For decades, grid girls were part of Formula 1’s identity, standing beside cars before the start while holding driver numbers and sponsor signage. They fit naturally into an era when F1 sold itself not just as a sport, but as a traveling spectacle built around speed, glamour, wealth, and excess. That changed in 2018, when Formula 1 announced it would stop using grid girls, saying the tradition no longer matched the image the championship wanted to project.
The decision came during the early years of Liberty Media’s ownership and was part of a broader effort to modernize Formula 1 for a younger and more global audience. F1 said the practice was “at odds with modern day societal norms,” with critics arguing that women were being used mainly as decorative figures in a sport where the most visible competitive roles were still overwhelmingly held by men. The series instead introduced Grid Kids, placing young racers on the grid in an attempt to make the pre-race ceremony more aspirational and family-friendly.
The move was immediately controversial. Bernie Ecclestone criticized it, several drivers had mixed reactions, and some former grid girls said they enjoyed the work and did not feel exploited by it. That created an awkward contradiction around the decision: Formula 1 was trying to present itself as more progressive, while some of the women directly affected argued that the sport was removing paid work they had willingly chosen to do.
More than anything, the end of grid girls represented a cultural shift inside Formula 1. The old version of the sport leaned heavily into exclusivity, glamour, danger, and a kind of unapologetic excess, while the modern version has increasingly focused on accessibility, younger audiences, social media, and a broader global image. The cars did not change because grid girls disappeared, but the message surrounding them did, and the decision became one of the clearest early signs that Formula 1 was leaving part of its old identity behind.
