Privacy is a major issue, especially in modern day with the rise and fast growth of Social Media. Formula One drivers become public figures due to the global love for the sport. This does mean that being in the public eye Drivers have to be prepared just like any ‘celebrity’.

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The Privacy Issue

Drivers could face privacy issues and safety issues a lot of the time, even without people knowing. However for people to invade the privacy of theses Drivers lives should not be allowed. At the end of the day, every Driver or Celebrity or anyone for that matter is entitled to their Privacy, something us as fans have to respect.

The Growth of Fans and Social Media

The fandom of the sport has grown since the release of Netflix: Drive To Survive, as well as the use of Social media amongst fans. Many of the Drivers use social media, Esteban Ocon has made fans go wild with his engagement on the social media platform TikTok,

Whether this was an accident and Esteban Ocon just loves making TikTok’s or a smart marketing move from his PR it has clearly engaged more fans of the sport to his private life. However this shouldn’t mean that he has to provide us with every detail of what he does when he isn’t racing.

Charles Leclerc and his Privacy Invasion

Another Driver which recently spoke out on Privacy after fans were gathering outside his home in Monaco is Charles Leclerc. An active user of Instagram and Youtube with a few videos in which he does explore some of his private life, he is quite a popular driver on and off the track.

Charles Leclerc posted an instagram story during the Easter weekend, pleading for fans to not go to his home. This simple request was shortly after fans rang his doorbell and asked for autographs and photos. Later the 25 year-old said that he would gladly do if he was out on the streets but not in the privacy of his own home. This instagram story, shows fans that Drivers and people in the public eye in general all have private lives, which we should respect their entailment to privacy.

Lando Norris his Social Media Presence

Lando Norris another very popular driver on and off the track, is often on the social media platform of Twitch. His passion for gaming shines through with his own brand ‘Quadrant’ and there is no doubt Norris uses social media for purely his enjoyment as well as boosting his public image.

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In one of his most recent streams on his twitch account it is said that he had leaked his address via a game. This is an unintentional mistake on the young McLaren Drivers behalf. However fans could be quick to share this information around and use this to invade his privacy. This just shows the power of social media and the lack of control people have over it.

Norris creates a variety of content for his fans on both his own social media as well as his brand Quadrant. The Driver has faced message leakages and other privacy issues last year, so it shows that this a problem not just one driver faces.

Social Media in F1

This fast growing world has definitely shone in the world of social media. If Drive to survive is the reason for this is a whole other debate. But there is no doubt that social media accounts of drivers, teams and fans have driven this whole new era.

We always look forward to fun videos with the drivers posted on the teams accounts and we are fortunate in this day and age to have so much content to choose from. Despite the privacy issues in which we have highlighted, social media can be used as a positive tool too!

the teams and drivers social media accounts come with its fair share of negative comments towards the drivers and teams. Some people argue that that’s just what social media does and that there will always be some sort of negativity surrounding it.

But in my eyes if we are noticing this problem, we can change it. As fans we never want to see any harm go towards anyone within the sport. We need to respect privacy boundaries, spread positivity online and make our community a great online and offline environment for new, existing, and old fans.

Respecting Privacy Boundaries

Unfortunately, in the F1 Fandom a minority feels its ok to disrupt these boundaries set in place by the drivers themselves. Obviously, some of us would love a photo or autograph of a driver in which we see on our screens most weekends of the year. Whether that’s because you are fans of the Racing, the Netflix show or just the drivers unique endeavours, we need to do more as fans to respect their boundaries.

This leads to many more questions in whether there is a link to social media and this privacy problem or whether this has been a problem for many years and only now coming to light because of social media. leave your thoughts below!

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