For Palak Thapar, a 25-year-old marketing professional, it all started with adrenaline, not attraction. “I’ve always loved F1 and football. I didn’t start watching because I found someone attractive. But over time, you develop crushes: Lando Norris, Ramos at Real Madrid. His aggressiveness, the way he played, was attractive. And it made me follow the sport more closely.”
Still, skepticism follows her everywhere. “Once, my manager asked me to name all the F1 drivers to ‘try it out’. When I did, he was surprised. He thought I was only looking at Charles Leclerc. But you can love both, the skill and the face. If I hadn’t enjoyed the sport, the love would have died a long time ago.”
Maybe that’s what Sunday night really showed us, not just a record chase, but a comeback. For once, the emotion wasn’t a source of ridicule, the tears weren’t “too much,” and the women on screen weren’t complicit in someone else’s legacy. They were the legacy. Jemimah Rodrigues reminded an entire country that women’s sport can make you feel everything men’s sport once felt: pride, excitement, anguish and belonging.
