Meltwater has tracked data over the month of March in the lead-up to the F1 Australian Grand Prix this weekend.
The data highlights which teams and drivers are fairing as favourites on social media according to their social and analytical listening tools.
According to data from the media intelligence and data analytics company, out of 94,600 (a 500% spike from the previous month) mentions across socials in March, the numbers spiked on Wednesday from 5,000 to over 20,000.
This is because some key activities have kicked off ahead of the practice and qualifying rounds before Sunday’s race, although engagement on social started on an upwards trajectory since Sunday, 26th March.
Yet when comparing the same lead-up dates, the Meltwater data found 2022 had a much higher engagement, although the mentions on the first day are so far not that different, with 23,738 in 2022 compared to 22,235 in 2023.
When it comes to the favourite brands and drivers, Redbull has the highest share of voice (29%) as it records the highest number of total mentions at 21K and the most engaged audience so far showing a 1.63M total engagement (closely followed by Ferrari with 1.46M engagement).
Although McLaren wins the race with the most positive sentiment (45%) and the highest reach on Twitter with 57.9M (compared to only 11.9M reach for Redbull on this platform).
Meltwater also shared additional social insights on where the conversations are happening and where the preferences sit:
• Twitter has received the strongest engagement from people aged 18-34, followed by age 55-64.
• The US, Australia and the UK have the most mentions across all platforms apart from on Twitter, where Spain is second to the US with highest number of tweets
• Most engaged content day of the month was a Tweet by Formula 1 on 11 March marking Michael Schumacher making his debut for Ferrari at the Australian Grand Prix 27 years ago – with 9M reach and over 26,000 engagement
• Despite the internal tensions at Redbull, all social conversations have been mostly neutral (62.9%) and 29.4% positive in sentiment
• Interestingly, whilst majority of age demographic engagement came from 18-24 and 25-34 across all brands, Aston has an equal following of 18-24 and 55-64 age demographic, and not surprisingly Spain has the highest Aston Martin engagement in support of Fernando Alonso
• Over two thirds of the audience engaging is not surprisingly male (66.7%)
• Other brands share of voice – McLaren 19%; Ferrari 18.4%; Aston Martin 17.8%; Mercedes 15.8%
• Top emojis chart
