A private dinner held ahead of the 2026 Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix has sparked a broader conversation about representation in motorsport after LPGA Tour golfer Lily Muni He co-hosted the event alongside Apple TV and Beats.
The 26-year-old, who is engaged to Williams Racing driver Alex Albon, organised a 13-course omakase dinner prepared by Chef Wei Chen of OMAWEI. Among the confirmed attendees were Kelly Piquet, Margarida Corceiro, Carmen Mundt, and Rebecca Donaldson — the respective partners of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, McLaren’s Lando Norris, Mercedes’ George Russell, and Williams’ Carlos Sainz.
The event description positioned the gathering as bringing together women connected to the world of F1, including creators, entrepreneurs, tastemakers, and WAGs (Wives and Girlfriends of athletes). However, the composition of the final guest list prompted a swift and pointed response on social media.
A post from X account @ricciardosbabe accumulated 57,000 views and more than 3,300 likes, questioning the framing of the dinner. “You’d think someone like Lily Muni He, as a professional athlete in a male dominated field, would understand how important representation is,” the post read. “Hosting a ‘women in F1’ dinner for wags instead of women who actually work in the F1/motorsport world is sad and kinda embarrassing ngl.”
The criticism carried particular weight given Muni He’s dual standing in the paddock. As a competing LPGA Tour professional engaged to an active F1 driver, she occupies a position unlike most others in attendance — simultaneously a WAG and an elite sportswoman in her own right. That combination made the composition of her invite list a focal point for those who felt the event fell short of its implied ambition.
Not all responses aligned with that view. Several users challenged the premise of the criticism directly. One commenter wrote: “lol it’s not her job, isn’t this just hosting dinner for friends, what’s embarrassing is your performative wokeness.” Another added: “Well she never said it was a women in f1 dinner so maybe don’t jump to blaming a single woman like this it’s not exactly helpful for the cause of women.”
Those defending Muni He pointed out that the event description had explicitly listed WAGs as part of the intended audience, and that no official branding framed it as a women-in-motorsport professional initiative.
The controversy has emerged during a Sprint weekend at the Miami International Autodrome in Florida, a format that compresses the race schedule and keeps the paddock — and its wider social orbit — active from Friday onwards. The Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix 2026 race itself is scheduled for Sunday, May 3.
Women’s representation in Formula 1 remains a widely discussed topic within the sport. The F1 Academy, launched in 2023 as a dedicated single-seater series for female drivers, represents the sport’s most structured effort to date to develop a pipeline of women into higher categories of motorsport. The debate surrounding Muni He’s dinner reflects ongoing scrutiny of how the sport — and those adjacent to it — choose to engage with questions of inclusion and visibility.
