Author: brfcjordan95

What’s happening to Bristol Rovers?

A sentence I’ve uttered many a time since I started supporting Rovers. Yet for the first time I seriously ask myself this question as we face the very real possibility of dropping out of the Football League. What’s happening at Bristol Rovers?

Every season since we were relegated back into League 2 has started with not so quiet optimism and a bold prediction of a decent run this season.

Almost exclusively the players performances have not matched the lofty expectations of the fans, often leading to frustration at times. Whether this is the fault of the players not working hard enough or if this is simply the fans having far too high expectations is difficult to judge,yet something always appears slightly awry with Rovers since they’ve been in League 2.

One factor contributing to the current situation is surely the managerial merry-go round in the past few seasons, as we’ve hired and soon after jettisoned previous play off finalists in Paul Buckle, European and Scottish prem experience with Mark McGhee,old club favourite John Ward before the latest incumbent Darrell Clarke took the job a few weeks ago.

With all of these managers save from Buckle Rovers fans have seen renewed optimism as the new manager would come in and immediately there would be an upturn in fortunes, no doubt helping fuel the lofty expectations before every season.

Yet every new season see’s the same old Rovers as they struggle their way through the year until eventually the manager is sacked and someone else plugged in.

Another factor is the consistently small amount of money being set aside for transfers. Granted, Rovers are not struggling financially as our wage bill has always been near the top by League 2 standards. It does Appear frustrating for fans however as our only signings are loans and free agent players.

Whilst loan players are vital to a club like Rovers and can add depth to the squad it’s slightly frustrating personally to have one major signing in the past 2 seasons for an undisclosed fee.

The only major success for Rovers in the past few seasons has been our new UWE stadium being approved by the local council after a protracted battle with protestors. This is a major coup for the club as it will move it into the 21st century.

The stadium approval is not a complete bed of roses however as the protestors have forced a delay in the build which won’t start now until this summer.

Also if the unthinkable happens and Rovers are relegated to the Conference that will make it very hard to justify building a new 21,700 all seater stadium when attendances won’t get close to 7000 on average .

Whilst things may appear all doom and gloom at Rovers right now the team still has 4 games to save the season, plus our fate is still in our hands therefore it’s solely up to the team now. It’s in their hands, they just need to grasp it now.

For any further information on Bristol Rovers here’s a link to their website.

www.bristolrovers.co.uk

Web Coding Protocols

Web coding forms the backbone of every web page created as the person creating any new web page will use web coding to design every element of the site/page. There are two main types of web page: static coding(HTML) and dynamic coding(PHP).

Static coding displays the same content that was originally placed on the page/site when the web creator made it. Therefore typically static we pages have HTML coding (HyperText MarkupLanguage). Static coding is good for web pages which are rarely updated however they become less impractical when someone chooses to use a large number of static pages on their websites. An example of this is when it comes to making any changes to their website the web administrator would need to psychically change the code on every page which is very time consuming and not very practical.

On the other hand, dynamic coding is an amalgamation of HTML and PHP and is useful to a user who wants to regularly update and add content to their web page. The main advantage to these types of sites is they allow a much greater interaction between the audience and the site administrator through comments and links. The majority of dynamic web pages are social media websites,blogs and forums/message boards.

Another advantage to dynamic coding is the fact it’s far more user friendly over static coding as the user does not need to have any prior knowledge about coding however with static coding the user would need a competent level of knowledge on how to implement coding as they would need to manually enter the right coding themselves. This therefore makes dynamic coding the more helpful type of coding to use for people who are new to creating websites or have little technical knowledge of website design which explains it’s overwhelming popularity for website design.

An example of a live static webpage is http://www.fibercom.co.za/ . This page is clearly static as the site has no interactional features and the website content shows no sign of having any changes made to it. An example of live semi-static web pages are the majority of Wikipedia pages which are set up and the in the majority left as a static web page it can be argued as although by definition they’re dynamic pages as anyone can edit them their appearance suggest that these pages are static as they have features related to dynamic coding on their pages. Although with some pages such as with living people the pages will be updated depending on the latest goings on in their life some of he pages will be created and then left untouched. Here’ a link to a semi-static Wikipedia page en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website#Static_website .

Examples of Dynamic web pages are social media sites Twitter and Facebook. Users can post anything they want on these pages and can interact and share info with other users easily which helps explain their huge popularity as websites. All users have to do is sign up to these sites and confirm some of their details for security reasons and they can access these sites immediately. Dynamic coding is realistically the only coding template these sites can use to function as with static coding these sites would need an army of people constantly re-writing the coding to keep up with the intense speed of progress and rate of growth of these sites with new tweets and posts.

Also even with more simple areas such as the sign in menu with entering your username and password to gain access to the site this requires dynamic coding as the content on the page is changing and the coding needs to work in line with the server, something dynamic coding can do automatically whereas static coding cannot, to see if the username/password has been entered correctly before it grants the user access to the site. The links to both pages can be found here http://www.Twitter.com and http://www.Facebook.com .

There are many different HTML tags in use and the first example is the images tag which is 

<img>

. An example of all 5 HTML tags can be found on the Wikipedia page I linked above. The function of images are to add a visual element to the web page which help attract people to your site as it keeps their attention focused on your site. Secondly images can help show or explain to the reader something which the site administrator could not adequately explain themselves in text form.

A second example are heading tags which are 

<h1>

and their function is for adding keywords or pictures related to your site. This is significant as it helps massively with your search engine optimisation as search engines identify these tags to determine where your page is placed for different search options. Another key point with heading tags are the fact that heading tags can be used multiple times such as 

 <h2>

and a third example is

<h3>

.

Heading tags can be used to your advantage if you follow a similar layout to most newspapers where the main header sits atop the page before the second header will contain the main headline whereas finally the third header will be the first paragraph of the article which typically is in bold text. These tags can be a huge advantage for your website because if your using these tags coupled with any added links or images they can drastically improve your search engine optimization ranking on sites such as Google, which can consequently improve the amount of visitors to your page.

It works simply as search engines like Google rank web pages in priority form based on an a reputation it bases on views and how many times the site is linked from another page therefore the more links and tags used in your web page the higher it will appear in Google and the amount of views will increase also. Finally these tags, although easy to use with dynamic coding, are far more difficult to use with static coding as the web administrator would need to physically re-write all the coding to add in these tags every time they want to add a new one which is very time consuming and not a very practical method to use.

Paragraph tags which are either 

<p></p>

or 

<span></span>

.
The only difference between the two slightly different paragraph tags are that the

<p></p>

represent a line break in the paragraph whereas the 

<span></span>

doesn’t show a line break in the paragraph. The primary function of paragraphs are to help disperse the amount of text which helps with the visual appeal of the site as many people will not be prepared to read one paragraph of text the length of the page yet they will read the same content if it’s broken down into smaller chunks.

Another HTML tag commonly used is comment tags which are

 <!--This is a comment. Comments are not displayed in the browser-->

. The biggest advantage with comment tags are that they allow an interaction between the reader and site administrator which can add to any points made on the page and can therefore benefit the content of the page as a balanced argument can be created. However, Static web pages rarely use comment tags which limits their significance.

The final example of HTML tags are link tags which are 

<a href="http://www.example.com"></a>

. They can add to the content to the web page as the web page creator could post a link to a similar website with different or higher levels of knowledge on the subject. Also visual content such as videos or images can be posted on the site to add a visual element to the page which would nicely complement the text on the page. Also with HTML there are more than one type of them which is useful in a number of ways.

Sports-car racing never seemed so appealing

The old myth amongst the motor racing community was the Formula One was the pinnacle whereas sports-car racing was the home of only the old or the wealthy. In 2014, whilst Formula One still remains the pinnacle of racing an increasing amount of younger drivers are giving up on F1 to pursue a sports-car career instead. What is the cause of the vast sea change in how sports-car racing is viewed by younger drivers?

The biggest reason for the complete change appears to be increasingly difficult financial climate for young up and coming drivers. Whereas in the past success would almost guarantee you attention from the Grand Prix paddock after the end of major car manufacture involvement in F1 when the credit crunch hit between 2008-2010 the F1 teams are now increasingly reliant on driver funding. This is the knock on effect for drivers as the teams themselves are struggling to stay afloat which means they need extra funding from their drivers to ensure they keep racing. Unfortunately it appears very few talented drivers have access to the funding necessary to break through into Formula One.

Whereas these days a seat in a top line GP2 or Renault World Series team will set a young driver back around 1.8 million and 750 000 Euros respectively it’s easy to understand why many underfunded young drivers are leaving the F1 ladder behind to pursue the best possible alternative, a chance to be a paid professional sports-car driver. Although the phenomenon of a young driver diverting into sports-car racing is not a trailblazing one the sheer amount of young drivers carrying on this trend in recent years can only be described as worrying for the future of F1. Whilst the success of previous converts like Tom Kristensen, who won his first of 9 Le Mans 24 Hours victories in 1997, the same year as his final F3000 campaign and Allan McNish, 3 time winner of the 24 Hours, it appears now young drivers are being forced to make this chance because of financial reasons if they are to remain a racing driver at all.

As a fan of all forms of motor sport especially F1 and Sports car racing it worries me that talented drivers such as James Calaldo and Sam Bird are taking drives in the GTE Pro class in the WEC and GTE-AM WEC seats, this despite both having extensive experience in F1 thanks to their links with the Force-India and AMG Mercedes teams respectively, coupled with a CV full of racing success right through the junior categories.
Here’s a video of one of Sam Bird’s most recent GP2 wins at Spa last August. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag4QGkULil0

Whilst these drivers can not say they are completely out of the picture in terms of F1 these sports-car drives appear to be their white flag in terms of fighting for an F1 career. The loss of F1 is sports-car racing’s gain as the World Endurance Championship gains two world class drivers who will light up their respective GT classes this season. The success of other converts such as Alex Brundle, who has forsaken potential F1 stardom and instead carved out a reputation as a very fast yet clean Sports-car driver competing for the OAK racing team in the new Tudor United Sports-car championship in America.

Indeed only this week several single seater drivers have shown an interest in joining the sports-car ranks as a potential future career move, most significantly this week 2013 GP2 series champion Fabio Leimer was announced with thenRebellion racing team in the WEC and Le Mans 24 Hours this year. Also announced in sports-car’s this season were Formula Renault 3.5 rookie Matthieu Vaxiviere who will dovetail his maiden campaign in the series with a WEC GTE-AM drive for the Prospeed team in their Porsche 911 GT3-RSR this season and 2013 Marussia F1 reserve driver Rodolfo Gonzalez who was announced with the Murphy Prototypes LMP2 team for the full European Le Mans season as well as the Le Mans 24 Hours. Heightening this is the fact this week is also the official ELMS test at Paul Richard in France, where another young driver impressed as young GP2 driver Nathanael Berthon who topped the first day as he looks to dovetail his GP2 campaign with a small sports-car drive for 2014.

The concluding fact is that the sports-car racing in general is vastly improving in terms of driving quality across all series from the WEC, ELMS and United Sports-car Championship to national series such as British GT as their grid are increasingly being filled by young talented drivers who have chosen to follow the professional racing driver life sports-car racing can provide rather than carrying on with the lottery that is F1 racing these days. This may prove to be the best decision they ever make in their careers.

Arsenal exposed again

Heading into last weekend’s Premier League fixtures the biggest talking point was centered around Arsenal and it’s manager Arsene Wenger. That weekend’s title crunch match with Chelsea would be his 1000th game in charge of Arsenal. The omen’s appeared good for Arsenal to stake their claim to the title. Yet it only took 20 minutes to show Arsenal are fatally flawed as title contenders. Where does this leave Arsenal fans?

This season many Arsenal fans expected different. After last season’s final day heroics the fans were promised a summer of transfer activity, to ensure the team would be challenging for the title from now on and not simply 4th place. Indeed, Arsenal were linked with a number of high profile players last summer such as Stefan Jovetic and Wayne Rooney. The biggest saga however centered around Liverpool striker Luis Suarez. Despite all the hype and rumor the only signing’s Arsenal had made by the time the new Premier League season started in August was a free transfer of young French Ligue 2 prospect Yaya Sanogo.

For the majority of fans this season has promised a lot in comparison to previous seasons yet as I type this on March 25th Arsenal currently sit in their almost customary position of 4th place in the Premier League. Whilst in previous season being 4th at this point of the season, 6 points ahead of Tottenham in 5th with a game in hand, would leave the club feeling content. This season the fans were led to believe things were going to be different as we sat atop the Premier League table for the majority of this season, backed up by the statement of intent by the club that was the record £42.5 million pound signing of German international Mesut Ozil.

The only constant therefore between this and the previous seasons is the fact that when it comes down to the high pressured games against fellow title contenders Arsenal have been woefully exposed. False hope was provided on this front after the team beat Liverpool comfortably 2-0 at the Emirates in November, yet in reality Luis Suarez didn’t play and at this point the Liverpool team had yet to gather the belief they currently possess.

Since that point Arsenal have played the current top 3 Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City 4 times and the stats have been ugly to say the least. December 14th saw Man City demolish Arsenal at the Etihad 6-3, with their only point against these teams coming soon after on the 23rd December, a 0-0 draw at home with Chelsea. Liverpool exacted their revenge with a 5-1 win at Anfield whilst things got worse last Saturday as Chelsea ran out 6-0 winners in a demoralizing display from Arsenal.

Whilst reasons behind the results and promises of a big response have been trotted out from club staff after all these defeats the simple fact appears in the trend carried over into this season; Arsenal looked second best against title opposition. This is a fact that massively saddens me as an Arsenal fan myself. I grew up being spoilt by previous Arsenal teams such as the famous “Invincible’s” side consisting of world class players such as Thierry Hnery, Patrick Vieira, Dennis Bergkamp, Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie. Here’s a link to some highlights of the great Invincible’s season

Whilst now it seems Arsenal are the team everyone loves to mock and hate this season has shown the team is making the right progress to someday soon challenge for the title. The new Financial Fair Play rules coming into force in the next few seasons can only help a club traditionally prudent in it’s spending, whilst the fact the team has led the Premier League for such a long stretch until now does show significant improvement in comparison with the last few seasons. However, in the past Arsenal have had these seasons before slipping back into the mire of the 4th place battle after this. Therefore a summer of spending is needed to ensure we remain competitive going into next season as arguable all areas of the team need improvement if were to displace big spending teams like Chelsea and Manchester City as Premier League champions, bringing back previous memories of Arsene Wenger and players proudly raising the Premiership trophy aloft, of which we were so accustomed too.

The futures bright for American Sportscar racing

When it was announced in September 2012 that the Grand-Am and American Le Mans series were to merge from 2014 to form the United Sportscar Championship, it was fair to say the news was met with widespread skepticism.What would the class structure be? Would there be enough interest from teams?How would the vastly different cars complete on equal terms? After the doubters were silenced with a scintillating opening rounds firstly at Daytona in late January, the series produced another epic racing at the recent Sebring 12 Hours.

Whilst the series was criticized for the length of time it took to publish the definitive regulations, a move which prevented some European and American teams into entering the full series for 2014, the series has recovered to the point of record grid in only the first season for the championship. The uprated Grand-Am style Daytona Prototypes led the field at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, filling the first four spots with the first of the ALMS LMP2 cars coming home fifth, 3 laps behind the winning Action Express racing entry. Some have subsequently called for a change in the regulations to help the LMP2 entries match the Daytona Prototypes, yet in reality the DP cars were always gonna be on top at Daytona as the advantage of their cars is outright speed and straight line speed matches the characteristics needed to be competitive at Daytona. The recent Sebring 12 Hours showed that whilst it was the traditional Daytona Prototype powerhouse Chip Ganassi Racing entry of Marino Franchitti, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas that eventually took victory, unlike Daytona the LMP2 entries were a significant factor in the outcome of the race.
The winning Daytona Prototype in action

With the DP and LMP2 cars now appearing to be much closer after Sebring, the difference between the podium and the lower top 10 will be placed on the teams and drivers. With the two most prominent American sportscar championships, Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series, uniting the Tudor United Sportscar Series and the American fans are the ones who have benefited as America now has a Sportscar series that if anything has now overtaken the European Le Mans Series as the premier Sportscar series outside the World Endurance Championship,for the first time since the last of the Audi-Porsche manufacture battles of 2006-2008. Check out an example of their battles here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zWEIRQGOBQ

Both series contained formidable line up’s but when you combine the powerhouse Daytona Prototype teams such as Chip Ganassi racing, Gainsco/Bob Stallings racing, Action Express, Starworks and Michael Shank Racing alongside LMP2 Prototype teams OAK Racing, Pickett racing, Extreme Speed and the unique Deltawing car only adds to the variety of the series.

In terms of overall quality however it’s the GT ranks where the series really shines. Firstly the GTLM,aimed at professional teams/drivers, contains works entries from Porsche,Chevrolet,SRT Viper and BMW, ably backed up by factory supported Ferrari and Porsche teams ensures every race is an all out clash of the titans for the victory. GTD, aimed for more gentlemen drivers, also contains a lineup worthy of any GT race on the planet.Although the class is predominately made up of Porsche’s it was the Level 5 Ferrari that claimed class victory at Daytona, plus the leading powerhouse Porsche teams such as Alex Job racing, Magnus racing and NGT Motorsport were severely challenged by factory assisted entries from Turner Motorsport and their BMW Z4, TRG-AMR North America Aston Martin, Scuderia Corse Ferrari 458 Italia, Riley Motorsport SRT Viper and the Flying Lizard Audi R8 LMS. The amount of factory assisted entries across both classes show how the American GT racing scene is arguably the most competitive in the world right now. The future truly is bright for the Tudor United Sportscar Championship.

F1 preview:No time for hiding now

The winter of uncertainty should be over now. In many previous seasons by this time of the season with the opening Australian Grand Prix less than a week away the teams should be fairly confident as to their understanding of the new car. Yet thanks to the raft of regulation changes all 11 F1 teams are in the dark as to their true potential for 2014. This is guaranteed to be another great Formula One season.

Firstly let’s start with the reigning champions Red Bull and Sebastien Vettel. Their winter has been particularly painful to watch. Although the chronic problems with the Renualt power unit is far from their fault the problems centring around the aggressive packaging of their cooling and Renualt power unit can only be seen in hindsight as a complete own goal by the team. Their status as the de facto Renault works team should mean these kind of issues are bypassed in the early months of the 2014 design.

Therefore at this point of the season it seems incredible to state that Red Bull are not 100% sure of the potential of their 2014 RB10, a sign of the little amount of meaningful laps they’ve done this winter. On the driving front whilst it may appear that 4 time world champion Sebastien Vettel currently has slim hopes of retaining his title 2014 will for sure show his commitment and talent as he drags the car higher up than it realistically should be, a talent shared by only the greats. Alongside him new recruit Daniel Ricciardo has the unenviable task of attempting to keep pace with Vettel in the first season of his promotion from the junior Toro Rosso team to the Red Bull team. His speed is without question yet his consistency is something he will need to improve on if he’s to challenge Vettel over a season. It should be interesting to see how these two matchup and whether Ricciardo can match Mark Webber’s level of competitiveness in relation to Vettel.

2013 saw a vast improvement from AMG Mercedes as they finally reached the level of competitiveness many F1 fans expected from the works outfit. 2014 is their first genuine attempt at the title as the new 1.6 Litre Turbo engine regulations were something circled by the team as their chance to steal a march on the rest. Mercedes has always been seen as having potentially the strongest engine in F1 and in 2014 this appears to be no different. Since the first day of testing the team has looked by far the best at this early stage. They were the first team to complete a race simulation at the first test in Jerez, yet they have also been consistently topping the times . The only slight concern for the team is some reliability issues at the two Bahrain tests yet many tip them to both win the first race in Australia and simultaneously the title too.

Their driver line up of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg is the most stable of the top teams, some even argue it’s the strongest line up too. Lewis Hamilton is widely regarded as the fastest driver in F1 yet the new 100kg fuel allocation rule for 2014 will not suit his premium on speed. The new regulations and tyres mean drivers now have to manage races not simply race, this is far more suited to the more thinking style of Nico Rosberg. 2013 showed his can match Hamilton over the course of the season as he took 2 wins to the 1 of Hamilton. 2014 should be interesting to watch the dynamic between the two friends over the course of the season.

Ferrari appear to be rejuvenated in 2014 as it appears they head into the season with the “best of the rest” tag behind the leading Mercedes teams. Whilst like everyone else they’ve suffered with reliability problems this winter their all star line up of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen have logged plenty of laps . The car appears to be a slight handful to drive however their level of preparation means realistically they can expect to easily be in the top 10 and possibly fighting for podiums and wins over the course of the season. The internal sense is one of optimism this season as it appears they have finally overcome the wind tunnel problems that have derailed previous seasons.

Lotus-Renualt ended 2013 as the only challenger to the Red Bull steamroller yet their winter could not gone much worse for the team. Firstly their well publicised funding issues during 2013 meant that the team was late in finishing it’s 2014 E22 challenger, resulting in them completely missing the first test in Jerez. Between this announcement and the actually first test things got worse however as they lost their team principal Eric Boullier, who accepted a effective team principal in the newly restructured McLaren team. Further compounding this is the chronic problems with the new Renault power unit, which have severely restricted the amount of running all their teams can do. Whilst they showed during the two Bahrain tests that they were the consensus best of the Renault teams the team have admitted they do not go into the season with confidence as to their reliability. Their speed could potentially drag them into the lower reaches of the top 10 during the early part of the season. For the time being however both drivers Romain Grosjean,Pastor Maldonado and effective team principal Gerard Lopez have their work cut out in making the team competitive.

After a lacklustre 2013 McLaren have made widespread changes in the hope of returning to the front in 2014. Firstly the team jettisoned Sergio Perez after only one year, replacing him with young hotshot Kevin Magnussen to partner the experienced Jenson Button. Experience is the name of the game with the new personnel too as Ron Dennis has re-taken control of the racing team, his first major step was to effectively replace team principal Martin Whitmarsh with Eric Boullier. From the three winter test it’s appears they have the third fastest package behind Mercedes and Williams. The strength of the Mercedes power unit has allowed them to rack up a lot of laps this winter, however the power unit could also be there undoing this season as their new 2015 deal with Honda means the team will be getting the bare minimum treatment from Mercedes, fearful their secrets will be passed onto Honda.

Sahara-Force India have encountered a relatively quiet winter going into 2014 as they have managed to simply blend into the background. Their lack of eye catching times is probably because they’ve sensibly focused more on long distance running and attempting to understand the VJM07. Whilst there have been some problems with the car this winter the teams appears to be in a similar position to 2013, consistently in the lower reaches of the top 10 with the power to surprise. This surprise factor is boosted in 2014 with the return of ace Nico Hulkenberg, thwarted by money he is by far the best young driver on the grid and his return will only boost the team. The same goes for Sergio Perez who will be hoping to prove McLaren were wrong to drop his last season. Watch out for this team to spring an early surprise this season.

Sauber typically prefer quiet winter off-season’s and this year is no exception. The new C33-Ferrari challenger has appeared solid with the only spectacular moments being the occasional engine blowup. The car has logged a significant number of laps, yet still well below front runners Mercedes, Williams and Ferrari. The driver line up of Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil is again solid if unspectacular, yet expect them to get the job done early on in 2014 as they aim to capitalise on their current levels of preparation in comparison to the other teams. Because of their small budget the team is always going to be a midfield outfit yet like Force India expect them to shock with their results early on especially from Sutil.

Scuderia Toro Rosso head into 2014 suffering from the same problem their senior outfit Red Bull is enduring. Their new engine deal to bring them in line with the senior Red Bull team has came at completely the wrong time as Renault appear to have made a hash of their 2014 engine. The team has therefore been severely limited in the amount of laps they’ve run, meaning the team have admitted this year the Australian GP has came a month too early for the team to be ready. Therefore expect them to get better during the season, however the first few races may be fairly frustrating for drivers Jean Eric Vergne and especially rookie Daniil Kvyat.

After a disastrous 2013 season the Williams team appear to have made a giant early leap forward in 2014. Firstly this the first year the team have Pat Symonds at the helm, his vast experience will be a massive help to a team finding it’s way after 2013. The team has also recruited a lot of talented people from up and down the grid, Rob Smedley being the marquee signing so far. The team also has a talented driver line up of the experienced Felipe Massa and talented rookie Valtteri Bottas. Their deal for Mercedes engines came at the perfect time as they racked up an abundance of laps whilst also showing their speed thanks to the march Mercedes has on the others. Based on this winter expect the team to be fighting to poles and wins as they look so far the closest challenger to Mercedes.

Marussia achieved their 2013 target of beating Caterham yet for 2014 they spot the opportunity to move up the grid. Their new Ferrari power deal has already seen them steal a march on Renualt powered Caterham. So far the car has proven to be slightly unreliable yet also fast and based on their form in testing it appears they could potentially be scoring points in the early races if their MR03 car holds together. The retention of 2013 driver line up in Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton can only help the team develop in 2014, expect them to cause a surprise at some point this season.

Finally we have Caterham, the bottom team from 2013 sadly appears as if it might stay that way in 2014. Their winter has been severely disrupted by the well known problems with the Renault power unit. When their CT04 car has ventured on track it has appeared a handful and has failed to register any noticeably fast laps during the three tests. This may have severe repercussions as team principal Tony Fernandes has threatened to pull out of the sport unless things improve in 2014. This therefore does not bode well for the all new line up of fan favourite Kamui Kobayashi and rookie Marcus Ericsson. Indeed at one point Kobayashi compared his cars pace to that of a junior level GP2 car, by far a ringing endorsement for their hopes in 2014.

Of course testing can throw plenty of red herrings and I would expect a number of teams to have risen or fallen back in the pack once the meaningful running begins in Australia. This season preview and all of my predictions are simply based on my impression of the winter running of all the teams. Thanks for reading this blog, more like essay. Enjoy.

One of Motorsports best kept secrets

In the mid 1990’s the CART championship was seen as a potential rival to Formula One in terms of being the pinnacle of motorsport. Yet after an acrimonious split the Indycar series is now only a small dent to the popularity of Nascar in America. Despite only being a niche interest in the American sports market over the last few years the series is seeing a vast improvement in terms of quality and reputation from both the drivers and teams. Will the Indycar series ever reach the peaks of the mid 1990’s again however?

Whilst the first paragraph may seem an exaggeration to some hard core motorsport aficionado’s it does appear the series is making improvements across the board. Firstly the driving talent has seen a sizeable improvement as the series is now becoming a haven for talented yet underfunded European drivers, who struggle to progress in a European culture increasingly reliant on driver funding. Complimenting this is the fact up an coming American drivers are making their presence felt in the series with flagship drivers such as Marco Andretti, Charlie Kimball and James Hinchcliffe giving hope to the next generation. 

The amount of American drivers breaking through into Indycar can be attributed to the success of their “Road to Indy” young driver scheme.  This was launched in 2010 with the aim of providing assistance to young drivers hoping to progess eventually through to Indycar and the Indianapolis 500. Starting at the U.S National F2000 series through the Pro Mazda series and Firestone Indy Lights series the series champions receive assistance from Mazda and Indycar to progress to the next highest series leading all the way up to Indycar. It’s success has been remarkable as it has already launched drivers such as Josef Newgarden and Tristan Vautier with many more being close to being propelled into the cut and thrust world of Indycar.

It’s not just the young drivers that are helping raise the profile of the series as it has become increasingly attractive over the last few years to many high profile international drivers. Firstly 2012 saw highly regarded F1 refugee Rubens Barrichello move to the series with his close friend Tony Kanaan’s KV racing outfit which helped garner a much increased media focus on the series. This story was complemented by the announcement of F1 folk hero Jean Alesi as the driver for the Lotus-Fan Force team for the Indy 500. It was a shame therefore that the Lotus engine was vastly underpowered rendering Alesi unable to show his considerable talents at the 500.

2013 saw the shock announcement too that high profile F1 and Nascar racer Juan Pablo Montoya would be joining Team Penske for a full tilt at the championship in 2014. This deal was quickly followed with intense speculation that F1 driver Paul Di Resta would take his cousin Dario Franchitti’s vacant Chip Ganassi drive after his horrendous accident in Houston forced him to retire. So far the 2014 season hasn’t even started yet already there is a much increased buzz around the championship especially the centrepiece Indianapolis 500. Within the last few weeks it’s been announced that firstly 1995 Indy 500 winner and 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve would be returning to the 500 for the first time since his win in 1995 with the Schmidt Peterson Hamilton team. Only this week the race received another boost when outspoken yet highly popular American Nascar driver Kurt Busch would be joining the Andretti Autosport team for the 500. His attempt to compete in the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 Nascar race in Charlotte has generated many press columns for the series which only helps with the profile of the series.

Of course not all of the increased excitement around the series can be attributed to the drivers. 2012 saw the introduction of the new Dallara DW12, the first new car for the series since the early 2000’s. Despite initial niggling problems for the teams the new car has been met with widespread approval from both the teams and drivers as the car enters it’s third season it should provide more exciting racing in 2014. Another key element to the upward trend of the series is the return of multiple engine manufactures. 2012 didn’t just see a new car as Chevrolet and Lotus joined the series, hoping to knock Honda from the autonomy they had enjoyed since Chevrolet last departed the series. The increased competition has helped with the competitiveness of the series and the importance of having one of America’s traditional “Big 3” car manufactures competing in the series only helps with the profile of the American series.  Although the Lotus engine proved uncompetitive and they ultimately withdrew from the series before the 2012 season was over their initial commitment to the series showed the series does have international interest as America is still seen as a hugely influential market for car makers across the globe.

Whilst the series still poses no concern for the Nascar community the increasing professionalism and high profile talent competing in the series provides hope that in the near distant future the Indycar series can once again claw itself back to the level of popularity it achieved in the 1990’s going into the early 2000’s. Until then it will remain one of motorsport’s best kept secrets alongside the Le Mans 24 hours.

Unseen sporting revolution taking place

Whilst the papers and sporting media will focus on transfers,coaches on the hot seat or game results behind these headlines there is an unseen sporting revolution unfolding before our very eyes. This revolution has little to do with anything that the sporting media thrust forward as headlines, indeed funnily enough it has little to do with actual sport itself. This revolution centers around sports athletes decisions to publicize personal matters around their private life. A player’s sexuality is rarely focused on however sport remains one of the last bastions for sexism. Yet various athletes across a multitude of sports are collectively breaking down these barriers in the last few years.

The issue of athletes sexuality is  topical this week with yesterday’s brave announcements of being gay by both England Women’s football captain Casey Stoney and NFL draft prospect Michael Sam. They are far from the first athletes to make these announcements yet the fact they are the first active players in their sports to make this announcement is a big step both culturally and in their respective sports. The outpouring of collective support both of them have received show that many are happy to see these breakthrough’s. However whilst many athletes and fans are supportive of these decisions it appears for some sports are still unwilling to support this breakthrough.

Indeed when asked anonymously how his announcement would affect the draft position  many NFL General Manager’s agreed that it would negatively affect his draft status and therefore his initial earning potential. In simple terms, the later your drafted the less money a player gets with their rookie contract.

Whilst before this announcement Sam was seen as a solid 3rd round pick based on his defensive ability, shown by the fact he was the SEC defensive player of the year in 2013 for his Missouri college team. Yet it appears now he is perceived as a risk for some teams, who are fearful his sexuality may be divisive in the “macho” locker room environment. These fears were heightened with the drama surrounding the alleged bullying  scandal between players Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin that rocked the Miami Dolphins franchise late last year. Some teams now have pushed Sam down their draft boards as the media circus that will follow potentially the first active gay NFL player and locker room culture will prove to be difficult situations to manage for a team.

It is clear however that the NFL and all of it’s teams are not homophobic despite how it may appear their reasoning for Sam’s draft position falling is simply teams are unwilling to put up with the baggage associated with such a revolutionary player. Indeed, things are not much better for another major American sport as NBA player Jason Collins has struggled to find a team since publicly revealing he was gay in May 2013. Whilst his age and production over the last few years are obvious factors surrounding why he remains a free agent, there are rumors that his sexuality and again the baggage surrounding it is a factor behind his free agent status.

For gay athletes it’s not all doom and gloom however with just as many positive stories as there are of negative one’s. Football is a prime example of a sport moving with the times in terms of the acceptance and support for homosexuals. An example of this are the contrasting reactions to football players Justin Fashanu and Robbie Rogers announcements regarding their sexuality. When Fashanu revealed he was gay in October 1990 he was publicly and professionally ridiculed by both fans and opposing players and managers. Although never proven it appears his announcement was at the very least a contributing factor behind him not receiving any contracts from teams after he publicly announced he was gay, this despite him being the first £1 million pound black English player. His subsequent ordeal led to a tragic ending with his suicide in May 1998.

For Robbie Rogers the reaction was vastly different when he announced to the world he was gay in February 2013 he was held up as a hero to many with floods of goodwill messages towards him and his courageous announcement a perfect example of the complete sea change within football with  regards to homosexual players and acceptance of their sexuality within the game.

There have been notable examples of players in other sports breaking the barriers with regards to sexuality in sport with Tom Daley and Casey Stoney receiving widespread support for their sexuality when they announced it in December 2013 and February 2014 respectively.  An increasing amount of sports have trailblazers such as Daley, Stoney, Sam or Rodgers amongst their ranks which is a hugely inspirational and revolutionary step towards the removal of sexism from sports. Whilst the revolution is not yet complete the acceptance of everyone as equal within sport for the first time is gathering pace.