When I first starting watching Formula One, I actually liked another driver, and couldn’t stand this little fool – “Fernando Alonso”.
However, as the season started to draw to a close, against my better judgement and at the unfortunate expense of my pride, I found myself warming to him. I watched the next season more closely – after keeping an eye on him over the off season – and the passion he has for what he does, his skill and precision in a racing car and his fiery, aggressive nature made him my favourite driver very quickly. He has been so ever since, and he will be until he retires. I’ve watched three seasons of hellishness now, and I am waiting for Ferrari to give him the car to live up to his full potential once again.
So, for me, supporting Alonso was a natural thing – I was drawn to him and haven’t stopped supporting him since. However, I know that other people “pick” their drivers and/or teams differently.
Here is what I have found to be the most popular reasons for supporting a favourite team or driver;*
Driving Ability
This is the one most fans say they pick their driver on, but it seems very few pick their driver on ability alone – EXCEPT Schumacher fans. And I mean that as a compliment!
Schumacher doesn’t strike me as a particularly ‘nice’ guy (as a racing driver, I am told he is a very nice guy out of a racing environment), his morals on track seem a little skewed and he has been a team favourite for most of his F1 career, which can be galling to other fans. However, he can drive like no-one else, and that’s why people like him.
Nationality & Patriotism
This seems to be a big factor for lots of people – perhaps even the majority of Formula One fans. That’s something I’ve never understood, being thoroughly un-patriotic myself (the only thing I support based on nationality is football and even that’s only because I couldn’t care less about it).
The Brits support McLaren, what was Brawn, Button and Hamilton. Europeans tend to be a bit more relaxed about who they support – Finnish, Spanish, German, Swiss (?!), and Europeans are much more likely to support drivers AND teams.
Brazilians tend to support drivers, and Brazilian drivers at that – and that’s about it!
Interestingly, Italians tend to be much more about Ferrari than Trulli or Liuzzi, or any other Italian drivers. I suppose that’s because Ferrari is much more of an institution in Italy than any other car manufacturer is on the continent. Ferrari is almost synonymous with Italy, while the same cannot be said of Renault and France, McLaren and Britain etc.
Patriotism dictates, however, that if your nation’s only driver is utter rubbish or – more likely – in an awful car for most of his career a la Jenson Button, you have a long time of disappointment and misery in front of you. Could you imagine if Alonso had been stuck in a Force India his entire career? He was Spain’s only option for almost 9 years!
Sense of History
A lot of people support with a sense of history as their reason – eg, supporting Honda or McLaren because of Senna, being a Ferrari fan although Schumacher no longer drives for them, supporting Nico because you or your Dad supported Keke etc.
The Other Reasons
Personality – I think a lot of people are more drawn to a driver’s personality than would admit. I know that it plays a big part for me. I don’t care about their ‘off-track’ personality, but that they are funny and engaging in interviews, honest and passionate etc is a big factor for me.
Underdog – a lot of people have a thing for the underdog, and will support a driver for no other reason than they are the one getting less glory, and who they are willing to succeed – main ones being Sutil and Heidfeld.
Rookie – a lot of people pick a rookie and follow their F1 career from day one. If you pick a Vettel you are on to something, but choose less wisely cough Piquet Jr cough, and you might find your F1 watching to be a little confused, with a new favourite driver every other season!
Oddly, until he left, Raikkonen was by far the most popular of the “current” F1 drivers. He, of little F1-personality, from Finland – a rally country with not a lot of F1 heritage, no tracks to speak of – with no real team allegiance and a slightly odd approach to racing where some days he was completely on it, and others it was like he wasn’t even there! So maybe all of the above is irrelevant and it’s all about how “cool” the driver is 
It’s interesting to think that we all watch the same 20-odd drivers, every other weekend for 9 months, but that we choose our own drivers or teams for our own reasons. There is no obvious favourite, and everyone’s opinion is (for the most part) respected, because every F1 fan knows that to be a Formula One driver, you have skills and are worth supporting.
Who are your favourite drivers? Teams?
Why?
*informal survey taken on F1 forums.
Good post, I think johnny come latelys are far more likely to go for the cool driver, or their nearest national representation.
Old school fans I would wager are drawn more to technical achievement or sheer driving skill.
Me? Since Damon Hill (yeah yeah I know – I was young), I was in limbo. I respected Schumacher because of his sheer talent, but couldnt support him, i enjoyed watching Montoya, but I wasnt his biggest fan primarily cos he was mental. For years I would watch and cheer on Coulthard, but if i’m honest i found him pretty dull!
Lewis arriving answered a few questions for me and I was able to support a national driver and team, on technical and talent grounds.
This last year confused me tho, with Jenson doing so much with what seemed so little, especially with the Pheonix story added to the mix, I started to wonder…
This season I look forward to seeing both of them together in a newly unshackled McLaren outfit, and whilst i’m weary of Brawn/Schumy back on the grid in a factory team, I’m looking forward to them both duking it out with such a prodigious talent.
Love the Montoya comment
I agree with pretty much all you’ve said, and I’m also looking forward to the inter-McLaren dynamic, should make excellent viewing.
Damon Hill, huh?
Could have been worse, you could have said Mansell!!
My favourite, from day one, is Nico Rosberg. I am from South Africa, but my family is German, so I’ve always been obliged to take the side of the Germans. I first saw Nico when he was doing the blindfolded lap review and I loved everything about him, which I why I support him.
I don’t have a favourite team, though. I find that there are a lot of problems with most of the teams and a few of them do things that I disagree with, so it’s easier to just not support any team.
Kimi Räikkönen is undoubtedly my second favourite. I absolutely love his personality, or lack thereof. The way he behaves on the track, with reporters and other drivers is so attractive, it draws certain people towards him. He would be my number one driver, but I think Nico has that spot covered for a long time. I’m not Finnish, not even close, but I do quite like Finland. The language, music, food, people, their passion – everything about Finland is great. Despite the fact that he doesn’t speak a lot in interviews, I find him to be quite funny. Kimi is the type of guy who attracts attention, even if he does come across as cool, laid back and uncaring.
Seb Vettel is such a great character – you’ve just got to love him. Constantly happy, always smiling, great driver and quite competitive, even for such a young guy. He’s also German, which puts him in 3rd place. It’s not a case of ‘if’ he will be world champion, it’s more like ‘when’. The fact that he is friends with Kimi is an added bonus.
After that the Germans fill up the rest of the spots, with Timo in 4th and Nick in 5th. Adrian Sutil doesn’t feature. There’s something about him that I don’t like. After the Germans comes Heikki Kovalianen, once again my love for Finland shines through.
Thank you so much for your reply – really interesting to read about fans from other countries, and who they support and why.
I’m not a big Nico fan, but I’m with you on Raikkonen, Vettel and Glock – all brilliant characters and talented drivers.
Sounds like you pick your drivers on a mixture of nationality/personality? I find it all really interesting (which is maybe a bit sad?!).
Thanks again for the comment
Nationality is quite important to me. I don’t watch much sport other than Formula One and equine events, but I always support the Germans and the Finns.
Personality does play quite a large role in my decision making.. I’m not fond of drivers who constantly make wild accusations or those who are overconfident.
Just out of curiosity, who would you count as drivers who constantly make wild accusations/are overconfident? (think I might be able to guess…
)
This is such an interesting subject and rather fascinating to me because I love football too and the way I support football and F1 is so different.
When I was a kid, watching F1 with my mum, I would have told you Schumacher was my favourite, purely because I was young and I liked supporting someone who won all the time.
I tried supporting British drivers for a while, but it was a stale period for them and there was just no joy in it. It’s different, supporting an underdog in F1 because a triumph is rare. In football an underdog team is going to win at least a few games a season that you can cling onto (I’m saying this, I’m a Manchester United fan
). But with F1 you won’t get that. And I got to the stage where I really couldn’t care less what rock I’d been born on.
Then about the time I really started to care about who I supported, Lewis Hamilton had just started his first season. I liked him a lot. I liked how he was young and just rookie but he wasn’t scared of any other driver, he just went for it. His talent shone through. And to be honest, my mum has always supported McLaren and British drivers, so I felt like we would have something in common. So I started to cheer him on.
But the first real favourite I’ve had is Sebastian Vettel. I remembered him getting so upset about crashing into Webber and I liked that he showed emotion, unlike many other drivers. Then he won at Monza since then I’ve supported him. During that race I just kept thinking, he’s not even that much older than me and he’s doing that! It was inspiring, for someone at 17. And he was so personable, such a friendly character, so different to the others around him. He’s a fantastic driver and I’m sure he’s going to win the WDC sooner rather than later. But what I like most is him as a character. And his smile is so bright, I can’t help but be charmed by him.
That was a bit of an essay, sorry!
Firstly, don’t apologise – I love essay comments! And I am also somewhat of an essay-writer myself, so I totally understand!
Secondly – love the explanation of how you got to who you support now. Can understand supporting Schumacher as a kid, Hamilton when he first turned up and now Vettel – I love Vettel. I remember that Webber/Vettel crash and remember how upset he was about it – same in Melbourne this year when he crashed into Kubica (?) and radioed in to say he was an idiot and he was really, really sorry. I llike that about him, because so many drivers won’t admit fault. EVER. But he and Sutil are generally really good about admitting blame and apologising when necessary. Also think Red Bull drivers are MUCH more personable because the team is more relaxed, PR-wise.
Thanks so much for commenting!
The driver who makes the wildest accusations/is overconfident is definitely (in my opinion) Jenson Button.
I recall how he once said in an interview “if I don’t win then it doesn’t matter who does” – that annoyed me. Then at one race this year, there was a yellow flag towards the end of qualifying, and all cars had to slow down, meaning that Jenson couldn’t fight for a higher position. Nico Rosberg’s steering wheel was displaying a message, so he couldn’t see how fast he was going, but Jenson complained about that, saying that he had been speeding under yellow flag conditions. Nico was later cleared off all suspicions, but Jenson hadn’t gotten a higher position, so he took to complaining about drivers instead.
I don’t have a problem with drivers making complaints, but Jenson took it to far in the sense that he complained all day, demanding that Nico be notched down on the grid.
My main criteria for backing drivers in ability to overtake. Given that its next to impossible to overtake in F1 cars and F1 engineers frown when drivers get into dirty air of cars in front and disturb the the aero balance of cars, and rather prefer that their drivers put in consistent laps and let the pitwall strategists plan how to outsmart competition in pit-stops.
With all that lengthy intro, my favorite driver in modern F1 has been JPM, sheer talent and sheer genius when it came about car control and uncanny ability to overtake. But I guess he was too much of Old school guy for F1 who preferred to get wife, kids and parents to races rather than “celebrities” and corporate sponsor guests. His exit was case of loss of greatest talent to F1 “Uptightness”.
After I saw the first race of Hamilton when he made those daring movies on track to ruffle, Massa and Alonso, I stood up and took note of possible new JPM. But then the Brit opened his mouth and everytime he did it all that came out was cheap “Trash talk” kind of things that boxers do in prematch press conferences, I flinched back and ever since I have been pretty much backing drivers with pretty much good work ethic and ability to get best out of the car on hand (some thing that Alain Prost used to do when I took to F1 as a kid), so now its Vettel for me. The guy even has a wry sense of humour