Ten ways to survive the August break on F1 Fanatic

2012 F1 season

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August is a barren month for F1 Fanatics this year. Not until its final day will we next get to see F1 cars in action.

Happily, there’s plenty of F1 and motor racing goodness for you to enjoy on F1 Fanatic between now and then.

1. Look ahead to the 2013 season

As we pass the halfway point in the 2012 season it’s time to look ahead to the next one.

The driver market is in full swing for 2013 and the rules are taking shape. It’s been quiet on the calendar front so far as teams negotiate a new deal with Bernie Ecclestone, but expect some provisional dates soon.

The 2013 F1 season pages have started to appear in the main navigation and these will continue to develop over the coming months with all the information on the 64th running of the world championship.

2. Delve into F1 Fanatic’s statistics

We’ve got piles of statistics on the season so far for you to get stuck into.

Season stats

Here you will find interactive championship points standings and records on everything from who’s scored the most pole positions to which team did the fastest pit stops:

  • Championship points – Full points tables and interactive graphs for the drivers and constructors championships.
  • Season records – Complete list of race and qualifiyng results, plus which drivers and teams have the most wins, podium finishes, pole positions and fastest laps.
  • Race results – Race data including how many laps each driver spent in search position, race finishes and places won and lost on the first lap.
  • Qualifying – Gaps between team mates in qualifying, Q1/Q2/Q3 breakdown and grid penalties.
  • Retirements and penalties – Reasons for retirement and which drivers received penalties.
  • Strategy and pit stops – How many pit stops each driver made, what tyres they used, and which team had the quickest pit stops.

Driver form guides

Compare the performance of every driver on the field with their team mate.

And don’t forget to add your views on how the drivers have fared so far this season for the Driver Rankings article which will appear here soon:

3. Take 20 F1 Fanatic quizzes

Our ever-expanding quizzes section now boasts 20 quizzes and 400 questions. See how good your F1 knowledge is by taking them and don’t forget to check your overall score on the leaderboard.

4. Follow some other motor racing

The growing F1 Fanatic community includes groups and forums for fans of all kinds of different forms of motor racing. Join in with them below.

Later this week we’ll have a look at a few of the races worth watching during the four F1-free weekends ahead and details of which ones will be on F1 Fanatic Live.

5. Read up on F1 history

Looking for a long read? F1 Fanatic’s growing race archive includes reports on a range of classic, memorable and significant races.

Here are five of the most recent ones and you can explore the rest here.

6. Plan your next F1 race trip

The forums are buzzing with F1 Fanatics planning their next race visits.

As always there are lots of people heading to Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix – that thread already has over 100 posts in it. But there’s also plenty of interest in Monza and Singapore, plus of course the inaugural United Stats Grand Prix.

Whichever race you’re heading to this year, join in the discussion below. And if your next trip isn’t until 2013 we’ve already got threads set up for most of those too – you can find them via the 2012 calendar page.

7. Enjoy a spot of summer reading

Heading to the beach? Looking for some F1 literature to occupy you on vacation? Here’s a selection of the best recent releases. You can find all past F1 book reviews here.

8. Browse highlights from 10,000 F1 Fanatic articles

F1 Fanatic passed a milestone 10,000 articles in June. Every single one of them – and the 300 or so which have followed since then – are available for everyone to read free of charge.

Here’s my selection of the highlights from the first 10,000:

9. Get involved in F1 Fanatic

Want to join in? There are loads of opportunities for you to get involved in F1 Fanatic. Find out more here:

  • Research – Want to help produce new and original F1 Fanatic articles? Volunteer to do some research.
  • Moderate – Contribute to the community by becoming a forum moderator.
  • Write – Want to write an article for F1 Fanatic? Here’s what you need to know first.
  • Develop – Got PHP or CSS coding skills? Want to help make the site better? Here’s how you can.

10. Give your feedback on F1 Fanatic

During the one-month break we’re looking for your feedback on the site and how it can be improved. Add your views on F1 Fanatic articles here:

Become an F1 Fanatic Supporter

F1 Fanatic is supported by advertising. The revenue from ads is needed to pay for the costs involved in creating, producing and running the site.

Alternatively you can become an F1 Fanatic Supporter and contribute £1 per month or £12 per year, in return for which you can browse the site free of external advertisements.

Your contribution will be put towards the cost of hosting, developing and running the site. See here for more information and to sign up:

Images © Pirelli/LAT, Honda/LAT, Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

55 comments on “Ten ways to survive the August break on F1 Fanatic”

  1. As we pass the halfway point in the 2013 season it’s time to look ahead to the next one.

    Should be 2012.

    1. @matt90 Got it, thanks.

    2. 11. Trawl through our articles and correct spelling, grammar and typos

      :)

      1. Oi!

        Fair enough, though :-)

  2. Is the summer break over yet?

    1. Are we there yet :(

  3. Re-live the season so far on Sky.. :D

    1. You are tormenting the people who don’t have Sky! Haha :D

  4. I think there’s some sort of sports tournament going on over the next couple of weeks, which might be worth a look…

    1. thatscienceguy
      1st August 2012, 13:19

      no, the wife-carrying championships aren’t for another month yet.

      1. A teacher from my old high school is the champion in that I believe.

      2. That reminds me of when I saw toilet throwing on the TV years ago.

  5. Dimitris 1395 (@)
    1st August 2012, 13:22

    There are the Olympics in progress so the first two weeks are easily survived. After that, though its going to be a hard long wait…

    1. @dimitris-1395 And for anyone on here who’s following it there’s a thread here:

      London Olympics 2012

    2. …there’s also the Paralympics after the Olympics which runs right up to and beyond the Belgian GP.

  6. Keith, are you going on holiday during August? Surely guest writers can keep an eye on things so you can get away from this old ball-and-chain-for a while…

    1. @lateralus I appreciate the offer! I see I’ve already had a few emails from people offering to become moderators and researchers too. It all helps.

      As it happens I’m not going away in August though, I had a holiday in Italy earlier this year.

  7. SK (@terminator)
    1st August 2012, 13:37

    As a new reader, this is a perfect oportunity for me to give congratulations to Keith for this amazing site he has built. Keep up the good work man!

    1. Thanks very much @terminator!

      1. Ken (@myxomatosis)
        1st August 2012, 21:23

        Seconded. Thank you Keith. This site is my first port of call for F1 stuff.

    2. Indeed, excellent community, which emphasize on quality content and user engagement – less often seen in a world where owning a domain and creating a forum is relatively easy.

      Cheers Keith and fellow readers, and while I find the suggestions awesome, I will contribute with my own recipe – participate in motor sport event – on track time attack laps, or just friendly kart racing. Personally I will go for the latter.

      1. @kiril-varbanov Thanks and have fun! I love a bit of karting.

  8. I know what I’ll be doing. Creating my own Lotus E20. Wish me luck Keith! :P

    1. @scuderiavincero Good luck! And be sure to post a pic of it here:

      Make your own Lotus E20

      1. Absolutely!

    2. @scuderiavincero I have a Mercedes GP W01 kit to put together, that’ll help :D

      1. @andrewtanner Let’s make our own straight line aero tests this August as well :)

  9. 11th way to survive summer break: play F1 2010 or 2011.

    1. @osvaldas31 I plan on doing that. I’ve got a world championship to win, though I’m doing quite bad at the moment.

      1. @andrewtanner me too, last week I blew dust from F1 2010 and I’m competing in first year with Lotus. Looking good so far.

  10. Interesting seeing only 7 drivers have contracts for 2013. I doubt we’ll have much changes but it makes the silly season quite interesting!

    Olympics for two more weeks and then Formula Renault 3.5 a week before Spa – I think this August is survivable :)

    1. @Enigma By the way, do you plan to publish your own driver rankings in the forum? I’d be interested to read your thoughts!

      1. @girts I will when I find time, but can’t say they’ll differ much from yours!

  11. I want to have a discussion about “SENNA” the movie. I have issues with the reviews.

  12. Great title for the thread! Generally speaking, any pub works for me! I wish you all the best in your deprivation, but I’ve got it sorted. Cheers, Alexc

  13. Browse highlights from 10,000 F1 Fanatic articles

    Wow! 10,000, that is truly amazing

  14. Looking at all the stuff on F1fanatic shows what a great job is done so what I am going to say is a suggestion not a criticism!!

    The driver form guide it is misleading on the qualifying stats. It’s nice to have a quick look at what team-mate is performing better over the one lap. But because penalties are applied that have nothing to do with a driver’s quickness in qualifying it isn’t actually a form guide.

    Schumacher & Rosberg and Maldonado & Senna form guides are prime examples. Unless a driver is actually disqualified or punished for something to do with qualifying like Hamilton in Spain surely it would be better to actually count which was quicker in qualifying on a qualifying form guide like the graphs show??

    1. Make suggestions here ;)

  15. I would also recommend following drivers on the Twitter . You hear about their training and events and other stuff.

    If you follow Hamilton you get free music reviews. Useful maybe if you are wavering on the next Drake album.

  16. Can’t wait for the final 2013 calendar. If Germany and Hungary are back to back again next yeat rI’m gonna do them both. For the break however, I’m actually gonna forget about F1 for a while (aside from planning my trip to Monza) and try and catch up on some other stuff.

  17. Almost done with everything on the list except 7 & 9.
    9 will be good to start with :)
    Also this is the time of the year when key F5 is least effective here :(

  18. Thanks for the survival kit.

  19. It will be difficult to endure the summer break. Thanks Keith for the tips.

  20. Indy car Mid-Ohio race should be good, driving that track on iracing is veeery challenging…

  21. Well, I’ll be racing on a rFactor championship as usual, so it helps me to survive the summer break. Some karting races are very recommended too, whenever it’s possible!

  22. …and if you’re in America or Canada or Mexico, plan your trip to Austin, Texas for the return of F1 to America. It’s a beautiful place here and there’s plenty to do and see.

  23. @keithcollantine – along with @lateralus I also wouldn’t mind writing some guest articles. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at journalism (on Motorsport only though!).

    Also:
    12. Do you have a PS3? Are you looking for a fun online Championship?
    Then look here (https://www.racefans.net/groups/f1-games/forum/topic/2012-f1f-formula-two-ps3-world-championship-update-races-on-saturday/) guys (and girls), and sign up!

    P.S. Keith, maybe I could do an article plugging this if things get REALLY slow ;)

  24. Hi Keith, I asked ages ago about writing an article and I’m so sorry for not even taking the time to respond! I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to it, and the idea has been turning over in my head of late so I may well re-visit it!

  25. I’ll get my F1 fix by checking the round-up every night! :D

    And this exciting weekend schedule will keep me busy until the Belgian GP!

    1. 5th August: SPL Football Season starts!
    2. 12th August: Last weekend of London 2012 on TV!
    3. 19th August: First SPL Dundee derby in 7 years!
    4. 26th August: Attending the Knockhill round of BTCC!
    5. 2nd September: 2012 Belgian GP, F1 is back!

  26. Dammit, @keithcollantine!

    One of my top ten ways to survive the August break was to write a guest article called “Top Ten Ways To Survive the August BreaK”, but you’ve gone and beaten me to it!

    1. @prisoner-monkeys Do another list! I’d be keen to see it.

  27. WRC action this weekend for me :)

    I’ll be watching plenty of other motorsport and I still have GP2 from Hungary to catch up on! I may well give a quiz or two a go, but I’m usually terrible at best.

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