FAQ

This page is intended to answer some questions about the blog that readers may have.  As this blog develops, so will this page so be sure to check back often!

What’s this blog about?

This blog is mainly about showing F1 races from the perspective of collected statistics.  It aims to use statistics collected during the F1 weekend to show different aspects of the action and to compare performances.  These sorts of things are not always clearly visible to someone watching on television but can show the race in a different light!

What’s the aim of the blog then?

I would like to use my skills as a Data Analyst to show F1 in a different light and in an interesting way – because I feel I can offer something different to the other F1 blogs out there.  There are so many high quality F1 blogs that I could not hold a candle to quite frankly, but none that really analyse stats as their main focus.  So my aim really is to do this in a fun and interesting way so hopefully, you, the reader, will have learnt something and be entertained at the same time!

Where do you collect your stats from?

From the F1 Media Centre on the FIA Website during the race weekend.  Sometimes if there is stuff missing, I go and check other blogs who usually pick these things up!

How do you collate them?

Unfortunately the statistics are provided in PDF format, which means a lot of copy & pasting is required to get the numbers into a spreadsheet.  I use MS Office, because I’m used to using it and it is still the most flexible program for making graphs and charts.

What sort of posts do you write and when can we expect to see them?

My normal posts are as follows:

• Qualifying Analysis: As soon as the car weights are published after qualifying has finished I analyse the fuel corrected times and stint lengths.
• Driver Consistency: takes the average lap times for each driver with and without pit stops and compares them using mean and standard deviation.  This usually appears the week after the race
• Fantasy Racers: After every race I take the stats from the Fantasy Racers website and analyse the race scores, championship scores, average scores and points per million.
• Special Projects: Other stuff like comparing two drivers in a race or the championship so far, fuel consumption figures and analysis of Turn 8 at Istanbul to see how it affected the laptimes.  I am always open to ideas and I have a few up my sleeve for the off-season – so watch this space

What calculation methods do you use?

Mostly standard stuff really.  Means, averages, etc.  I do want to explain Standard Deviation and other calculation methods for Qualifying Analysis, Driver Consistency and Fantasy Racers separately as these will be linked to when a new post for each race is made.

Can I make a suggestion?

Sure you can – post a comment anywhere you like.  Either comment under the appropriate post, or if it doesn’t fit anywhere else, I will be making a suggestion box for you add ideas to.  I really love to hear from you guys and I would really like to hear what kinds of graphs/stats/analyses you would like to see – that’s what makes writing this blog worthwhile

So there you go.  Have any questions you want answering?  Post a comment below and I’ll update this page with the answer!  Sweet!