Having looked at a number of F1 sites where it is patently obvious that the authors, like me, are not F1 Journalists, it seemed that many of them were either taking copyright content from other sites or, had access to the media centres of F1 teams and F1 team suppliers.
I had two options available to me, either to put up with it and wallow in a certain amount of self-pity and anger, or to apply to the Media Centres for access to their material and photographs.
I decided to do the latter, and approached Renault Sport F1 for permission to use their material. I was surprised and delighted when they provided media access to my Blog.
Thank you Renault.
Emboldened by that success, I approached all of the F1 teams and have so far been granted access by six of the twelve teams.
In order of their permitting me access I would like to thank:
Williams F1 Team
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Mercedes AMG Petronas
Sauber F1 Team
Caterham F1 Team
HRT Formula 1 Team
I have not been refused permission by any team to date but neither have I heard back with regard to clarification from any team but Lotus, who are assessing my request.
I have put up tabbed pages for each of the teams and will bring you their press releases on those pages as they are issued.
I'm pretty certain that this Blog has never breached copyright in the past and my delight at being granted media access by the foregoing Teams and Engine Supplier is based on the fact that, not only do I gain access to Renault's assessment of each track as regards its engine's probable performance (alternator's aside) I also get to illustrate my Blog posts with photographs from the teams sites, which provides some nice relief from plain text.
On foot of all of these exciting changes I'll be playing with the existing Blog format over the coming days and weeks in order to best accommodate all of this new data and I hope you'll be patient with me. Hopefully, what comes out of this will be a better, prettier end product which will incorporate the best of the old with some great new material.
Update: Pirelli F1 have provided access to the Media Centre list, Thank you to them. While I know that I have been somewhat scathing of their influence in the early part of the season I'm hopeful that the teams have gotten on top of the tyre issue as evidenced over the past three races. Fingers crossed this continues for the rest of the season.
