In the past week there has been a lot of chat about Mclaren F1 and their newly designed and shot homepage that integrates in-race action – plaudits to Stink Digital’s Kristian Saliba (Designer) and Henry Mason (Film).

The amount of chat proves that their is real vigour and interest for what they have done, and not just from industry types providing a little mutual back-slappery, but across the entire web from race fans and web aficionados alike.

From my perspective, what I find interesting is the fact that this isn’t a site with the most amazing technology. It is a low-tech approach that takes what people love doing, such as barking about themselves on Twitter, and flips it on it’s head so that the entire Mercedes McLaren team can broadcast what they are doing, and you, as a race watcher, can feel like you are right down there in the thick of it, during the race.

As a race watcher I wonder to what extent the new rules of the 2010 F1 season have made it easier to open up, having taken the strategy out of the race with no more fuel stops, but overall this is the kind of thing that really enhances live action TV, and it is a shame there isn’t a consensus and more of the teams doing the same thing.

Real Time Headaches

For any F1 team divulging what is going on during the race, there is a fine line to be trodden between getting the thing in real-time, in sync with the TV broadcast, and giving away in-race secrets. I know from watching the last Formula 1 season that teams do analyse broadcasts and relay info about the race back to their team mates at the track to help better inform their race-making decisions.

That being said it is no mean feat to have set up this feed system, collecting data and passing it out to polling clients, and moreover, to keep it going for the benefit of the fans on a free-for-all basis.  This is definitely a great coup for brand McLaren.  There’s nothing quite like having it easy, I know from my own experience of working on the whole Nokia/From The Basement Dead Weather gig, and from talking about the whole JFK election campaign on Twitter, it’s a lot easier to run a campaign feed in a long drawn out process, or scheduled in advance, than it is in real-time, so it’s a unique first and great achievement for the tech team at McLaren.

Stream vs Blog

So why a Twitter-style feed?  The data stream style definitely better suits the data format, and people are used to it.  I love the way they essentially turned their site into a data monitor unit, providing that “in the pit” style.  But overall, the real advantage of the stream is that the content is light and easier to throw together.

One shouldn’t, however, under-estimate the benefit of the blogosphere, and no doubt McLaren will be tapping into that also.  The power of such interesting posts as the MOMA’s article detailing “blow-by-blow” the conservation of Claes Oldenburg’s Floor Cake, another “outsider looking in” style blog post, makes for amazing content too, and, perhaps of note and interest to us as content producers, massively did the rounds of the social sharing circuit, Twitter, Delicious, et al.  It’s definitely less easy to share real-time social media objects.

Each to their own I suppose, but I like the way McLaren has avoided jumping on the bandwagon, and done their own thing, and in a quality fashion to boot. Aggregating race data, using chat transcripts and tapping into the on-board telemetrics is definitely clever, and using their web site as the medium, rather than Twitter or any other messaging service is a strong choice.

Low-Tech & High Values

As mentioned already, the nicest thing about the overall sensation that is McLaren’s new in-race feedback is that it is low tech.  They have gone back-to-basics and done it well.  This totally disproves the theory you need to be at the cutting edge and doing everything with the latest and greatest.

I would like to think that by taking the decision to build a sure in plain old HTML, the execs at McLaren were actively walking an all-inclusive path.  One in which they realised the stream would be as useful to someone sitting on the couch at home, watching the race with their laptop in hand, as it would be to someone on an iPhone in the race stands.  It’s a logical decision, but not one that is always consciously taken, much to the chagrin of those excluded.

It reflects the fact that an all inclusive route, where content is the driving force, and the appeal of it, rather than the device, is a critical one, and one which can be taken, not to the producer’s detriment.  This ties in nicely with the drum I have been banging of late, advising a device agnostic route, and for those in a field where inclusiveness is key, it is best to develop web apps, rather than platform specific apps.

Anyhow, congrats to McLaren on a web site well built, and a project superbly executed. Let’s hope their first season of this new decade comes off as excellently too.