Thank you so much for continuing to follow this blog – I know there hasn’t been much on it for a while but as most of you will be aware I’m now a reporter for Girlracer magazine which, alongside contributing to EnterF1 and my full-time job, takes up quite an amount of time!

I’ll still be posting regularly on Twitter on a variety of Motorsports and of course you can check out my features on the sites above but there may not be much more added on here for the foreseeable future!

Thanks Sam

samantha.wilcox.apt@gmail.com

Q: It was a pretty chaotic Australian Grand Prix. What are your thoughts on Rubens’ eighth place?
SM: It was good to get some more points on the board, but we still have a lot of work to do to improve in all areas.
Q: Rubens was the only driver to fit the hard tyre at his second pit stop. Why did he do this, and did it cost him lap time?
SM: We discussed it as a team and took the decision together. In hindsight, however, it probably wasn’t the correct choice and we should have run the option tyre.

Q: Nico was taken out by Kobayashi on the opening lap. Prior to that, had you seen him take a step forward from Bahrain?
SM: Nico is a fast driver. He’s still finding his feet as this is only his first season in Formula One. He’s smart, and he knows what he has to do. I have 100% confidence in him delivering for the team.
Q: The team experimented with a new shark engine cover during Friday’s practice. Was it a step forward?
SM: We tested an extended engine cover fin but we didn’t like the results it gave during practice so we reverted back to the standard bodywork for qualifying and the race. We haven’t abandoned it; we will probably run it again at a race in the near future.

Q: Did either FW32 experience any reliability issues during the weekend?
SM: We had one problem during the Saturday morning practice session on Nico’s car. Apart from that, there were no reliability issues.

Q: There was significantly more overtaking in Australia than there was in Bahrain, even when the track was dry. Why do you think that was the case?
SM: I think the fact that the start of the race was wet certainly helped. There were also some cars that were out of their normal performance positions as well (like Hamilton, Webber and Alonso), which helped shake things up a bit.

Q: Looking ahead to Malaysia next weekend, what are your hopes for AT&T Williams?
SM: We need to get both cars into the top ten in qualifying, that’s our key target.

Interview kindly conducted by staff from AT&T Williams

In the meantime please also check out the latest addition to the F1 media, www.pitlanemagazine.com The site launches tomorrow at 11am and promises to be full of just the kind of juicy content you, my loyal readers, love. You can also follow them on the Tweet flow @pitlanemagazine for even more info!

Enjoy the new season and don’t forget if your job involves motorsport in any way shape or form and you’re interested in doing an interview drop me a line!

Facebook, Twitter and blogs (alongside Google who recently started including each of these in search results) mean that opinions can be spread like wild-fire, they gather support, they may become large enough to be of interest to the sports press and suddenly the opinions are being broadcast, gathering strength and forcing the hands of the decision-makers. Sweeping incidents under the carpet and moving on is no longer an option…

Don’t get me wrong I think it’s great every now has a chance to be heard but have they reached the ears of officials and will the public pressure force them into a decision that at one point would not have been made.

I think in future we’re going to see decisions in motorsport having to be backed up by clear arguments, thought processes and rules – whether the decision goes the way the public majority want or not. Will this in turn force drivers and teams to be more conservative and will the sports we love then lose some of their appeal? Or transparency always the best option? Are fans more bothered with the eventual outcome than by how the decision was made? 

One more question, given that NASCAR and other motorsports are ‘driven’ (couldn’t resist!) by sponsors do the teams and officials have an obligation to consider the fans reaction when making decisions? Should the public have a voice at the table?

As always let me know your thoughts!

It’s a new season but unfortunately it may not be a fresh start as an old feud once again rears its head. It seems that incidents in Texas last November are still playing on champion Jimmie Johnson’s mind and he’s still smarting over a lack of apology from ‘bump-happy’ Sam Hornish Jnr.

Despite going on to secure the championship Johnson suffered a setback that could have cost him everything so is he perfectly justified in wanting an apology from Hornish Jnr? As a champion and therefore brand ambassador, should he be more willing to say ‘that’s behind us now’ especially given that the real culprit was David Reutimann? Could we expect to see the same in F1 which, when we least left it, had a similar argument ongoing between Trulli and Sutil? 

When it comes to feuding drivers is it soo 2009 or soo ON? Let me know you thoughts!

In honour of this trend I decided to do a little digging around for some location-based stats for 2009 and I came up with this…

Whilst certain expectations proved correct – Spain were Renault mad and Force India did well in (come on it’s not that difficult to guess!) one team managed to top the stats in  pretty much all countries…yep Ferrari managed to prance its way into the hearts of fans around the world.

It does seem however that the UK and Japan are the most diverse bunch when it comes to who they support, or at least who they search for. Each team (minus Ferrari) had a roughly equal amount of support, showing just what a diverse bunch we are and no doubt making bosses at Silverstone and Suzuka confident of filling seats over the race weekend – equal banner arrangement however may prove a little more difficult!

Yes, Kimi Raikkonen will be racing again as he makes his debut for Citroën at the Artic Lapland Rally. If this sounds familiar it’s probably because it is – the rally is where Raikkonen made his impressive debut in (and arguably just as impressive exit from) rallying in 2009.

Partnering Kaj Lindström in a C4, even the Ice-cool Finn must be feeling some pressure. The event is traditionally seen as a practice for the real start of the WRC 2010 season a week later and it’ll be Kimi’s first opportunity to truly show he can cut it in another class.

Personally I’m looking forward to the media interviews before and after just as much as I am the race. Kimi had, at the same time, one of the most-laidback and yet guarded personalities in the F1 paddock. Will this persona follow him to WRC or will we see more interaction? Has the 2007 champion found his true niche in WRC or will a little of him always prefer driving solo with his wheels a little closer to the ground?

Let me know your thoughts!

The World Series by Renault will return to the worldwide stage in Spain on 17th April 2010 but, with the last press attention back in mid-December, people may question whether the press department is still on Winter Hiatus? Oddly however, if I had to put money on one motorsport series being sold out at each venue, it would be the Renault World Series every time – the question is why?

The series has a small number of races, but then again so does BTCC and it travels Europe, just like F1, but it is the one most certain to guarantee a sell-out crowd. Could it be a loyal base, the attractions within the track, could it be this series attracts less controversy making news stories harder to write or could it be that this event is free? Then again having it free is one thing but without publicity how do you get the message across? And do they accept the fact that most WSR fans are going to follow other categories too and rely on these, not needing constant stories to get them through the race-free winter?

What do you think? Should the World Series by Renault have a louder ‘voice’ between seasons or is it a case of ‘not broke, don’t fix it’? As always let me know your thoughts!

PS – Don’t forget to check out my F1 pieces on EnterF1 and BTCC articles Girlracer – more coming to both soon!

I wanted to use the story of Nelson Piquet Jr, going to NASCAR after failing to secure an F1 drive, to demonstrate some new Social Media monitoring tools which will tell you not only if people are talking but what they’re saying and, crucially, how positive or negative the coverage is but the results weren’t what I expected.

First up I tried Twittratr which searches out key words in tweets to determine how positive or negative people’s reaction is, 1.83% was supposedly positive (although with comments like ‘Nelson Piquet jr to go to NASCAR lots of nice chaps to help him crash in turns 1,2,3 & 4’ I’m not so sure!), 7.33% negative (although the majority of these are classed negative due to the word failing as in ‘failing to secure an f1 drive’), that leaves a massive 90.84% neutral. In the neutral column I read plenty of nice (and some not so nice) comments.

I next tried Trackur which gave 123 ‘neutral’ results which, whilst a great news story filter doesn’t give an accurate picture of people’s opinions.

I conducted this little experiment one to see how people are reacting to Piquet now, personally given what’s happened I think NASCAR is one of the better options he has and even a field in which he could find himself excelling (all crash jokes aside). The other reason was to take a better look at some of the options for tracking stories across social networks, yes this was only one story and I only used two of the countless sites out there but It seems that, whilst various sites can provide a wealth of information, it still requires a competent knowledge of evaluation to sort the good from the bad…

And what better way to get the first blog of 2010 underway then by drawing a close to the last post of ’09. The following may not be in as much detail as the previous awards (I’m keen to begin the build-up to the various new season) but that doesn’t make the winners any less deserving. Congratulations to all the winners – wonder if they hold their crowns next year?

BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA – Brawn GP – fab website, great use of Twitter, champiooones!

BEST WEBSITE – Indycar.com – official site of the Indy Racing League, provides some fantastic content and constantly engages with visitors.

BEST CRISIS MANAGEMENT – Mercedes-McLaren – Renault ran them close with crash-gate but the handling of the Melbourne ‘cheat-gate’ scandal was admirable.

FAVOURITE VIRAL CAMPAIGN – Williams & Philips promo – Nico’s lost helmet – I admit I was suckered in at first, always the sign of a good campaign. A great use of social media tools.

SPONSORSHIP DEAL – Virgin & Brawn – This had to be the deal of the decade and the icing on the cake? First meet-and-greet of the new World Champion was at a pre-planned Virgin promotions event; a PR’s dream!

FUNNIEST STORY – Carrot Car – This made me smile (and apparently tickled Russell Howard too) a Formula 3 racing car made entirely of recyclable products and vegetables; you couldn’t make it up!

MOST MARKETABLE STAR – Danica Patrick – There were many potential winners in this category but for holding her own against the boys and for continuing to bring in big sponsors it’s gotta go to Danica.

BEST INTERVIEWEE - Christian Horner – One of the gentlemen of F1, Christian never let’s his emotions get the better of him (well from the ankles up!) and I found myself always looking forward to his interviews, which thanks to Vettel and Webber’s performances there were plenty of. Funny, insightful and honest I look forward to hearing more in 2010.

BEST PERSONALITY – Rubens Barrichello - I’m sure anyone who followed F1 in 2009 will be aware that Rubens season wasn’t always a happy one, neither was his mood, but anyone who followed the guy on Twitter or saw the genuine concern he showed for fellow Brazilian Massa will agree he deserves this accolade.

FUTURE MEDIA STAR – Karun Chandhok - Currently racing in GP2 and with over 1200 Twitter followers this guy is one to watch.

TEAM OF THE YEAR – Brawn – For the wins, for the social networking, for Ross, Rubens, Nick & Jenson, for the dramatic story and the crazy on camera celebrations and for making ‘champioooone’ my favourite word of 2009 Brawn GP we salute you.

So that’s it The 1st official ‘Revvies’ are at an end, check back for new blog posts and please, as always, feel free to comment!