Growing up, Faith Thiam never imagined she would end up explaining Formula 1 regulations to thousands of new fans online. What started as a last-minute panic search before a Singapore Grand Prix watch party at her crypto internship has turned into a beginner-friendly F1 channel built on race recaps, annotated FIA documents, and a lot of quiet studying after hours. In conversation with Hairpin Media, Faith talks about how she got into motorsport content creation by accident, what it means to be an Asian woman creator in a Western-centric paddock, and why she believes everything good starts with fun and passion.
Hairpin Media: Could you introduce yourself and share how you first got into motorsport content creation?
Faith: Hi, my name is Faith. I am a motorsports creator from Singapore. I actually only started getting into Formula 1 in 2023.
I was interning at a crypto company, and they had this Formula 1 watch party for the Singapore Grand Prix. I only found out very last minute that Formula 1 team sponsors were people involved in crypto like OKX and Bybit. One of my colleagues had this screen up and she was watching the race in the office and I was like, “oh, those names are really familiar.”
So I kind of panicked. I started researching about Formula One, trying to understand, just in case somebody were to ask me something, and if I did not know anything, that would be kind of embarrassing for my company. I did a bit of research and I actually really enjoyed it because I realised that Formula 1 is a lot more than just going fast in circles.
[T]here is a lot more to it than just driving a car. There is a lot of teamwork, a lot of engineering, a lot of strategy. I thought that was really, really interesting and I continued to watch the races for the rest of the year.
Towards the end of the year, I realised there were very few resources out there for people who are new to motorsports[, a]nd every time I went into a comment section of an F1 team and someone had a genuine question, everyone in the comments was bashing them [and] calling them names. Since I had to do all this studying by myself, I thought I might as well post it, in case there is also someone out there like me who is really new but also really scared to ask. So that is how we got here.
HM: What are your main responsibilities as a content creator, and has your approach changed now that you have some experience in the sport?
Faith: When I just started out, I was trying to figure out exactly what kind of content I wanted to post. Down the line, I narrowed it down to two very basic things.
One of them was weekly race updates. I simplify statistics such as timings for qualifying, the positions for the start of the race and the end of the race, and how many points each person got. I feel like that is a very core thing, especially if you are just getting into it. You want to see results. That is how I figured out what was happening in the sport, so I thought that would be helpful.
The other thing is something that I really enjoy, which is annotating the FIA documents. Every time I watch a race, I get really confused because sometimes the penalties feel very random to me. Someone can push someone off the track, and they do not get penalised, but other times they do. I did not really understand how these penalties happen and I stumbled across someone posting FIA documents.
I realised that after every race, there is a whole list of documents where they explain in detail why they chose to award a penalty and why not. I also realised a lot of people do not really understand what they are reading, even if they know where to find this. Because I was a law student and I enjoy reading these things, I decided to annotate them and post them. People really enjoyed that, so that is one of the basic things that I always make sure to post every race weekend.
It is always the results and then the FIA documents. Everything else is just vibes, things that I am interested in, things that I enjoy, and that I also think my audience might enjoy, I will try to post as well.
HM: How do you approach content planning during a Formula 1 season?
Faith: At the end of every year or the start of every year during the breaks, I put all the races into my calendar, including the practice sessions and the qualifying sessions. So every year I can see when the races are going to be, know in advance if I can make it or not, and what the timings are.
The race weekends are kind of the core of my content. Sometimes I do miss a weekend here and there if I’m on holiday or stuff like that. But everything else is really just based on things that I see on social media, what is going on in the F1 scene, and things that I am interested in personally.
Previously I used to only post motorsports. Now I am trying to also explore different interests that I have, while keeping a majority of it on motorsports. But when it comes to planning the content apart from race weekends, I am mostly just reactive. And for the last month, during the race break, I posted nothing. It’s just like that sometimes.
HM: What has your experience been like as an Asian woman creating motorsport content?
Faith: I think the concept of content creation in F1 itself is very new. A lot of these teams are based in the United Kingdom or in the United States, so it is very Western-based.
Not only is it harder to break into the sport because of the geographical issue, it’s also just such a new concept to have creators in the F1 paddock, in the space entirely. So definitely, a few of my other Asian creator friends [and I are] trying to figure out what the right formula is or how to break into the sport.
We are making a bit of progress, but I feel it’s a bit slower than what we see with our other peers who live in the United Kingdom or in America. It is a really fun process to [experience and be] a pioneer generation of Asian motorsports creators. It is a lot of experimentation and a lot of trial and error.
HM: What are some challenges or unique experiences that come with being part of this pioneering group of content creators from Asia?
Faith: I think it is mainly, for me, not having someone to explain how things work or how you can go about doing certain things. In Singapore, we are mostly given formulas for everything. We learn the best way to go about doing something.
But when you’re in a space that is so new, there is no one you can really reference. Even referencing peers from other countries is difficult because we don’t have the same resources or the same access to things.
Especially with the Singapore Grand Prix, something we notice is that a lot of teams, because their entire marketing or public relations team is based in the United States or in Europe, choose to bring in the creators from those countries instead. So for us, it is a lot harder to make ourselves known or heard in the space.
HM: How can Formula 1 and other motorsport series better engage local creators in Asian markets?
Faith: First of all, a huge benefit for the business [is that] you save on cost. We live here. You do not have to pay for our flights or accommodation. That is already a huge plus.
Another thing is that these creators, because we are based in the country, also have audiences in that country. So you’re reaching the audience in the host country that you are visiting, which is really fun because different cultures interact with media very differently. We also have very different ways of communicating different ideas.
I totally understand why it makes sense for them to bring in the creators they have already been working with, but I feel like there’s no harm in also exploring and reaching out to local creators.
Especially when you do country-based content like food taste tests that they have drivers do all the time, or different culture-based games and things like that. You can get a local to help you with that, and someone who is also based in motorsports, because then we have both the background knowledge of the sport and also the culture.
A huge part of wanting to do country-based media is to reach out to people who [live in the country but] might not really understand or know the sport because you really want to expand your audience.
Being from Singapore, I understand what other Singaporeans are interested in, what Singaporeans are talking about right now. I am not only able to incorporate my knowledge of motorsports, [but] I am also able to tie in things that are going on in my country.
That way, people who are not particularly interested in Formula 1 could also be interested in watching this piece of content because there is something they can relate to, something they can understand, something that they are interested in as well. That is how I think we can start picking up interest in different sports that they might not even be considering in the first place.
HM: So far in your content creator journey, what has been your highlight or defining moment?
Faith: In 2024, I started to get my first few event invites during the Singapore Grand Prix week. I got a chance to meet Esteban Ocon during an Alpine pop-up somewhere in town during the weekend. Our Singaporean racer, Kabir [Anurag], was there. He was racing for Alpine as well, so we got to go for that. That was my first-ever time getting invited to any sort of F1 team event.
In the same week, I got to meet Mick Schumacher. One of my followers actually had extra tickets to go to his meet and greet with Marriott Bonvoy, so I got invited for that. That also included a Friday pass to the Sky Suites in the paddock. That was really, really cool. I had so much fun.
It was really surreal to me as well because I am such a new fan. Most people, even if they have been fans for 10 or 20 years, don’t get to be in the paddock or in the suites, right?
Another huge highlight was flying to Japan last year for the World Endurance Championship. I spent a couple of months before that emailing different teams, asking for opportunities. BMW actually allowed me to do a garage tour. I also got a chance to speak with Kevin Magnussen, which was so cool. I loved him in Formula 1, [and] he’s also doing great in WEC. That just blew my mind. I was in shock.
HM: We have been talking about being an Asian creator in this space, but what do you think about Asian talent rising within motorsports, and how does that impact your experience as a fan and creator?
Faith: Honestly, I was really surprised to know that we had people driving in the Formula series from Singapore. We are such a small country. There are not that many people to begin with, and there is not much space for motorsports. Motorsports is not something frequently explored, even though we do have a Grand Prix in our country and everyone in Singapore knows of F1.
When you go around to schools asking people [if they] want to drive [or] do karting, no kids have actually even heard of that.
So when I found out we have not one, but three different drivers who are doing so well in motorsports, I’m so proud. They are also young and they’re all doing amazing. I am really, really proud of them. It is also really cool to have representation.
And Kareen, a girl doing so great in motorsports from my country, that is amazing. I love to see representation, but female representation in a male-dominated sport is just amazing.
HM: What's a common misconception about women in motorsport content creation, especially Asian women?
Faith: When you talk about being a female content creator, people go in two directions. First, they think you cannot possibly be really interested in the sport, you just like the drivers like Charles Leclerc or Lewis Hamilton or Lando Norris.
The other way they go is, “you people just want free things, you want to go to races for free, you want to get free merchandise,” which is great. I love getting free stuff, but that is not always the point in making content.
A lot of people think it is easier than it is. When you’re doing content, it’s a lot of creativity. It’s a lot of endurance. You are really trying to have consistency, trying to keep posting. With 24 races in a season, that is a lot of work to do.
It is a lot of time management as well. You are really trying to fit different things in life around creating content for Formula 1 just to be consistent. People think of it as making content and just taking some pictures, posting on Instagram. It is a lot harder than it is, and I feel like it requires a lot of passion as well.
So next time you see a girl doing any kind of content – racing content, football content, anything – just know that even if they think you are a fake fan, you’re putting in so much effort and time and energy into doing it. It does count for something.
HM: For somebody looking to follow the same path as you and become a content creator within the motorsport space, what skills or mindsets would you recommend?
Faith: Being open to failure is really important, not just in starting content creation, but in everything. You need to know that without starting, you are just overthinking. Nothing ever gets started.
You can do all the thinking that you want, but all you are doing is psyching yourself out. You are scaring yourself before you can even get to do anything.
I am a huge perfectionist, so what I did was just force myself to keep getting things out there. Even things that I felt were bad or cringe, [I] just posted them first.
If you are starting with zero followers, what is the worst that could happen? The worst is that no one sees your content or no one likes it. But the best-case scenario is that people do enjoy the same things that you do, and then they start to come on board. You also never really understand what you enjoy posting or what you are good at if you do not get started.
A lot of us, especially Asians, are really taught to think inside the box. We are always trying to plan ahead, trying to strategise, and then we just never get started on doing something. Just go do it. Figure it out as you go. Allow yourself to make mistakes. Overcome these mistakes.
Another huge thing is to try to build your community with like-minded people. Go make friends with people who are also trying to make motorsports content or who love motorsports as much as you. Encourage each other.
Just have fun with it. A lot of it starts from having fun and having passion.
—
Throughout the conversation, Faith returned to a simple idea: making motorsport more approachable. What began as a last-minute effort to understand Formula 1 before a work event has evolved into a platform focused on helping new fans learn the sport without feeling intimidated or excluded.
Whether through race recaps, FIA document breakdowns, or her advocacy for greater recognition of Asian creators and talent, Faith's approach is rooted in curiosity, accessibility, and community. For her, the key to building a place in motorsport — as a creator or a fan — is to get started, keep learning, and enjoy the process along the way.
