonged to Western brands: Porsche, BMW, Volvo, Mercedes- Benz, and Audi – which in China, has also rebranded itself to AUDI to launch an EV concept it co-developed with local maker SAIC. A thriving modifying scene showcases the importance of limousines, where companies with China-exclusive modified luxury vehicles are presented to a grand hurrah. Think Mercedes-Benz people-movers covered in diamantes or fitted out with marble and gold-like surfaces and added comfort features, for example. The strongest trend, however, reflects the enormous lifestyle movement surrounding the outdoors. According to the General Administration of Sport, China’s outdoor sports industry is expected to surpass three trillion RMB (approximately AU$641.2 billion) this year, predominantly led by Gen Z and Millennials. <img width="1536" height="1024" width_o="1536" height_o="1024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e54525575d8b276700d9f47c627c4d61549a426f5c649b5596bde62d2d7dc398/auto-shanghai-9-1536x1024.jpg" data-mid="242151651" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e54525575d8b276700d9f47c627c4d61549a426f5c649b5596bde62d2d7dc398/auto-shanghai-9-1536x1024.jpg" />At the motor show, this was showing up in the sheer number of Defender, Ford Bronco, Mercedes-Benz G Wagen and Jeep-inspired off- road vehicles; all of which took this style of vehicle and piled in more technology on top. Rox, for example, a brand that may be destined for Australia (a spokesperson revealed it’s working on a right- hand-drive model), had a series of Defender-inspired boxy SUVs. Unlike Defender, however, Rox’s cars flexed a hot plate, cooler fridge, picnic chairs and rear passenger screens that could connect to video-game and streaming devices, including Nintendo Switch. Then, there was iCar, coming soon to Australia as iCaur, a Chery- owned marque made up of retro-inspired Suzuki Jimny-like boxy EV SUVs. Aiming to capture the attention and lifestyle aspirations of Gen Z, the iCar stand featured a pink fur-wrapped car, flanked by performers dancing to Dua Lipa’s ‘Dance the Night’ while saying “Hi Barbie” into a mic and blazing bubble guns. As a side, pink, lavender and pastel metallics were also a very big trend here this year. The sports influence also showed up in a more native and, importantly, premium context, in the form of very cool and sleek-looking longer-bodied shooting brakes and sporty performance wagons. China buys more sedans than SUVs, so it will be fascinating to see if this influences our SUV-happy market. Zeekr is one such marque leading the shooting brake revolution with its two athletic-looking EVs, the Zeekr 01 and Zeekr 007GT. Having already established itself within the small EV space with the Zeekr X and the luxe people-mover category with the Zeekr 009 (both already in Australia), the 007GT is part of the marque’s move into sports-luxe, with high-end interiors, considered exterior design, agile handling and stacks of tech (particularly when it comes to battery architecture and charging). I drove the new 007GT on a gymkhana track and China’s roads, and it’s a formidable machine. Zeekr has existed for only four years, and is already in more than 50 countries, including Australia, across Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and is one of the very few Chinese marques bringing high-end performance-centric vehicles to the West. While it’s very early days, luxury performance is coming from China, and fast. At the show, Zeekr revealed its new flagship and Rolls-Royce Cullinan competitor, the stately X9, a behemoth luxury SUV that claims a rocket-like jump of 0-100km in 3.0 seconds, in its pure electric form. That is extremely quick. Other makers claiming a move into the premium space in Australia include BYD, with its brands Denza and Yangwang, and Chery’s Range Rover Evoque-like Jaecoo. While I am hesitant to call any of these brands ‘luxury’ just yet, this next wave of higher-end models does present a new challenge for the legacy makers. Up to now, where China has gone low, led by value and affordably priced mass-market vehicles, traditional brands have strategically gone high. This makes things very interesting, as Australia and New Zealand (and Switzerland, to be fair) are the biggest markets per capita for performance- spec vehicles. We buy so many Mercedes-AMG, BMW M Performance and Audi RS models that most brands don’t even bother bringing their European base models Down Under, and our entry- level variants are considered mid-tier elsewhere in the world. We love a fast and luxe machine. But, more importantly, we don’t like waiting for them to arrive. <img width="1280" height="1920" width_o="1280" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/19a4cc2886cc36404171cc999b900fa5fc704ddea0514ec36d0656d08b224f42/shanghai-cars-6.jpg" data-mid="242151649" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/19a4cc2886cc36404171cc999b900fa5fc704ddea0514ec36d0656d08b224f42/shanghai-cars-6.jpg" /> “The perception of the luxury customer has dramatically changed over here in China,” says Stefan Sielaff, vice president of global design at Zeekr Group. “But it has also changed in the Western world. There is less demand for, let’s say, old-fashioned bling-bling stuff. Things are getting a bit cleaner and more modern. I think the typical luxury customers don’t want anything too showy, but instead, want to keep things rather calm, with more quality aspects, good materials and a very high level of things that feel almost handmade or artisan.” Sielaff, who is based at Zeekr’s Swedish design studio, knows luxury better than most. Prior to his appointment at Zeekr, he was a design director at Bentley and had a long career at Audi and Mercedes-Benz before that. “A luxury brand normally needs heritage, and heritage needs time, which we obviously don’t have,” he says. “We only have a heritage of four years, and we didn’t start with luxury products, but more premium. But now things are happening very fast in China.” He adds: “I think heritage is a big advantage, but it can also be a burden, and vice versa”. Being a new player, however, does have its advantages: you can act fast, be responsive and learn from others’ mistakes, without being tethered to the past. See, also, how new luxury brands have emerged in fashion and design in recent years. “I believe the luxury community is moving forward very fast,” says Sielaff. “They are not sticking with those old values anymore.” Ultimately, adds Sielaff, many of these new high-end marques, Zeekr included, are still learning and manoeuvring to meet the new global luxury consumer, at an unprecedented pace. <img width="1536" height="1024" width_o="1536" height_o="1024" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/25810b6c181d57b16d8163ab2fb8510b83f9c01b725b8df0bc010191b8a8179e/shanghai-cars-2-1536x1024.jpg" data-mid="242151650" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/25810b6c181d57b16d8163ab2fb8510b83f9c01b725b8df0bc010191b8a8179e/shanghai-cars-2-1536x1024.jpg" />East meets West tech: the winning strategy? With so many brands in the ring, Australia may soon find itself at the centre of a Lord of the Flies-like battle of the brands, begging the question of which marques will last. While the consolidation of brands and the scale of operations show that the majors mean serious business, there is a question surrounding what happens should some get swallowed up. This is a scenario most recently made real in the US and UK after American luxury EV startup Fisker went bankrupt. The cars’ values plummeted, and with no support, customers were left with no way to digitally service their cars, no software updates and few resale options. The Fisker drama is an evolving story, but it is a realistic worry. The secondary fear, and the elephant in the expo’s halls, surrounds the data and user security of some vehicle systems. While it’s often hard to weed through the xenophobia, national interests and general fear of change, in a software-defined vehicle and a future rooted in the ‘Internet of Things’, it’s a serious concern and one that has been vocalised by many global cybersecurity leaders. There is, however, at least one potential outcome that addresses both these fears, in the form of global collaboration, or an East-meets- West strategic operation. As we’ve seen happen with design and brand studios that are based in different markets – a common practice across the industry already – having cross-global operations leverages the experience of the West with the manufacturing speed of China. When this collaborative approach is applied to technology, it makes things very interesting. Where China is leading the world in battery technology, charging infrastructure, efficient and high-quality manufacturing and innovation at speed, some companies, like Geely, are leaning on their European teams for their product and customer knowledge, big-picture use cases and data privacy expertise. This could be the key to global success, future development and longevity, argues Giovanni Lanfranchi, Zeekr Group vice president and CEO at Zeekr Technology Europe (part of Geely Group). “It’s not just about the car, but the ecosystem around the car that really matters,” says the executive, who spent 15 years at IBM in various senior roles, including vice president across global technology services. Lanfranchi explains that Europe is still the leader in data privacy and management, thanks to Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules and wider automotive-focused integration. “We don’t think of [GDPR] as a pain, but an opportunity to really provide trust and privacy,” he says. “It’s very important, this data feedback loop, but it should be done preserving customer consent and customer anonymisation.” The software doesn’t need to know everything about you, but it does need to understand patterns in order to elevate the driving experience. Survival, predicts Lanfranchi, will come down to real-world offerings. “As with any industry, there will be some consolidation and an element of survival. And I really think there will be three key elements that will differentiate those who stay,” he says. “One is a focus on technology that matters because there is also a lot of hype around technology for technology’s sake. This will evaporate. Number two, it’s with the West, rather than fighting, instead finding the best way to complement [China’s innovation]. Which, to be candid, is not always easy, but I think it’s starting to work. Number three is about putting the customer at the centre of everything. This will dictate survival.”Customer-centric development, in the way that Lanfranchi means, is a very new concept to the automotive industry, borrowed directly from the software world, particularly around programs rooted in open source. It’s not market research, but transparent feedback and community voting. Zeekr already invites customers to ‘co-create’, and actively (and openly) vote on and suggest new tech features for future updates via an app. For example, where Chinese customers might be okay with lots of warning beeps and noises in their cars, Europeans hate it, and so a feature to quieten the sounds was introduced. “It’s basically opening up our development to the customer,” says Lanfranchi, noting that this makes for a steep learning curve for both the company and the customer, as everything is so new. “It’s not just ABOUT THE CAR. but THE ECOSYSTEM around the car that REALLY MATTERS” The future is AI – but context is key The future of the car, as predicted by the Shanghai auto show, looks very good. It’s still fun, dynamic and creative in terms of design, materials, colours and details, and, judging by the amount of EVTOLs, flying cars are still on the cards. But I couldn’t swing a capybara plushie without hitting something that referenced AI. “Everyone now believes that voice will be the number one interaction channel,” says Lanfranchi, adding that China’s disruptive, open-source giant, Deep Seek, has an enormous advantage here. “AI has been conceived as a digital assistant – you ask it, ‘Okay, write me a resume’, or whatever, and it does that. Fine. But if I’m using AI in a car, the context has to be the car, otherwise, I just have a phone.” In an automotive context, AI is integrated with the car’s sensors, its location, the environment and draws from everything it knows about you, the user. Let’s say it’s lunchtime and you have a meeting in an hour. You mention to the car you haven’t eaten. The car’s AI has already learned what food you enjoy at this time of the day. In this scenario, it might scan your location data to suggest somewhere to eat based on your likes, how much time you have and the traffic or parking scenarios (maybe it knows you hate parallel parking, too?). Perhaps your car has been integrated with an e-wallet and can order and pay ahead. This is all feasible but again, privacy and data management are imperative. Should this level of AI integration become a reality, Lanfranchi says, it offers a level of contextualisation, personalisation and integration beyond what the AI assistants in our phones offer, because in a car, the context changes. “What we are seeing now, even with Deep Seek, it’s just the very tip of the iceberg,” he says. “I think this will have much more profound implications.” On my final days in Shanghai, I return to the motor show again for another look. This time, it’s a weekend and somehow even crazier. I escape being crushed at the Porsche stand, accidentally get caught in the middle of a live-streamer circles and score a high- five from a Lexus bear mascot. I struggle with a face-recognition-enabled vending machine for my umpteenth can of Chinese Red Bull and I find myself thinking about Lanfranchi’s AI predictions. What would an AI-enabled vehicle look like right now? If I told it I needed a drink, would it bring me here for another Red Bull or suggest the water my dehydrated self probably needed more? Would my car factor in my habitual dissociation time when I get home? Just like I’m doing right now? Would it lessen my desire to flex free will on a drive? At this point, something a little bit funny happens – I notice that next to the drinks machine is another one selling Labubus, the most popular collectible in China right now and an item that has been haunting my social media algorithms for months, no matter how many times I say, ‘Not interested’. I have no idea why Labubus are being sold at the motor show, but the scenario of algorithmic to IRL synchronicity adds to the comedic experience of it all. If I’ve learned anything here about the show, the industry, its scale and its ambition, the answer to anyone who dares to ask, ‘Why?’, seems to be a fantastic and resounding, ‘Why not?’ I take a breath, unfold my enormous map to figure out where to head next, disassociate for 10 minutes, and then head into the next hall, readying myself for whatever chaos and futuristic brain-bending tech awaits me just around the corner. <img width="4960" height="3366" width_o="4960" height_o="3366" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/059f29d986de51a5527cc8a5a8ff63792d774327a08f6c5d3d7e9993ee40739d/ESQ_WINTER_2025_CHINA_CARS-01.jpg" data-mid="242151662" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/059f29d986de51a5527cc8a5a8ff63792d774327a08f6c5d3d7e9993ee40739d/ESQ_WINTER_2025_CHINA_CARS-01.jpg" /> <img width="4960" height="3366" width_o="4960" height_o="3366" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/948ba148ed1d988b2fb277cc2972ebc98c7dcbfd867e5a32ec00fbb742e9157a/ESQ_WINTER_2025_CHINA_CARSp2.jpg" data-mid="242151660" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/948ba148ed1d988b2fb277cc2972ebc98c7dcbfd867e5a32ec00fbb742e9157a/ESQ_WINTER_2025_CHINA_CARSp2.jpg" /><img width="4960" height="3366" width_o="4960" height_o="3366" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/21f9faa5d34aa10ebca8a766cfc9fbaed9f266e57d41fdd57df23aa94eebb912/ESQ_WINTER_2025_CHINA_CARS-p3.jpg" data-mid="242151661" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/21f9faa5d34aa10ebca8a766cfc9fbaed9f266e57d41fdd57df23aa94eebb912/ESQ_WINTER_2025_CHINA_CARS-p3.jpg" /> https://noellefaulkner.com/Youth-and-Beauty-Rolls-Royce-s-Youthful-Play Thu, 25 Dec 2025 08:45:54 +0000 noelle faulkner https://noellefaulkner.com/Youth-and-Beauty-Rolls-Royce-s-Youthful-Play Youth and Beauty: How Rolls-Royce has become the luxury car of choice for custom-hungry millennials Esquire Australia, November 2025 (link) (PDF) A Rolls-Royce is no longer your grandfather’s regal cruiser. Its customers are young, bold and shaping not only the historic marque through new aesthetics and digitally driven ideals but rewriting the industry’s luxury playbook. <img width="2048" height="1152" width_o="2048" height_o="1152" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b046debd019dbb7edb294be8d422bf6717e3c107d2b744c377b7ecf5a0bfc980/TILE-P90587824_highRes_rolls-royce-black-ba-2048x1152.jpg" data-mid="242151732" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b046debd019dbb7edb294be8d422bf6717e3c107d2b744c377b7ecf5a0bfc980/TILE-P90587824_highRes_rolls-royce-black-ba-2048x1152.jpg" />For more than a century, the image of the grey-haired, regal aristocrat who never touches the wheel has ruled the iconography of the world’s most luxurious automotive marque, Rolls-Royce. And just five years ago, this image wouldn’t have been far off. But now, millennials are leading the luxury charge – they want to design as well as drive their cars, and, importantly, they don’t want it to resemble their grandfathers’. It’s this cohort that is shaping the thoroughly modern, dramatic and ever-evolving new era of Rolls-Royce, and, in turn, every other car brand using luxury as a means to keep up.  At the 2023 launch of the very first Rolls-Royce EV, Spectre, the British carmaker shocked attending media with the claim that the average age of the new Rolls-Royce buyer is 35. If you’ve been following the luxury market, you might wonder, ‘Why so surprising?’ After all, millennials are the largest and most influential consumer cohort, and that subset that qualifies as HNWIs is the number one demographic reshaping luxury. However, we’re not talking about a Bottega Veneta Intrecciato tote here. Rolls-Royce cars are eye-wateringly expensive (often north of $1.5 million), ultra-niche and highly exclusive, with only around 6000 cars hand-built per year. But where a Rolls-Royce was once enjoyed by an older customer and considered more of a gift-to-self after decades of hard toil, today, the haute couture of automobiles is more of an early declaration of arrival, ambition and taste, as well as a statement of identity. <img width="2048" height="1152" width_o="2048" height_o="1152" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/88ba4a5e6a2bb86ef20c984bf44b92a653e590dc50b432de4a1eac7cafd1a208/TILE-P90587836_highRes_rolls-royce-black-ba-copy-2048x1152.jpg" data-mid="242151735" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/88ba4a5e6a2bb86ef20c984bf44b92a653e590dc50b432de4a1eac7cafd1a208/TILE-P90587836_highRes_rolls-royce-black-ba-copy-2048x1152.jpg" />Over the last decade, the ultra-high-net-worth population has grown both larger and younger, thanks to faster (albeit riskier) pathways to big money, compared to the more traditional, steady-as-she goes methods of generations past. These pathways, which might be on top of family inheritance, might include crypto, new media and sundry entrepreneurial pursuits. Tied to this rapid accumulation of wealth is a propensity to spend it at speed. And why Rolls-Royce? The bespoke nature of these cars, brand legacy and premium craftsmanship speak to this demographic’s love of a great, highly personalised story. And now with the fully electric, grand tourer Spectre on offer – the model that’s been key to attracting a younger client – the marque is in its high-tech era for the eco-aware digital native who wants to drive rather than be driven. Signs of this youthfully minded customer who seeks a more audacious and, dare we say, contrarian kind of Rolls-Royce have been apparent for some time. In 2021, Rolls-Royce introduced Black Badge, not a sub-brand, but a shadow version of its elegant creations, rooted in bolder performance and luxury-ideal disruption. Today, it introduces a new Spectre Black Badge – the dark and subversive alter ego to its sleek and elegant super coupé, and the most powerful Rolls-Royce ever made. <img width="2048" height="1152" width_o="2048" height_o="1152" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/62faeea573658d12aacb667ca609418fdd3576112904ffd7e9a7cd51394e84ce/TILE-P90589509_highRes_rolls-royce-black-ba-2048x1152.jpg" data-mid="242151734" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/62faeea573658d12aacb667ca609418fdd3576112904ffd7e9a7cd51394e84ce/TILE-P90589509_highRes_rolls-royce-black-ba-2048x1152.jpg" />The history of Black Badge sheds light on the factors shaping the Goodwood-based marque. Born of customer demand in a turbulent, post-opulent world, Rolls-Royce identified an emerging customer who, while designing their car with the marque’s bespoke division, sought to counter the cliches of luxury-past. Rolls-Royce notes that this contemporary idea of rebellion is closely aligned to shifts that had been occurring within the last decade of fashion – the influence of Alexander McQueen, Rick Owens, Yohji Yamamoto, Ann Demeulemeester and even Rimowa’s minimalist suitcases; contemporary architecture, such as more industrial-centric aesthetics and materials; and finally, athletic design shifts among wider luxury symbols, like small sailcraft and personal aircraft desired and owned by Rolls-Royce’s clientele. On a Black Badge, the chrome brightwork, including the iconic Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament, is reimagined in black, and brighter colour options (not unlike what you’d find on a Lamborghini) add unexpected contrasts. Instead of the more decorative and traditional materials (like lacquered woodwork), exhaustively engineered technical materials (like Technical Fibre, a new surface finish made by hand-laying metal threads between layers of carbon fibre), and aircraft-grade aluminium are defining this new aesthetic. In Spectre Black Badge, which debuts that new surface material, the addition of a new, coloured and illuminated Pantheon Grille, as well as futuristic-style illumination throughout the cabin and digital cockpit, among other details and options, give it a cool, cyberpunk aesthetic – which on paper, sounds like everything Rolls-Royce is not, but it is equally evident of new-gen client desires. <img width="2048" height="1152" width_o="2048" height_o="1152" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d6f9519a74d01f0799d51885344dae6ede226e0fdce9f6ce625f4a9b4637a3ae/TILE-P90587826_highRes_rolls-royce-black-ba-copy-2048x1152.jpg" data-mid="242151733" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d6f9519a74d01f0799d51885344dae6ede226e0fdce9f6ce625f4a9b4637a3ae/TILE-P90587826_highRes_rolls-royce-black-ba-copy-2048x1152.jpg" /> The Millennial-Z influence is not exclusive to the beginning of Rolls-Royce ownership; it’s also shaping how client communities are formed – the money-can-buy element is a tiny part of how luxury brands are now expected to behave. Speaking to these shifts in expectations and social-media habits, Rolls-Royce now has its own digital private members’ club, called Whispers. A social media-adjacent app exclusively available to clients, Whispers functions as a tool for Rolls-Royce to communicate with clients directly and share relevant content, like bespoke creations, products, events, services and even general-interest editorial, either crafted in-house or curated from sources, including Esquire Australia. Since its launch 2020, other makers have tried to replicate Whispers for their customers, though few have managed to tap into community quite as successfully, partly because of issues around privacy. “I’ve been surprised by how safe people feel in the community,” Christopher Hardy, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ product manager for Spectre, tells us about the app. “In this day and age, you don’t know who’s who on social media. Whereas if you’re on Whispers, you have to have a Rolls-Royce to use it. It’s not about showing off by any means, because everyone’s achieved a certain level of wealth to be in there. But it’s surprising how much they want to share and to celebrate their success,” he says. “Compared to what happens on, say, Instagram, they’re able to share in a very safe place where there’s a level of appreciation and where they’re not going to be judged or commented on.” The paradox of a client who seeks a bolder, more irreverent and, arguably, more noticeable car yet also craves invisibility in their personal life is a tension growing within a brand like Rolls-Royce. It’s also a sign of things to come. Buyers are using irreverence as a form of new-gen self-expression. A Rolls-Royce with attitude hits the mark. Yet alongside this desire to be seen is a craving for the opposite: to retreat into curated and personalised privacy. And Rolls-Royce is uniquely able to offer both. It is, at once, the most conspicuous badge on the street, with the most discreet sanctuary behind the wheel. That duality of heritage and modernity, visibility and invisibility, is what keeps the brand magnetic to a new generation rewriting the meaning of luxury. It’s also keeping the rest of the industry on its toes. <img width="2723" height="3609" width_o="2723" height_o="3609" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ee6b9f521bc70d6fd1a362fbf4fa68807330ae83965e41b208b38baf2c1f6b8d/066_ESQ12_BULLETIN_ROLLS_066.jpg" data-mid="242151737" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ee6b9f521bc70d6fd1a362fbf4fa68807330ae83965e41b208b38baf2c1f6b8d/066_ESQ12_BULLETIN_ROLLS_066.jpg" /> <img width="2723" height="3609" width_o="2723" height_o="3609" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bd14421adf4b1354ad33b99022ddd9c2855cda39e955903cf619ba6fafb6c7bf/067_ESQ12_BULLETIN_ROLLS_067.jpg" data-mid="242151738" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bd14421adf4b1354ad33b99022ddd9c2855cda39e955903cf619ba6fafb6c7bf/067_ESQ12_BULLETIN_ROLLS_067.jpg" /> https://noellefaulkner.com/Raging-Into-The-Future-How-the-Lamborghini-Temerario-is-shaping-the Thu, 25 Dec 2025 08:27:25 +0000 noelle faulkner https://noellefaulkner.com/Raging-Into-The-Future-How-the-Lamborghini-Temerario-is-shaping-the Raging Into The Future: How the Lamborghini Temerario is shaping the future of the supercar Esquire Australia, November 2025 (link) (PDF) (social media&nbsp;video)&nbsp;Sliding into the limelight left by the V10 Huracán is no easy feat, but the new Lamborghini Temerario proves the electrified future of the super sports car is just as bright.&nbsp; <img width="9118" height="5664" width_o="9118" height_o="5664" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/40c356118c81744a8939bf8458958e7062bdd517940ba1bcc6bb0b42d8353c85/Lamborghini-.jpg" data-mid="242151672" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/40c356118c81744a8939bf8458958e7062bdd517940ba1bcc6bb0b42d8353c85/Lamborghini-.jpg" />Ask any inventor or creative, and they’ll tell you: the romance of the blank page, the open brief or the bottomless budget is a myth. History has proved that limitation – the seemingly suffocating force on creativity – is the number one catalyst for innovation. The best chefs work with what’s in season; the best designers pursue beauty through utility; and the most important inventions of our time materialised during periods of scarcity. And now, amid a new era of restrictions, regulations and emerging customer behaviours, this very same concept is redefining one of the most heralded, indulgent and visceral icons of freedom – the super sports car. While enthusiasts may lament the departure of their beloved high-drama V10 and V12 engines, over in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy, Lamborghini – a marque deeply anchored to these engines – is embracing the industry’s new friction points. Not by abandoning its identity, but by reinterpreting it through new petrol-hybrid powertrains, software technology, engineering mastery and a healthy dose of boundary pushing. Enter: a new era of the Raging Bull, and its latest masterstroke of a machine, the Temerario. For a decade, the agile, compact and dramatic Lamborghini Huracán ruled through iconography, a range of multiple variants and major commercial and motorsport successes. As the entry-level, two-door Lamborghini, it carried through the legacy of the Gallardo, the original V10 Lamborghini and the first car to be introduced under Audi’s (and its parent company, Volkswagen Group) leadership. And it’s this weight of legacy that’s now being placed on the new Temerario – importantly, not a V10, but a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 petrol-electric hybrid. <img width="1050" height="1380" width_o="1050" height_o="1380" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/22fa614f0ce57df1844665206111fd6f834323c4cc62b54b126ff3137b9f255f/TILE-657552.jpg" data-mid="242151675" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/22fa614f0ce57df1844665206111fd6f834323c4cc62b54b126ff3137b9f255f/TILE-657552.jpg" /> A new charge The concept of the hybrid supercar (Lamborghini refers to them as ‘super sports cars’, and always female, fun fact) is not new. Over the years, there have been many examples of combined-power halo cars that have gone on to become legends. There is, of course, the holy trinity of the 2010s, the Ferrari LaFerrari, McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spider, which enthralled the world at a time when hybrid meant “Toyota Prius”.&nbsp; More recently, thanks to leaps in engineering (and a little Formula 1 inspiration), we’ve seen and been wowed by the McLaren Speedtail and W1, Ferrari SF90, Aston Martin Valkyrie and Valhalla, Mercedes-AMG ONE and Lamborghini Sián, among others. Where the holy trinity was created as more proof-of-concept showcases of the technology, and those newer super and hyper cars mentioned were either special edition, limited run or, like the SF90, technically a series production car (but still only available to a few), the Temerario joins an ever-growing list of new production (meaning more available, part of a marque’s regular line-up and not as limited) super sports cars, which are the result of integration of hybridised powertrains into the roadmap of supercar makers’ future.Essentially, electrification is no longer a party trick, but a core product strategy for major performance marques. See also: McLaren Artura, Ferrari 296, the Temerario’s cousin car, the Lamborghini Revuelto V12 hybrid; and technically not a supercar in the same league as the others (depending on whom you ask), but an important new model to note that’s expected to take the battery-assisted route when it launches this year – the Porsche 911 Turbo. Emissions, noise and safety regulations represent one challenge. Another is the emerging flop era of the battery electric vehicle – yes, hype still abounds, but sales are softening, resale is a major customer concern, automotive group electric targets are being redrawn, and many legacy makers are realising it’s becoming very hard to compete with China (not that Lamborghini or Ferrari have that problem). Even Lamborghini CEO and president Stephan Winkelmann admitted to us at the launch of the Temerario that shifts in customer sentiment and acceptance around BEVs, particularly within the super sports car segment, are causing Lamborghini to look at “every option” for their next and fourth new car, which has been delayed and was originally expected to be pure electric. This all affects what is, arguably, the biggest uphill battle: as older production models (read: icons), like the Huracán and the Revuelto’s predecessor, the Aventador, get retired, it’s not so much about developing a shiny new halo car, as it was in the past, but developing a new breed of super sports car, within these limitations, that still holds up against what came before. And it must be impressive enough to bring those petrol-head purists and past and emerging customers into the future and along for the ride. Even if it’s a little bit quieter. <img width="8192" height="5464" width_o="8192" height_o="5464" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5f4e55978f6894450f231812ce2c24f3d6022db05949fb31c226b968277ea868/Lamborghini-01.jpg" data-mid="242151673" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5f4e55978f6894450f231812ce2c24f3d6022db05949fb31c226b968277ea868/Lamborghini-01.jpg" /> Emotion by wire With several years of development under its belt, the shark-nosed, clean-lined Temerario is an extremely impressive machine. It brags a sum of numbers the Huracán could never [match?] – and keep in mind, this is the entry-level two-seater Lambo (starting from $613,885, plus on-road costs): 677kW (907hp) of power, a maximum speed of 343km/h, a rocket ship launch of 0-100km/h in 2.7 seconds – and a roaring redline of 10,000rpm, which is unheard of in production and performance twin-turbos. The electric side of things is where a lot of the magic happens: a 3.8kWh, lithium-ion high specific power battery pack and three electric motors (two on the front axle, one on the crankshaft towards the rear) and in-house developed software. As impressive as they are, those numbers are just part of the reason electric-petrol powertrain and software combinations are tempting engineers to see how far they can push things towards the edge. The rest is in the innovative ways Lamborghini is using electronic assistance to create new levels of playfulness, agility and adrenaline-fuelled feels. <img width="1380" height="1050" width_o="1380" height_o="1050" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f55a425440a57da69e762611278d79242743c877c7737cd58493ac4ca1ef87cb/TILE-657548.jpg" data-mid="242151678" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f55a425440a57da69e762611278d79242743c877c7737cd58493ac4ca1ef87cb/TILE-657548.jpg" /> Lamborghinis are highly emotional vehicles, full of soul, drama and voracity – attributes often linked to the now-gone V10. And as Winkelmann points out, these cars are not just defined by their straight-line speed – that’s the easy part. “Performance is driven not by just acceleration and top speed, but by emotion, handling, behaviour,” he says. “All of this is paramount for our cars, and therefore, the racer experience is much more important than just going straight and fast.” As such, the Temerario is very much a drama queen across the board. There are very few visceral, adrenaline-heavy experiences close to the insane, slightly terrifying feeling of being behind the wheel and dive-bombing down a race track at over 300km/h to a raging redline of 10,000rpm, to then stand on the brakes before a corner hoping the car stays stable, sticks and turns in where you need it to. Or, switching it to its three-level “drift mode”, burning bespoke-developed, Temerario-exclusive, Bridgestone Potenza Race rubber around a chicane and again, hoping it’s nimble, powerful and precise enough to hold you in and get you out of the drift – even if you mess it up. All these things we did in the Temerario (and lived to tell the tale) with ease – this car is an incredibly intuitive wonder. It can and will suffer fools. Straight out of the gate and at the limit. Importantly, none of this would have been possible without the electric system under the skin. The combination means new levels of agility, grip, precision and balance. This is thanks to the house-developed algorithms in the four drive modes, the&nbsp;battery and tri-motor placement and things like electric torque vectoring on the front wheels (which controls how much power is sent to each wheel upon cornering). There is also the sheer linear power delivery – if you’ve ever driven an EV, you’ll be familiar with this – which works in tandem with the engine to propel the car, stabilise upon braking and fill the gaps in the turbos. Finally, that unheard of but oh-so-holy rev limit? Again, all thanks to the hybrid system.According to Lamborghini’s chief technical officer, Dr Ing. Rouven Mohr, the turbos in the Temerario are so large (over 70mm) that without the electrical system assisting the engine, it would be undrivable, and the compact packaging – very different. This, he says, was key to making sure this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill turbocharged engine. “We wanted to give the car, the engine, a completely different character compared to other turbocharged engines,” he said. “The concept is only working with this hybrid component. Without the hybrid component, we would have to downsize the turbochargers. If we had to downsize the turbochargers, you could forget the high revs.” The sum of parts that make up the software, algorithms and behaviour of the system, as Mohr says, “is how we create emotion”. <img width="1380" height="1050" width_o="1380" height_o="1050" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1feb79a895965336a440eb034d7f6506897a4389cfc2d150303609686b34552d/TILE-654520.jpg" data-mid="242151679" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1feb79a895965336a440eb034d7f6506897a4389cfc2d150303609686b34552d/TILE-654520.jpg" /> Hedonistic machine made for modern living Lamborghini noticed that a third of its customers were using their Huracán as a daily driver, so making the Temerario as liveable and versatile as possible, without losing its specialness, was key. This isn’t a tendency exclusive to Lamborghini customers, but one we are seeing across the board: luxury supercar owners are increasingly inclined to drive their investments, as often as possible, so carmakers are all facing new challenges around space and use case. To achieve this in the Temerario, every component had to be extremely compact and lightweight, and its muscular, streamlined body has been shaped around a new aluminium chassis that makes more room possible. Lamborghini claims the Temerario has more space for passengers and luggage than any of its competitors and, compared to its predecessor, more ergonomic seating, more legroom, more visibility, more cargo space (112-litres under the front hood, plus space behind the seats) and enough headroom to accommodate those up to 200-cm tall, even when wearing a helmet. And for those on the shorter side of things (me, at 158cm), even the low-profile, race-seat option can be raised high enough for optimal visibility, without the use of a folded piece of clothing or pillow as a makeshift booster – which is not something many others can claim, take it from me and my track-day pillow. The drivetrain is, too, designed to behave as a theoretical grand tourer when it needs to. The addition of an eighth gear, for example, allows it to cruise comfortably on the highway and reduce fuel consumption. Once again, all crucial elements for Lamborghini’s next gen super sports car, but challenges in the pursuit of agile performance, nonetheless. The increasingly digital world we live in is also impacting the future of the supercar, and it’s a factor we’ve seen many marques struggle with across screen size, software UX, integrated connectivity and haptic touch versus tactile buttons. In the case of some brands, like Ferrari’s recent shift back to a physical start button in the new Amalfi, it seems the struggle to find balance and luxury purity is real. There is an argument for the old-school feel of tactile switches and buttons, especially when we look at the highly advanced, software-dependent, lower-price-bracket vehicles coming out of China – many technologies once considered premium have been devalued. “In a Lamborghini, you feel like a pilot,” Lamborghini’s director of design, Mitja Borkert, tells us. “You will see everywhere [in the Temerario], Lamborghini buttons. This is something we have been criticised for in the past, but today, we have one language, every knob and every button is Lamborghini.” <img width="1380" height="1050" width_o="1380" height_o="1050" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e80b412efe95ab316cf0cf4c76a4dd5b3cbac21cb956ae4f8ac7d661557f1906/TILE-interior.jpg" data-mid="242151676" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e80b412efe95ab316cf0cf4c76a4dd5b3cbac21cb956ae4f8ac7d661557f1906/TILE-interior.jpg" />‘Pilot Interaction’ is Lamborghini’s name for user experience, and indeed, like the cars that came before, the Temerario very much has that fighter-jet cockpit feel. “You have screens, but we are not the king of television screens; we have the right amount of information, focused for the pilot.” This includes a small floating central screen that can ‘swipe’ information across to a secondary, thin passenger screen, set into the dashboard in front of the passenger. As an option, there’s also a fantastic, Temerario-bespoke, seven-speaker sound system from high-end, ultra-niche Italian brand Sonus Faber on the table – which has its own lore of mind-blowing engineering behind its creation as well. Another desire emerging in the digital-native customer, one that Paolo Racchetti, director of model line Temerario, admits he found surprising, is the enthusiasm for sharing content made within the vehicle, such as video footage and telemetry data. This is a feature that first arrived on the track-focused, road-legal Huracán STO, and has evolved for Temerario, resulting in a three-camera setup, inside and outside the car. It also utilises Lamborghini’s customer app, UNICA, which is connected to the car and has a wide range of use cases, including continuously monitoring the car’s fuel, battery charge, range and location. “Telemetry is seen not only as an instrument to analyse the driver’s ability, but it’s now seen as an opportunity to share their lap times on social media platforms,” Racchetti says. “That’s why we have developed not only telemetry, but also the memory recorder, so you can record up to two minutes of [continuous] video on the road. I really think that this kind of experience will grow and grow and grow in the future.” Now in its 62nd year, Lamborghini remains as one of the most recognisable and audacious brands within the automotive space – which may sound like a powerful position, but comes with many uphill battles within an ever-evolving, data-driven and regulation-heavy space, particularly in terms of keeping the purity of a high-performance vehicle, as we know it, alive. “You have to be disruptive by keeping the Lamborghini brand a shining star,” Winkelmann says. “Because one of the things I learn constantly is that there is no still-standing value; there is constant adaptation, not only on the technology, which is obvious, but also the &lt;change&gt; of technology, which is a bit more difficult to see and to accept. And, last but not least, the brand values are changing with all the things that are happening around the globe, new generations stepping in, and so you have to be disruptive and protective at the same time. You have to push. You have to drive.” Despite everything, the thrill of the chase in Sant’Agata doesn’t just happen on the track; it happens within all the limitations now being placed upon the storied super sports car. “You know, it’s a good moment in time to be in the automotive business,” says Winkelmann with a smile, after we give him our gushing feedback on this weapon of a car between laps. “Because you can be the driver of the change in a way that the people can continue to love your products. And as long as we can achieve this, I think we are on the right track.”<img width="2479" height="3365" width_o="2479" height_o="3365" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e8f5d32efd9d6daea75e55a810c0ef701685ffe14520b89eff414a2274353ae4/ESQ12-LAMBORGHINI-TEMERARIO--SEPTEMBER-2025-01.jpg" data-mid="242151690" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e8f5d32efd9d6daea75e55a810c0ef701685ffe14520b89eff414a2274353ae4/ESQ12-LAMBORGHINI-TEMERARIO--SEPTEMBER-2025-01.jpg" /> <img width="2479" height="3365" width_o="2479" height_o="3365" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/29adde688764569c6cd9c4f78ce4f4dbd97e50004a9f57d81d2b0cc2f6067d83/ESQ12-LAMBORGHINI-TEMERARIO--SEPTEMBER-2025-02.jpg" data-mid="242151691" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/29adde688764569c6cd9c4f78ce4f4dbd97e50004a9f57d81d2b0cc2f6067d83/ESQ12-LAMBORGHINI-TEMERARIO--SEPTEMBER-2025-02.jpg" /> <img width="2479" height="3365" width_o="2479" height_o="3365" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1d2a9106a8449ed37b90a6bf6343f31010e886ec010da6b38e4eea447f754f70/ESQ12-LAMBORGHINI-TEMERARIO--SEPTEMBER-2025-03.jpg" data-mid="242151692" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1d2a9106a8449ed37b90a6bf6343f31010e886ec010da6b38e4eea447f754f70/ESQ12-LAMBORGHINI-TEMERARIO--SEPTEMBER-2025-03.jpg" /><img width="2479" height="3365" width_o="2479" height_o="3365" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/adb9439bdfbdf04a86bef119500db381024882d66b9086d650dcce51bf39cc11/ESQ12-LAMBORGHINI-TEMERARIO--SEPTEMBER-2025-04.jpg" data-mid="242151693" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/adb9439bdfbdf04a86bef119500db381024882d66b9086d650dcce51bf39cc11/ESQ12-LAMBORGHINI-TEMERARIO--SEPTEMBER-2025-04.jpg" /><img width="2479" height="3365" width_o="2479" height_o="3365" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/68d2ecba608d34ad324a52f116bb20f15dafbe2b2652fd431f1992466812a247/ESQ12-LAMBORGHINI-TEMERARIO--SEPTEMBER-2025-05.jpg" data-mid="242151694" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/68d2ecba608d34ad324a52f116bb20f15dafbe2b2652fd431f1992466812a247/ESQ12-LAMBORGHINI-TEMERARIO--SEPTEMBER-2025-05.jpg" /> <img width="2479" height="3365" width_o="2479" height_o="3365" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8d957ddd0a4cf7118cc81eecdcbd81027a88321a5f7d0eace2ea83ac3df8a599/ESQ12-LAMBORGHINI-TEMERARIO--SEPTEMBER-2025-06.jpg" data-mid="242151695" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8d957ddd0a4cf7118cc81eecdcbd81027a88321a5f7d0eace2ea83ac3df8a599/ESQ12-LAMBORGHINI-TEMERARIO--SEPTEMBER-2025-06.jpg" /> https://noellefaulkner.com/The-fast-and-the-curious-inside-the-rise-of-Formula-1-fandom Thu, 25 Dec 2025 10:05:33 +0000 noelle faulkner https://noellefaulkner.com/The-fast-and-the-curious-inside-the-rise-of-Formula-1-fandom The fast and the curious: inside the rise of Formula 1 fandomEsquire Australia, March 2024 (link) (PDF) If you think 'Drive to Survive' is solely behind the rise of Formula 1’s skyrocketing fandom, think again. A perfect storm of media hype, the rise of the creator economy and no small amount of ‘girl power’ have created a phenomenon. The question now: will fans’ love be requited? <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9d38296d4be4931ea6bf00252d4e729dadea262c4ec981c3df641dd7bec2f768/Oscar-Piastri-fans.jpg" data-mid="242152001" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9d38296d4be4931ea6bf00252d4e729dadea262c4ec981c3df641dd7bec2f768/Oscar-Piastri-fans.jpg" />“I’ll give you an Estie Bestie for an Oscar Pastry,” said a voice behind me. I was standing at the edge of a huge group of fans at the 2024 Australian Grand Prix. The fashion, vibe and energy were akin to a music festival and everyone was gathered to catch a glimpse of their favourite motorsport superstar, as they made their way into the paddock. I whipped around, curious to see what was being exchanged, to find two teenage girls, arms full of handmade plastic friendship bracelets in various team colours, swapping blue for orange: an Estie Bestie (a fan- derived moniker for Alpine driver Esteban Ocon) for an Oscar ‘Pastry’ (Oscar Piastri, Australian driver for McLaren Racing). A fair trade, they agreed. When I looked around at the hands holding giant printed heads of drivers and handmade posters, I saw arms carrying bracelets for Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris and even Mercedes-AMG Petronas team principal Toto Wolff. I later found out from Piastri himself – who left the Australian Grand Prix weekend with “at least 50” bracelets – that this trend, made famous by the Swiftie community, was new for Melbourne but had been emerging within the young, female F1 fandom communities at various races over the past year alongside the Taylor Swift Eras Tour. It seems the power of Swift’s influence over fan behaviour can infiltrate even the male- dominated world of motor racing, but such is the so-called ‘fangirlification’ of F1. Fact: the fangirl has been haunted by gendered and often weaponised tropes and hit with labels like “hysterical” and “crazy”. Yet, in the case of any sector they disrupt, be it music or in this case, F1, they are often highly informed experts with extensive knowledge, deep cultural understanding of their chosen topic and huge economic power. And they move in groups. You don’t need to identify as a girl to be a fangirl, either. Sure, the culture itself is rooted in many shared social experiences of girlhood, but being a fangirl is less about gender and more about bringing a new sense of shared fun, creativity and a desire to be informed. It’s an outward-facing, highly visible celebration of passion. Like it or not, as we’ve seen happen in music and film, the ‘fangirl’ is now shaping storytelling and promoting diversity within elite sports – and nowhere has this been more evident than in Formula 1. <img width="1920" height="1280" width_o="1920" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/81c95bd1681e451d1d636372397fcc04ff1021669828daa9e314482301c51c7d/GettyImages-1560135260.jpg" data-mid="242152004" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/81c95bd1681e451d1d636372397fcc04ff1021669828daa9e314482301c51c7d/GettyImages-1560135260.jpg" />If you consumed only American media about F1 in the past few years, you’d likely think that Netflix’s Drive to Survive is solely responsible for the sport’s rise. You’d also assume that F1 has never previously enjoyed passionate and devoted fandom, a ridiculous, even infuriating supposition in a sport that’s hosted many storied rivalries and historic teams, especially in this part of the world. The FIA Formula One World Championship, as it is officially known, has been consistently one of the most followed and witnessed global sports since its debut in 1950. And while variations of the Australian Grand Prix have existed since the ’20s, we became part of the F1 World Championship in 1985. Australia even holds two of the top three attendance records across race weekends. At number one, the 1995 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide (520,000 people); and at number three, this year’s race at Albert Park (452,055); with the 2023 British Grand Prix sitting between the two (480,000). Where fans were once relegated to quieter, more insular ways of supporting and talking about their love of the sport, what has changed the game is the mainstream acceptance, visibility, media attention and online behaviour, as well as a culture of social signalling, leading to a wider audience hungry for stories and eager for a sense of belonging and community connection. “When I started, we were photocopying press releases and hand-distributing them to journalists,” laughs Bradley Lord, chief communications officer of Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team. “In Monaco, they’d print out press releases and get a boat across the harbour to the media centre, where there were still typewriters in the 2000s. But the world is completely different, and the nature of fandom has shifted with the nature of media. What I mean by that is the accessibility, immediacy, instantaneity of social media has driven a much hungrier and information-rich, or information-demanding, fan culture than we’ve ever had before.” Lord adds: “Fundamentally, we’ve seen a strong desire to see behind the scenes, the front and back of house, what happens away from the garage and the racetrack, to what it’s like in the engineering briefings.” <img width="1920" height="1280" width_o="1920" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/70b7e1813082749778916fc31d2665594c9aeab3f0ff115c323c8964898c0a4f/GettyImages-2136824868.jpg" data-mid="242152005" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/70b7e1813082749778916fc31d2665594c9aeab3f0ff115c323c8964898c0a4f/GettyImages-2136824868.jpg" />The go-to narrative for the past couple of years has attributed this spike in interest to Drive to Survive. It’s a fair assumption, for the series was a catalyst for those behind- the-racing storylines. Since the documentary series’ 2019 launch, F1’s fandom has grown and become more diverse in gender identity, location and engagement. The most recent figures for 2023, released by F1’s parent company Liberty Media, claim a fan attendance of six million (up five per cent on 2022) across 23 races, 1.5 billion cumulative TV viewers and 70.5 million social-media followers. F1 has become the fastest-growing league on social media for four consecutive years, it claims. This, as Stefano Domenicali, Formula 1 president and CEO points out, is strengthened by the increasing number of young and female fans actively engaging with the sport. Recent figures from F1 show that female fans now make up 40 per cent of global fandom, with the average age sitting at around 32. Today, Drive To Survive’s viewership is declining, which, if you take a closer look at the forces driving fan engagement, may not come as a surprise. The fact is, the series was just one element of a perfect storm that, despite many sports’ attempts to replicate, may never happen again.“Whenever I talk about Drive to Survive, I always bring up social media and the rise of the creator economy,” says Toni Cowan-Brown, an F1 and tech commentator, educator and content creator, whose work circles the business of fandoms. “Because had it not been for the creator economy, you would have had a lot of people watch Drive to Survive and maybe talk about it with a few friends, and that’s it. But what happened was the rise of TikTok, where people didn’t just talk about F1, they made content about it, which meant all of a sudden these virtual online communities were happening. New fans hungry to learn were discovering it through social-media channels that spoke to their interests, while the already-existing silent fans had more spaces to engage and talk about the sport.” <img width="1080" height="1350" width_o="1080" height_o="1350" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b7f583814b725360ee7aea2ca18dca21cb98ebe01252be5a0236a405710e6aef/Lewis-Hamilton-F1-fandom.jpg" data-mid="242152008" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b7f583814b725360ee7aea2ca18dca21cb98ebe01252be5a0236a405710e6aef/Lewis-Hamilton-F1-fandom.jpg" />There are other contributing factors at play. Drive to Survive’s first season was in 2019, but it was the 2020-21 lockdowns when people, hungry for sport, engaging storytelling and a sense of belonging and community, started to really tune in. Locked-down and race-less, some of the younger drivers took to streaming channels like Twitch to broadcast their days, their personal lives, relationships with other drivers and online SIM races. All at once, F1 was engaging at a highly personable and accessible level with the gaming, streaming, racing and fan communities – this wasn’t exclusively a teen thing, either. Let’s not forget the rise in adults who got into gaming during the pandemic. This is what threw gasoline on the already-hot profiles of Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Lando Norris and Alex Albon, known as the ‘Twitch Quartet’, and the casual and intimate nature of streaming is one of the reasons these four have such passionate young fanbases to this day. “The pale, male and stale-ness of F1 made it ripe for disruption,” says Cowan-Brown, who also created Sunday Fangirls, a brand that speaks to the growing number of ‘fangirls’ within sports. Like team wear and the Swiftie-inspired bracelets, these fan and community-created merchandise lines, of which there are many, are now common sights at the races, acting as social signals and giving this new wave of fans a sense of presence, visibility and belonging IRL. <img width="1080" height="1350" width_o="1080" height_o="1350" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a12bf1c7099482cc85c58d97925bce0fb28c5f86140d7c976d86d554adaa81f9/GettyImages-1650319839-1.jpg" data-mid="242152009" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a12bf1c7099482cc85c58d97925bce0fb28c5f86140d7c976d86d554adaa81f9/GettyImages-1650319839-1.jpg" />Scratch the surface and you’ll find subcultures within the subculture, speaking to any and every niche adjacent to the sport: fashion, technology, engineering, pop culture, gossip and business. “[F1’s past] meant that every time someone vocalised something online, they had to face the backlash of that existing community,” Cowan- Brown says. “Which is where a lot of people then went, Okay, cool. I need to create my own community over here.” This was the case with Two Girls 1 Formula (TG1F), a podcast, discord community and Y2K-styled merchandise line that sits at the intersection of F1 and pop culture. Think a 2000s skate-inspired crew neck with a flaming’ ‘RICCIARDHOE’ across the chest or ‘F1D’, a play on the British boy band with an illustration of Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, George Russell, Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton and the words ‘Formula One Direction’. There are plenty more. Founded by long-time US-based F1 fans Kate Byrne and Nicole Sievers, TG1F was born out of a desire to connect with like-minded fans that spoke their cultural language. “We found ourselves immersed in the online content coming from F1 drivers and the fan community, and we began sending each other memes and videos every day,” says Byrne. “After searching the internet for female content creators discussing F1 in the way we wanted to – Charles in glasses on Twitch, Kimi Räikkönen’s adorable family, Carlos Sainz’s girlfriend, etc – we weren’t seeing much, so we chose to do it ourselves, knowing we couldn’t be the only ones who wanted to have these conversations.” While the podcast-scape is not lacking in F1 commentary from traditional media or partner brands, TG1F is one of a growing number of fan-turned-creators, commentators and educators garnering a loyal and highly engaged following – a good example of how media and sport are being disrupted by digital communities. <img width="840" height="840" width_o="840" height_o="840" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/55b3b8ea600068896f9641cc83fefc60f9ca16b755b0d47267ab49ae60f33b2b/Screenshot-2024-04-10-at-8.49.06am.jpg" data-mid="242152010" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/840/i/55b3b8ea600068896f9641cc83fefc60f9ca16b755b0d47267ab49ae60f33b2b/Screenshot-2024-04-10-at-8.49.06am.jpg" />“The main ingredient for success is simply connection and making sure your audience knows that you’re real, you care and you appreciate them,” says Sievers. “When we started the TG1F Instagram and Discord, we received countless messages from people expressing how thankful they were to find us because they didn’t have anyone else in their lives to share their love of F1 with.” Sievers continues: “We’ve seen friendships blossom that wouldn’t have happened without this sport that we all love. Members who met on our Discord now travel internationally together for races, meet each other’s new babies, attend their weddings, start hobby groups dedicated to passions outside of F1 and so much more. The power of a community cannot be understated when it comes to developing lifelong connections.” Rashi Gaur is the India-based creator behind Hamazinglew, an insanely detailed Instagram account dedicated to decoding Sir Lewis Hamilton’s fashion. Gaur has been an F1 and Hamilton fan since 2011 and started documenting the Mercedes driver’s sartorial choices in 2018, using her own research methodologies. Over the years, Gaur has built such a resource for fans and fashion lovers, with a fairly even gender split – “Men really do want to know what he’s wearing” – that she’s garnered relationships with Hamilton’s past and present stylists.His current one, Eric McNeal, often helps her with custom or emerging designer credits and Hamilton himself has acknowledged the work she does. With 24.4k followers and an eagle fashion eye, Gaur’s page is often the first port of call for a brand to find out it has been worn by Hamilton – and the community she’s built now uses it as a resource for their raceday outfit planning (another buzzy talking point among F1 fan communities). “I started watching F1 in high school,” she says. “So it’s not like young people are new to the sport. But back then, no-one was talking about a lot of these new subjects – women in motorsport, the technical stuff or what goes on behind the scenes and nobody talked about what a driver was wearing. This younger community perspective is what’s leading to new topics and discussions happening. And it’s great to see.” The fandom is not without its dark sides – stalking, boundary-crossing, aggressive bullying, for example – and this even spills into how fans engage with the teams. According to Lord, fan behaviour can become quite intense in the case of a rivalry like that of Max Verstappen vs Sir Lewis Hamilton. “The intensity of fandom has grown very steadily, but with that, we’ve seen the partisan nature of the fandom also grow,” he says. “So, like we’ve seen in many spheres of life, social media generally pushes reactions to emotional extremes.” Beyond the emotion, hungry fans are not just engaging with what’s fed to them – they’re investigating and sniffing out their own stories to tell. Take the launch of Hamilton’s non-alcoholic tequila, Almave, for example. After watching Hamilton drink a glass of liquid on camera at the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix, the TeamLH community deciphered a jumbled username of a vague Instagram account followed by Hamilton, figured out the product name and launch date, searched registries to discover what the product was and scooped the reveal. The question everyone asked was: fandom feat or a marketing easter egg placed by the British driver himself? <img width="1920" height="1280" width_o="1920" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b41e3ac3333eb73592bfb1a91a6e187175c755f91647cc457839c49fd5e22884/GettyImages-2141943726.jpg" data-mid="242152012" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b41e3ac3333eb73592bfb1a91a6e187175c755f91647cc457839c49fd5e22884/GettyImages-2141943726.jpg" />There’s no doubting the enormous growth and power the new wave of fandom has brought to the sport. But the question arises: is F1 giving back as much as it’s taking? The answer is a resounding, ‘no’. “A really important point we all should be discussing is how much Formula 1 takes from the fans,” says Gaur, pointing out that F1 barely works with creators or fan communities. “On one side, I am really happy to see F1 now talking about things fans are interested in, like fashion. But at the same time, you see a lot of concepts and ideas taken from so many amazing creators.” There is plenty of evidence that F1 and its teams are watching creator and fan culture and copy/pasting for engagement – see the rise of driver and even team boss thirst traps, clickable narratives, fan nicknames adopted by teams, hyping rivalries/friendships and merchandise ideas. An example of what’s happening in merch is F1 fan and X user Rie (@High5Forever), who trolled F1 teams to release bucket hats for years and (mostly) succeeded. “It’s become much more of a conversation,” says Lord on the influence and hunger of the fans. “It’s certainly forced us to be much more responsive and reactive. And I think, as a sport, we do listen a lot more to the fanbase than we once did.”Lord points out that the global and commercial nature of F1 makes it complicated for a team like Mercedes-AMG to work with content creators directly, even if they wanted to. “It’s an area where we do try and be active. It’s a complicated one, given the broadcast rights within F1. And that’s a space that – quite rightly as a huge pillar of F1’s revenue is TV rights and local broadcast rights and protecting the perimeter that those companies have invested in – is really important. Finding how creators plus those broadcasters work together is something that is not easy to make work in a way that protects our partners, F1’s partners and enables independent creativity, as well.” <img width="1920" height="1280" width_o="1920" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d20cb9dad977ea342509448b3d469c71edcc68a3e7840242ce3dc52877efa56d/GettyImages-1638243898.jpg" data-mid="242152013" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d20cb9dad977ea342509448b3d469c71edcc68a3e7840242ce3dc52877efa56d/GettyImages-1638243898.jpg" />Other sources, who asked not to be named, told Esquire that some of this comes down to the increasing restrictions Netflix is placing on F1 as it struggles with viewership, and a desire to control and be the go-to for off-track narratives. This, we were told, also explains why we don’t see as much behind-the-scenes video content, live streaming and team- produced narratives as we once did. The hype cycle dictates that, after a spike in interest, there is a trough of disillusionment, followed by a plateau. We’re seeing this shift now, where creators, communities and fans are starting to question if the excitement around F1 will continue. “In my opinion, the biggest misconception is that this growth is sustainable,” offers Sievers. “A lot of the community-building work is being done by fans who care deeply about the sport and the friends they’ve made along the way . . . F1 teams, and the sport as a whole, will need to increase their levels of nurturing and growing their communities if they want to continue seeing the success.” Cowan-Brown is less subtle: “Something I have questioned is, what’s going to happen to all the fandoms who entered the sport via a content creator if that creator pivots and decides this is no longer for them? What percentage of that fandom is so invested in Formula 1 that they’re going to stay? And what percentage of that fandom goes, I’m going wherever you are?” The fact is, every fan we spoke to on the ground at the Australian Grand Prix and in communities for this article has the same ask: fangirls bring economic spend and power, cultural relevancy, community and knowledge and all they want is to be seen. “All we’re asking for is the bare minimum,” says Cowan-Brown. “We’re asking for respect, to be seen and heard and feel safe at the races. “For everything the fans and the content creators have brought to this sport, the bare minimum is just engaging with us. You can’t use us and not at least acknowledge us.” <img width="4960" height="3366" width_o="4960" height_o="3366" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4f656226c17e94033575eea322e1733649eed39a37f09c99b82cbd693cce0681/ESQ6_WELL_Fandom_FA.jpg" data-mid="242152124" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4f656226c17e94033575eea322e1733649eed39a37f09c99b82cbd693cce0681/ESQ6_WELL_Fandom_FA.jpg" /><img width="4960" height="3366" width_o="4960" height_o="3366" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/31018c410acc647a9a55dec86a4d8718741bb3e2e038e2180382bef22cc3bf85/ESQ6_WELL_Fandom_FA-spread-02a.jpg" data-mid="242152130" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/31018c410acc647a9a55dec86a4d8718741bb3e2e038e2180382bef22cc3bf85/ESQ6_WELL_Fandom_FA-spread-02a.jpg" /> <img width="4960" height="3366" width_o="4960" height_o="3366" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/17d07edaebc3a7773c54db44203f8dab5b93c6a94a9bc90b1cb9be7de7973a83/ESQ6_WELL_Fandom_FA-spread-02.jpg" data-mid="242152129" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/17d07edaebc3a7773c54db44203f8dab5b93c6a94a9bc90b1cb9be7de7973a83/ESQ6_WELL_Fandom_FA-spread-02.jpg" />