Make Your Mark: Quadrant on What Their Rebrand Means for Female Inclusivity

On the back of their highly anticipated rebrand, Quadrant spoke with Females in Motorsport about how they’re making space for feminine influence within their brand, the teams shared passion to move forward and smash barriers, and how they’re championing their growing roster of incredible female talent. 

Via Quadrant on Instagram

Quadrant was founded in 2020 by McLaren Racing driver Lando Norris and has only grown since its launch. The brand has evolved from posting gaming videos on YouTube to an esports team, an apparel brand, and a proud champion of young athletic talent across a range of sports. 

Jamie MacLaurin, CEO of Quadrant, has been working closely alongside the F1 star to push past boundaries and create a space for everyone in the motorsport community. 

“In essence, we want to be the biggest motorsport culture brand in the world,” Jamie tells Females in Motorsport. “And naturally, over the last few years, we've seen that women now represent a significant and growing segment of the motorsport community globally.”

Lotte Van Drunen on set for the rebrand shoot. Via Quadrant on Instagram

2024 saw the launch of Quadrant Athletes, featuring Lotte Van Drunen, a motocross superstar from the Netherlands. At only 17 years old, Van Drunen has already won the FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship, becoming the youngest rider to ever win it. Former F1 Academy driver Bianca Bustamante, who is set to compete in the GB3 Championship with Elite Motorsport, is also partnered with Quadrant; streamer and content creator RiaBish has been a part of the team since it was launched in 2020. 

Quadrant Athletes’ goal is simple: to promote and collaborate with young talent, and Jamie says it was always vital that they include female talent, aiming to boost visibility of female athletes whose talent can often go unnoticed compared to their male counterparts. This can be down to a range of reasons, such as funding and sponsorship opportunities, and Jamie and Lando were keen to break down that barrier when they embarked upon the launch of their athlete program. 

“When I ride against the boys, it gives me a feeling that I can’t really describe,” Lotte told fans when Quadrant Athletes was launched. “It’s really special to be a girl racing in motocross. I want to do things that no one else can and also make little me proud.” 

Van Drunen has consistently won campaigns against her male competitors ever since she was a young girl. At the age of 14, she became National Champion, beating out 17 year old boys to the title. 

“We’ve worked for over a year now with Lotte, and what we want to do by working with athletes is really to show that even in a male-dominated sport, women can still compete against men. In motocross, she races against the boys - it's not only against females.” Jamie told us. “She is a wonderful human being, as well as an athlete.”

Despite travelling all over the world at the hands of F1, Lando works closely with the team and contributes heavily to the culture and the products, taking a very active role in decisions despite his hectic schedule. 

“That guy is a machine,” says Jamie, who has been working alongside Lando since 2020. “In his time off, he spends ninety percent of it talking to me on my phone about Quadrant and trying to shape the future for the brand. 

“He's pioneered this entire push alongside me, reshaping that stereotype of motorsport being male-dominated. We want to be at the forefront of female inclusivity and encouraging female participation in a sport that he obviously deeply cares about and loves, but doesn't see enough female representation in.”

Lando Norris, F1 Driver and Quadrant Founder, and Max Fewtrell, Managing Partner at Quadrant. Via Quadrant on Instagram.

Norris has been a favourite amongst F1 fans since his debut season with McLaren in 2019, however his fan base has been hit with an onslaught of misogyny, which the driver has spoken out against. He felt that the direction of the rebrand should highlight the importance of diversity and inclusivity within the motorsports community. 

“It's an opportunity to show the world how powerful females in motorsport are, and I honestly see it as an opportunity to make people look stupid, and I think that's the way [Lando] sees it, too,” Jamie says. “He acknowledges the amount of female fans that he has and wants to champion them. It's as simple as that - a fan is a fan. It doesn't matter whether you're male or female. It shouldn't be a thing at all; we're all fans of a sport that we love. Clearly there needs to be a lot of work done to improve the infrastructure for a female fan.” 

Via Quadrant on Instagram.

Across the upcoming year, Quadrant has a series of collections lined up for fans, and are notably introducing apparel specific to women. Merch has been a contentious point for female motorsport fans over the last few years, with many having to make their own due to the lack of products tailored to women. Whilst Quadrant’s previous offerings have always been unisex, the team has been keen to create something particularly catered to their female dominated fanbase. 

“Gone are the days of just producing pink t-shirts and thinking that's a female product. We want to create a product that is built for women, and everything feels thought about,” says Jamie. 

Within the content rolled out during the rebrand announcement, it was clear that Quadrant wanted to portray a heavier feminine influence, which has gone down extremely well with fans. 

“Our goal is to speak to some new audiences, to create some really unique and compelling stories, because that's what the brand's built on: storytelling and creating emotion behind everything that we do.” Jamie says.

The team plans to host in person events, watchalongs and pop-ups that create a safe space for fans and encourage a sense of community, whilst keeping fans close to the action. 

With this rebranding, Quadrant is setting a precedent in motorsport culture that says women are not to be overlooked any longer, and it’s clear that the team is only just getting started. We can’t wait to see what comes next.