Button first to 1,000 supporters on F1 Fanatic | 2012 F1 season

Since F1 Fanatic introduced the ability to pick your favourite drivers and teams, one driver has led the way.

Now Jenson Button has become the first to pass the milestone 1,000 fans on F1 Fanatic ' just under one-eighth of the 8,100 active members on the site.

Lewis Hamilton is second ahead of Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Mark Webber. McLaren remain the most popular of the teams.

Button also has the most followers on Twitter out of the active Formula 1 drivers.

With that in mind, let's take a fresh look at who's hot and who's not on the site ' and, for the first time, whether those popularity trends are reflected on a much bigger social network.

Most popular drivers on F1 Fanatic

Jenson Button

1006

Lewis Hamilton

750

Michael Schumacher

530

Kimi Raikkonen

524

Mark Webber

493

Fernando Alonso

471

Paul di Resta

449

Kamui Kobayashi

441

Sebastian Vettel

392

Robert Kubica

366

Heikki Kovalainen

312

Nico Rosberg

301

Bruno Senna

280

Sergio Perez

220

Felipe Massa

174

Daniel Ricciardo

171

Nico Hulkenberg

133

Vitaly Petrov

101

Timo Glock

97

Romain Grosjean

94

Pastor Maldonado

51

Jean-Eric Vergne

49

Pedro de la Rosa

35

Narain Karthikeyan

35

Charles Pic

17

Notes on the most popular drivers:

• The McLaren drivers remain the most popular duo on the grid, though Button has one-third more supporters than Hamilton
• Comeback champions Schumacher and Raikkonen have moved up to third and fourth ' the latter gaining eight places since the start of the season
• Alonso has also gained a place but Di Resta has dropped from third to seventh
• The new winners of 2012 are yet to break into the top ten ' Rosberg 12th and Maldonado 21st

Most popular drivers: F1 Fanatic vs Twitter

Notes on F1 driver popularity on F1 Fanatic and Twitter:

• The popularity of F1 drivers on Twitter compared to F1 Fanatic has much in common. The most striking difference is that the midfield drivers generally have proportionally less support, with some significant exceptions (Senna, Maldonado).
• Button and Hamilton are the most followed F1 drivers Twitter ' at least now that Barrichello, with 1.6 million supporters, has gone to IndyCar.
• Not all F1 drivers are on Twitter so there's no data for Schumacher, Raikkonen, Vettel and Kubica.
• How long a driver has been using Twitter for and what languages they Tweet in will have an effect on their follower count. Alonso has picked up over half a million followers since joining Twitter in March.
• For a list of official F1 drivers and teams Twitter accounts see the F1 Twitter directory

Most popular teams on F1 Fanatic

McLaren

1083

Ferrari

481

Mercedes

406

Lotus

397

Red Bull

388

Williams

322

Sauber

291

Force India

278

Caterham

216

Toro Rosso

102

HRT

61

Marussia

39

Notes on the most popular teams:

• McLaren remain the most popular team
• Success alone doesn't seem to breed popularity: Red Bull are fifth following their back-to-back championships in the last two years

Show your support

Want to make sure your driver and team preferences are reflected in these charts? Here's how to do it:

1. Log in with your F1 Fanatic account. If you've not got one, sign up for one here.
2. Go to My Account > Profile > Edit and select F1 teams and drivers.
3. Make your choices and click Save Changes.

2012 F1 season

• Button first to 1,000 supporters on F1 Fanatic
• Montezemolo: "The championship is in our hands"
• Drivers will 'push hard from start to finish' in Monaco - Pirelli
• Pirelli announce unchanged tyre allocations for next three races
• F1 fans' videos from the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix

Browse all 2012 F1 season articles

Image © McLaren/Hoch Zwei