After his dazzling victory in the opening race of this year’s Formula One season, Lewis Hamilton will be hoping for more success in Malaysia this weekend. But it is early days and if last season is anything to go by there are plenty of twists still to negotiate.

Few other sports are as well catered for online as F1, meaning that rookies and pros alike can follow the action in as much detail as they want. Whether it is pit-lane gossip, team tactics or nostalgia surfing for past greats there are websites for everyone.

CATCH UP

The official site (www.formula1.com) gets the basics right – there are video montages and interviews with head honchos such as Honda’s Ross Brawn, guided tours of the circuits and a guide to rules, teams and tactics.

The teams’ sites beguile you with whistles and bells – Honda’s video station asks you to put questions to the drivers, including Jenson Button (www.hondaracingf1.com), while Hamilton’s McLaren Mercedes has an interactive steering wheel giving you a sense of the gadgetry facing a driver ( www.mclaren.com).

ITV has broadcast rights and streams live race coverage via www.itv-f1.com . Radio 5 has commentary and a weekly podcast review, Chequered Flag (tinyurl.com/2qvz9s).

Probably the best Formula One blog is by Ed Gorman, The Times’s F1 correspondent, at tinyurl.com/3btt9y. And of course read The Sunday Times’s extensive F1 coverage attinyurl.com/2z5geo. Amateur bloggers can be more discursive – try the British blogf1.co.uk, where Oliver White analyses for the fans and gives newbies an accessible introduction to fan culture. If you want to keep on top of all the news with a one-stop shop, www.f1junkie.com aggregates a host of feeds.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Want to understand race strategy, read how an F1 event is organised or compare the teams’ motorhomes? All this and more is available at formula1.about.com, probably the best single overview of F1. It also discusses car design, but the best first stop for that is tinyurl.com/oyyxt, which takes a car apart piece by piece. It is full of surprising details, such as the fact that ground clearance rules are policed by hardwood planks on the bottom of F1 cars that must not get worn away during the race.

For good news analysis, visit www.grandprix.com, which discusses subjects such as why F1 is the highest earning sport in the world, per event, at £108m.

GETTING THERE

Plenty of sites such as f1grandprixtours.com offer tailored F1 trips. However, Page & Moy (www.pageandmoy.com) claims to be the specialist and offers a range of packages, some including travel. For the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on the first weekend in July prices range from £99 for general admission to £2,272 for a three-day pass that includes pit lane tours, grandstand seats, food and the hospitality lounge.

For real glamour you have to go to Monaco – www.monaco2008.com offers packages ranging from three days for £1,845 to five days for £5,795. It is cheaper to arrange things yourself but be quick: some tickets for the British Grand Prix are available at www.grandprix-tickets.com from €159 (£125).

Travel tips can be found at www.grandprixcities.com.

THE GLAMOUR

F1 has always been the sport of playboys, from the colourful Spanish aristocrat Alfonso de Portago, who flew planes under bridges, rode in the Grand National and died young, to legends such as Graham Hill and more recent stars such as Eddie Irvine. They all get biographies on www.grandprix.com/gpe/driversa.html.

Dozens of sites, including www.itv-f1.com/pitbabes.aspx, feature that other race-day staple – the pit girls. It’s slightly more empowering hearing it from the girls themselves, and www.formula1girls.nl/home.htm has forums for the crowds of women who love F1, including some racy fan fiction.

ANORAK HEAVEN

If you have to know who has won the eighth most races driving car No 1 (Emerson Fittipaldi, four wins), or the total distance over which Nigel Mansell led grands prix (5,980.602 miles), then www.f1db.com is the place. For a less statistical history, along with pictures and a personal hall of fame, visit www.ddavid.com/formula1.

For pictures, there is www.motoringpicturelibrary.com, while a particular kind of 1970s nostalgia is served attinyurl.com/2j46uz.

Anoraks and blogs go together like pit babes and playboys. F1 Fanatic (www.f1fanatic.co.uk) is full of informed and trenchant opinions. Unofficial podcasts are similarly fun in their range, enthusiasm and length. The hour-long discussion, lots of it about the chaos at last weekend’s Australian race, at www.formula1blog.com/?cat=9 is a great chance to hear fans speaking each other’s language.