Live.Laugh.Lyds has taken the F1 fandom by storm, carving out a niche in what can be a competitive and often male-dominated space. One word to describe the TikToker? Vibes - she brings the best ones, showing her following that there is a place for everyone in the motorsports community.
Pictured: Lydia attending the Stake F1 Team car launch
Live.Laugh.Lyds is one of the girls.
The 23-year-old has become a pillar of Formula 1 TikTok, amassing over 50,000 followers on the platform and raking in millions of likes, in just two years. The content creator radiates positivity, something that you can tell from a quick glance at her social media.
“I just wanted to get involved because I loved seeing that [TikTok] was a lot of women. I saw myself in those videos. I just love seeing the girlies doing great.”
Women dominate the online spaces for motorsport fans, which is ironic really, considering what a boys club F1 is known for being, but Lydia adores the space she's curated online.
“I've cultivated a really nice, friendly, safe community on TikTok and I'm very protective over the people that follow me. I've probably had hundreds of messages from people being like ‘Your space is so nice, I feel like I can say things without being looked down on.’
“I'm very protective of my space because it's not just mine.”
Lydia realised that content creation was the route she wanted to take when she actually paid attention to an F1 race. The sport was always on in her house on a Sunday for as far as she can remember, and one day at university, she decided to throw on a race for background noise. Soon enough, her social media was flooded with F1 content.
“I was hating my university course, watching Drive To Survive, and I started seeing all the TikTok accounts. I thought: ‘I can do that.’ I heard the words ‘I’m Daniel Ricciardo and I’m a car mechanic’, and I was like: ‘sold!’”
“It's not just a sport, it's a comedy series as well. You call it a sport, I call it a circus.”
As her online presence grew, Lydia started connecting with other people within the sport, other female creators who were each finding their footing on the platform.
The importance of a strong female presence in the sport is becoming more and more apparent as Formula 1 continues to grow, reeling in a younger audience who care a lot more about the social side of things, as well as the racing.
It’s been a rocky start to the 2024 season: allegations of inappropriate behaviour at Redbull Racing, concerns for the sport’s environmental impact and the controversial investigation into Susie Wolff.
“Who do I look up to? Susie Wolff. Period. Anything that woman touches, I will follow blindly. I love everything that she’s about, I love the fact that she’s standing up for herself.
“SheLovesF1, I really looked up to her social media stuff and I was like ‘I just wanna be her!’ And now we're friends, and she's doing my birth chart. I've gotten to mix with a lot of really great women figures in the sport recently who are killing it and I feel really lucky to be surrounded by those kinds of people.
“I just love the girls; they need their time, they need their moment.”
When the event invites started coming in, things got real; filming TikTok’s in her bedroom turned into invites from F1 teams.
“The coolest things I’ve ever done are the car launches. The Alpine car launch was the first thing I ever did, so I didn't know anyone, I didn't know what to expect. I rocked up in my bright pink sparkly skirt.
Pictured: Lydia at the Alpine F1 Team car launch
“At the Stake one, I felt less intimidated. I didn't have any imposter syndrome, I was like ‘You know what, in a room 80 per cent full of men, who cares?’ Everyone else was just standing around chatting but I was like ‘I'm here for the vibes and I'm here to have fun.’”
It's immediately clear that Lydia has a strong sense of identity online. There’s no smoke, no mirrors, just pure authenticity and genuinely good vibes. She’s a voice of the people, and she marches to the beat of her own drum.
“I’m not trying to be a journalist, I'm not trying to work for an F1 team, I'm just a voice within the fans. I'm not trying to educate people, there are amazing people that do informative content, and that's what I love about the content creation space; both pieces of content can exist at the same time, about the same things.”
The content that Lydia makes is unique. She’s renowned for her Asda ‘fit-checks’, her tower of motorsport themed bucket hats, and her ‘live comms’ videos, where fans get to scream along with her as soon as cars hit the track. When McLaren driver Lando Norris won his first race at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix, Lydia posted the series ‘A week of Lando inspired outfits’. She’s found her niche and she’s doing it well; it’s no surprise that she has amassed such a loyal following.
Lydia prides herself in posting the sort of content that she wants to see, which comes full circle when it resonates with her audience. Some find her corner of the internet hilarious, some find it comforting, and some find it a brilliant blend of both. Sure, some people don’t like it, but you can’t please everyone, Lydia acknowledges.
“I’m sticking to my lane and if someone doesn’t like it, it obviously wasn't for them.”
Existing on the internet in the public eye always goes hand in hand with a few faceless voices telling you that you’re doing something wrong. Even Lydia, F1Tok’s very own ray of sunshine, has had her fair share of run-ins.
“I'm very lucky I don't receive a lot of those kinds of comments anymore - in the beginning, I definitely did. Usually, whenever you have an opinion, people think you’re not allowed one.
“I feel like there is slight progress being made, there's a bit more acceptance on things but you're still sometimes treading on eggshells.”
As Lydia’s platform continues to grow, her impact on the F1 community goes from strength to strength, proving that positivity, relatability and a bit of sparkle can go a long way. Her journey from struggling student to beacon of light for the motorsport girlies is a true testament to the power of trusting yourself.
“There are so many voices telling you ‘you should do this, you should do that’, but at the end of the day the only person you need to please and trust is yourself because you've gotta live in that head 24 hours a day, seven days a week, three six five.”
Find Lydia on Tiktok!
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