Twitter on the starting grid

Thursday, 14 March 2013

The Formula 1 season officially kicks off this weekend with the Melbourne Grand Prix, and fans all over the world will get closer to the action by following their favourite teams and drivers on Twitter.

All 11 teams and 19 of the 22 drivers actively tweet, interacting with their followers and sharing their views from behind the scenes. There are three F1 drivers with more than a million followers - Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial), Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) and Jenson Button (@JensonButton).

These athletes regularly share compelling content like breaking news and photos, they use hashtags well, conduct live Twitter Q&As, and interact with fellow drivers and other celebrities. This Friday, Lewis Hamilton is hosting a season-preview Q&A exclusively on Twitter and last season he brought fans behind the scenes before big races. 

There are eight other drivers, including the Australian Mark Webber (@AussieGrit), with more than a hundred thousand Twitter followers - you can find the full list below - and the team accounts are getting in on the action as well.

They tweet information about drivers, lap times, and share race reviews. In addition to accounts, fans can also use hashtags to follow the conversation.

Some of the key hashtags to watch out for this weekend are: #MelbourneGP, #F1 and #FormulaOne. And fans in Australia are being encouraged by race organisers to use #EmbraceTheRace to show their pride in the Melbourne GP.

Individual teams are rallying their fans around hashtags as well, so if you love Kimi Raikkonen and his Lotus team, be sure to tweet with the popular #ImSexyAndIKnowIt hashtag, which he also displays on his car.

Kimi, his Lotus team-mate Romain Grosjean (@RGrosjean), and the two Caterham (@MyCaterhamF1) drivers will all be live-tweeting their thoughts during practice on Friday from the @AusGrandPrix account.

Last season, fans of the Williams team popularised #BOTTAS to show support for one of their favourite drivers, with Valtteri Bottas becoming a cult hero on Twitter, and he joined the platform as a result. You can follow him at @ValtteriBottas.

We have included a full guide to Formula 1 on Twitter below, so start following and enjoy the Australian Grand Prix action this weekend as it unfolds on the race course and on Twitter.

Formula 1 teams - ranked by number of followers: 
1. Ferrari @InsideFerrari 
2. McLaren-Mercedes @McLarenF1
3. Red Bull-Renault @redbullracing
4. Mercedes @MercedesAMGF1
5. Lotus-Renault @Lotus_F1Team
6. Sauber-Ferrari @OfficialSF1Team
7. Marussia-Cosworth @Marussia_F1Team
8. Williams-Renault @WilliamsF1Team
9. Force India-Mercedes @clubforce
10. Caterham-Renault @MyCaterhamF1
11. Toro Rosso-Ferrari @ToroRossoSpy

Formula 1 drivers - ranked by number of followers: 
1. Fernando Alonso @alo_oficial
2. Lewis Hamilton @LewisHamilton
3. Jenson Button @JensonButton 
4. Mark Webber @AussieGrit 
5. Sergio Perez @SChecoPerez
6. Pastor Maldonado @Pastormaldo
7. Felipe Massa @Felipe1Massa
8. Nico Rosberg @nico_rosberg
9. Paul Di Resta @pauldirestaf1
10. Nico Hulkenberg @NicoHulkenberg
11. Romain Grosjean @RGrosjean
12. Daniel Ricciardo @danielricciardo
13. Charles Pic @Charles_Pic1
14. Jean-Eric Vergne @JeanEricVergne
15. Esteban Gutierrez @EstebanGtz
16. Jules Bianchi @Jules_Bianchi
17. Max Chilton @maxchilton
18. Giedo van der Garde @GvanderGarde
19. Valtteri Bottas @ValtteriBottas