Is F1 Entering Its Super Couple Era?

The most famous driver in the sport might be dating a Kardashian. Does it matter?

Lewis Hamilton in front of the Ferrari Motorhome at the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix, shot by Henrik Ringnér for Esses.

The response to last week’s newsletter has been really heartening. My inbox is overflowing with intelligent, unexpected, and fascinating pitches. I already believed it to be true, but it’s so cool to learn for certain that the Esses readership sees Formula 1 through such a captivating lens.

We’ll get to Sir Lewis Hamilton and Kim Kardashian’s rumored burgeoning super coupling in a moment (and if you want an extremely detailed timeline of their relationship, Elle has you covered…), but first, in lieu of Three Things, I wanted to share something Esses is doing that I’m really proud of.

Red Bull Racing will be taking over Marina Boulevard, which runs right beside the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge, for a showrun this Saturday. Our photo editor Hugh Brooks had the fantastic idea to partner with Photoworks SF for a film photography competition.

Any San Francisco photographer can shoot the event, get their film developed at Photoworks, and then submit their five best selections to Esses for the chance to win $250, an annual subscription, and a spot in Issue 06.

I love this idea for so many reasons. We want Esses to be a community and this allows us to open a spread in the magazine to any Esses reader with a film camera and a great eye. It also allows us to celebrate a local institution in Photoworks that’s a bastion of the resilience and power of analog in the digital age. Finally, and best of all, we’re going to get to print some truly gorgeous photographs from an epic event.

This is why we built Esses — community, tangible beauty, and creativity. If you’re in the Bay, come join the competition; if you’re anywhere else, keep an eye out for an Esses event near you soon…

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Sir Lewis Hamilton is Dating Kim Kardashian. Now What?

by Joseph Bien-Kahn

There will be cutaways. That’s inevitable. And, for a time, the conversation around the sport will feel different.

Just prepare yourself, because if this rumored relationship proves to have any sort of lasting power (which is very much TBD by the way), things will change. Kim Kardashian is not your average celebrity. Sir Lewis Hamilton is not your average F1 driver. They are figures around which fans, haters, brands, and consumers orbit. And when celestial bodies collide, nothing stays the same.

But you already knew that.

What’s more interesting is how the existing infrastructure will react to the new entrants. Ever since Liberty Media bought Formula 1 and allowed the sport to embrace the internet, the Formula 1 fandom has dramatically changed. F1 fandom is now 42 percent female, and an overwhelming majority of new fans are women, according to the Motorsport Network and Formula 1 2025 Global F1 Fan Survey. A clear catalyst of the younger, more diverse fandom has been Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive.

Hamilton and Kardashian at WSJ in 2021, via @lewishamilton on Instagram

The legacy response to the changing fandom has been interesting, to say the least. It’s clear the incumbents in Formula 1 appreciate the influx, but are often clumsy in how they serve the new fans. “Reality TV fans” and “Instagram fans” are treated to lowest common denominator content. Their dismissive theory seems to be: they are drawn to the sport because of hot dudes and drama, so let’s lean into that.

Obviously, we couldn’t disagree more. That Drive to Survive has thrived, while many imitators have failed, is an essential fact often ignored. Certainly the show widens the aperture beyond the track, but it does not ignore racing. What it does do though is highlight the humanity of the competitors and allow the viewer to see the wide world that grands prix touch. The new fan has not entered the sport because they want a higher RPM Love Island. They’re not chasing ultra-luxe TikTok slop. These are globally curious and sophisticated fans who want quality, depth, and an intimate view of an unbelievable world.

But it’s clear that many in the space don’t hold our view of the new fandom. Which means, in all likelihood, Hamilton x Kardashian is going to be covered in the worst possible ways. TMZ and Page 6 will be all over paddock drama this season. ESPN F1 is already sharing clips of George Russell asking for relationship status updates.

We won’t be doing that here. We know you may have opened this email because of the headline, but you have my promise: there will be no Weekly Esses Kardashian Watch, however many views that costs us. But I do want to explain what most intrigues me about the strangest February storyline I can remember.

To start, this is not Taylor Swift dating Travis Kelce. Hamilton and Kardashian are a relatively rare super coupling because there is a relative balance at play. NFL fans were happy to mansplain to their significant others that Travis Kelce was just as big of a deal as Taylor Swift. “NFL broadcasts account for the vast majority of the biggest American televised moments every year! And Kelce played for the best team of the decade!” But, let’s be real, a tight end — even one who catches passes from Patrick Mahomes — could never sell out a world tour. Swift was an extraterrestrial force landing in luxury boxes across the league. Perhaps she wasn’t bigger than the sport, but she was surely bigger than Travis Kelce.

Hamilton, on the other hand, is bigger than his sport. Before Formula 1 had a foothold stateside, even Americans knew about Lewis Hamilton. He is a generational talent, certainly, but he also has that rare ability to crossover that only some of the greats possess. Jayson Tatum could win three more titles, but he will never surpass LeBron James or Stephen Curry in cultural impact. Scottie Scheffler could dominate golf all through the 2020s but he will never be Tiger Woods. Mike Trout is the most dominant baseball player of his era; you probably wouldn’t recognize him out of his jersey at a grocery store. Hamilton, on the other hand, can host the Met Gala and seem completely at ease among the most famous people on Earth.

Kim Kardashian is massive and instantly recognizable like Swift, but she is not nearly as beloved. So, while she’ll certainly bring a spotlight to the sport that will be impossible for broadcasts, bloggers, and content creators to resist, it’s doubtful there’ll be the same rush to learn about a new sport because Kim’s boyfriend does it for a living. After all, I don’t remember a bunch of Kardashian fans tuning into New Jersey Nets games to watch Kris Humphries play.

So, bet against a Swifty Effect for this Formula 1 season. But don’t be surprised to see new outlets covering F1 minutia all of a sudden. There may not be a massive ratings bonanza, but there will be buzz.

Sir Lewis Hamilton is driving for Ferrari while romantically linked to Kim Kardashian. I repeat: Sir Lewis Hamilton is driving for Ferrari while romantically linked to Kim Kardashian. That’s an insane sentence to write. Who knows whether any of this will go very well, but regardless, it’ll be interesting to watch. And there’s worse things than that. So, my advice is to just enjoy the spectacle: of the drama, but just as importantly, of how it’s all covered.