The 2010 F1 grid on Twitter

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Kovalainen is the newest F1 driver on Twitter - and he tells it like it is

You can follow all bar one of the teams entered for the 2010 F1 season on Twitter either through the team themselves or one of their drivers. Some teams even have two or more official accounts.

Unfortunately there are lots of fake accounts from people pretending to represent drivers or teams. Below is a list of all the real accounts for drivers and teams who will be competing this year so you can get the real news straight from their mouths.

McLaren

Drivers: Jenson Button | Lewis Hamilton

Button started Tweeting last year when he was introduced to the service by Rubens Barrichello. And if the world champion’s got time to talk to his fans on Twitter then what excuse do the others have?

There are a few fakers pretending to be Lewis Hamilton but nothing bona fide.

Team: TheFifthDriver, McLaren eShop

McLaren are among the most prolific and engaged Twitterers on the grid with an active fan base and lots of Twitter-based competitions.

Mercedes

Drivers: Michael Schumacher | Nico Rosberg

To be honest, the Nico Rosberg account is hardly worth listing as so far it has only been used to promote a competition when he was at Williams. Hopefully Rosberg will start using it properly some day.

If Michael Schumacher ever starts Tweeting expect him to amass users very quickly indeed. Major international sportspeople like Shaquille O’Neil and Lance Armstrong are among the most-followed individuals on Twitter with around 2.5m supporters each.

Reserve driver Nick Heidfeld is on Twitter but he hasn’t posted anything on his account in three months – not even to celebrate getting his seat at Mercedes.

Team: Official MGP

Happily, the team themselves have been as active on Twitter as their predecessors Brawn were.

Don’t forget to follow F1 Fanatic on Twitter too!

Red Bull

Drivers: Sebastian Vettel | Mark Webber

A poor show from two drivers who often have interesting things to say and would make great additions to F1’s Twitter community.

Update: Mark Webber joined Twitter a few days after this was written. His account has been added to the F1 Twitter directory.

Team: Red Bull F1 Spy

At least the team have an active Twitter presence.

Ferrari

Drivers: Felipe Massa | Fernando Alonso

Oddly, there is a ‘Verified’ Twitter account for Massa which was set up by his friends while he was in hospital last year. But he’s never used it and it’s been dormant for months.

Inevitably there are a couple of fakers pretending to be Fernando Alonso. Sadly the twice-champion is not Tweeting for real yet.

Team: Inside Ferrari

Ferrari launched their Twitter account when they revealed the F10 last month. They’re doing a good job of replying to questions from the Tifosi.

Williams

Drivers: Rubens Barrichello | Nico Hulkenberg

The only team to have both their drivers on Twitter. However Hulkenberg’s is being updated by some unknown third party, meaning Tweets often appear while he’s out on track, making people wonder if he’s only got one hand on the wheel.

Barrichello was an early adopter and has more Twitter followers than any other F1 driver – a whopping 330,000 right now.

Team: Claire Williams

Williams PR Claire is a recent and very popular addition to Twitter.She has been posting lots of pictures from the recent tests – even of rival teams!

Renault

Drivers: Robert Kubica | Vitaly Petrov

It’s all quiet from Renault’s Russo-Polish line-up on Twitter.

Team: Renault F1 Paddock Pass

Renault originally used Twitter simply to post links to articles on their web site. They’re using it properly now and have been posting live updates from the tests and replying to questions from fans.

Force India

Drivers: Adrian Sutil | Vitantonio Liuzzi

Nothing from Force India’s drivers either.

Team: Clubforce

One of the most active F1 team Twitter accounts (and they’re following F1 Fanatic so they get extra brownie points).

Toro Rosso

Drivers: Sebastien Buemi | Jaime Alguersuari

Jaime Alguersuari’s prolific use of caps lock and exclamation marks might make you wince but at least he’s joined the party, unlike his team mate.

Team: Toro Rosso Spy

Posted a little from the tests this month but not as active as many of the others.

Lotus

Drivers: Jarno Trulli | Heikki Kovalainen

Kovalainen is one of the most recent additions to Twitter and has already been one of the most illuminating.

He was impressively frank about why his test came to an early end last week, telling his followers: "Had a crash and damaged front wing, session over for us. S..t! My mistake, tomorrow we go again?óÔé¼?ª"

Team: My Lotus Racing | Tony Fernandes | Mike Gascoyne

Already one of the best teams to follow on Twitter with lots of interesting comments not just from their official account but owner Tony Fernandes and designer Mike Gascoyne too.

US F1

Drivers: Jose Maria Lopez

Lopez does not appear to be on Twitter.

Team: USF1 Team

Anyone wanting to know what’s going on with this team should keep an eye on their official Twitter presence as they have used it to make statements. The last was: “We are not gone, as many have reported. More news soon.”

Virgin

Drivers: Timo Glock | Lucas di Grassi

When I spoke to di Grassi at the Jerez test he said he was overwhelmed by the number of people following him on Twitter and was sorry he couldn’t reply to every question. No sign of team mate Glock yet, but test driver Luiz Razia is using Twitter.

Team: Virgin Racing

Good to see another new team embracing Twitter and they’re even getting into Twitter trends like Follow Friday.

Campos

Drivers: Bruno Senna

Senna largely posts in his own language and has been pretty quiet of late.

Team: None

Campos haven’t got a Twitter account.

BMW Sauber

Drivers: Pedro de la Rosa | Kamui Kobayashi

BMW Sauber’s drivers aren’t on Twitter.

Team: None

It looks like the BMWSauberF1Team Twitter account didn’t survive the team’s change of owners over the winter – they’ve been silent since early December.

More F1 and motor racing people on Twitter

Check out the F1 Twitter directory to find over 100 Twitter accounts for Formula 1 people and companies as well as other significant motor racing Twitterers.

And don’t forget to follow F1 Fanatic on Twitter:

f1fanatic_co_uk – This is my main account where I post during race weekends, share links and chat with people.

f1fanticupdate – Follow this to get a Tweet with a link to new articles on F1 Fanatic when they’re added.

Read more: F1 Twitter directory

Image (C) Lotus F1

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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56 comments on “The 2010 F1 grid on Twitter”

  1. Is the jenson button one realy real. I was looking at it before and it was weired he called himself ‘the real jenson button’

    1. Yeah it is he’s posted twitpic’s and stuff. Pretty stupid name though

      1. Prisoner Monkeys
        24th February 2010, 0:28

        That’s because there was a fake grid a while ago, a send-up of everyone involved. They also prefixed their names with “fake_” so you knew it was ing good humour, but I’m guessing Button’s is The_Real_JB because he’s had pretenders imitting him before.

        1. Fake_F1 is brilliant, better than the real ones! :D

        2. I remember reading somewhere the it’s his nickname. The Real JB I mean

          1. Why is he following Mercedes GP?

  2. Spread the word: #Lewis2Twitter !!

  3. nice one keith, its very strange no Red Bull drivers on twitter, especially Vettel, being so young

  4. I think Jaime says what he wants which is good to see.

    Lotus are really great on Twitter and Clare Williams is a legend for posting so many pictures from the testing. I hope it continues during the races!

  5. thanks Keith thats terrific, m adding the ones i aint got now.

    I’m going to go for a shameless bit of self agrandisement here
    https://twitter.com/Scrib3d
    this is me.

    If your an F1 poster put your self up, Twitter has been absolutley fantastic for Testing. Pics and times and gossip tend to pop up there fastest.

    Hope to see you all for Barcalona :)

    1. Haha Good idea

      http://www.twitter.com/tommyb89
      http://www.twitter.com/thebullrunf1

      I pretty much only use Twitter for F1. Its great to talk to everyone about it and its really good for all the pics gossip and testing etc. :)

        1. Because of this article, I finally signed up for a twitter account.
          You all may follow my musings at:

  6. Mercedes GP seems to have disappeared…

    1. Fixed the link.

  7. Nice idea Scribe… I’ve just got Twitter myself a few days ago, I go by the name of EduardoTheZebra (and yes I know it’s a stupid name, that’s the point!)

    http://twitter.com/EduardoTheZebra

    So far I think it’s great, I’d encourage other people on this site to give it a go. And it’s not just good for F1, so far I’ve spent more time discussing the Olympic ski cross!

    1. i’m afraid i’d spend too much time on it.

  8. My Twitter account is Stephen_P83. The Indycar Series here in the US has been great on Twitter. It seems like nearly every driver uses it and they’re all very open.

  9. I claim brownie points for posting that the McLaren sharkfin potentially has a hollow bulge that feeds air through the rear wing before anyone else

    http://twitter.com/Hairs_/status/8960643525

    Not that I got a credit for it, Scarbs! *shakes fist* I’ll see you in Hell for this, you hear? Innnnn heellllllllllll!

    1. I wondered about that, Thought it looked like it might not be completely flat.

  10. We search informations and news every available way. But I don’t get this Twitter-o-mania. For me it’s a piece of… And RSS for ie. autosport tweets it’s spinning around. Useless. Sensless.

    1. I used to think the same – however twitter is much more then a RSS feed. Its major plus points is speed and brevity.When Massa had a crash in Hungary fastest way to get information about his state was over twitter. Also, try following Barcelona test via it – you even have an aggregator for tweets from drivers,teams and journalists on this page – http://twitter.jamesallenonf1.com/

      I have been following testing over internet thouroughly over internet for several yeaers now and with twitter the ammount of information we get increased significantly.

      Don’t think of twitter as an RSS aggregator – think of it as your personal message board on which you choose membership.

      1. You’re right and I get the point. But still for me it’s shredding everything to chaotic pieces. I have the same ritual for years: checking original few (10-20) sites about F1 twice or more often a day. Reading full stories, interviews, etc. It’s compact then. The picture is harmonic. I don’t buy microblogging and I think it’ll fade away. A dedication for all “twittermen” (who hasn’t seen this): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2HAroA12w

  11. FakeF1Group > Real F1 drivers. You know it’s true :)

    1. I think the fake thing is hilarious… :D

  12. looking at kovaleinen in that photo makes me happy to see some green back in F1.

  13. I opened an account as well, user name being NirupamDeb
    Already been following F1F, will add others soon!

  14. Nice job Keith.Even I chat with many F1F reader through twitter.It seems like many driver uses it ahead of facebook.

  15. MichaelinBeijing
    24th February 2010, 1:42

    Fantastic Keith!

  16. Kova is so slow. Is easy to follow him on twitter!

  17. The fake F1 group is great, making it very clear they’re fake but of the real drivers you should definitely follow;
    Barrichello (great pictures and he answers questions, tweet in English and Portuguese)
    Kovalainen (very open, loves sport!) and
    Jaime (yeah, crazy… PARTY ON!!!!!!!!! WHOOO!!!!)

    My twitter is @Kateafan

    1. It’s delightful to discouver that Jaime is the F1 equivalent of Wayne.

      Excellent!

  18. Actually, Rosberg had a twitter account before the one with the promotional campaign. His nutritionist has been tweeting from it during the races so it was quite insightful. However he locked it and didn’t open it again…

  19. I had never seen the point of twitter. But after having seen the great stuff that came through during testing (particularly from Claire Williams) I have decided to get an account…

    1. That makes the two of us mate! I was impressed by her posts, and by Keith’s as well of course.

  20. Reading Alguersuari’s reminds of school textbook graffiti!

    Still, quite amusing.

  21. I don’t like Twitter also, it costs way too much time and worse it drops productivity a lot. It’s like text (SMS) when you talk to people and they have to answer a sms. Same with twitter talking to peple and they have to twitter… It looks like a chat to me which is …

    Both i don’t like and if a distri or producer do this while talking to me i know i have to lose them fast.
    It’s bloody rude while talking to people and you wonder if you are the problem. Forums i can dig i can do that in my own time when i am alone.

    1. I did find it tricky to master at first but I wouldn’t be without it now. I think the key is to be really selective in who you do and don’t follow. At first I wanted to follow everyone who was following me but I quickly realised I’d drown in Tweets if I did that.

  22. Keith there seems to be quite a few fanatics on twitter, could they be added to the twitter directory or community section (if each tweeter wishes) or is there no point/impractical?

    1. this. this this this.

      I don’t know, Keith could choose good F1 Tweeters and put them up.
      People like Scarbs, who just give you knowledge.

    2. I think that’s a great idea – can someone set a list up on Twitter for F1 Fanatic readers?

      1. I think Tommy B already has

  23. Nice list, thanks Keith!

    With regard to Vettel, is @Sebas_vettel not a genuine account?

    I know it’s shameless but if anyone would like to chat about F1, follow me:

    @jinderF1

    thanks!

    1. Nope he’s not Portuguese :P

  24. I’m sure @Sebas_vettel is not real… also, it’s funny that he posts mostly in Portuguese!
    Really wish people wouldn’t impersonate drivers.

  25. STRFerrari4Ever
    24th February 2010, 21:31

    I like Jaime’s twitter he seems like a very fun person wouldn’t mind having a party or two with him!Seems very enthusiastic aswell about this season so thats great to hear.

  26. Mark Webber has just joined Twitter this week: @AussieGrit

    1. Is there any proof it’s him?

      1. Not yet but @andrewbensonf1 has said that it is him. Kinda hoping he’s in the know ;-)

    2. I suppose @redbullf1spy could confirm it to us in a bit.

      1. They have done – added him to the F1 Twitter directory: https://www.racefans.net/f1-information/f1-twitter/

  27. MichaelinBeijing
    26th February 2010, 5:45

    Woke up this morning to Mark Webber joining Twitter @AussieGrit

    1. See Paul’s comment above.

  28. Yes, @RedBullF1spy has confirmed it’s Mark.

  29. New twitterer: He started last night @AussieGrit is Mark Webber. This has been confirmed by @redbullf1spy

    Nathan

    1. Boy I’m slow today.. LOL..

      Yes RedBull F1 Spy confirmed on the RedBull community forum that that is Marks twitter account.

      Posted on 26 February 2010 at 10:13 AM
      From: The Red Bull F1 Spy
      “Just spoken to Mr Webber. He can confirm it is indeed he himself quite literally tweeting. Follow him @AussieGrit”

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