Spotlight On: Driver Fan Clubs

When someone asks me what I believe is the most important part of fan engagement, I always tell them it’s connection. As you’ve probably gathered by now, I especially believe this in the context of celebrity.

You see, fandom thrives on para-social relationships (aka when a fan feels like they know a celebrity). While these are initially sparked without input from the celebrity, when properly nurtured, they can be the key to long-term fan loyalty.

Following my overview of driver fan engagement efforts, today is the first of a three-part series looking at the ways drivers use social media to engage with their fans. And we’re kicking off with a look at fan club accounts!

What is a fan club account?

I use the phrase “fan club accounts” to refer to official social media marketing accounts for drivers, run by their teams. When done well, these are used to create hype and the illusion of additional access to the driver. When done…not so well, they act as a sales channel to showcase merchandise.

In an era where most of us know celebrities don’t actually run most of their social media accounts, you might ask what the benefit of having a second managed channel is. The answer is pretty simple: fans desire attention and engagement, and the more touch points you give them to achieve this, the more you encourage their loyalty. Most fans know receiving attention from the celebrity themselves is extremely unlikely, so giving them an insider to connect with becomes the next best thing (attention is a trickle-down currency!).

In the wider celebrity world, nobody does a fan club better than Taylor Swift and her Taylor Nation accounts. I’ve previously discussed what I think the grid can learn from Tay, and today it’s time to have a closer look at how the existing accounts measure up.

Fan clubs on the grid

There are twenty F1 drivers at any one time, and of the current group, just six have fan club accounts (30%). While nobody is expecting Fernando Alonso to have a fan club (although I would love to undertake that as a challenge!), some of the other drivers really don’t have an excuse to be leaving this kind of fan engagement channel on the table.

Before we have a closer look at each of them, a quick note on how I’m classifying the perspectives used by each account. Much like my division of driver social tone, I’ve divided the perspectives into three categories:

• Admin as Insider

  • Where the account has a distinct “Admin” voice that is used to engage with fans

• We’re All In This Together

  • Where the account uses the pronouns “We” and “Our” to refer to the driver and their achievements, giving the impression of an overall team

• Third Person/Finding Their Feet

  • The most nebulous of all perspectives, and usually occurs when the account isn’t entirely sure of its purpose. It’s generally an attempt to find an admin voice, but they haven’t quite managed to develop a distinctive identity.

Lando Norris - LN4 

Platform: Twitter, Instagram

Followers: 240K (Twitter), 432K (Instagram)

Perspective: Admin as Insider

Content type: Mix of behind-the-scenes, merch, fan interaction, and memes

Review: The gold standard of fan club accounts, LN4 have mastered the tone, engagement, and messaging that hooks Lando’s fans and keeps them around.

I’ve long discussed how impressive I think the team at wearegrip are for the way they manage Lando’s marketing (even if they really need to start creating accessible content!),

LN4 use a tone that matches Lando’s public persona while seamlessly fitting in with fan conversation. The “admin” frames themselves as distinct to Lando and uses the pronoun “I”, however will often refer to being a part of Team Lando in the sense of both his inner-circle and the wider fandom through the use of “we”.

Much like Taylor Nation, LN4 have mastered the art of constantly selling their fans merch, and rewarding this purchasing through engagement such as RTs and replies. While almost every fan club account is ultimately a sales channel, LN4 are the only ones who really nail the balance.

Esteban Ocon - Team Esteban Ocon

Platform: Instagram

Followers: 31.7K

Perspective: We’re All In This Together

Content type: Mix of behind-the-scenes and merch

Review: Team Esteban are a relatively new account on the scene, joining Instagram in July 2023.

While they occasionally lean a bit too hard into showcasing their merch, they do quite a good job of showing fans behind-the-scenes looks at Esteban from the perspective of an insider on his team.

George Russell - OfficialGR63

Platform: Twitter, Instagram

Followers: 31K (Twitter), 155K (Instagram)

Perspective: Third Person/Finding Their Feet

Content type: Promo shots

Review: I’ve been trying to think of a way to say this that doesn’t come across as unintentionally mean, but I’m just going to say it: the stilted nature of this account actually matches George’s vibe really well. George’s public persona is quite…British, and if this account followed the lead of LN4 it wouldn’t feel authentic to who George himself is, which is always an important consideration in fan engagement

The account is primarily promo shots with very little personality or identity, but at least the account exists, which is more than two-thirds of the grid can say.

Lewis Hamilton - Team LH

Platform: Twitter, Instagram

Followers: 41.4K (Twitter), 85.4K (Instagram)

Perspective: Third Person/Finding Their Feet

Content type: Promo shots

Review: When you’re Lewis Hamilton, you don’t exactly need to try too hard at fan engagement. And in many ways TeamLH reflects this.

Much like George’s account, it’s primarily promo shots, but we get some glimpses of personality.

Oscar Piastri - TeamOPEightyOne

Platform: Twitter, Instagram

Followers: 3.6K (Twitter), 42.2K (Instagram)

Perspective: Third Person/Finding Their Feet

Content type: Mix of behind-the-scenes and merch

Review: Another new kid on the block, TeamOP81 joined social media in September 2023.

It primarily began as a merchandise channel, but has slowly started to evolve with more behind-the-scenes content and an attempt to find an “admin” voice. There’s still work to be done (especially in regards to community management - I had a question about merch shipping around the Aus GP and they consistently ignored me while responding to other fans…which isn’t a good look), but hopefully hanging out in the same garage as LN4 allows them to pick up some tips

Pierre Gasly - Team Gasly

Platform: Instagram

Followers: 235K 

Perspective: We’re All In This Together

Content type: Behind-the-scenes  

Review: Team Gasly are a good example of a fan club account with a focus on behind-the-scenes content from the perspective of an insider.

Their consistent use of “we” makes fans feel as though they’re engaging with someone who has access, but also someone who sees them as part of the journey

Bonus: Pierre actually has a paid fan club, called Team GAS. In the name of research, I have signed up for said fan club and will report back once enough time has passed that I have an accurate read on the kind of engagement doors it opens.