February 2013 recap - The fruits of all our labours - The new season draws near with launches, testing, podcasts and more

Published 3 March 2013 by Christine

February was the month where everything came together and the pre-season really took off. We covered launches and testing both on the site and in podcasts, Christine's Rankings for 2013 began, and our feature writers started to crank out the columns again.

Formula One in February

It's been hectic following along with all the launches, the testing, plus the ongoing speculation over which drivers will end up in which spare race seats. Thankfully, we managed to keep up with it all, publishing a post for each and every new car, and every day of testing.

Date	Event
1 Feb	Ferrari launch
1 Feb	Force India launch
2 Feb	Sauber launch
3 Feb	Red Bull launch
4 Feb	Mercedes launch
4 Feb	Toro Rosso launch
5 Feb	Marussia launch
5 Feb	Caterham launch
5-8 Feb	Jerez test: Day one / Day two / Day three / Day four
19 Feb	Williams launch
19-22 Feb	Barcelona test - part 1: Day one / Day two / Day three / Day four
28 Feb	Barcelona test - part 2: Day one

Sidepodcast in February

Up until this point, most of the work we've been doing over the off-season has been behind the scenes, with the site ticking along as though we hadn't changed anything. This month we managed to launch lots of the fun things we've been working on, plus bring back some of the popular items from last year.

I launched the 2013 preview guide, a bumper book of driver biographies and team profiles, building on the first edition in 2012. Having written all about Formula One in book form, we then launched the F1 Encyclopedia - a great way of finding summaries about all the names in F1, plus keep track of where they appear on the site.

Although there's still a lot we are going to do to the encyclopedia in the future, it's great fun to see entries from the rankings, from the Factbyte Factbox and all across the rest of the site appear on individual driver and team pages.

Talking of Christine's Rankings, the 2013 competition began this month, with the first of many weekly updates. There are already several names with points on the board, and this year suggestions from the Sidepodcast community get the recognition they deserve!

Finally, February also saw the launch of a pet project that we're both really happy with. The Scrapbook is our attempt at replacing the soon-to-be-closed Posterous, a quick and easy place to post videos, photos and little updates that deserve a place on the site but don't necessarily warrant a full post. We're loving the Scrapbook so far, so keep an eye on fun things appearing there regularly.

Shows in February

Feet Up Friday returned this month, and for a moment it looked like we might get into a regular schedule! Ha! That's not going to happen, but we are looking to do these more often. Two for a start isn't half bad, though.

Posts in February

As mentioned above, the feature writers started their new season with some great thoughts on what the drivers may be able to achieve, and what the new look cars may mean in terms of safety. We also covered the BBC's 5live F1 preview, and started a look at five things to look forward to in the coming season.