Lewis Hamilton top and Max Verstappen fourth in alternative driver social rankings

Lewis Hamilton dominates Max Verstappen and his other F1 rivals in an alternative ranking for the 2022 season.

Lewis Hamilton opens up on difficult season for Mercedes

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Lewis Hamilton has been made to wait for a record-breaking eighth Drivers’ Championship, facing last-lap heartbreak in 2021 before enduring a W13 nightmare this season just gone. But his roaring popularity remains standings across the F1 community, proven by a recent study.

Zoomph, a digital measurement platform for social audience intelligence, sponsorship measurement and evaluation, have given F1 fans a glimpse of the most talked-about drivers on the grid throughout the 2022 season. Ranked by total engagements on social media, Hamilton is comfortably still at the top of the tree. Ranked by total engagements on social media, Hamilton is comfortably still at the top of the tree.

During the latest F1 campaign, had 114 million engagements, with Charles Leclerc’s 88.3m the next biggest tally. The Mercedes icon posted 268 times with an engagement rate of 6.07 per cent, not near the most, but also tops the charts for impressions (1.9bn) and social value (£48.5m).

The back-to-back world champion, Max Verstappen, is only third in the engagement rankings, behind Hamilton, Leclerc and, perhaps surprisingly, his Red Bull team-mate, Sergio Perez (60.7m). Verstappen had 59.9m engagements, but his 755 posts were the most of any of the top 10.

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Lewis Hamilton top and Max Verstappen fourth in alternative driver social rankings

Lewis Hamilton dominates Max Verstappen in an alternate F1 ranking. (Image: GETTY)

The Dutchman was also fourth in impressions with 828.1m, with Hamilton top, Leclerc second (1.1bn), and Lando Norris replacing Perez – fifth with 719.8m – in third with 837.6m. The McLaren star’s success Twitch streaming account will undoubtedly contribute to his social media popularity

Though Verstappen’s 7.23 per cent engagement rate is higher than Hamilton’s, Pierre Gasly sits at the summit among with top 10 with a whopping 9.63 per cent. Regarding engagement totals, fifth to 10th goes: Norris (53.8m), Carlos Sainz 51.1m, George Russell 40.6m, Daniel Ricciardo 37m, Gasly 29.9m and Mick Schumacher 23.3m.

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Lewis Hamilton top and Max Verstappen fourth in alternative driver social rankings

Lewis Hamilton has grown his brand through ventures away from F1. (Image: Getty)

Hamilton’s commanding lead over his fellow F1 drivers should come as no surprise, with all 19 of the 37-year-old’s peers looking like minnows compared to him on social media. Using Instagram as an example, at the time of writing, the Brit boasts 30.9m followers, more than Mercedes pal George Russell (4m) and Red Bull duo Verstappen (9.5m) and Perez (5.2m) combined.

However, he will be more focused on improvements on the track in 2023, searching for that elusive world title to eclipse Michael Schumacher’s legacy in the sport. Mercedes’ end of the 2022 campaign will give them optimism that they can hit the ground running when F1 returns next year.

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