The enduring sex appeal of F1 drivers in their silly suits

F1 cars are quite the engineering feat.

But in all honesty, I find Lego equally thrilling to contemplate. Race day tactics are mildly interesting, much like an unusual tax return anecdote. A slow tyre change can also be a gripping watch. But so is observing a co-worker struggling to turn on their unplugged computer.

While some Grand Prix races are eye-roll dull, there’s one part of F1 that’s never boring: the drivers themselves. They are a rare combination of interesting and hot, which is objectively attractive.

‘So when you become an F1 driver, are you assigned a model to date or what,’ said shogi_x on Reddit in a thread down an F1: The Movie rabbit hole, which, starring Brad Pitt in pole position, is released today.

It’s true, these drivers can get the ladies. 

Just look at Brad: one tight-fitted suit and silly action hero helmet later, and he’s transformed from a 61-year-old actor slightly past his prime into a sexy sportsman rockstar for his role as F1 driver Sonny Hayes.

‘It’s not really about the clothes themselves or the helmet,’ sex and relationships expert Rhian Kivits tells Metro. ‘It’s more about what it represents.’

Being an F1 driver symbolises a few incredibly attractive traits, all of which bundle up into quite the, ahem, package.

The primal bit

‘If you think about sex itself, it’s a very primal thing,’ says Kivits, nodding to that old hunter-gatherer skillset of finding a mate.

‘Is there something primal about the fact that if you’ve got this man who’s very courageous, who will take risks, who has very brave and also very successful? Is that man a really good provider? Is he a really good hunter?’

Quite probably, yes. They would be able to catch prey easily with their speedy cars, that’s for sure.

Of course, as Kivits also notes, we have evolved: women don’t need men who are a dab hand with the old bow and arrow anymore. We just need them to be able to cook.

But nevertheless, competence is an undeniably attractive trait, and something F1 drivers have in buckets.

They are also hugely physically fit, as F1 drivers must have muscle strength in their legs, cores, and – importantly – their necks in order to be able to handle gravitational forces, keep a steady frame, and endure a two-hour race at 200mph.

Glamour

While we all know not to fancy the size of someone’s wallet, the high-fashion aspect of F1 does hold some of its own gravitational pull.

‘You’ve got the style and class that I don’t think you see in other sports in the same way. It’s the places they’re associated with perhaps; Dubai, Monaco, it’s all of that,’ says Rhian.

Rhian adds: ‘I think Formula One has been very clever that there’s been this teaming up with fashion brands as well. I think that appeals to women.

‘They’re often beautifully dressed in designer labels. So they look great and they’re well groomed.’

Louis Vuitton was recently announced as the official partner of Formula 1, while other premium brands like Rolex and Moët & Chandon have a long history with the sport.

Teams like Ferrari have their own fashion brand, while Mercedes is partnered with Tommy Hilfiger, and individual drivers – who are weirdly all beautiful? – are constantly modelling some extortionate rag or another.

F1 drivers are like the James Bonds of sports: they have cool cars, sharp suits, and are risking it all for the greater good of a podium win. Who doesn’t fancy that?

Their wild life of glamour, private yachts and designer garms puts them on an unattainable, but aspirational pedestal, giving them fantastical sex appeal when in reality they fart, too.

Intelligence

And here is what separates F1 drivers into their own whole league of sex appeal, kicking dust at footballers, rugby players and any other man with a penchant for running around.

‘You imagine that they have these incredible minds, as well as the physical fitness. Whereas with football, we definitely don’t think of those men as having incredible minds,’ Rhian says. (Not all footballers!)

‘In order to get to where they are, they have had to focus and train and learn at such a high level.’

While all sportsmen have to be switched on, F1 drivers’ cognitive abilities are the sharpest around, as split-second decisions and reactions make or break a race. In worst cases, lagging concentration can cause fatal crashes.

At the same time, they must always be thinking tactically, memorising which bits of track they must drive on to minimise overtakes, and pressing the right one of their many, many steering wheel buttons.

A level of technical understanding is also expected in F1, so drivers can absorb huge amounts of data from team engineers and make sense of it themselves.

They also tend to be academically intelligent too: Niki Lauda was as much an engineer as he was a driver, as was Jean-Pierre Jabouille.

Nico Rosberg turned down an offer to study aeronautical engineering at Imperial College London, and speaks five languages fluently.

Retired four-time world champ Sebastian Vettel, known for being an encyclopaedia of F1 knowledge, has recently completed a course at Harvard Business School. As you do.

Parasocial aspect

‘There has definitely been a push to put the message out there about their personalities too,’ says Rhian, nodding to Netflix’s Drive to Survive documentary series, which has surged interest in the sport.

In it, fans get to know the F1 drivers intimately as they tell personal stories of the highs and lows during their most recent season.

‘It’s the pop culture around it now. They’re not just seen as sportsmen, but they are sold as a bit of a dream individually. We see their personalities and people buy into them,’ she says.

Enter Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc – one of the most swooned-over faces on the grid in 2025. Any fan of Charles’ would know he loves his sausage dog Leo more than life itself, as the little pooch is plastered all over his social media.

‘We wouldn’t know Charles Leclerc likes sausage dogs if he wasn’t online. We fall in love with a person and a character, not with what they do,’ Rhian says.

Then there are the most likeable personalities on the grid, like McLaren’s Lando Norris, who has a subReddit which largely consists of fans swooning over him.

‘Lando would make a great father one day,’ posted one fan, alongside a picture of the 25-year-old driver hugging a child.

‘In a parasocial relationship, we form what we think is a relationship with a figure online because we see so much of what’s put out about their personality,’ Rhian says.

Once, F1 drivers were just untouchable sexual fantasies, like grid bad boy James Hunt. But in 2025, things have taken a turn: they are now suitable husbands, too.

F1 is out in cinemas now.

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