The summer break is officially underway now, as we head straight into the first weekend of no F1 racing for a month or so. In order to keep you occupied, a couple of the new teams have creative projects to get stuck into. From putting pen to paper, to picking up that camera, if you are even slightly artistic, you'll find something to do here.

Lotus Racing artwork

In the latest edition of Lotus Racing Notes - the Hungarian edition - there's a brand new competition to pay attention to. Lotus are asking for you to send your artwork to them, anything from a cartoon drawing, to a photo or even a painting. They'll gather them all together and ask drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen to judge the best ones.

From the notes:

Winners will be published in the Monza edition of Lotus Racing Notes, with Jarno and Heikki photographed with their favourite picture, AND they will then be displayed in our factory in Hingham, at the heart of Lotus Racing, for the whole team to see. Plus we’ll send you some signed merchandise too.

I can't draw anything bar a cartoon horse which is not really what they're looking for, but if you are even slightly arty, you should definitely have a go - and let us know as well. The competition is open to all ages and you can send any digital art to art@lotusracing.my or use the actual post office (what is that?) with this address:

Lotus Racing Team (UK) Ltd

Hingham Industrial Estate

Ironside Way

Hingham

Norfolk

NR9 4LF

Virgin moving pictures

The above competition has a very broad scope, even incorporating physical media, but let's be honest, it's quite a lot of effort. Virgin Racing have something a little easier to get involved with, their Moving Pictures initiative.

The title may be misleading as it is not about video at all, instead the team want you to send your pictures of the car, the drivers, the mechanics, the garage, anything Virgin Racing related. All you have to do is submit your photo to the official Flickr group.

What do you win?

At the end of the season, we'll collate the pick of the crop and create a limited edition first-season photo book, available to buy (at no profit to us - this is all about you guys).

If your shots make the book, we'll be very happy to send you a free copy for your trouble. All you need to do is set your contributed images to a Creative Commons license. We'll make sure we credit your name or Flickr handle against any images.

Unfortunately the only photo we have of anything Virgin Racing related is a Lucas di Grassi picture but he is wearing the wrong colours. Darn it.

I'm sure you can do much better than me on both of these projects. Why not have a go, get arty, submit your creative works, and let us know how you get on.