The Papaya Room

 Let's talk telemetry. Telemetry is what's referred to as the real-time transmission of data from a Formula 1 car to the pit wall. This essentially allows teams to monitor and do an in-depth analysis of different aspects of both the car's performance and behaviour on track. Now, let's examine the various aspects taken into consideration when analysing telemetric data in Formula 1, using data from Piastri and Norris's cars during the 2025 Hungarian GP as an example. (Data taken from  https://www.gp-tempo.com/ ) Firstly, let's talk about track dominance with each bit of data taken from Lap 10, Piastri in orange, Norris in grey. We can see that during this lap Piastri is the more dominant car on track, meaning that through the majority of his lap, Piastri had overall better pace being quicker over more corners and through straights. Norris, however still had some strengths through the exit of T1 and the entry to T4-T5. You could link Lando being faster in these are...

 Hey everyone. Apologies that there will be no Hungaroring Race Recap from me as I was at Silverstone yesterday, but to make up for it, I will be sharing a recap of everything I did at Silverstone during the GB3/GB4 Championship! So I got to Silverstone not long after 9 am and went straight over to the BRDC grandstand to watch the Radical Cup race, which was really interesting. I really enjoyed seeing the cars. Following this, I headed down through the paddock over to Copse Bank to watch the GT Cup Championship Practice session, before watching the Group 2 Qualifying session, during which I snapped a few shots on my camera! During the second qualifying session I wanted to make some use of my time before the first GB3 race to go and explore around Silverstone, which I did by going back through the paddock and making my way over to the Silverstone Store, where there were some really good discounts on team merch, so as a McLaren girlie I decided to buy a 2024 Lando Norris bucket hat w...

Hey everyone, so I'll be making 2-3 blog posts a week for anyone just getting into motorsport, laying out everything you need to know! And today's topic is flags. Flags are used within motorsport to help communicate with the drivers; this can be done to warn them about potential hazards on the track. Pictured are the 10 flags that can be waved during an F1 race. The chequered flag, arguably the most recognisable, as the flag that is waved at the end of the race. It is also the flag that determines the final standings. Then we have the green flag, which is used to indicate whether or not the track is clear. This is used at the start of practice and qualifying sessions, and also the flag that is waved following an incident that required the use of one or more yellow flags. The yellow flag is used in two different ways, in the form of single yellows or double yellows. A single yellow flag being waved means a driver needs to reduce their speed, and during this time are unable to ov...

Okay, so let's talk Spa. With the formation lap taking place, many of the drivers had issues with visibility due to the rainfall, which was especially a problem for the drivers at the back of the grid, leading to a red flag causing a delayed race start. What was meant to be a race starting at 15:00 CET instead started at 16:20 CET.  The race started with drivers remaining behind the safety car until a rolling or standing start would be announced, which by Lap 4 was announced by Race Control that this would be a rolling start. By Lap 5, the race was fully underway, with Norris gaining an advantage at first, but with many cars wobbling and his becoming one of them, he was soon overtaken by Piastri on the Kemmel Straight.  It was reported around Lap 6 that slipstream was still an issue, and both McLarens started to struggle with their batteries. Russell, in the wet conditions, managed to overtake Albon, pushing himself up to P5. During Lap 9, with the track starting to dry up a b...

 Obviously with only starting this blog recently, I couldn't update about the event in real time but I wanted to talk about my experience as an F1 girlie who visited the McLaren Racing Live Fanzone in Trafalgar Square. So I started the day off nice and early, leaving to catch the train around 7:20am and getting into Trafalgar Square for around 8:25am. With the start of the event itself being at 11:30am on the Wednesday, I was in the queue for just over 3 hours, facing quite a few down pours of rain (I didn't come prepared). Not long after 11:30 we were let in and all I can say is the McLaren social media/photography team were on it, snapping shots and videos of fans in and around the fanzone and on the orange carpet, one of those videos being of me (which made an apperance on the McLaren Instagram.) I started off my time at the fanzone by checking out the racing simulators, which were so incredible, however the opposite could be said for my lap times as it was my first time on ...