Driver transfers can do more than reshape the Formula 1 grid. They can disrupt established relationships between fans, drivers and teams, forcing supporters to reconsider where their loyalty lies. Researchers at ESBS European Sport Business School are examining these moments to understand how shifts in loyalty, disappointment and perceived betrayal may influence online hostility, with Spanish Formula 1 fans as a case study.
Inside the Research is UAOA’s Erasmus+ Researcher Interview Series, spotlighting the researchers contributing to the European Union co-funded programme Developing a Pan-European Framework to Combat Online Abuse in Sport. Each edition looks inside one national study to explore the core questions being asked, the emerging evidence and what the findings could mean for the future of sport.
At ESBS European Sport Business School in Spain, Tina Mihajlovic, Lucía Carranza Vázquez and Mara Paola Mulett Hernández are studying Formula 1 driver transfers as moments when fan identity and loyalty are actively renegotiated.
Tina holds a PhD in Marketing and specialises in consumer behaviour in sport. Lucia brings a background in psychology and human resources, while Mara’s experience is in social communication, journalism and digital marketing. Together, they approach the issue through questions of identity, emotion, behaviour and communication within sport fandom.
Their qualitative study combines semi-structured interviews and focus groups with Formula 1 fans in Spain. Perspectives from professionals and stakeholders within motorsport are also planned. The aim is not simply to identify whether hostility appears after a transfer, but to understand how fans interpret the move, where their loyalty sits, what emotions it produces, and where negative reactions may be directed.
Why driver transfers offer a useful lens
At the centre of the study is a simple question: Who exactly are (Spanish) Formula 1 fans actually loyal to?
The driver? The team? Or the relationship between the two?
In the case of a long tenure of a driver with the team, those loyalties may appear stable. A transfer interrupts that stability. It can force fans to reassess who they support and how they interpret the actions of drivers and teams.
That makes transfers particularly useful for studying fan identity. They create moments when emotions that might otherwise remain less visible, including disappointment, frustration and perceived betrayal, become more explicit.
The researchers use a qualitative approach precisely because these reactions are difficult to understand through numbers alone. Interviews and focus groups allow participants to explain how they interpret loyalty, fairness and hostility in their own terms, while also allowing new themes to emerge through discussion.
The findings remain preliminary, but several clear patterns are beginning to emerge.
Loyalty appears to follow the driver more often than the team
Among the participants interviewed so far, loyalty appears to be more strongly attached to individual drivers than to teams.
Fans with a strong attachment to a driver tend to continue supporting that driver after a transfer. In some cases, their relationship with the former team does not become hostile. It simply weakens.
Team-first fandom appears less common in the current sample. Where it does appear, participants sometimes link it to family influence.
This distinction affects how transfers are interpreted. Fans who are primarily driver-oriented tend to assess the move through the driver’s prospects. If the transfer is perceived as a downgrading sporting move, disappointment may emerge.
Fans who identify more strongly with the team appear more likely to evaluate the decision through performance: whether the team ultimately improved or declined following the change.
For fans attached to both the driver and the team, the reaction can be more complex. Initial frustration may shift as results provide new evidence, or the conflict may be resolved by disengaging from one side of the relationship.
The researchers are careful not to generalise this pattern too widely. Most participants interviewed to date are more strongly driver-oriented, meaning highly team-identified fans remain underrepresented in the current sample.
Disengagement can matter as much as hostility
One of the most interesting emerging observations is that disruption does not necessarily lead to aggression.
As an interesting phenomena, some participants also describe disengagement. A fan may simply stop paying attention to a driver’s former team once the transfer has taken place. In that case, the team does not become an enemy. It just becomes less relevant.
This matters because hostile reactions are more visible online, while withdrawal is quieter and easier to miss. The interviews suggest that a transfer can reshape fandom without necessarily producing direct confrontation.
That creates a more nuanced picture of fan reaction. Transfers may produce disappointment, reassessment or disengagement. Hostility is one possible outcome, but not the only one!
When hostility appears, it can shift direction
Where negative reactions do emerge, the preliminary findings suggest they are not necessarily directed at the departing driver.
Participants describe hostility moving towards the team perceived to have made the decision, the replacement driver and, in some cases, rival fan communities.
The emotional framing of the transfer appears to matter. Disappointment is associated with situations in which a driver is perceived to have moved to a weaker team.
Betrayal appears in a different context: when fans believe a team has pushed out a driver who was still performing well. In those cases, the negative emotion is directed primarily towards the team.
Performance can then reshape those reactions over time. Following moves such as Carlos Sainz from Ferrari to Williams and Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari, race results provide new material for comparison. Fans can reassess whether the original decision was justified and redirect criticism accordingly.
The emerging picture therefore suggests that transfers may redirect existing emotions and rivalries rather than simply create hostility from scratch.
The grey zone between criticism and abuse
Another recurring theme is the difficulty of drawing a clear line between sporting criticism and online abuse.
Formula 1 fandom is built around constant evaluation. Fans discuss whether a driver deserves a seat, whether a team made the right decision and whether one driver is outperforming another.
That criticism is not inherently abusive. Participants nevertheless describe a grey zone in which criticism becomes increasingly personal or hostile. Examples include mocking performance, questioning a driver’s ability, describing a driver as ‘finished’, or framing a transfer through accusations of betrayal.
These comments may not always be labelled as abuse by fans themselves, but participants still recognise them as contributing to a hostile online environment.
The interviews also reveal an important limitation in how the findings should be interpreted. Participants frequently describe how other fans behave, while positioning themselves as observers rather than participants in that behaviour.
The current results therefore tell us primarily how fans understand and explain hostility within Formula 1 communities, rather than providing direct evidence of their own online conduct.
Understanding the Spanish context
The study is situated within the Spanish Formula 1 ecosystem, where Carlos Sainz provides a particularly relevant recent case.
Participants also draw on comparisons with football, where transfers, loyalty and accusations of betrayal are already familiar parts of fan culture.
Some interviewees use nationality to explain perceived differences between fanbases, including the idea that Spanish or Italian supporters may be more emotionally expressive.
The researchers treat these statements as participant interpretations, not established cultural differences.
At this stage, the study cannot determine which patterns are specific to Spain and which may apply more broadly across Formula 1 fandom.
What the findings mean for sport
These preliminary findings point to a useful distinction: driver transfers do not automatically generate online abuse, but they can create moments in which fan loyalty, emotion and perceptions of fairness are renegotiated.
For teams, governing bodies and communications professionals, those moments may deserve particular attention.
If a transfer is perceived as unfair, if a driver is seen as having been pushed out, or if subsequent results intensify comparisons, negative reactions may shift towards different actors across the Formula 1 ecosystem.
Understanding these dynamics could help organisations anticipate where tensions may emerge and shape communication more effectively around high-attention moments.
The findings also reinforce the importance of distinguishing criticism, disengagement and hostility. They are not equivalent responses, and treating them as such risks oversimplifying how fans actually react.
The next phase of the study will broaden the range of fan profiles included and, where possible, incorporate more perspectives from motorsport professionals and stakeholders. The researchers will also continue examining the boundary between sporting criticism and online abuse.
Key takeaway
Three preliminary observations stand out from the research so far.
- Fan loyalty among the current participants appears to follow the driver more often than the team.
- Disengagement is an important response to transfers and may occur without hostility.
- When hostility does emerge, it can shift towards teams, replacement drivers or other fan communities, depending in part on how the transfer is interpreted.
Taken together, the findings suggest that driver transfers are useful moments for understanding how fan identity, perceived fairness and emotion can reshape the direction of online hostility in Formula 1.
