Homepage is Where the Heart Is - The Drivers Part 1
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In the midst of 2008, we took it upon ourselves to review F1 driver and team websites, searching for pages that reach out to fans, and that allow us closer inside the F1 paddock. Now almost two years on, the grid has changed significantly, as have many of the sites themselves, so we thought it was time to update our reviews.
As we go through the list, I will be approaching the sites from the point of view of a fan, looking for personality and style from our drivers. Mr C will take a more geeky approach, looking at the technical side of the various sites.
Of note, this year we've added a new metric to our reviewing process and all homepages are now tested for loading speed. We're using Safari on Snow Leopard and each page is refreshed five times with a mean average taken. All browser caching is disabled. Also new for this year, pages were tested on an iPod Touch and an Android mobile phone.
We'll be racing through the sites six at a time, in 2010 entry list order, so let us begin with the reigning world champion.
Jenson Button
Christine: Jenson's website hasn't changed enormously from two years ago - the navigation is in the same place, and the font is identical. The website was good back then, though, so it didn't need to go a huge step to improve. Jenson was one of the first F1 drivers to offer up videos from his time on the road, and he allowed lots of insight during the terrible Honda/Brawn winter crossover. Some of the flash elements are a little bit annoying but the content makes up for that. There's plenty of news and media to consume, and JB allows fans to upload their own photographs to share with others. We also know that Jenson likes to hold the occasional competition, designing his helmet for example, and that is a big plus as well.
Mr. C: The first site we look at and we're hit by the Flash problem. Jenson's site has been built using Adobe Flash, and that means neither the Touch nor the mobile are able to browse this site. Using a desktop browser, things remain larger similar to the way they were 18 months ago. Amazingly, nothing on the site yells "World Champion". There's no sign of his trophy, no mention of the WDC title anywhere in fact. The news section sadly appears to copy text from team press releases, but I do like the content contained with the "trackside" section.
The tracking statistics that adorn the right hand side of the page appeal to me. I like that it tells you the most popular day for traffic, and it's nice to know you're not alone when browsing the site. The biggest issue I have though is the mammoth load time, I just don't have the patience to wait around.
Site: http://jensonbutton.com/
Load time: 5.02 seconds
Fan rating: 7 out of 10
Geek rating: 4 out of 10
Lewis Hamilton
Christine: When it first loads, there is something that smacks of an intro, which I don't really like but it doesn't last very long. The black and red looks nice, and although white text on black isn't my favourite, this isn't too garish. This is a brand new concept for the Hamilton site, compared to it's looks back in 2008, but I don't know that much has changed in terms of its direction. There is the requisite news and video sections, but none of it seems particularly personal. The video thank you messages are very staged, and quite corporate, but so far Lewis has made a career out of that, so it's not out of character.
I do like the timeline section, although I didn't find it extremely easy to navigate.
Mr. C: I like Lewis' redesign. The colour and layout work for me and I only wish he'd taken the central "LH" button further - every driver needs a logo and that's a great one. Most of the site works using a mobile phone, although a few warning messages written in blood red text make you think something really bad will happen if you don't find that Flash plugin in a hurry.
The site renders fast, and the navigation is straightforward. Of concern is just how much of the place is geared towards generating income. It seems no matter which direction you head in, there's the continual encouragement to part with your cash. From the £20 fan club membership right up the £15,000 replica helmet complete with a Steinmetz diamond encrusted #1. Essentially the site begins to feel like an extension of the McLaren e-shop rather than a place to get to know Lewis.
Site: http://www.lewishamilton.com/
Load time: 2.95 seconds
Fan rating: 5 out of 10
Geek rating: 6 out of 10
Michael Schumacher
Christine: Back in 2008, there didn't seem much chance of Schumacher returning to the grid any time soon, but here he is and thus we have a website to review. The initial homepage is very, very simple. A photo of Michael, a signature, and some quick links to the latest news. It's not exciting, but at least it is clean and easy to use. After some further investigation, the navigation is good, there's plenty to read, and some excellent pictures as well. I like the season reviews, but there isn't much in the way of interaction with fans. Although, there are a couple of postcards to download if you are thus inclined.
Mr. C: There are very few things I hate in life more than sites that don't make proper use of screen real estate. I understand it's difficult to make content scale both vertically and horizontally at the same time, but there is never a need to do what Michael Schumacher's site does, and that is to try and squeeze everything into the smallest box available. It looks positively lost on my screen.
Credit does have to go to Schumacher though, not only for providing a multilingual site, but for providing one that works on every browser and handset I could throw at it. The only tricky moments relate to two finger scrolling inside the small boxes when using the Touch. Michael also has the fastest site we've come across so far, almost four whole seconds faster than Jenson Button's.
I do like that there's a section for Schumacher's biking adventures, and the wealth of other information shows just how many activities the man gets involved in outside of F1.
Site: http://www.michaelschumacher.de/
Load time: 1.13 seconds
Fan rating: 6 out of 10
Geek rating: 4 out of 10
Nico Rosberg
Christine: Of all the sites, Nico's is one of those that has changed the most. The last time we checked in on his page, there was some moody photographs, along with a message that Nico wasn't just a racing driver. It almost looked like he wanted to be a movie star as well. Now it seems as though the Mercedes driver has accepted his position, and although still a classy black, white and beige, the site is about being in F1. The "other side" of Nico has been relegated to at least one mouse click away.
On the main site, the font is a bit chunky and off putting, but there are links to Twitter and Facebook in easy reach. There isn't much to read other than news, but some of the items do link off to YouTube videos and items on his team site as well.
Mr. C: Here we have a site that has presumably recently undergone a redesign. Nico's homepage is chock full of social networking links and even includes direct Facebook integration, with fan images appearing on the homepage. It isn't the prettiest site in the world, but here content is king and Rosberg's "web team" provide regular, albeit brief, updates on his early season news.
The site ultimately feels unfinished. I can't for example work out what on earth the "likes" text on every post relates to, everything is equally liked in Nico's world I guess.
Additionally, the inclusion of the previous site although hidden away and rebranded as 'the other side of Nico' suggests someone isn't quite ready to accept the loss of one's concept site. The new pages do at least work on the move, even if they do take an age to load.
Site: http://www.nicorosberg.com/
Load time: 4.33 seconds
Fan rating: 4 out of 10
Geek rating: 6 out of 10
Sebastian Vettel
Christine: It bugs me that the site defaults to the news section, which is fine, except that is the second option on the navigation bar at the top. It feels like you've totally missed out on the About Me page, which is worth looking at. I did enjoy browsing through the photos of a baby Vettel in his kart. Particularly the one where he looks about the cry. Erm, what else is on there? The fan area says it is currently being updated, but there is a shop and archives to poke around in as well. My only real complaint is that if you select English as your language but accidentally click on the wrong thing, you get taken straight back to the German site. Not a major problem, but slightly annoying.
Mr. C: Seb is another driver with a logo, and I can't help but think Ayrton Senna's estate might be asking for their branding back soon. I do like the layout of pages, although you get the impression the big, bold images have been designed to hide a lack of content. A few of the links didn't work at all for me, so I've no idea what impressions Vettel had of Bahrain. More strange was the propensity of the image gallery to throw numeric alerts in my direction as if revealing some sort of code.
The site overall feels like a work in progress and no matter how hard or how often I click the "shop" link, nothing happens. On the mobile front, almost everything bar the homepage animation works as it should. At least Vettel is providing original content on his site and in multiple languages - it'll be worth keeping an eye on this one as the season develops.
Site: http://www.sebastianvettel.de
Load time: 1.92 seconds
Fan rating: 4 out of 10
Geek rating: 4 out of 10
Mark Webber
Christine: MarkWebber.com has just recently undergone a redesign, and I'm relatively impressed with the results. The previous incarnation had plenty of content but was a little bit messy. Now we have a much cleaner site to contend with. The Australian has debuted a YouTube channel and has recently joined Twitter, so they both feature prominently on the homepage. I like that he has separated out on and off track news, for those that are only interested in one or the other. There aren't an enormous amount of photos to look through, and the Mark Webber Challenge is only allowed a paragraph or two. I do really like the logo though.
Mr. C: Within the first 30 seconds of using this site, I felt right at home. The layout is very straightforward and there's no sense of clutter amongst the content. A video featuring Mark in his living room, presumably filmed by his other half, adds to the homeliness of the site and instantly it's my favourite driver site thus far.
Delving deeper reveals yet more treats. Each news post allows comments, which, although not a first for an F1 driver (Nick Heidfeld offered something similar last year), is a rare occurrence and something to be encouraged in today's ever more social age.
Beyond that Mark is rating each race as the season progresses. He's given Bahrain 3 out of 5 for on track challenge and 2 out of 5 for off track entertainment. I love this idea and I'll be checking back regularly to see how the man views the 2010 season. The last thing to mention is Webber has news stories dating back to March 2008, it's wonderful that he hasn't trashed history with every redesign and I intend to go and dig through the archives at the first opportunity.
I love Mark's site to bits. It's my favourite of the day and I'm so glad we got there because things were looking predicable on the driver's front up until now. Everything on the site works well when using the iPod or the Android and even the videos play as expected. The only thing I can knock it for, is the slow initial loading speed, presumably because the server is hosted in Australia.
Site: http://www.markwebber.com/
Load time: 4.91 seconds
Fan rating: 9 out of 10
Geek rating: 9 out of 10
Those are our first six reviews, we've got plenty more to come in this series. For now, though, why not tell us what you make of the driver websites we've covered so far? Who's doing the right thing and who is heading in the wrong direction?
