The first half of the 2012 Formula One season has come and gone, and the Summer holidays are already here. Well, for me, they’ve already gone having been on holiday for two weeks. Which explains why this post is slightly late.
I say slightly, the counters were done on Tuesday instead of Monday, and with it being the end of July, this post is longer with every driver and every team with a Twitter account listed below. Sebastian Vettel, Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, I’m afraid, still do not own a Twitter account.
Drivers
01 – 1,057,003 – Jenson Button (McLaren)
02 – 953,645 – Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
03 – 945,685 – Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
04 – 461,516 – Bruno Senna (Williams)
05 – 404,682 – Mark Webber (Red Bull)
06 – 242,841 – Sergio Perez (Sauber)
07 – 237,207 – Pastor Maldonaldo (Williams)
08 – 183,467 – Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
09 – 166,083 – Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham)
10 – 160,938 – Pedro de la Rosa (HRT)
11 – 142,153 – Paul di Resta (Force India)
12 – 133,874 – Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
13 – 124,342 – Narain Karthikeyan (HRT)
14 – 84,063 – Vitaly Petrov (Caterham)
15 – 78,012 – Timo Glock (Marussia)
16 – 77,941 – Nico Hulkenberg (Force India)
17 – 66,563 – Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber)
18 – 61,318 – Romain Grosjean (Lotus)
19 – 39,983 – Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)
20 – 28,051 – Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)
21 – 16,640 – Charles Pic (Marussia)
Up front it is status quo, with Jenson Button above one million followers as the end of last month. Further down, and Felipe Massa has moved ahead of Narain Karthikeyan. Despite joining at the same time as his team-mate, Massa has moved up the charts at a much slower rate than Alonso, which shows the difference in the two drivers’ respective popularities.
I’m also surprised at how low Romain Grosjean is in the table and his lack of improvements across the months, but maybe that will change if Lotus pick up their first win soon. In terms of milestones other than Button’s seven figure follower, Fernando Alonso is now right behind Lewis Hamilton and therefore above 900,000 followers while Mark Webber is above 400,000, partially thanks to his victory in the British Grand Prix.
Drivers – Increases
01 – 215,927 – Fernando Alonso (n/a)
02 – 79,859 – Lewis Hamilton (n/a)
03 – 59,449 – Jenson Button (n/a)
04 – 38,781 – Mark Webber (n/a)
Average driver = 28,120
05 – 24,666 – Bruno Senna (up 1)
06 – 23,894 – Sergio Perez (down 1)
07 – 22,579 – Felipe Massa (up 1)
08 – 18,510 – Pastor Maldonaldo (down 1)
09 – 16,280 – Pedro de la Rosa (n/a)
10 – 14,843 – Nico Rosberg (n/a)
11 – 11,005 – Paul di Resta (up 1)
12 – 10,764 – Romain Grosjean (up 2)
13 – 9,964 – Heikki Kovalainen (n/a)
14 – 8,182 – Narain Karthikeyan (down 3)
15 – 7,947 – Daniel Ricciardo (up 5)
16 – 6,479 – Kamui Kobayashi (down 1)
17 – 5,856 – Vitaly Petrov (down 1)
18 – 5,072 – Nico Hulkenberg (down 1)
19 – 4,320 – Timo Glock (n/a)
20 – 3,297 – Jean-Eric Vergne (down 2)
21 – 2,847 – Charles Pic (n/a)
The up and down positions above is a comparison to their position in the same table last month. The raw values, though, are not directly comparable. As July was a 31 day month, the above values cover five weeks, whereas in June, the values covered a four week period.
As thus, it is a bit embarrassing if the raw value is lower this month than last month, as is the case with Pastor Maldonaldo, Jean-Eric Vergne and Narain Karthikeyan! As thus, Karthikeyan records the biggest dip, down three places. Daniel Ricciardo moves up three places, the biggest increase in comparison to other drivers’. The average driver is a lot higher as well compared to June, which is down to another mammoth gain by Fernando Alonso.
Teams
01 – 312,627 – Ferrari
02 – 215,998 – McLaren
03 – 139,971 – Mercedes
04 – 139,958 – Red Bull
05 – 124,135 – Lotus
06 – 81,874 – Caterham
07 – 75,084 – Marussia
08 – 71,403 – Williams
09 – 71,139 – Force India
10 – 66,927 – Sauber
11 – 56,707 – HRT
12 – 46,345 – Toro Rosso
Again, not much to report in this chart, although Red Bull are very close to overtaking Mercedes for third. Chances are that they have already done it…
Teams – Increases
01 – 19,788 – Ferrari (n/a)
02 – 14,732 – Red Bull (up 1)
03 – 13,621 – McLaren (down 1)
04 – 9,893 – Lotus (n/a)
Average team = 8,288
05 – 7,036 – Sauber (n/a)
06 – 7,000 – Marussia (up 3)
07 – 6,441 – Mercedes (down 1)
08 – 4,893 – HRT (down 1)
09 – 4,285 – Williams (up 3)
10 – 4,282 – Caterham (down 2)
11 – 4,169 – Force India (down 1)
12 – 3,312 – Toro Rosso (down 1)
A few bits to note here. McLaren and Red Bull do a swap, probably due to their respective form in July with McLaren on the back foot until Hungary at least. Marussia move up a few places, as do Williams.
Driver and Team statistics as of Tuesday 31st July 2012.
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