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- Spotlight On: Driver Fan Engagement (Overview)
Spotlight On: Driver Fan Engagement (Overview)
How do F1 drivers engage with fans away from their teams?
Georgia Carroll
May 01, 2024
A lot of my tracking to date has focused on the ten F1 teams, but as I’ve previously discussed, it’s important for the drivers to think of themselves as individual celebrities. And that means strategising away from their teams and taking part in fan engagement on a personal level. After all, you want your fans to stick with you if you change teams rather than sticking with your old home.
A lot of the “fan engagement” that takes place concerns merchandise but that’s the focus of a future post, so for today, I’m looking at whether drivers have:
Websites (duh)
Fan Clubs/Fan Social Accounts
Newsletters
Apps
As well as their tone on social media. Their tone will be ranked as either:
Official Updates Only (i.e. here for business)
Professional Peeks (i.e. mostly business, with a sprinkle of their life for warmth)
“Personal” Persona (i.e. an illusion of authenticity)
Providing this info x 20 is already way too much detail for a single post, so this will function as an overview for a series of posts that dives into each of the key modes of engagement.
So, let’s dive in!
Leading The Pack
These are the drivers leading the personal fan engagement charge. They all have multiple touch-points for their fans away from their teams and have a clearly established brand.
Alex Albon
Website: https://www.alexalbon.com/
Social Media Tone: “Personal” Persona
Fan Accounts: AA23 - Instagram
Fan Club: Alex Albon Fan Passport
Newsletter: Yes
App: Yes
Lando Norris
Website: https://landonorris.com/
Social Media Tone: “Personal” Persona
Newsletter: Yes
Max Verstappen
Website: https://www.verstappen.com/
Social Media Tone: Professional Peeks
Fan Accounts: N/A
Newsletter: No
Bonus: Forum; Max Verstappen Official App
Pierre Gasly
Website: https://www.pierregasly.com/
Social Media Tone: “Personal” Persona
Fan Accounts: Team Gasly - Instagram
Fan Club: Team GAS - 50 Euro/year
Newsletter: Seemingly only for paying members of Team GAS
The Mid-Field
These are the drivers who have started making an effort in fan engagement. They either have a dedicated fan social channel, or a newsletter (actual quantity/quality TBC).
Carlos Sainz
Website: https://www.carlossainz.es/en/
Social Media Tone: Professional Peeks
Fan Accounts: N/A
Newsletter: Yes
Checo Perez
Website: https://checoperez.com/
Social Media Tone: Official Updates Only
Fan Accounts: N/A
Newsletter: Yes
Esteban Ocon
Website: https://www.esteban-ocon.com/
Social Media Tone: Professional Peeks
Fan Accounts: Team Esteban Ocon - Instagram
Newsletter: No
George Russell
Website: https://www.georgerussell63.com/
Social Media Tone: Professional Peeks
Newsletter: No
Lewis Hamilton
Website: https://www.lewishamilton.com/
Social Media Tone: “Personal” Persona
Newsletter: No
Oscar Piastri
Website: https://oscarpiastri.com/
Social Media Tone: “Personal” Persona
Newsletter: No
Zhou Guanyu
Website: https://www.zhou-guanyu.com/en
Social Media Tone: Professional Peeks
Fan Accounts: N/A, but he has a fan zone section on his website where he displays fan art
Back of the Grid
And finally, we have the drivers who do the bare minimum when it comes to fan engagement. AKA, they have a website and post on social media. There’s a whole post in the age split between most of the guys down here and the ones up leading the pack, but that’s an analysis for another day (but honestly, if you’re 42-year-old Fernando Alonso, you don’t exactly need to build a personal brand because you’re already Fernando Alonso).
Charles Leclerc
Website: https://www.charlesleclerc.com/
Social Media Tone: Professional Peeks
Daniel Ricciardo
Website: https://www.danielricciardo.com/
Social Media Tone: “Personal” Persona
Bonus: Daniel3.JPG Instagram
Fernando Alonso
Website: https://www.fernandoalonso.com/
Social Media Tone: Official Updates Only
Kevin Magnussen
Website: https://kevinmagnussen.com/
Social Media Tone: Official Updates Only
Lance Stroll
Website: https://www.lancestroll.com/
Social Media Tone: Official Updates Only
Logan Sargeant
Website: N/A
Social Media Tone: Professional Peeks
Nico Hulkenberg
Website: https://www.nicohulkenberg.net/
Social Media Tone: Official Updates Only
Valtteri Bottas
Website: https://valtteribottas.com/
Social Media Tone: “Personal” Persona
Yuki Tsunoda
Website: https://www.yukitsunoda.com/
Social Media Tone: Professional Peeks
Moving forward, I’ll write a post on each of these elements to explore how they’re used (or not) by each driver, and the benefits of each as a fan engagement tactic. Stay tuned!
ps. I’m currently running an anonymous F1 fan engagement survey to collect some more data! If you’d like to help, I’d love you to take five minutes and fill out the survey!