F1 Fanatic in 2008: new look, new stuff

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F1 Fanatic is getting a total redesign for the 2008 season and brand new site will be launched next week. Here’s a little peek at the new logo…

I want to thank everyone who helped out by completing the survey last year and emailling me with feedback and suggestions.

There’s going to be lots of new content as well but the one new feature I want to tell you about today is one I’ve called F1 Live Comments.

It’s a simple idea: half an hour before every qualifying and race session a special post will appear at the top of the home page for everyone to discuss the F1 action as it happens.

Of course, how successful this is depends on how many people show up so I’ll run it on a trial basis for the first three race weekends to see how it goes.

The other potential danger is that it becomes overwhelmingly popular and crashes the site, in which case I might have to set up a special system to handle it – and I’d be very grateful for any technical advice!

In the meantime I hope you like the look of the site when it’s finally live next week, and look out for the first F1 Live Comments on the Australian Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday 15th March from 2.30am (British time).

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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12 comments on “F1 Fanatic in 2008: new look, new stuff”

  1. new logo but you are sticking to your blue and green colours … are you a hidden Honda fan ? :-)

  2. In terms of potential overloading the site, have you conducted a stress test of some sort to see what kind of numbers and traffic you can handle? Even your hosting company may be able to give you an idea of rough figures (or rip you off by asking for more money).

    Look forward to seeing the new site in place! I probably wont make it half hour on the dot before anything starts as I tend to sleep in till the program starts :D

  3. Oops, forgot to ask: are the first three races going to be a reliable indicator of numbers? I know this site is used by people all around the world, but if I were to assume that most visitors are from Europe, and that the first three races were outwith Europe, then perhaps maybe including Barcelona might be a good idea? Even if it is just to compare numbers.

    I’m intrigued into how much attention this system will attract now, I’m seeing people from all around the world posting in their local languages with their friends!

  4. Keith

    Look forward to it. If you need any technical help give me a shout,I shoul dbe able to help out.

  5. Keith,

    A SUGGESTION:

    There a here in your blog great commentators, as Alianora, Clive and Steven Roy. Clive and Alianora have their blogs and I use to read their updates, but HERE they always write some of their most inspirited insights about Formula 1. Steven, for example, doesn’t have a blog and I’d really love to read in an organized way his comments.

    Would be great if we have a TOOL that could do a commentators search and find out where they wrote any of his past and new comments…

    Is it this hard to do?

    Anyway, I’m really excited about the new look design!

    (again, sorry for my english!)

  6. I like that idea Becken I’ll see if there’s a good way of implementing it. One way of doing it would be to use a Google Site Search, for example, here are Alianora’s comments

    Loki, based on the times the races are on I think it will be quite easily to tell whether this approach is viable or not. If anyone can think of a solution that might be better please leave a comment or send me an email. Thanks!

  7. Like the new logo and the new ideas Keith, it’s good to see you’re responding to this crazy, wackady world we live in by making the logo look slightly digitalish.

  8. Sorry Milos I missed your comment when I replied. I’m not a Honda fan but I wouldn’t say I dislike them either. Although I like quite a few of their road cars, especially the S2000.

    But anyway I don’t think blue and green are their proper racing colours. Their sixties F1 cars were red and off-white (I think they called it ‘championship white’) and they’ve used a little of that on their livery this year.

    Part of the design brief for the redesign was to stay away from colour combinations that might look like they belonged to a particular team. Until a late stage it was blue and orange, closer to how it is now, but it felt a bit too ING Renault.

  9. Honda’s colours are red and white, same as Toyota, because that’s the colours that are on the Japanese flag (I reckon). If it’s not true then it makes sense, anyway.

  10. I’m also eagerly anticipating the launch of your revamped site-I can’t provide much in terms of tech support, but could perhaps steer you to some folks in that department if need be.

    The live comments feature should prove to be a good one- what will be very interesting is to see if anyone checks in from the location of that weekend’s GP with on-site analysis. I’ve worked with the American rules football program at my university for the past 4 years and several fans of teams in our conference have posted up in real time on a popular message board for our teams- that kind of personal feedback details the swings of emotion that don’t always get captured on the TV hilights or in the press releases. Best wishes to everyone with the new site!

  11. Love the idea of Live Comments but it maybe better to wait till the start of the European. I only tend to wake up 5 minutes before the start of quali / race for Australia and Malaysia.

  12. It’s a good idea, but I am unlikely to be contributing much to the Live section, as my desktop PC and my TV live in opposite corners of the house. Oh well, hope everyone else enjoys the new facility.

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