Sidepodcast

Homepage is Where the Heart Is - The Drivers Part 1

In the midst of 2008, we took it upon ourselves to review F1 driver and team websites, searching for pages that reach out to fans, and that allow us closer inside the F1 paddock. Now almost two years on, the grid has changed significantly, as have many of the sites themselves, so we thought it was time to update our reviews.

As we go through the list, I will be approaching the sites from the point of view of a fan, looking for personality and style from our drivers. Mr C will take a more geeky approach, looking at the technical side of the various sites.

Of note, this year we've added a new metric to our reviewing process and all homepages are now tested for loading speed. We're using Safari on Snow Leopard and each page is refreshed five times with a mean average taken. All browser caching is disabled. Also new for this year, pages were tested on an iPod Touch and an Android mobile phone.

We'll be racing through the sites six at a time, in 2010 entry list order, so let us begin with the reigning world champion.

Jenson Button

Christine: Jenson's website hasn't changed enormously from two years ago - the navigation is in the same place, and the font is identical. The website was good back then, though, so it didn't need to go a huge step to improve. Jenson was one of the first F1 drivers to offer up videos from his time on the road, and he allowed lots of insight during the terrible Honda/Brawn winter crossover. Some of the flash elements are a little bit annoying but the content makes up for that. There's plenty of news and media to consume, and JB allows fans to upload their own photographs to share with others. We also know that Jenson likes to hold the occasional competition, designing his helmet for example, and that is a big plus as well.

Mr. C: The first site we look at and we're hit by the Flash problem. Jenson's site has been built using Adobe Flash, and that means neither the Touch nor the mobile are able to browse this site. Using a desktop browser, things remain larger similar to the way they were 18 months ago. Amazingly, nothing on the site yells "World Champion". There's no sign of his trophy, no mention of the WDC title anywhere in fact. The news section sadly appears to copy text from team press releases, but I do like the content contained with the "trackside" section.

The tracking statistics that adorn the right hand side of the page appeal to me. I like that it tells you the most popular day for traffic, and it's nice to know you're not alone when browsing the site. The biggest issue I have though is the mammoth load time, I just don't have the patience to wait around.

Site: http://jensonbutton.com/
Load time: 5.02 seconds
Fan rating: 7 out of 10
Geek rating: 4 out of 10

Lewis Hamilton

Christine: When it first loads, there is something that smacks of an intro, which I don't really like but it doesn't last very long. The black and red looks nice, and although white text on black isn't my favourite, this isn't too garish. This is a brand new concept for the Hamilton site, compared to it's looks back in 2008, but I don't know that much has changed in terms of its direction. There is the requisite news and video sections, but none of it seems particularly personal. The video thank you messages are very staged, and quite corporate, but so far Lewis has made a career out of that, so it's not out of character.

I do like the timeline section, although I didn't find it extremely easy to navigate.

Mr. C: I like Lewis' redesign. The colour and layout work for me and I only wish he'd taken the central "LH" button further - every driver needs a logo and that's a great one. Most of the site works using a mobile phone, although a few warning messages written in blood red text make you think something really bad will happen if you don't find that Flash plugin in a hurry.

The site renders fast, and the navigation is straightforward. Of concern is just how much of the place is geared towards generating income. It seems no matter which direction you head in, there's the continual encouragement to part with your cash. From the £20 fan club membership right up the £15,000 replica helmet complete with a Steinmetz diamond encrusted #1. Essentially the site begins to feel like an extension of the McLaren e-shop rather than a place to get to know Lewis.

Site: http://www.lewishamilton.com/
Load time: 2.95 seconds
Fan rating: 5 out of 10
Geek rating: 6 out of 10

Michael Schumacher

Christine: Back in 2008, there didn't seem much chance of Schumacher returning to the grid any time soon, but here he is and thus we have a website to review. The initial homepage is very, very simple. A photo of Michael, a signature, and some quick links to the latest news. It's not exciting, but at least it is clean and easy to use. After some further investigation, the navigation is good, there's plenty to read, and some excellent pictures as well. I like the season reviews, but there isn't much in the way of interaction with fans. Although, there are a couple of postcards to download if you are thus inclined.

Mr. C: There are very few things I hate in life more than sites that don't make proper use of screen real estate. I understand it's difficult to make content scale both vertically and horizontally at the same time, but there is never a need to do what Michael Schumacher's site does, and that is to try and squeeze everything into the smallest box available. It looks positively lost on my screen.

Credit does have to go to Schumacher though, not only for providing a multilingual site, but for providing one that works on every browser and handset I could throw at it. The only tricky moments relate to two finger scrolling inside the small boxes when using the Touch. Michael also has the fastest site we've come across so far, almost four whole seconds faster than Jenson Button's.

I do like that there's a section for Schumacher's biking adventures, and the wealth of other information shows just how many activities the man gets involved in outside of F1.

Site: http://www.michaelschumacher.de/
Load time: 1.13 seconds
Fan rating: 6 out of 10
Geek rating: 4 out of 10

Nico Rosberg

Christine: Of all the sites, Nico's is one of those that has changed the most. The last time we checked in on his page, there was some moody photographs, along with a message that Nico wasn't just a racing driver. It almost looked like he wanted to be a movie star as well. Now it seems as though the Mercedes driver has accepted his position, and although still a classy black, white and beige, the site is about being in F1. The "other side" of Nico has been relegated to at least one mouse click away.

On the main site, the font is a bit chunky and off putting, but there are links to Twitter and Facebook in easy reach. There isn't much to read other than news, but some of the items do link off to YouTube videos and items on his team site as well.

Mr. C: Here we have a site that has presumably recently undergone a redesign. Nico's homepage is chock full of social networking links and even includes direct Facebook integration, with fan images appearing on the homepage. It isn't the prettiest site in the world, but here content is king and Rosberg's "web team" provide regular, albeit brief, updates on his early season news.

The site ultimately feels unfinished. I can't for example work out what on earth the "likes" text on every post relates to, everything is equally liked in Nico's world I guess.

Additionally, the inclusion of the previous site although hidden away and rebranded as 'the other side of Nico' suggests someone isn't quite ready to accept the loss of one's concept site. The new pages do at least work on the move, even if they do take an age to load.

Site: http://www.nicorosberg.com/
Load time: 4.33 seconds
Fan rating: 4 out of 10
Geek rating: 6 out of 10

Sebastian Vettel

Christine: It bugs me that the site defaults to the news section, which is fine, except that is the second option on the navigation bar at the top. It feels like you've totally missed out on the About Me page, which is worth looking at. I did enjoy browsing through the photos of a baby Vettel in his kart. Particularly the one where he looks about the cry. Erm, what else is on there? The fan area says it is currently being updated, but there is a shop and archives to poke around in as well. My only real complaint is that if you select English as your language but accidentally click on the wrong thing, you get taken straight back to the German site. Not a major problem, but slightly annoying.

Mr. C: Seb is another driver with a logo, and I can't help but think Ayrton Senna's estate might be asking for their branding back soon. I do like the layout of pages, although you get the impression the big, bold images have been designed to hide a lack of content. A few of the links didn't work at all for me, so I've no idea what impressions Vettel had of Bahrain. More strange was the propensity of the image gallery to throw numeric alerts in my direction as if revealing some sort of code.

The site overall feels like a work in progress and no matter how hard or how often I click the "shop" link, nothing happens. On the mobile front, almost everything bar the homepage animation works as it should. At least Vettel is providing original content on his site and in multiple languages - it'll be worth keeping an eye on this one as the season develops.

Site: http://www.sebastianvettel.de
Load time: 1.92 seconds
Fan rating: 4 out of 10
Geek rating: 4 out of 10

Mark Webber

Christine: MarkWebber.com has just recently undergone a redesign, and I'm relatively impressed with the results. The previous incarnation had plenty of content but was a little bit messy. Now we have a much cleaner site to contend with. The Australian has debuted a YouTube channel and has recently joined Twitter, so they both feature prominently on the homepage. I like that he has separated out on and off track news, for those that are only interested in one or the other. There aren't an enormous amount of photos to look through, and the Mark Webber Challenge is only allowed a paragraph or two. I do really like the logo though.

Mr. C: Within the first 30 seconds of using this site, I felt right at home. The layout is very straightforward and there's no sense of clutter amongst the content. A video featuring Mark in his living room, presumably filmed by his other half, adds to the homeliness of the site and instantly it's my favourite driver site thus far.

Delving deeper reveals yet more treats. Each news post allows comments, which, although not a first for an F1 driver (Nick Heidfeld offered something similar last year), is a rare occurrence and something to be encouraged in today's ever more social age.

Beyond that Mark is rating each race as the season progresses. He's given Bahrain 3 out of 5 for on track challenge and 2 out of 5 for off track entertainment. I love this idea and I'll be checking back regularly to see how the man views the 2010 season. The last thing to mention is Webber has news stories dating back to March 2008, it's wonderful that he hasn't trashed history with every redesign and I intend to go and dig through the archives at the first opportunity.

I love Mark's site to bits. It's my favourite of the day and I'm so glad we got there because things were looking predicable on the driver's front up until now. Everything on the site works well when using the iPod or the Android and even the videos play as expected. The only thing I can knock it for, is the slow initial loading speed, presumably because the server is hosted in Australia.

Site: http://www.markwebber.com/
Load time: 4.91 seconds
Fan rating: 9 out of 10
Geek rating: 9 out of 10

Those are our first six reviews, we've got plenty more to come in this series. For now, though, why not tell us what you make of the driver websites we've covered so far? Who's doing the right thing and who is heading in the wrong direction?

Finite Element Analysis in Formula 1

FEA in Formula 1 - stress and load mesh modelling at its very best.

The Open University offers distance learning for undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications. To support courses, a number of educational resources are made available for free via Apple's iTunesU mobile learning solution. This month an engineering and technology podcast relating to Formula 1 has become available.

The course in question is the catchily titled T884 - An Introduction to Finite Element Analysis which relates to a computational modelling and analysis technique known as Finite Element Analysis, or FEA to its friends. FEA is used by F1 teams in a number of design areas in order to optimise the performance of various elements of a racing car, thus the OU descended on the Red Bull Racing factory in Milton Keynes to help explain how these techniques enable them to reach the front of the grid.

Whilst this iTunesU content is primarily offered as supplemental learning material, the course does amount to 17 videos. Included is insight from Lewis Butler who's the senior structural analyst for the team and who offers a detailed look into how a part such as a wheel hub might first be modelled virtually, in order to predict weaknesses or suggest improvements in the design before manufacture.

Much of the footage appears to have been filmed in the teams factory, and a real chassis is used to demonstrate the finer points of the talk, although the sight of Michelin tyres belies its true age. The short video's are provided in both low and high resolution format, and are backed up by PDF transcripts.

I will admit to being considerably out of my depth 10 minutes into the course, but you will get some fantastic insight into what goes on behind the scenes of a Formula 1 team, and you likely won't be so quick to judge a team the next time a loose wheel comes flying from its hub in Hungary.

Computer Aided Design at this level is an incredibly complex subject to cover, but the series is well produced and presented. That a Formula 1 team can see the benefit in putting effort into such a programme speaks volumes and Red Bull should be congratulated for making a largely inaccessible topic more available.

If you haven't taken a look at iTunesU before, it's a recommended destination, and there's no place better to start than the free Finite Element Analysis course from Red Bull and the Open University.

F1 2009 – iPod Touch / iPhone Review

Less than a month ago, the first F1 game for a many a year arrived for the Wii console, and Lukeh provided us with a fantastic review. So good was it, that we went out and purchased the game solely on the man's advice. Lukeh returns today to offer similar insight into a mobile version of F1 2009 for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

This year we have indeed seen the return of F1 to videogames and it was a great return as I so much explained in my previous Wii review. It came just as much as a surprise to myself as it was to many others that an announcement last week confirmed that Formula 1 was indeed coming to iPods worldwide this week. The game weighs in at £3.99 / $6.99 so it’s got a bit of price on it for an iPod app, but is it worth it?

What must be remembered is this is an iPod, not a Playstation Portable or a Nintendo DS or any fully fledged gaming handheld. Whilst the iPod is more than capable of holding its weight with it’s gaming capabilities, it’s never going to include games as detailed as the aforementioned rivals. Nevertheless, I feel that the F1 2009 game for the iPod touch / iPhone is a nifty addition to the series that Codemasters seem willing to build.

First off, the graphics genuinely opened my eyes in surprise. For something so delicate, it really shows off the possibilities of gaming for this format. From the few tracks I’ve played since purchasing the game earlier this evening, everything noticeable from real life tracks is there – the urban classic streets of Monaco, the giant overhead stand of China, the overseeing forests of Spa. It is a visual delight and a true tribute to the power of the iPod/iPhone. When you’re flying down at 200mph it runs smoothly and nothing seems to be out of place, so needless to say this aspect of the app impressed me immensely.

The controls though are where things start to get dodgy. As with most iPod racing races, you use the system’s accelerometer to steer the car with various buttons on screen to accelerate, brake, change camera and use KERS. The initial impressions of the controls came to me with must frustration – the default steering sensitivity is, for lack of a better term, wild. You know how when Formula 1 cars warm up tyres they swing from left to right? That’ll be you initially upon first play. From my own point of view, I would suggest jumping into the options and turning the setting down a little, as it makes the driving a whole lot more tolerable. Furthermore, the default control system both acceleration and brake pedals on the right of the screen, and KERS button on the left. (Obviously it can be adjusted for left hand players.) Whilst others may find this alright, it felt very clumsy to me going to accelerate but finding myself braking instead – luckily an alternative setup of acceleration on the right and brakes on the left can be found in the options, an option I found immediately handier to use. Again, it’s just a personal thing so it may be different for you. In general though, it handles as you’d expect albeit it completely insanely at times, but it’s nothing deal breaking. Just very, very tough.

So what will you be getting in terms of content for your £4 or $7? Well I’d better give you a warning now – there is no racing as in 20 cars on a grid racing. The two game modes include Time Trials and Endurance, both seeing you racing in any car of your choice on any track of your choice. Time Trials does what it says on the tin, with your goal simply to set times and see which is fastest. Endurance sees you going out for laps and continually trying to beat them with consistency being the name of the game rather than the more general time trial mode. To be fair, with 17 tracks and 20 cars you’re not exactly lacking variety so there are no complaints there but I’m sure many will have wanted racing. It’s perfectly understandable though why it’s not there though. Your times can also be uploaded to Agon Online, a built in system that uploads your best times and shares them with the world as well as allowing you to browse yourself and view friends’ times.

So, should you buy it? Of course that is not my decision for me to make for you but in my advice I would only buy it if you really want an F1 game on your iPod / iPhone. Visually it is incredible, rivalling what we see on the Wii version of F1 2009 but it is very, very tough with the oversensitive handling and quite unique way of handling the game. Again, it’s what’s to be expected of the iPod and it is impressive considering what small weight the system has but, at £4 / $7, it’s probably recommended for the more advanced players of the system. It’s definitely a promising start though for future installments, just don't expect an easy ride with this app!

The game is available to download now from the App Store.

F1 2009 Available on the iPhone and iPod Touch

Codemasters have managed to sneak a mobile version of their 2009 Wii game into the crowded Apple iPhone marketplace, just in time for Christmas. There was almost no hype, nor expectation surrounding this release, so retailing at £3.99 in the UK, how does it stack up to it's bigger Wii cousin?

I won't even try to pretend that I'm any kind of game reviewer, nor that my abilities on the virtual track are anything to write home about. Lukeh has already promised us a comprehensive review to follow up his popular Wii coverage, so this thread is all about discovering the game as it unfolds before our eyes. A number of people are already downloading the game and this seems like a good place to track our initial findings.

Updated: The game features 10 teams, 20 drivers and 17 circuits from the 2009 Formula 1 championship. These are exactly the same as those found in the Wii version of the game, so you'll find Bourdais, but not Badoer. The biggest drawback is the lack of competitive action, with only Time Trial or Endurance runs available. The first is self explanatory, the latter rewards consistency.

Updated: The gameplay itself is really tough. The steering is hyper sensitive and reaching for the KERS button is a stretch unless you're on a long straight. The action is smooth though, and you can't fault the attention to graphical detail. We paid £30+ for the Wii version of this game, and although that does offer a multiplayer capability, this iPhone version seems much better value for money. Time will tell which edition stands the test of time, and if either stack up to the promise of the PS3 or 360 versions.

Updated: If you need further convincing, Lukeh's full review can be found here.

Formula 1 2009 (Wii) Review

Despite only getting his hands on the game earlier today, Lukeh has put the hours in and is ready to present us with a review of his first impressions of the new Formula 1 2009 game for the Wii.

After many years of waiting, Formula 1 finally saw a release of a new official video game – Formula 1 2009. The game has been released on the Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation portable handheld, with this review studying the Wii release that I have already put many hours into. So, was it worth the wait? Have Codemasters and Sumo Digital done enough to make it a formidable addition to the long running series of F1 games over the years? Thankfully, to me at least, the Wii version of Formula 1 2009 is an absolute joy to behold and get involved with.

From my own honest point of view, despite my excitement I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect – the Wii is very much a casual console for a massive audience ranging from young to old, with most Wii racers being very arcade-y and intended for quick use. Sumo Digital, the developers behind the Wii installment of F1 2009, decided that whilst the audience was there for the more casual user, the hardcore Formula 1 fan such as me who wants a proper simulation experience should be accommodated for. They definitely succeeded.

First of all, what’s important is that a game must be fun. Sure, it can look wonderful and pretty, and promise this and do that but if it isn’t fun, what’s the point in carrying on? I found myself picking up Formula 1 2009 (with the F1 style Wheel Wii that can come with the game) and soon getting really into the moment. It’s fun and exhilarating; switching the camera into the onboard view or the helmet view was definitely not a let-down as a massive sense of speed can be felt through the game, and the way the handling is set up makes it feel a pleasure to race with. It’s fair to say that I’m not a massive fan of using motion controllers for my racing, I’ve very much been brought up playing racing games with analog sticks, but after a few practice sessions and races, I soon found my stride. The best way to describe the handling of the cars with the wheel would be to say it’s a mix of arcade and simulation racing – whilst the cars do feel slidy at times, it’s all about picking your line and getting through a corner in the same way a real Formula 1 driver would.

The only complaint I have concerning the motion controller is that, after a certain degree of turning, it feels as if it stops recognising the turn anymore. It very rarely comes up, only when you go to do a full lock if you’re going into the gravel trap, but when it happens and you find yourself not turning then it may give you a bit of grief. I’ve had a few really funny but completely random moments with the AI as well – Nelson Piquet has twice smashed me out of a race for no apparent reason (!) and there have been moments where I’ve been on a straight and a car ahead just seems to slow down completely.

There’s been a fair amount of criticism from reviews across the gaming world about the graphics. The Wii itself is certainly not the most powerful console out at the moment in terms of it's presentation - it’s rivals are leagues ahead - but what matters for F1 2009 is that the presentation works fine. The graphics aren’t actually anything to complain about in my opinion, whilst some of the car liveries do look bland at times the actual race environments and how the game looks in motion with 19 other cars around you does a fine job for the Wii. Each location on the Formula 1 calendar is very recognisable and true to their real life form, and every car has the livery as you’d expect. The downside is that, at times, the frame rate does tend to drop (to be less technical, you may notice a few skips in animation sometimes) but this seems to be at certain corners on certain tracks rather than too much going on at one time on the screen. Much like my previous complaint though, it is honestly unnoticeable for 99% of the time and I’ve just picked up on it a few times. It doesn’t even affect the game, as previously stated, when in motion it runs so smoothly.

In terms of modes and lifespan, we’ve been absolutely treated by the guys behind the game. You have your typical World Championship mode, where you can pick a car and go through the entire championship (all sessions included for race weekends), a single race weekend with all sessions to have a go at, a quick race where you jump straight into the race, split screen multiplayer with another friend (who you can actually go through a championship with!), Challenge mode where there are a vast amount of challenges from the simple (like get into Q3) to the impossible (overtake loads of people in the wet on slicks...!), which are great fun, and finally Career mode. Now, I ended with Career mode here because this is what I’ve really found myself getting into so far with the game and it’s such a great addition to the modes in the game.

You start as a nobody, someone who’s getting emails from lower level teams willing to give you a test and perhaps give you a drive. Eventually, within a 3 year span in the career, it’s your goal to get wherever you can in the world of Formula 1 and succeed from goal to goal. It felt really good just watching the cars go out in practice sessions and putting in new times, or keeping an eye on my Qualifying times then going out to beat others, it’s just something that I could keep playing without getting bored for a silly amount of time. Sure, it doesn’t invent anything new and in all fairness it’s been done before, but I’m really enjoying the sense of reward and success you get from doing well in your own career as an F1 driver. Furthermore, it really gave me a chuckle when at the start of the season I had an email concerning an arrogant press release from Ferrari regarding the season ahead. Little touches like that always impress me.

Sadly, there is no online multiplayer, I’m afraid. Mario Kart Wii has had such a successful lifespan with the online aspect to the game but it’s probably the biggest disappointment of the game that Codemasters and Sumo Digital didn’t go for it here; a missed opportunity without a doubt. Nevertheless, there is absolutely plenty to keep you amused and happy!

So, let’s assess this from two different viewpoints – what does Formula 1 2009 do for the casual gamer who just wants to pick up and play, and what does it do for the more hardcore fan looking for a F1 sim? The casual audience will be happy to know that, if you just want a short race that lasts a few laps and you’re having trouble controlling your car and braking, the assists and help are there for you and are very helpful in letting you jump into the game and just have fun your way. On the other hand, if you love tweaking your setups, sorting out your fuel strategy going into Q3 and messing about with ratios whilst having full damage (the damage collision is quite poor, though) with all the flags and rules on, perhaps having it at 25/50% or even full race distance, then they are all there for you too! The game basically opens itself up to how you want to race, and how you want to play. Luckily, it really, really works too.

Pros:

• Very fun to play, especially qualifying and Challenge mode, and very addictive once you get into it
• All the tracks modelled realistically and all the cars are there from 2009
• Plenty to keep you amused and busy!
• Gives both new players and experienced racers a proper chance
• Arguably one of the best racing games on the Wii
• No politics to ruin the racing!!!

Cons:

• No online multiplayer!
• Poor damage model and collision detection
• AI (computer controlled cars) have the odd moment here and there
• No Badoer/Grosjean/Alguersauri/etc

In summary, F1 2009 is a must buy for any formula 1 fan who owns a Wii. Sure, it’s not the detailed super simulation games on the PC like rFactor but the fact is it’s a fantastic game and very impressive, so much more impressive than I was expecting. Even with its flaws it’s still one of the better Wii games to satisfy your racing needs and I’d heartedly recommend it to anyone! Christmas is soon approaching, people...

There's an Official Formula 1 iPhone App, and It Rocks!

If you've been hanging out in the comments over the past 24 hours, you might have concluded that Sidepodcast quite likes the iPhone. A dearth of interesting Formula 1 news has meant we've been getting most of our kicks from technology updates planned by the people in Cupertino.

However, aside from announcements tenuously relating to plans we have for the future of Sidepodcast, there wasn't much to tie the new iPhone back to Formula 1. That was until I read Will Buxton's blog post this evening.

The man discusses the brand new, and more notably the official, F1 Timing Application available for purchase from the App Store. It's a good one, too.

Actually, the first time we heard mention of this thing was during 5Live's race broadcast on Sunday, when David Croft said both he and Anthony Davidson were using it to receive updates in the commentary box. Somehow we promptly forgot to look for it afterwards, but if it's good enough to be used when you're broadcasting live to the nation (and to the six fans who bothered to turn up in Turkey), it's good enough for me.

But what do you get for your money?

I'm Broke but I'm Happy

The software works during all live F1 sessions from Friday morning until Sunday afternoon. You're initially presented with an interactive circuit map that details all driver positions at any stage and you can select an individual driver to focus on. Weather data is continually updated, whilst a timely race order is also present.

Flip the device into landscape mode and you'll get a full screen live map, or hit the info tab for a more typical live timing display similar to that already provided via f1.com.

If a session has already finished, you can watch it back in real-time as often as you like, although data must be downloaded before playback. It probably goes without saying, but although this application runs just fine on the iPod Touch too, you'll still need an internet connection to receive any live updates.

A second screen provides circuit maps for every race on the calendar, current championship standings and driver bio's. A third offers a rather simple text description of any ongoing action (live commenting, it isn't!).

With One Hand in Your Pocket

In the UK the software sells in the App Store for £4.99, although it's not entirely clear if there are further charges to pay on a race-by-race basis.

It will work on current iPhone and iPod Touch models (and presumably also on the 3.0 update due next week). The code has been pulled together by a company called Soft Pauer and although this appears to be their first App Store submission they've done a fine, fine job of developing it.

Of note, the terms and conditions do state that software may collect anonymous data useage statistics, although apparently solely for quality control purposes.

That's pretty much all we know at the moment. We intend to road test the thing properly during the British Grand Prix weekend and will likely report back with details after that. It looks to all the world like it'll be a winner and Formula 1 has just taken a huge step forward in terms of giving fans more access to what's going on during a race.

Nick did point out earlier that this information should really be available on your desktop too, so we're keen to hear more thoughts and opinions on whether you think this is a good thing for F1 fans or not? Would you buy the F1 Timing App, or have you already?

This is How the Teams Do It (Part 2)

Once again, we're reviewing other people's websites, this time looking closely at the teams to see how they fare. The first five can be found here, in Part 1 of the series, and this is Part 2, looking at the final five. I'll be checking out how good they are from a fan's point of view, whilst the geeky one will lift the hood on the technical bits.

Toyota

There’s more detail here about the car than anywhere I’ve seen so far, Toyota don’t seem afraid to share things with the fans. There’s an incredibly deep interactive experience looking at the team’s setup for Grands Prix, the motorhome, etc. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of connecting with their fans, but there are videos, images, wallpapers, and a nice set of features that will keep you reading for a short while.

Toyota's site is stuffed to the rafters with content. With technical details, images, videos and an immersive factory tour, you'll want make sure you have some free time before visiting this place.

Considering the breadth of information available, the navigation is okay. The virtual tour opens in separate window making it feel like a bit of an afterthought, and there seems to be a couple of different routes to the same content, leaving me confused as to what I'd seen and where I'd been.

Generally though, this is a nice site and you can't argue with a team that merrily answers the frequently asked question - "Please let me drive for the team - I am loads better than the current drivers!". No doubt a hangover from the 2007 season, that one.

Site: http://www.toyota-f1.com/
Fan Rating: 5/10
Geek Rating: 6/10

Toro Rosso

As you would expect, Toro Rosso is very similar to the Red Bull site, including the flashing timings that don’t actually do anything. I can’t find anything that makes it stand out, in fact, except a newsletter sign up. Does anyone still do that?

Hmm, this is a typical example of corporate branding gone wrong. Apparently STR aren't even allowed to stand on their own two feet online. But while the homepage may look like a second-rate version of the Red Bull site, there's a couple good things hidden under the covers.

I especially love the interactive car on the Flash version of the site. It displays specific details about the inner workings of their F1 challenger, yet when you rollover the tyre information hotspot, it simply says "Wheels". That's my kind of education. Additionally much kudos should be given for text displayed as the image gallery starts up. The message reads "Loading page XML". Even for me, that's one step too geeky.

Points must be deducted for the annoying engine noises that endlessly loop, never wanting to go away.

Site: http://www.tororosso.com/
Fan Rating: 5/10
Geek Rating: 4/10

Honda

The Honda site opens up a new window that takes over the screen, and it moves around a lot before settling into a homepage. I feel like either I’m being a bit backwards, or the site isn’t quite right, because I clicked on the GP link expecting results or news from Canada, and it took me to images. Still, if you can work out the navigation, and put up with the switch between screens, there’s the excellent Honda Racing TV to watch, and a fans area to upload your photos and videos.

Considering how uneasy on the eye Honda's current Formula 1 campaign is (think dumbo wings, earth livery and green pants), I had low expectations of their home on the web. Those fears are unwarranted though as this is a surprisingly nice looking site. I personally prefer the HTML version (although I'm denied access to the videos from there), because the pages are clean, simple to navigate and they get the information across with little fuss.

A brief excursion into the hi-band, flashy pages sends my processor and accompanying fan into overdrive. I get the impression whoever designed the interface had plenty of fun doing so, but the constant flipping around gets tiresome quickly. The TV section of the site works well though, and Honda are the class of the field when it comes to online video production, although the embedded player is unfathomable in its refusal to rewind or forward anything, ever.

Site: http://www.hondaracingf1.com/
Fan Rating: 4/10
Geek Rating: 8/10

Force India

The Force India site seems a bit rough and ready about the edges, things open in new windows and some of the links are confusing, but they really embrace the online culture. There are widgets for you to download, so you can have a Force India count down to the next race, and there are embed codes for badges to support the team. As I look at it today, there’s even a poll about budget capping. I like its homely feel, like it’s been cobbled together by a fan.

I'm a fan of this site. Everything in moderation seems to be the motto, it's not extravagant, but neither is it understated. The homepage provides a quick-fix of the latest information and the rest of the pages contain the in-depth detail. Talking of which, some of the those could do with more content or layout revisions, the contact page for example looks positively lost in a sea of grey.

Club Force, the social network for all FIF1 fans is a worthy addition to the site and the team have really got this right. From personal experience I know some of the interfaces in the section look half finished and 50% of the time videos we upload simply never appear. But while I think it needs more work, I appear to be in the minority given there are 15,855 registered users and counting (currently twice that of Renault), so they can't be doing much wrong.

Site: http://www.forceindiaf1.com/
Fan Rating: 8/10
Geek Rating: 8/10

McLaren

The McLaren site could be considered the exact opposite of the FIF1 pages, and represents the team perfectly. Looks pretty good, does what it does well, but is more interested in being corporate than being friendly. The only thing that even vaguely caught my attention was the link to the official Facebook page, and the information on Racing Line – the members only McLaren magazine. They also have a Fantasy F1 league, which is quite cool, but we all know how good I am at those, so I skipped past that.

Did this site get a lick of paint recently? I remember it being more imposing in the past, but I like the new airy feel. Navigation is consistent across every browser I could throw at it, but I dislike the links that appear to the right-hand side of some pages. I feel I have to tilt my head 90 degrees just figure them out.

The use of light-box popup windows when viewing pictures and videos is a nice touch, but good lord the videos are awful. Check out the "French Grand Prix Track Guide" from Heikki to see what I mean. I can only assume a team member's youngest child offered to do them for free, blindfolded, because they're not up to the McLaren standard at all.

Video complaints aside though, I did enjoy browsing around. I would probably suggest a wider window for displaying content as reading tended to involve a lot of scrolling, because panel width had been constrained, but that's about all.

One final thing to mention, and this isn't strictly related to McLaren's site, but we know how much people enjoy F1 games. Santander have created their own version of a pit-stop game at santander-racing.com and it is worth 5mins of anyone's time.

Site: http://www.mclaren.com
Fan Rating: 7/10
Geek Rating: 7/10

That's it for our team website reviews. As ever, we'd love to hear what you think about them below - and watch out for our circuit website reviews coming up shortly.

This is How the Teams Do It (Part 1)

A week or so ago, we looked at how the driver's websites stacked up against each other, in four very separate posts. Now we're turning our attention on the teams, but the criteria is still the same. I'll be looking at it from a fan's point of view, assessing the content and general usability. The geeky one takes a more, well, geeky look at the sites, and then we rate them. Here goes.

Ferrari

I tried to link to the actual Ferrari Racing bit of the site, but it’s so flash-based, there’s no unique ID for that page. You have to pick your language, navigate whether you want the site or the store, then click on racing. Too much effort! Once you get that far, there’s not that much information on there anyway, but I do like the timeline through the years. A unique way of doing a biography, that includes a fascinating look at the way the cars have changed. The one problem I found is, even though I picked English, there still seems to be the odd Italian word thrown in here and there, making navigation harder, but not impossible.

I do like a website that resizes and repositions my web browser, no really, nothing makes me happier. I mean why stop there, why not rearrange my desktop while you're at it? I'm only the visitor, that's all.

Regardless of the heavy handed welcome, you would have thought that F1 was important enough to Ferrari to warrant its own site, wouldn't you? Instead you'll find your racing information buried under a sea of tiny little text links, oh and good luck finding your way around, even the English language version with its 6pt sized links contained Italian phrasing I could only guess the meaning of.

Incidentally, Ferrari have some great video interviews on YouTube, and I rather expected to find something similar here (albeit better quality), but alas if they're around anywhere I couldn't find them.

Site: http://www.ferrariworld.com
Fan Rating: 6/10
Geek Rating: 4/10

BMW

Firstly, it was impossibly slow to load. There was a competition for a trip to Malaysia, but I couldn’t wait for the site to load, so I’ll never be able to participate, let alone win. There is information about the Pit Lane Park, which is useful, and some team news, but nothing out of the ordinary to make it stand out.

Okay, I'm going to come right out and say it, in contrast to Christine, I think this is the best website I've visited in a very long time. Yes, I know it's built in Flash and I know there's no HTML version, but when a team of people put in this much effort and attention to detail, I can only sit back in awe. Seriously a thing of beauty.

To best illustrate why I like this place so much, allow me to guide you through but one section of many. Selecting 'Season 2008' from the top menu, followed by 'GP Canada' will introduce a short video clip. Watch closely as for a few brief seconds a BMW screams past not only the Casino de Montréal but also The Olympic Stadium. Clearly an F1 challenger was never in the vicinity of those two landmarks, which means somebody had to put it there by hand. I can't even speculate the amount of effort that went into creating those 3 seconds of film. Literally the car could've been anywhere on any track in the world and who would've noticed? That's my kind of attention to detail.

I will concede that all is not perfect though, and the sudden bursts of noise did ruin a particular track I was listening to at the time, and yep the site's slow, and sure the shop's a touch weird, but I forgive all sins because BMW's abode simply oozes character.

Site: http://www.bmw-sauber-f1.com/
Fan Rating: 4/10
Geek Rating: 9/10

Renault

We’ve covered the Renault site in great detail previously, how it went completely wrong once a certain someone left. However, I’ll look at it with fresh eyes. It’s split into two – fan and team, which already makes me feel alienated. The team site is your standard news, statistics and history. The fan site is slightly more interesting, with the blog and the member additions. They were almost up to 7,000 members when I looked, so they must be doing something right.

As Christine points out this is a site of two halves, but I'm going to ignore the "Fan" section due to the fact it didn't load. In truth it very rarely does, the words "scalable" and "architecture" spring to mind here.

Five seconds... count 'em. That's the entire length of time I spend on the Renault site and that was enough to tell me nothing had changed. The offensive music startled me once again, while a huge window opened and automatically commandeered my screen - I think they call that the element of surprise. No doubt it looks great on a 40" projector beamed on the wall of the teams HQ, however it simply mocks my inferior equipment.

Site: http://www.ing-renaultf1.com/en/
Fan Rating: 5/10
Geek Rating: 4/10

Williams

I really dislike the bubble thing, when I went to click on one of them, it disappeared. That’s not a great start in terms of usability. If you discount that, though, the navigation is easy with the menu along the top, and leads to some good stuff. There’s some really nice track guides, packed with information, and a fantastic animation of the 2006 car, where you can break it down to its very basic components. With detailed biographies on the key team members, including drivers, and a really good interactive tour of the factory, I could visit the Williams site over and over again. I just wish they’d get rid of the bubbles.

If Williams were as fast on track as they are on the web, we'd be crowning this year's constructors champions already. It's nice to wander around the site, the layout is uncluttered, the colour scheme is friendly and I felt drawn into digging deeper. So much information and I just wanted to read more.

No mention of the Williams site would be complete without a hat tip to the multimedia section. They're one of, if not the best in this area. Although, I could've sworn the Earth was more spherical the last time I checked. Maybe Sir Frank knows something we don't?

Site: http://www.williamsf1.com/
Fan Rating: 9/10
Geek Rating: 7/10

Red Bull

I don’t understand why, when I hover a link, the timer things go crazy. It doesn’t add anything or tell my anything, and simply makes me dizzy. There aren’t too many extras on the site, just the usual driver info, car statistics, and press releases. Red Bull have a style about them, though, that makes every piece of writing worth reading, in case it holds a hidden gem. They’re not afraid to poke fun at themselves, and everyone else, which keeps me on the site. I dislike having to click “Read More” on a news article, though, when there’s plenty of room on the page to fit it in.

At last a HTML site to rival the Flash incumbents. I actually prefer the basic version, best described as "how the web should be" given that it reinforces the team's brand whilst remaining both useful and user friendly. The over the top alternate version sadly offers little or nothing extra, except I quite liked the motion-blur-rollover-effect. Flawed though it is, given that your attention automatically moves to the thing that's supposed to be blending into the background. I saw some text to read but was far to busy fading the images in and out to pay any it attention.

One quick mention for the paddock fly-by at redbullf1.com, just because someone put a lot of work into it. It doesn't add anything to Red Bull's main site but kudos for the hours of work that went into an entirely pointless but frankly gorgeous animation. I stand up and applaud such a pretentious waste of bandwidth.

Site: http://www.redbullracing.com/
Fan Rating: 7/10
Geek Rating: 6/10

That's all for Part 1 of our team website summaries, don't forget to visit Part 2 where we look at the final five.

Sites for Sore Eyes (Part 4)

We've reached the final five websites in our mammoth task of reviewing all the drivers and their web real estate. Check out the first three parts before enjoying this last set of reviews.

Rubens Barrichello

Wow, I didn’t think websites were allowed to have scrolling information anymore. That must violate some kind of human right somewhere. Nevertheless, there’s a lot of background info on there, and a column from the man himself (at the time of writing, it was still post-Turkey). There was also some audio, although I couldn’t tell you what they were saying.

There's something very peculiar going on with the rendering of this site. Each time I navigate to a new page, there's a not-so-subtle bounce effect that happens before the layout settles down. Once or twice isn't so bad, but it becomes tiresome quickly. It's fine on Safari, but Firefox has issues.

Aside from that, I have a desire to stretch the layout and make it wider. There's too much wasted space each side of the main column. The background image is nice without ever being distracting, but the separate shop makes a poor attempt at trying to match the main site's look and feel.

Site: http://www.barrichello.com.br/
Fan Rating: 6 out of 10
Geek Rating: 6 out of 10

Giancarlo Fisichella

Given that computer screens are getting bigger and bigger all the time, I don’t really understand why this site is so small. I can hardly read the writing. Plus, for some reason, some of the news sections open in a new window, maybe because they need more space? It does look good, but I can't stand the strobe effect and I didn’t want to spend too long on there.

Giancarlo's homepage needs an epilepsy warning, the flashing may only be brief, but it's enough to quickly become painful. Here we are looking at a site that has the worst kind of Flash integration - the bulk of the pages written in the usability-challenged format while the news page is HTML and not integrated at all. I'm a fan of minimalism, but the size of typeface used here would challenge even Superman's eyesight and what's with all the bleepy noises?

Something that's a slight worry for the Italian is the fact that the Fisico Entertainment link on the right-hand side leads to a domain parking page. Someone, might have failed to renew that one, oops.

Site: http://www.giancarlofisichella.com/
Fan Rating: 3 out of 10
Geek Rating: 2 out of 10

Adrian Sutil

The first thing I saw on this site was the Dates in May bit, which seems to lead to a calendar. I’m not entirely sure why, as unless I’m missing something, it really was just a calendar for 2008. The sponsor logos are a bit omni-present which is quite annoying, and overall there didn’t seem that much to do.

Adrian appears to have inherited the Fisi disease because rolling over the menu provides a scatter gun ensemble of electronic bleeps. I had headphones on while viewing the site, and it felt like something was burrowing into my skull.

Like Christine, I'm baffled by what the calendar is telling me (beyond what any other calendar would). I found the orange theme quite appealing, pages responded quickly and the animated transitions were, well, bearable.

It's worth noting that this site has been designed by Adrian's brother Daniel, but how much difference the family touch adds is difficult to put your finger on though. Probably not much.

Site: http://www.adriansutil.com/
Fan Rating: 5 out of 10
Geek Rating: 6 out of 10

Lewis Hamilton

The Hamilton site looks good, although the lead story in the middle of the page is a warning for fans not to accept counterfeit autographed goods. That’s not really the most positive start for a site. It all appears to be a bit new, as the fan club is accepting “pre-registrations” and the charity page talks of the “Lewis Hamilton foundation coming soon.” But it seems to be a good base for when it does get going.

I was expecting to dislike this site, figuring that the "hand of Ron" was bound to have extended onto Lewis' personal site, but that doesn't appear to be the case at all. It's understated and simple to figure out. I was confused slightly by the inconsistency of the left side navigation, but apart from that it's perfectly usable and devoid of the corporate touch.

There is a significant lack of content however. You'll not find any circuit maps, nor photo gallery on this site, and some of the promised content simply points to a fan club registration form, while the Breaking News section points directly to McLaren's site. Work in progress is probably a fair summary.

Site: http://www.lewishamilton.com/
Fan Rating: 6 out of 10
Geek Rating: 5 out of 10

Heikki Kovalainen

I couldn’t really work out why you could have the page in either English or Russian but not Finnish, however that’s Heikki’s choice. There are two lots of navigation, one of which was a bit clunky to use between pages, and the other mostly led to pages under construction. Having said that, the content in the centre looks good and reads well, so all was not lost.

Heikki's site stands out amongst the crowd by virtue of the fact it doesn't appear to be very official. I mean, it's his name and he says he welcomes you in, but the site features Google advertisements and then says things like "our gallery" and "contact us". So who are these other people? A personal website should be just that shouldn't it? Additionally the website owner has a Hotmail address... hmmm, fishy.

Wikipedia says that this site is the official one, but it's a .net domain while the .com url points to Sutton Images. It's all very odd and I have to conclude the guy just doesn't care that much about the web. It's an okay site in terms of layout and design but "half-arsed" is the overriding impression. A disappointing end to our collection of reviews, no doubt about it.

Site: http://www.heikkikovalainen.net/
Fan Rating: 4 out of 10
Geek Rating: 2 out of 10

So that rounds up our final set of driver website reviews, and what a blast it has been. As ever we'd love to hear what you think, because we are not pretending to be the authority on this subject at all. However, we've shared our opinion and now we want to hear yours, so go check out these sites and tell us your thoughts in the comments.

Sites for Sore Eyes (Part 3)

This is part three of our driver websites review, looking at the good, the bad and the pointless. Check out the first two parts here, and here, and then we can get started with the next five. As ever, I’m approaching it from the fan viewpoint, checking on navigation and content, whilst the geeky one posts his usability and technical thoughts in italics.

Jarno Trulli

The homepage isn’t exactly pretty, but there’s nothing overtly horrible about it either. There are some good photos on the site, and the Toyota video feature is there as well. There’s also information about the kart that he has helped developed – which I knew nothing about! I do like that the background image is selected at random on each load.

Wow, that really is some awful music Jarno's playing there. The audio is doubly annoying on this site because it crushes any video you try and watch. It's easy to turn off, but who thought it was a good idea in the first place?

The rest of the site is okay, despite being flash only. The news section appears to be just a long list of Toyota press releases and there are far too many colours present on the homepage, giving the place a claustrophobic feel. The videos on the media page are unfeasibly small too, surrounded as they are by so much blank space.

Site: http://www.jarnotrulli.com/
Fan Rating: 6 out of 10
Geek Rating: 4 out of 10

Timo Glock

Now, I instantly dislike this page because it’s yellow, and yellow tends to hurt my eyes. However, I persevered for the sake of the exercise, but I didn’t really get very far. It seems like everything there is to look at is on the homepage already, so one glance and you’re done.

Timo's another driver who's opted to piggy back on a commercial site, forsaking his own domain name in the process.

This site takes forever to load and it's not just the homepage either. Clicking a link brings up an animated timer which serves no purpose other than to annoy. At the same time the page layout flips around like some sort of demonised rubik's cube, before proceeding to display the same information, only in a slightly different order.

Site: http://www.speed-academy.de/timoglock.html
Fan Rating:4 out of 10
Geek Rating: 3 out of 10

Sebastien Bourdais

The site is really simple and easy to navigate which makes a refreshing change! It’s also got plenty of pictures and info – I like the brooding one on the home page (that may just be me, though). There’s a forum that’s in French but seems to have plenty going on. Really, any site that has a heading called Goodies is fine by me.

Possibly the best welcome of any site so far. The opening video requires flash, but it's perfectly possible to get where you're going without it. I like that the branding is in keeping with Toro Rosso's livery, but isn't flamboyant or excessive in any area.

This is the cleanest looking website I've seen in a long while. Absolutely devoid of any clutter, whilst links to Google Maps of each circuit are a welcome addition. News still is lacking the personal touch though, as it's yet more press release material.

Site: http://www.sebastien-bourdais.com/
Fan Rating: 7 out of 10
Geek Rating: 7 out of 10

Sebastian Vettel

The English page is currently under construction, which is fair enough, except I couldn’t get back to the German page once I’d gone there.

Nothing says "Welcome" like a gigantic red cross and the word error painted across your screen in bold type does it? Makes you wonder why the there's a link to an English version of the site at all?

Life on Seb's site gets more confusing if you look at the German version, because the entire of the news section is written in English. The remainder of the pages are fine in terms of layout and content, but I do wonder if the central band of animated photography wouldn't have been better served as static images, and I can't shake the feeling as I'm browsing that the whole design is just waiting to be re-branded with the Red Bull logo.

Site: http://www.sebastianvettel.de/
Fan Rating: 1 out of 10
Geek Rating: 3 out of 10

Jenson Button

The site is very pretty, but to be honest, I spent a lot of time rolling over things going: "Ooh, that moves as well!" without actually looking at what was there. I think it’s one of those sites that while it has some good information underneath, the abundance of Flash makes it hard to find everything. The helmet competition is fun... oh wait, we did that already.

Your name's not on the list, you're not coming in. Jens has a flash only site and without it you're left looking at a plain white screen. Once over this obstacle though the site is well laid out and easy to navigate. I especially like the stats window that pulls out from the right-hand side. While I was watching three other users were also viewing the site, although the distance didn't appear to update in the way it suggested it should, maybe it's broken at the moment?

I get the impression Jenson actually cares about this site. The fan pictures section is a nice addition and Button has by far the best videos of any driver we've looked at so far. If you include his audio diaries, I suspect this benchmark will take some beating. I like that the Trackside section represents such a detailed look at circuits too.

If I have one criticism, it's that the convoluted transitions take far to long to execute, I was willing them to be over sooner. Not for the first time I'm torn with the rating of this site, I love what's inside, but getting there is too inaccessible.

Site: http://www.jensonbutton.com/
Fan Rating: 7 out of 10
Geek Rating: 6 out of 10

Three quarters of the way through now. We've trawled through the highs and lows of the internet so far, and there's still plenty more to come. Join us for part four where we look at the last five driver sites.