F1: Siverstone

This weekend is Silverstone, home of the British GP... for now.

In 2008 Donington was awarded hosting of the race, starting in 2010, however, given the current legal proceedings against the circuit's leaseholders, Donington may not be ready for 2010. And, once again the British GP is in jeopardy; Ecclestone in his infinite wisdom has determined that should Donington fail, Silverstone would not be eligible to host in 2010. It's no secret the both Ecclestone and Mosley detest the British GP, which is confusing giving that it is usually dramatic, well attended, and pulls huge home crowd attendance records.  

Why is the British GP a constant source of frustration and why is it's spot on the calendar always in question? The British GP is the oldest continuously staged Formula One World Championship Grands Prix and was actually the first race of the first ever official World Championship - from time to time it has been the fastest circuit on the calendar and British fans supporting British drivers are perhaps second only to the Tifosi (who focus their adoration on a single team and not a nationality). 

And those things may be at the root of why the British GP is constantly in flux, because it too is quintessentially British and we couldn't really imagine it any other way.  The Brits love their motor racing and fans will flock to the race regardless of where the GP is held, if it is held. This year they've outsold the 90K available seats for Saturday's qualifying (compare with Turkey's 30K attendance over the 3 days race weekend).  Are the local fans afraid that this will be the F1 race on their soil in the near future?

BING: Bing Is Not Google

So, I have been playing with Bing for a few days and I'll come right out and say it. It's not half bad. Shocking, for a MS product, really. But, it got me thinking, what's Microsoft's game with Bing. Are they really going after Google? Is MS going to again try to step outside it's core competence to take on an industry leader and fail miserably. It's not that Bing is bad, but its not Google (Bing Is Not Google). 

And I think that Microsoft knows this, which might explain their ad campaign. Bing's primary position is first to distance itself from Google by calling the product a Decision Engine, not a search engine... and then to denigrate "search" and by taking it to the furthest degree of uselessness, "search overload syndrome". Which might be fine, but in typical MS fashion they've also tried to game change "search" by introducing too many features in its initial launch... substituting ease of use and good UX for quantity and infinite options.

You see, Bing seeks to be more than a search engine, heck, even more than a Decision Engine. It wants to be a full-life product that redefines how you interact with the web. It starts by replacing results organization based on popularity/credibility with categorical/heirarchical arrangements. Similarly, instead of just searching and reporting links, for example with air travel, Bing establishes that it can help you find the best travel prices and the best destinations and can even predict when the prices are going to be optimal for purchase. Looking for a digital camera?, Bing wants to drive you, not to web pages and stores with products, but rather to pull the results and let users compare and shop directly within Bing.

And, admittedly all this sounds rather nice - except we know that Microsoft is behind Bing and... and that just seems weird. 

Google has built its reputation based on simplicity and immediately obvious user experiences... backed up by good technology and well thought out design. The best parts of Bing are lifted from Google's search methodology. The most noticeable parts to Bing are improvements like video previews and infinite scrolling VS pagination on image searches. But those are UX tweaks, not something to base a new product on... particularly one pitched against such an established leader. Google obfuscates the technology to simplify the user experience; in typical MS fashion Bing add features ,  All of which goes a long way to explain the Bing product brand position and Microsoft challenging them on marketing positions and not functionality. 

We'll have to see where this one nets out, but I have a feeling that in the end Google will update some of their functionality, Bing won't capture a significant part of the market share, and Microsoft will be out a lot of coin. The winners? Well, as much as Bing is a good product that won't turn "search" on it's head, the television brand marketing campaign is pretty decent, even if the overall concept is frustratingly simple. Congrats to JWT for getting away with it.

2010 FIA Formula One Shake Up

Last year when the FIA announced their massive rule changes for 2009 things looks set to really shake up the established order of things. And, as we enter the end of the first trimester of the season, I'd say that the predictions were correct. 

Now, recently the FIA has announced  a planned budget cap to take effect for the 2010 season. For established teams this means neutering their ability to outspend the young upstarts... which has typically worked. But, a change like this spending cap , especially coming so quickly on the heals of a major rules shake up, could destabilize the established order of things permanently. For young hopefuls the budget cap represents a dropping of the red velvet rope to a club that they've long since we denied entry. Could new teams establish entry into the exclusive world of Formula One and make a big enough impact to run to the front? And for sponsors, since budget caps mean a limit on spending, will this open up a new breed of sponsor to international exposure? Are we about to see a return of the privateer to the pinnacle of motorsport?

Following the completion of the applications process for teams to compete in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship, the following teams have been confirmed.

SCUDERIA FERRARI MARLBORO

SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO

RED BULL RACING

AT&T WILLIAMS

FORCE INDIA F1 TEAM

CAMPOS GRAND PRIX

MANOR GRAND PRIX 

TEAM US F1 

VODAFONE McLAREN MERCEDES* / McLAREN MERCEDES

BMW SAUBER F1 TEAM* / BMW SAUBER

RENAULT F1 TEAM* / RENAULT

PANASONIC TOYOTA RACING* / TOYOTA

BRAWN GP FORMULA ONE TEAM* / BRAWN TBA 

*These five teams have submitted conditional entries which the FIA has invited them to lift following further discussions to be concluded not later than close of business on Friday 19 June.

The maximum number of cars permitted to enter the 2010 Championship has been increased to 26, two being entered by each competitor. Pending completion of the discussions referred to above, further due diligence is currently taking place on other potential entries. And those people are:

Windsor/Anderson - USF1

Prodrive

Lola

Litespeed

Campos Meta 1

Epsilon Euskadi 

Formtech

Superfund

N.Technology

Jenson Button - 6th Win of the Season

Jenson Button made it six victories in seven races as he stormed away from his only serious challengers - the Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel during the GP Turkey in Istanbul on Sunday afternoon. Over the short haul, probably only Trulli's Toyota and Rosberg's Williams could have possibly held pace with the leading RBR and Brawn squads. 

Notably off the pace was professional sidekick Rubens Barrichello. Rubeno's miserable afternoon included unnecessarily tangling with Kovalainen, a spin, nose damage after a collision with Sutil, and thankfully retiring after 47 laps. The GP world is talking about the retirement as the first noticeable chink in Brawn's reliability but I think they just asked him to pull over and stop embarrassing himself.

Go ahead, get your Twitter on and check out the coverage from both Jalopnik's & Brawn GP's live micro/bloggin'. I wonder how the FIA will try to stifle such unregulated coverage! 

Stay tuned - we're heading to Maggots, Woodcote, and the Hangar Straight;  Silverstone is next.

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Round 7 Turkish Grand Prix | Watch the Kerbs

*** UPDATE ***

Qualifying is complete:

Sebastian Vettel | RBR-Renault | 1:28.316

Jenson Button | Brawn-Mercedes | 1:28.421

Rubens Barrichello | Brawn-Mercedes | 1:28.579

What to Watch - the Kerbs:

As a relatively new facility the track surface at Istanbul is in good condition and the kerbs are not especially aggressive, which makes it quite straightforward to find a stable car balance. The team will seek a compromise between stiffer settings for the high-speed part of the lap to give a good change of direction, and softer settings for the low-speed section, particularly the final few corners to ensure good mechanical grip. The stewards and Monaco were relatively lax on the F1 drivers kerb cutting - in stark contrast to their treatment of the lower formula drivers on the same day. Different town, different stewards but the rumor is that all teams (especially Ferrari) have been warned that 4-Off penalties will be handed out if drivers cut the kerbs to excess. The ruling is that at least one tire must remain within contact of the road surface. It'll be interesting to see if the less aggressive kerbs in Turkey exacerbate the attack angles or just make the rules harder to enforce.

Creativity and Technology Conference

The CaT conference was held yesterday, June 3, in New York City, gathering together creativity professionals and tech-side development companies for a discussion of furthering creativity through technology.

Organized by Creativity Magazine, the event consisted of presentations, discussions and A-list creative case studies, as well as a (kind of lame) gallery of tech products from some of the sponsors (names w/held to ensure that I get to go back again next year).

NYT = most relevant discussion point: how the Grey Lady is using technology to re-imagine the news experience and developing for the future. The NYT is actively embracing new media technology and distribution platforms - while a lot of dead tree media naively follow their established and dying roots.

Ben Palmer = best all around presenter. Ben has an answer or an insight on most everything, but not in a arrogant way - more like genuine, learned, and persuasive. I'm not sure that I've ever heard anyone disagree so respectfully and yet still get the point through that he thinks your perspective is seriously fucked.

Augmented Reality = most hyped technology. It seemed that most of the discussions mentioned AR in some fashion or another. The NYTs had the most practical application suggestion when they talked about pointing your iPhone's camera at a real estate classified in a printed copy of the Times and being able to take a AR tour of the building for sale, within the iPhone's display. There were also a lot of poor uses of the technology mentioned - like pointing your webcam at a print ad or print out and seeing 3D model animate. 

More Links:

Full wrap up

Ad Age: Mobile Apps

Ad Age & NYTimes 

- This article has a terrible title and isn't at all what the talk was about - although most of the article is a pretty decent recap

Flat out on the streets of Monte Carlo!

**UPDATE**

The race was fantastic - not a single safety car period, which is certainly a first for this street course. The Brawns were never seriously challenged however fantastic tire strategy by Ferrari kept them in the hunt all weekend. Qualifying, if they replay it on Speed, should not be missed. 

Monaco
01	J.Button	1:40:44.282
02	R.Barrichello	+7.6 secs
03	K.Räikkönen	+13.4 secs

The Monaco Grand Prix, Round six of the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship, is widely considered to be the most prestigious motorsport event in the world, only really rivaled by the Monte Carlo Rally and Le Mans. Set around the spectacular harbor backdrop of Monte Carlo, the race winds around the barrier-lined streets of the Principality, providing a fantastic spectacle of speed and noise for the thousands of fans who pack the grandstands and viewing areas.

The 3.340km (2.075 mile) street track is the slowest circuit of the year with the cars averaging speeds of just 160kph (100mph) throughout the 78-lap race. From a technical point of view, the weekend will see the cars running with maximum aerodynamic downforce to take full advantage of the low speed corners. With its twisty narrow streets, frequent elevation changes and the famous tunnel, Monaco is a unique race venue which provides a challenge for man and machine.

Monaco may be the most unique race on the Formula 1 calendar, but for the engineers the challenge remains the same: fine-tuning the car to achieve maximum performance around the demanding street circuit. It's an unforgiving place, the twisty streets require an unusual set-up and total commitment from the driver. As a street course, the track usually offers low grip in the early part of the weekend, but come Sunday, the track will be nicely rubbered-in and will continue to improve until the final lap of the Grand Prix. The new regulations particularly wide front wings and KERS could make for a chaotic few laps at the start of the race.