Participation in motorsport in urban areas of the UK is increasing, data from Sport England’s Active Lives survey reveals.
In London specifically, participation in motorsport since November 2015-16 has risen from 122,200 to 201,600 in November 2022-23, which is a 65% or nearly two-thirds increase in participation.
In Greater Manchester, the figure has jumped from 41,300 to 52,100 in that same timeframe, a 26% increase, and from 15,800 to 25,700 in Birmingham, which is a 62% increase.
This increase goes hand-in-hand with the boom in popularity of motorsport, particularly Formula One, over the last few years.
Motorsport has been more visible than ever with the introduction of Netflix’s Drive to Survive and an increased social media presence, and is beginning to penetrate areas like cities where motorsport was previously somewhat inaccessible.
The introduction of locations in London, such as F1 Drive, which opened its doors in February 2024, or F1 Arcade in November 2022, have made motorsport and Formula One more conspicuous in the capital.
Ahead of the 2025 F1 season, the F1 75 Live launch event was hosted in the O2 arena in Greenwich as well, which saw more than 20,000 people pack out the seats to see all 20 F1 drivers and all 10 teams take to the stage.
Motorsport UK’s Race for Diversity manager Evelkah Powell outlined what she believed was behind the increase in motorsport participation in urban areas.
She said: “I think with things such as Drive to Survive coming into the forefront, that has pushed a lot of the interest in the sport, and so we’re starting to see that coming through from that older end of the spectrum.
“I think because it’s within the London area, a huge city, that has really helped.”
However, she felt more needed to be done in other urban areas of the country, especially further north.
She continued: “In Birmingham, which is one of the key locations I cover, they also have the F1 Arcade, but the further up north you go like Manchester and Leeds, there’s little touchpoints in terms of that engagement.
“So it’s really great to see it starting off in London, but I think there needs to be more of a push especially in the northern part of the UK in how we engage around motorsport, because I am telling you now, I speak to young kids under the ages of 18, let’s say, and a lot of them still don’t even know who Lewis Hamilton is.
“So that just shows the lack of awareness and engagement that they’ve had, especially the further up north you go.”
Race for Diversity work with schools across London, Leeds, Manchester, and Birmingham to encourage young people to get involved in motorsport through STEM intervention, such as running workshops in schools, or taking participapnts to local karting tracks.
Powell explained the biggest challenges those living in cities and urban areas face when wanting to get involved in motorsport.
She said: “A lot of those urban areas, they don’t have close access to tracks.
“I think for a lot of the kids that we work with, even down to taking them to the indoor TeamSport karting, that would be their first time actually even getting into a kart or even seeing what a race track could look like.
“Another big one is money and funding.
“Even to go to TeamSport karting you have to pay, it’s not a cheap thing to do every evening or every weekend, and the group of young people that we work with come from low socio-economic backgrounds as well, and those are in areas of high deprivation.
“I would say, thirdly, the challenge is motorsport has largely been seen as a sport where I guess only if you have a family member involved in the sport, that’s the only kind of interaction or involvement or engagement that you would get.
“So again for the young people in the more urban areas, a lot of them would have had families that grew up very much focused on a specific career route, and therefore karting, getting involved in motorsport, isn’t really a consideration.”
However, there are programs in London, such as the Right Track project, run by Oasisplay, which work to introduce young people into motorsport, along with providing intervention support.
Director of Oasisplay Joanne Brown said: “It started in the early-to-mid 80s, because across the road from where the go-kart track is now, there’s an adventure playground that is being run by Lambeth.
“It kind of started very organically with young people and youth workers wanting to build their own karts in the playground, and then wanting somewhere to drive them.
“Giving young people that experience of motorsport and karting, but also providing youth interventions at the same time.
“It’s a really great hook to get young people, particularly young men, in off the street and doing something positive.
“These young people, there’s no way that they’d be able to go go-karting on a regular basis if it wasn’t for the Right Track project.
“It does absolutely increase access.
“It’s very much part of the bigger picture of getting young people involved in the sport in the first place, as well as the preventative objective of the project.”
However, the project has been struggling financially recently.
Brown said: “At the moment, we’re clinging on to keeping the kart track going at all.
“Anyone can get involved in the Right Track project, they just need to come along to the session, and they can sign up.”
To support the Right Track project, visit their JustGiving page.
Feature image: James Lyndsay/www.jameslyndsay.com.
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