At the tail end of the 2011 season, when Christine and I were planning and scheming ideas for this year, we figured there would be a period of virtual silence around these parts as we worked on various site improvements and admin tasks.

There is only so much two people can achieve when working on a part-time hobby such as Sidepodcast, and in order to achieve what we wanted, we figured regular content updates would naturally decrease. What we didn't account for though was how truly prolific the F1 community can be.

During the past six months, new posts on the site have barely slowed at all, and that is largely down to the incredible output of guest authors and columnists.

Meet the author

We have published a new author page to showcase everyone who has ever contributed to the site - a page that features no less than 77 names at the time of writing.

If you're ever looking for content from a specific individual, this page makes for a great starting point. It's also a nice way to dig into the archives if you're ever at a loose end.

Should you be interested in joining the ranks of the awesome Sidepodcast authors, be sure to get in touch, there's more than enough room for everybody.

Gang of four

When daily posts came to an end last season, we floated the idea of creating columns for people keen to contribute on a more regular basis. There was enough of a response that we spent time working on just such a thing and launched an all new Features section in March.

It is always hard to judge how something that relies so heavily on outside input might fare. Asking people to commit to a regular schedule of lengthly writing is a big ask, but in the short time since the release, a total of four fantastic features have launched, including two in past few weeks and there are even more in the planning stages.

Features are easily my favourite part of the site right now, the subjects are diverse and the writing captivating, making for some of the best F1 writing on the internet right now.

If writing a feature column is something you might be interested in, more details are available on the introductory Features post.

We still have more menial administrative tasks to finish up, in the meantime a huge thank you goes to anyone who has written posts for the site recently, you've really made our life so much easier.