What Is Taylor Swift’s Connection to Formula 1? Us Explains

Some may not know that Taylor Swift has a storied history with Formula 1 — but others are all too well aware of her connection to the annual auto racing series.

F1 is a championship for drivers and teams that compete in open-wheel single-seater cars. Throughout the races, which run from March to December each year, drivers score points by finishing as high as possible in each Grand Prix, which are set across multiple continents.

Swift’s first link to the series came in 2016 when she was asked by Bobby Epstein, chairman of COTA — the sports’ first purpose-built facility in the U.S. — to help bring fan attention to the Austin, Texas racetrack after a few unsuccessful years. Although Swift had no other performances lined up for 2016, she agreed to headline what would bring in a whopping 80,000 people.

“It was a big-dollar commitment at the time, and it paid off,” Epstein told The Athletic in October 2024. “We’re grateful to Taylor for taking the chance.”

COTA has since continued to link up with pop culture heavyweights each year, with acts like Justin Timberlake and Ed Sheeran hitting the stage following the races in 2018 and 2022, respectively.

Swift’s F1 connection, however, runs even deeper.Keep scrolling as Us explains Swift’s history with Formula 1 in more detail:

The Key Players

Taylor Swift: The global pop star helped out the Austin Grand Prix in October 2016 by performing as its headliner and was later linked to Alonso.

Bobby Epstein: The COTA chairman who credits Swift to bringing fresh eyes — and bigger profits — back to the United States Grand Prix after her performance.

Fernando Alonso: The F1 driver that Spanish magazines claimed was dating Swift in 2023. Throughout his career, Alonso has won two F1 championship titles in 2005 and 2006, as well as the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship and is a two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Toyota. In 2019, he won the 24 Hours of Daytona championship with Wayne Taylor Racing.

The Gist

There’s two major points that connect Swift to Formula 1. First, COTA —  many F1 racers’ favorite to compete on — was struggling to gain a fan presence and sell enough tickets for profit. When 2015’s Hurricane Patricia brought record rainfall and high winds to Austin, certain races were canceled, and the ones that remained left fans miserable. In the week’s following the race, Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s office announced it would cut $6 million in state funding for the Grand Prix.

Knowing he had to find a way to garner interest back into Austin’s racing scene, Epstein contacted Swift’s team to see if she would be interested in performing as the 2016 race headliner, to which she agreed. It was her only scheduled show of the year — 2016 was infamously the year she disappeared from the public amid her feud with Kanye West and splits from Tom Hiddleston and Calvin Harris — which led to 80,000 fans staying post-race to watch her perform. At the time, it was one of her highest-attended shows.

COTA, for its part, drew a record crowd of almost 270,000 fans to the Grand Prix that year  — including a younger demographic — and it has continued to snowball ever since.

@astonmartinf1

I’m an Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Teaaaaaaaam🔉🎶 #F1 #Formula1 #F1TikTok #ChineseGP #AMR24

♬ original sound – A (Taylor’s Version)

OK, now for that second part, which isn’t really a connection at all. In April 2023, Swift and Alonso were rumored to be dating after Spanish magazines reported they were spending time together following her split from Joe Alwyn. Shortly after, Alonso and Aston Martin played into the speculation by posting a TIkTok video set to Swift’s song “i’mgonnagetyouback.”

Alas, while the timing raised eyebrows from some fans, it was ultimately fake news. Swift instead had a fling with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy during spring 2023 before moving on with current boyfriend Kelce.

Why It’s a Big Deal

Austin’s Grand Prix might not still exist — or at least be thriving in the way it is — if Swift hadn’t agreed to swoop in and perform, helping attendance and profits to skyrocket. The benefits from the show also have carried on in years since, making it a hotspot for a younger demographic.

It was also Swift’s only performance in 2016 — one that at the time marked one of her biggest concerts yet and received rave reviews — and occurred right before her decision to hide from the public after her high profile breakups and ongoing feuds with West and Kim Kardashian.

As for why we care about Swift and Alonso, well, that would have been one serious power couple — but we think Swift found the right match in Kelce.

What People Are Saying

Epstein, for his part, is proud of his decision to bring Swift on for the event. “When we look back, we feel validated for the vision that this group had to do that and offer more to the race fan and allow them to bring family members,” he told The Athletic in October 2024, noting that including musical acts like  Timberlake in 2018 and Sheeran in 2022 have also been successful endeavors. “You can give a very full amount of entertainment, and not at all compromise the quality of the on-track action. You don’t have to take anything away from the race by giving more to the fans.”

Critics also praised the decision. Billboard called Swift’s show stopping performance a “knockout,” while Rolling Stone said the concert “showed no drop off or rust from a star determined to remain one of the biggest names in music for a long time to come.”

As for those Alonso dating rumors, Swift never addressed them publicly. Alonso, however, enjoyed poking fun at the speculation with his Aston Martin TikTok and a subsequent video weeks later. “Race week era😉,” he captioned an April 2023 clip that showed him winking to the camera as a sped-up version of Swift’s song “Karma” played.