The Papaya Room

Hey everyone, for those of you who don't know, I am currently training to become a marshal, so I'd like to take you on a journey of how you can become one too. For those of you who don't know what a marshal is, it's a volunteer role to ensure racing events run safely, with many different roles. These include cleaning debris off the track, operating the start/finish lines as well as assembly areas and to manage spectators. Although it's not a paid role, there are many reasons a person would choose to become a marshal. Firstly it allows you to develop valuable skils (working efficiently under pressure and forming rapid decisions). Furthermore, it allows you to get closer to the action of racing and allows you to connect with like-minded people in the motorsports community. Additionally, by having connections in this role, it can be beneficial to career progression, whether this leads to you being a higher level marshal or going into another career in the motorsports w...

 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...