During last week's show, we talked about McLaren's latest initiative to engage fans, by asking them to design the next McLaren hoody - one that would actually be sold in the McLaren eShop. Merchandise created by the fans for the fans. Excellent idea.

The team haven't stopped there, though, reaching out that one step further by inviting Steve at the McLaren Fan Blog to hold the official vote to decide the winner.

We've seen fan submission ideas before, particularly from Jenson Button, who has previously asked fans to design a Christmas Card and his helmet. They have been a little less interactive though, with submissions disappearing into the ether to be selected presumably by JB himself. McLaren are letting us make the final decision.

Thumbs up to the team, then, and now it's over to you. Who will you vote for? I don't want to sway your vote at all, but we do have submissions from two people of Sidepodland - designs from two of our favourite commenters Lou and Lukeh are up for your clicks.

I am intensely jealous of people who can design things, although to my eyes, some of them seem as though they already exist. It's probably just the red and silver look, though. Either way, I can't wait to see who wins, and I'm off to vote right now. If you haven't already, make time to do it now, and we'll report back with the winner!

The USF1 team may be coming under increasingly vocal criticism for the way they've managed their Formula 1 entry so far, but Stuart Taylor of the wonderful Chain Bear, today reminds that if left to Bernie, the situation could be much worse.

Stuart apologises for his use of the German accent. You can view more of his F1 illustrations here.

If you cast your mind back to November of last year, you may remember we asked for feedback relating to the layout and design of this site. That seems like a long time ago, and very little has improved in the meantime. Everything changes here and now though, with the release of what Christine is describing our very own "Google Labs".

Introducing Project Playground - a home for new stuff, interesting stuff and various kinds of work in progress. A place that should be considered always in beta, somewhere we can drop half baked ideas and unfinished experiments.

Don't Hold on to the Past

We discovered some time ago that it's easier to develop interesting things by releasing often and garnering community feedback early. Both the Live Commenting and Real-time pages are better as a result of everybody's usage and input. We also know that updating the main site to bring into line with those two pages is going to take a gargantuan effort and isn't the work of the moment.

Project Playground will be used to bring together recommendations, suggestions, improvements and fixes in smaller chunks that can be worked on individually, before being brought together many months down the line to create the definitive Sidepodcast 3.0.

Somewhat later than originally promised, but hopefully all the better for it.

Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday

The first micro-project we're announcing today is an improved search engine. The current Sidepodcast search has been almost entirely overlooked since the day we started and it really shows.

If you've ever tried to find anything around here, you'll have noticed you can't search comments and the results don't give any indication of what been found or why. Worse still, searching is really slow. The improved search project fixes all of those issues and more. You can search not only the main site, but the Wiki too, and because we're piggybacking on Google's search service, all of their filtering operators work too (minus symbol to remove, quotes to restrict etc).

We think it's considerably better, but we very much welcome and encourage feedback, either here in the comments, or on the various Wiki pages too.

There will be further Playground projects added during the coming days and weeks. Keep an eye on the comments if you're interested in helping out.

We will get there, honest.

It's well known in Sidepodcircles that guest writer Lou is a fan of Brawn GP, and in particular a certain British driver for the team. Here she tells us about the recent competition she entered and subsequent joy at receiving a prize.

I first came across Jenson’s design a helmet competition last year when it was originally launched for the 2008 British Grand Prix. It was something very different and I had a lot of fun thinking through designs I could enter and trying them out. Sadly I didn’t get any prizes last year , but when I noticed they would be launching the competition again for the 2009 British Grand Prix the combination of the winning prize and the fact that it was so simple and fun to take part in made me want to have another go.

This year the designs needed to be of a UK theme, so I wanted to incorporate the Union Jack and I also liked Jenson’s previous Union Jack themed helmet. The design I eventually thought of was slightly tricky with the tools they give you, and just my touch pad on my laptop, and it did take me a few attempts but didn’t take too long to complete. Sadly you could only submit one entry, otherwise I may have come up with a few other ideas.

When I opened the email telling me I had come third I was totally shocked. I hadn’t expected to get anything as there had been so many entries, so it came as a bit of a surprise and made me very happy. Initially it didn’t really sink in, but knowing Jenson had chosen the top three himself was almost reward enough.

I love my prizes, I think they are really unique and being a massive Jenson / Honda / Brawn GP fan I’m not sure I could have asked for more. They are certainly something I will treasure for a very long time. I wasn’t expecting the cap to be personally signed either so that was yet another welcome surprise and is now very precious to me.

I think these sort of creative competitions are brilliant and more teams and drivers should certainly try and do similar things. They are great fun to take part in, and I think they give a greater sense of reward than maybe winning competitions by answering a few easy questions would. You feel that it has more importance, and the prizes mean so much more because they require more effort and are judged by people in the public eye you look up to, e.g. the driver. I believe a few drivers have had similar competitions on their sites and I think it’s something that should really be encouraged, especially as they are generally free to enter.

With a grand press conference due to take place in Geneva tomorrow, there's plenty of speculation about what the Formula One Teams' Association will be announcing to the media. They say they want to discuss their plans for the future of F1, and from what we can tell, that vision may differ significantly from anything the powers-that-be have in mind.

Today's Weekly Grapevine on autosport.com (subscription required) makes mention of the association's desire to extract more money from Bernie and more power from Max. However, it seems unlikely anything is going to vastly change, at least not in the short term.

One thing that does need to change, and quickly, is the official FOTA logo. If you've read the aforementioned article you'll likely have spotted the following "mess" masquerading as a design:

It's not good. If anything is in need of a revamp, FOTA first need to look a little closer to home.

We can help them though. In the past the Sidepodcommunity has stepped up to the design plate and helped Jenson colour his helmet, offered Branson his very own Formula One logo, and solved many other artistic related challenges.

If you fancy having a go please add your contributions to the drop, and if we get enough submissions, maybe we'll hold a poll to select the best one. There's no prize at stake of course, nor will FOTA pay the blindest bit of notice, but if you're victorious, you'll know you can design better than the whole of the F1 paddock combined. Money can't buy that kind of kudos.

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

When it comes to making a car fast, you need a good driver, a decent engine and aerodynamic efficiency. These threee things combined will bring you wins, or see you at the back of the grid. The aerodynamics is one of the most scientific aspects of the car, with every bump and groove examined in minute detail.

At the moment, wind tunnel usage is still predominant, despite the FIA's attempts to restrict usage. Measuring how the air flows around the car will present enough data to work out what changes need to be made to make you go a bit faster. This requires a lot of precise engineering though. Scale models need to be made, and the results measured accurately.

CFD, or Computational Fluid Dynamics, can provide similar data using computers instead of the massive wind tunnels.

The three areas that need to be measured are downforce (the pressure keeping the car on track and not spinning off), drag (the airflow around the car, specifically that which slows it down), and balance (that which affects the air when sudden changes occur, such as braking and cornering).

Rather than build a physical model of the car, a computer simulation is created, and then masses of data is input to represent the physical exertions placed on a car as it would in real life. Each component of the car can be tested, or the whole thing can be put under pressure, and the elements - drag, downforce and balance - can be measured separately or together. The bonus to using a simulation rather than a wind tunnel and real life testing, is that there is complete control over the elements. Rather than sitting in a garage, waiting for the rain to pass, the CFD engineers can simulate sunny weather, and see how the car will react. Another bonus is that instead of modelling various additions, or changes, to the car, tweaking things on a computer is much simpler, and cost-effective. If it doesn't work, it is easy to return to a previous version.

Although extremely useful, and much more technical than my brief description, there are drawbacks to the use of computers. The nature of F1 is that things are unpredictable, and sometimes the data just doesn't correlate to what happens when a car is run out on track.

CFD is just a part of the process for building an F1 car. It is usually the first step in a long design procedure - which will then lead onto the wind tunnel, when the data is acceptable. Once out of the wind tunnel, then track testing can be the next step. At the moment, the three processes work together to shave milliseconds off a team's laptimes. Reducing one or the other methods, as the FIA are trying to do, will mean reliance on another, and at the moment, it's unclear what effect that will have on development.

The Sidepodwiki doesn't get nearly enough promotion on this site. It's an ever expanding hive of activity, with 37 people already signed up and contributing content on a regular basis. We could and should be doing a better job of highlighting this to anyone who may have otherwise overlooked such a wonderful Sidepodcast resource.

Mind Mapping

One thing we're quite excited about, is the ability to embed all manner of plugins into wiki pages. These can include video such as the Sidepodcast Diaries or as recently showcased by R.G. - F1 Quikmaps.

The quikmaps.com site has been around for a long time, but coupling the service with user editable content offers everyone an opportunity to get creative and show Tilke a thing or two, when it comes to creating fantastic race tracks.

Here's a Miami Street Circuit that R.G. uploaded recently.

Clearly the man is a fan of bridges, and you can't question the concept of Formula One cars hopping from island to island.

No Man Is an Island

To prove how easy it is to create these things, this morning I designed a track set in the Scilly Isles. Admittedly it's compact and bijou by F1's standards and I can already foresee public transport issues being somewhat Donington-esque, but that Herman chap better watch his back.

If you fancy a little drawing project, simply sign up for a free account at quikmaps.com, pick a location and start scribbling. Once you've made something you're happy with, add it the Sidepodwiki (again, free signup is necessary, if you've not done so already).

Christine monitors the site for changes regularly, but by all means shout us in the comments if you've uploaded a masterpiece. Also if you need any more information don't be afraid to ask - after my solitary illustration I already consider myself an expert in cartography.

We can't wait to see your submissions, and by all means have a browse around the wiki while you're there.

I hope everyone had a good New Year's Day. We've just heard some fireworks going off, meaning that someone is celebrating exactly 24 hours too late. Bless them. It's been a quiet day in F1, which means there's only one news story to talk about, but we've been filling our time with other things.

• Apparently, Hakkinen supports Bernie's medal idea. Well, he said it was interesting, and I guess that counts as support, doesn't it?
• We're still looking for people to join in our Sidepodcast BatRacer game. All the details can be found in the Wiki, thanks to Scott Woodwiss for setting it up and writing a guide. If you want to join in the fun, head over to Batracer with a password of sidepodcast.
• The Sidepodcast header poll is now closed, and Mark Webber beat Ferrari 21-20 points. That's a close one, just like the '08 championship. Thanks to everyone that voted, and the header will be refreshed later today.

Don't feel constrained by anything I've listed above. The Daily thread is your place to discuss anything on your mind, whether it's related to Formula 1, to other motorsports, or any other topic you feel like. I will see you in the comments.

So here we are, the last day of 2008. It's been a bumper year, packed full of highs and lows, and we've been making our way everything that occurred in our end of year series. The F1 news is slowly picking up though, and soon we will be diving head first into 2009.

• With that in mind, it seems fitting that Heidfeld has spoken out about the new front wing. He believes there will be chaos in the first few races as the drivers get used to their car's new measurements. Australia normally has a high attrition rate anyway, so I can imagine that the guys that finish on the podium might be the only guys that finish.
• Elsewhere, Bernie has proclaimed that Button is good enough to remain in Formula 1 and would rather he takes a year out of the sport to come back fighting, rather than flounder with the ex-Honda team. It always surprises me when Bernie has an opinion on something quite so random.
• The Sidepodcast header poll will be closing at midnight on New Year's Day, so if you haven't already, make your way there and have a vote. The chosen header will appear until Sidepodcast 3.0 arrives, and at the moment it looks as though Mr Webber is in the lead.

That's all for today. If anyone is welcoming 2009 in style, then have a great and safe one. We'll be around as we always are, so stop by and say hi, and I'll see you in the comments.

A while ago we received an email from frequent commenter Dirty Scarab who kindly suggested that our header image could do with a bit of a makeover. Now we're always up for a bit of constructive criticism, but this mail went one step further and supplied a set of replacement images too.

Quite honestly we were bowled over by the gesture, and now all that pesky racing business is out of the way, we've finally got a moment to use them. Thus, as from today the main Sidepodcast header has been refreshed.

If you like the design, we recommend you check out Scarab's portfolio, there's some seriously creative work to be found there and we thank him profusely for all his efforts. We're also up for anyone else designing some alternate headers too, although the man has set a pretty high benchmark there.

In the meantime, we have another two designs which we'll run in rotation until the end of the year, and after that it'll be time for the annual website redesign. Which brings us nicely on to...

Turning the Tables

Back in the summer we ran a series of articles looking into the various sites owned by drivers and teams. We tore shreds off of all and sundry and managed to find flaws in the most unexpected of places.

Now, we can comfortably sit in our ivory tower, waxing critical about everybody else's efforts, but what of our own?

The comments posted alongside the aforementioned articles provided as much, if not more insight than we originally offered. So seeing as you guys and girls clearly know your way around the Internet, we figured it was high time we trained the sights upon ourselves.

Therefore, as the two of us are now focusing our attention on the future and looking into what Sidepodcast 3.0 will look like, we're asking for any feedback as to what can be improved. We're specifically looking for Website thoughts today (we'll do a post looking at podcast / show ideas next week), and criticism might include areas such as:

• Usability - do you struggle to access any parts of this site?
• Navigation - anything we should make more / less easy to find?
• Layout and design - is stuff where it should be?
• Readability - any problems with the colours or legibility?

Please don't limit yourselves to this small selection though, we'd love to hear anything you have to say that might make Sidepodcast better in any way, shape or form.

Also of note, Rich has mentioned plans of putting together a Sidepodcast Survey for us, before the year's out. We'd like to take general comments here and then combine those with whatever the survey spits out before making plans for what we're go to do next year.

As ever, we appreciate anything you have to throw at us, and unlike the FIA / FOM, we promise we won't chuck the best ideas in the bin and go our own way regardless. Thank you.