The 2009 Formula 1 season had an audience of over 520 million viewers, most of whom stayed up to date with the latest news on the official Formula 1 website, as well as their favorite teams websites, and even the track websites to find out current conditions and directions to the race tracks. Because of this, the F1 websites featured in this showcase probably racked up a nice traffic count over the course of the season.
But are these websites built for so many visitors? Some are perfect: jam-packed full of easy-to-find information, simple and clean navigation and beautiful animated effects. On the other hand, some of the websites aren’t quite what they should be: a lack of information, no live updates and poor design. No one would expect this of a multi-billion dollar sport.
Below, we have a selection of official Formula 1 team websites. Which is your favorite, and how do you think some could (and should) be improved?
Formula 1 Official Website
The official Formula 1 website has it all: information about every race, every track, every team and every driver. It has details on previous and upcoming races, as well as weather and condition updates. Despite the website having so much information, finding your way around is incredibly easy, and it looks stunning to boot!
Formula 1 Team Websites
Compared to a lot of the track websites below, the official Formula 1 team website designs seem to have had a lot more time and effort invested in them, especially the ones for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, BMW Sauber F1 and Virgin Racing. Some websites have made use of current design trends and social networking websites such as Twitter to update their websites with the latest news on a regular basis.
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
A really nice, clean website. The articles are easy to read, and the menu disappears to help users focus on the articles. It has a great live feed during the race, with feeds from the team’s radio, and it displays the real-time position of cars on the track, statistics with current speeds and plenty more.
Mercedes GP
This design has the corporate identity of Mercedes, but unfortunately it appears alongside a logo that has far too many gradients, making it difficult to read; updating the logo alone would make this website much more appealing! During races, the website has a text crawler that displays the Twitter feed, keeping users up to date on the latest happenings.
Red Bull Racing
The large header shows the team’s sponsors. This website is easy to navigate. It has the same structure as, but a different design than, the other team powered by Red Bull: Toro Rosso. Unfortunately, it doesn’t provide a live feed during races, which would have been helpful to people who don’t have access to a television or radio and want to see stats for this particular team rather than for all of the competitors.
Ferrari
Even though this team has been a champion for a long time, it doesn’t have a dedicated website; just a sub-section of the main Ferrari website. Because of this, you can’t expect to find much information or much to do.
AT&T Williams F1
This website is mainly structured in two parts: the videos on the front page and then the rest of the pages, which are mostly text. The design is reasonably sleek and easy to navigate.
Renault F1
A clean and simple design with a great color scheme. Many people, though, feel the selection of big icons could be improved.
Force India F1
A well-structured design that presents plenty of information on the front page. Quite easy to navigate.
Toro Rosso
As mentioned, this website has the same structure as that of Red Bull Racing, but a different design. Other than that, not much different.
Lotus Racing
A fully Flash-based design. The first page makes great use of widgets that auto-update with content from Flickr and Twitter, keeping the website fresh.
Hispania F1
A simple website with a lot of contrast in the color scheme. In some areas, the color choice makes the text difficult to read. And once again, no live feed.
BMW Sauber F1
Yet another simple and stylish minimalist design. There is no live feed for the curent race, just a banner that displays, “Session in progress.” Helpful if you want to know whether a race is on, but useless if you want to know your team’s position.
Virgin Racing
The newest F1 team has put a lot of money into its website design. The website has huge headlines and photos. Navigating and finding what you want is very easy, but once again there is no live feed during races.