F1 Drivers' World Championship - Week 1

Vettel after Australian Grand Prix victory

1	Ger	S Vettel	25
2	GB	L Hamilton	18
3	Rus	V Petrov	15
4	Spa	F Alonso	12
5	Aus	M Webber	10
6	GB	J Button	8
7	Brz	F Massa	6
8	Swi	S Buemi	4
9	Ger	A Sutil	2
10	GB	P Di Resta	1

Malaysian Grand Prix

Satellite view of Sepang Circuit in Malaysia

Venue: Sepang, Kuala Lumpur
Race Date: Sunday 10 April
Lap length: 3.444 miles
Race laps: 56
2010 winner: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
First grand prix: 1999
Fascinating fact: Kuala Lumpur literally means "muddy estuary". The city's grand prix track was built on a 260-hectare swamp, a factor some have blamed for the increasing number of bumps on the track. Some people claim the circuit may be literally sinking.

Formula 1 - Drivers and Teams

Red Bull - Sebastian Vettel & Mark Webber

McLaren - Lewis Hamilton & Jenson Button

Ferrari - Fernando Alonso & Felipe Massa

Mercedes - Michael Schumacher & Nico Rosberg

Renault - Nick Heidfeld & Vitaly Petrov

Williams - Ruben Barrichello & Pastor Maldonado

Force India - Adrian Sutil & Paul di Resta

Sauber - Kamui Kobayashi & Sergio Perez

Toro Rosso - Sebastien Buemi & Jaime Alguersuari

Team Lotus - Jarno Trulli & Heikki Kovalainen

Hispania Racing Team - Narain Karthikeyan & Vitantonio Liuzzi

Virgin Racing - Timo Glock & Jerome d'Ambrosio

Australian Grand Prix

Satellite view of Albert Park, Melbourne

With the 2011 F1 Grand Prix season about to begin tomorrow, and qualifying taking place today, I believe it is time I post a quick fact file about the Australian Grand Prix. I will be doing this for each race as soon as possible (not necessarily on the day of the race).

Venue: Albert Park, Melbourne
Race Date: Sunday 27 March
Lap length: 3.295 miles
Race laps: 58
2010 winner: Jenson Button (McLaren)
First grand prix: 1996
Fascinating fact: The race returned to Melbourne in 1996 when Martin Brundle was involved in a terrifying crash on the first lap, which split his Jordan car in two. Amazingly, the British driver was able to run back to the pits to collect the spare car for the restart - only to spin off at the same corner on the first lap.

Blackberry Messenger Available for Apple iOS and Android

This week is was revealed that Blackberry have agreed a deal with Apple and Android that it's famous Blackberry Messenger (BBM) will be accessable on all 3 top smartphone brands.

The news came out a few days ago, suggesting that Blackberry had sold all rights for BBM to Apple and Android, however, I can now confirm that they haven't. However BBM will soon be available on iPhone and Android. It is said that BBM on Blackberry's will have a few more unique features; only blackberry's will be allowed to send Photos & Videos over Blackberry Messenger.

As an iPhone user, I have looked into much depth about this discussion as when I heard about this a few days ago I couldn't believe it! With my contract running out soon, I was debating whether to switch over to Blackberry because of Blackberry Messenger. Hearing this news has made me decide to stick with my iPhone until the end of the contract, and I suggest you all do this.

Furthermore, recent news just got out that there will be a new iPhone 5, released in June 2011. Great news! (there will be a post in a few days on this).

Now, back to BBM. At this moment in time, Blackberry, Apple and Android are debating whether BBM should be available on a "one-off purchase" or whether they should have a monthly fee for it. With my experience of the App Store on iPhone/iPod, I strongly believe that they should sell it for a one off fee, however the amount you use it should be determined by the amount of "accessable internet" you have on your contract/pay-as-you-go. I have noticed a problem with pay-as-you-go for this, so I believe it could be a fairly high price - about £4.99 (at a max.) or £0.59 (at a min.). However, if Apple decide that they want to have a continuous charge depending on your internet tariff, I believe it should be a FREE app download from the AppStore. As I don't use Android phones, I don't know how the App store works there, but I believe it is the same as Apple and Blackberry.

Regardless of what happens, no doubt Apple will be able to convert all of the Blackberry Messenger coding into an Application within days. But, as the deal has not been expressed in much detail by the spokesman from Blackberry, one can only assume that BBM will be out as an app at the same date of release as the highly anticipated iPhone 5 which is expected to be out in June 2011 - NOT LONG LEFT!!! For more information on the iPhone 5, check out my post later on this week, with just a small bit of information about why people believe it will be out sooner rather than later.

Six Nations Results - Week 5

O'Driscoll celebrates Irish victory in Grand Slam against England

Here are the results from the 3 matches that took place this weekend in the RBS Six Nations last week of matches.

France 28-9 Wales

Ireland 24-8 England

Scotland 21-8 Italy

 

Here is the final RBS Six Nations Standings.

 

F1: Valsecchi Replaces Trulli or Kovalainen

Formula One racers, Trulli (left) and Glock (right) at a briefing

It was announced today that Italian GP2 driver, and F1 driver, Davide Valsecchi, will replace either teammate Jarno Trulli or teammate Heikki Kovalainen for Team Lotus. He is expected to fill in for the Friday morning practice ahead of both the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix. I have taken the liberty of comparing his and Trulli's statistics.

Valsecchi:
Starts - 54
Wins - 2
Poles - 1
Fastest Laps - 0

Trulli:
Starts - 234
Championships - 0
Wins - 1
Poles - 4
Fastest Laps - 1