What fans Googled during the 2023 Italian Grand Prix

Monza, the renowned "Temple of Speed," witnessed another thrilling Formula 1 round as the 2023 Italian Grand Prix unfolded. The historic track, boasting numerous accolades and records, added yet another as Max Verstappen clinched the top spot, securing a record-setting 10th consecutive win and Red Bull's 15th of the season. Continuing my tradition since the season's beginning in Bahrain, I turned to Google Trends as the top three drivers celebrated to explore the most popular Formula 1-related search topics during the event.

Monza. By Will Pittenger - Formula1.com map, accessed 15 January 2009., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4788200

On Sunday, September 3, at 15:00 UTC, I wrote “formula 1” in Google Trends to discover the most popular worldwide related queries from the past hour. This window captures the final 33 minutes of the race, which had an adjusted start time of 13:20 UTC due to an incident on the formation lap and the 27 minutes post-Verstappen’s victorious finish.

Within this one-hour time window, the top queries related to the search term “formula 1” are about voting and awards (Figure 1). The top spot belongs to the “formula one overtake vote” query, probably referring to the Overtake Award bestowed monthly based on fan votes. Not far behind was the ever-trending Driver of the Day award, another fan-fueled survey where people can vote for the racer they deem outperformed the rest. This particular query has been a recurrent theme in this article series.

Figure 1. Top queries related to "formula 1." Screenshot from Google Trends.

The data retrieved from Google Trends indicates that the term "formula 1" reached its zenith at 13:39 UTC, a mere six minutes after race leader Verstappen finished the race (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Interest over time in the phrase "formula 1." Data from Google Trends.

As for the countries where the searches originated, Italy, the Grand Prix host and Ferrari's homeland, led the list. Following in close pursuit were Spain and Mexico, also GP hosts, with three drivers referring to these nations as casa (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Top five countries where the search term was popular. Screenshot from Google Trends.

I’ve been looking at these Google Trends since the season’s first race. Doing so offers curious insights directly from fans worldwide and is a fun way to handle the post-race blues. This weekend's trending highlights include the popular Driver of the Day award, with a surge of queries stemming from the GP-hosting nations of Italy, Spain, and Mexico.