Six months have passed since I last wrote, and in that time we
have been privileged to witness the most competitive start to a
season in recent memory. Nobody appreciates the unfolding
excitement and unpredictability more than the team here at
PortalF1, and we have been doing our best to continue sharing every
aspect of the sport with our fellow fans despite experiencing some
extensive internal changes.
Over the last few weeks we have considerably re-structured our
line-up. Sadly, Felix Morris-Duffin (our English co-editor) and
Ricardo Batista (our Portuguese editor) have chosen to move on and
focus their attention on other projects, with which we wish them
the very best of luck. However, we are pleased to announce that
Luke Smith and Jack Leslie have agreed to join us in order to
contribute qualifying/race reports and insightful new content to PortalF1.com. Both have experience in
the field of sporting journalism and we are delighted that they
have opted to bring it to our website.
When we rebranded our service at the beginning of the year, we made
the decision to completely overhaul our offering of news,
commentary and analysis. After half a season of comprehensive
coverage, it has become clear that our current model is no longer
viable. Both our website and popular Twitter feed are run by
volunteers with real lives and jobs, and as a result
of our current lack of flexibility we have taken the decision
to alter our service. As such, we will now end our live
coverage of qualifying sessions and races.
After four seasons and more than one hundred and fifty days of
track action, it was not a choice we took lightly. However,
uncertain personal circumstances make it impossible for us to
commit to the hours of hard work needed every other weekend during
the eight month Formula One season. We therefore took the decision
to abandon this particular service before it became inconsistent
and unreliable. We are absolutely confident that the vast majority
of our followers have access to television/radio coverage, and if
not then there are several other options to be found online.
Of course, other areas will remain
largely unaffected. We will continue to bring you the
latest news bites days throughout each day - and on race weekends
we will do our utmost to provide full results, standings and
reaction immediately after every on-track session concludes. In
addition, full reports and results will continue to be found on
PortalF1.com amidst the usual array of analysis, galleries, videos,
competitions and forums. Our commitment to the sport has not
changed, we are simply refocusing our efforts on an area to which
we believe we can maintain our current high standards.
Although we have seen some changes and one area of our service will
now become much more concise, we look forward to the rest of the
season and continue to forge ahead with our plans to make PortalF1
one of the most comprehensive Formula One resources available. We
owe it to our thousands of followers and readers to continue to
cover the sport to the best of our ability. Next month we mark our
third birthday - with a celebratory trip to the Belgian Grand Prix
- and with any luck there will be many more years to come.
Thanks for reading!
Alex
(Editor, PortalF1.com)