In recent years, the gap between one F1 season and the next has reduced to the point that there is barely enough downtime to prepare any new features for the upcoming season. At Sidepodcast we work around those limitations by stealing time from the tail-end of the current season back for ourselves.

October of last year was partially spent working on the 2012 site redesign and this time out we're planning features we'd like to see come to fruition when the cars hit the track in Australia. Making generous use of the ever convenient Sidepodcast playground, we're launching an early sample of some new Rate the race widgets.

One of the most controversial things we've ever done on this site, was to rate every Grand Prix during the 2011 season. Doing so caused all manner of arguments, largely because the two of us scored the seemingly never-ending Canadian Grand Prix so lowly. From next year we'll be offering everyone the chance to score the race and we'll track the average from each Grand Prix throughout the season.

Dancing with the stars

The fun doesn't stop there though, along with a headline race rating there's room for many peripheral things to be covered too. How did you rate the first lap excitement, or the quality of race stewarding? What about the choice of DRS zone(s), and how entertaining did you find the podium interview?

In addition to all the post-race fun, you can expect to see requests to rate things appear within the Factbyte Factbox while races are ongoing. How many people would also have made a call to pit a driver when a particular team did? Soon you'll be able to tell us and we can compare how it worked out once the cars have crossed the finish line.

If all that isn't enough, the new rating widgets can be applied to more than just F1 races. From rating our own live shows or podcasts, to IndyCar events and even live performances during the Eurovision Song Contest, if you aren't sick of marking things out of five by this time next year, we haven't been working hard enough.

There is no need to refresh the page, the dials update automatically as and when other people submit their votes. You will need a reasonably modern browser to join in the fun. Do leave any feedback in the comments and please also let us know any suggestions for other things you'd like to rate post-race and beyond.