OK, I know that many news networks have already reported this, but this is way too awesome not to blog about: Michael Schumacher is officially returning to the F1 grid! He will be taking the place of injured Felipe Massa. I can’t even imagine how awesome it will be to watch the 7-times world champion take on Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and Kimi Raikonnen, while competing in a car which is not quite up to speed yet. There is no doubt that the remaining races of the year will be simply epic.

It will be very interesting to see how he will manage the pressure. Everyone will expect him to win, despite being 40 years old and not having driven in an F1 car in more than a year. He will be competing against guys used to driving in F1, and who are in their in their 20’s. Nevertheless, Michael has continued his training even after retirement, so with a month to go he should at least be fit enough to survive a race. Most importantly, if he is successful he will be able to vindicate himself. Many people have been attributing his success in F1 to the car and technical leadership provided by Ross Brawn, after the brilliant start BrawnGP has had in the 2009 season. Hopefully Schumacher will be able to at least beat the BrawnGP’s.

I have no doubt that this will give Formula 1 as a sport a massive boost, possibly reversing all the damage done to the sport’s image as a result of the FIA/FOTA row. This is exactly what was needed. After the start of the season I expected it to be dreary affair with Brawn running away with the championship, but I could not have been more wrong. I was wondering if we will ever again see a season as brilliant as 2008, but the 2009 Formula 1 world championship is turning out to be even more crazy. I expect the remaining races of the year to be sold out. I know that I have been looking up prices to visit a GP or two, just to see the legend in action again.

The 430 was my previous favorite Ferrari. The other cars produced by the prancing horse are pretty awesome, but I loved the way the 430 was focused as a no-compromise driving machine (especially the Scuderia track day edition). From Ferrari’s press release, it seems that the 458 will continue in this fashion. Weighing only 1380kg and outputting 425kW and 540N.M., it has 0-100km/h of only 3.4 seconds and a top speed in excess of 325km/h.

Full press release after the pictures.

[via Jalopnik, Ferrari]

Being a die-hard BMW fan, I naturally despise anything from its rivals – Audi and Mercedes Benz. I just can’t stand all Audi’s looking exactly the same, and I feel a Merc is an old person’s car. However, being German they are technically very good. So if I had to drive either a new Audi or a new Merc, which would I choose?

Audi R8

OK this is pretty obvious. Everyone loves the R8. It is simply awesome, Tony Stark drives one and it has one of the best V8 engines in the business.

Audi RS5

This one hasn’t been released yet, but I would love to own one. It should have a much more aggressive RS8-esque front bumper, making it look distinctly different from the rest of the hum-drum Audi range. Plus it’ll be quattro, and have the same V8 engine as the R8. I guess it’s sacrilegious for a BMW fan to love a competitor to the M6, but this car will be brilliant.

Mercedes SLS

The modern interpretation of the classic gullwing will be very good. From the spy pics, it’s clear that the proportions of the old car have been maintained. In other words, it’s beautiful. There will be an AMG edition, so its go should match its show.

Mercedes AMG Black editions

These cars are bonkers. That’s why I love them. The insane bulging wheelarches shouts that it’s not an old person’s car. Actually, they shout that it’s a hooligan’s car. Which makes sense, as Jeremy Clarkson owns one.

I’ve been running ads on Facebook for affiliate products for the past year now. I have found that if set up correctly Facebook can drive high quality, targeted traffic to my sites. Although the CTR (Clicktrough Rate) is really weak compared to Google AdWords (I rarely get a CTR rate higher than 0.5% on Facebook), the clicks are relatively cheap. So over the past year I’ve figured out what works and what doesn’t. I now follow these rules when I run ads on Facebook:

1. Be persistent when submitting ads. Most ads I’ve submitted have been disapproved at least once. Sometimes because I’ve violated Facebook’s terms (they are very strict), sometimes because the people approving the ads are stupid. I’ve had ads disapproved which were identical to previously approved ads, the only difference being the bidding strategy.
2. Create lots of ads, and keep only the ones which perform the best. I would generally create 5 to 10 different ads for the same item I’m advertising, and let them all run for a couple of days. Then once it’s clear what ads are performing the best (highest CTR, lowest CPC), I disable the ads performing poorly.
3. Do not use CPC (Cost per Click) campaigns. It seems the Facebook ad algorithm is heavily optimized towards CPM (Cost per Mil, or cost per thousand impressions). I am unsure why this is, but I get far more impressions and can much easier reach my daily budget if I create CPM ads. It does not cost me more, as the resulting CPC is generally lower than if I set it manually.
4. Ignore the suggested Facebook CPM and CPC bids. I am unable to come near my daily budget if I set the bids to what Facebook suggest. Again, I’m not sure exactly why this happens. The ad costs anyways ends up in the range Facebook suggests.
5. Keep your ads fresh. This is probably the most important tip I can give. Don’t settle for one or two ads and keep them running for months. Keep creating new ads (almost on a weekly basis), and disable the ads which has a declining CTR. I’ve recently tripled the CTR of one of my campaigns, simply by keeping the text the same and changing only the picture. The campaign has been running for more than three months without me changing anything, and the CPC was gradually going up. Now it’s back to what it was when I started the campaign.
6. This is general ad copywriting advice, and it applies to Facebook as well: have a clear call to action! I usually ask a question in the ad’s header, which I answer in the ad text. I clearly state in the ad text that the user must visit my site.

That’s about all there is to advertising with Facebook. The Facebook ad algorithm does seem a little primitive, and does not always perform as expected. Also, tt can be extremely frustrating if Facebook keeps disapproving your ads for no apparent reason. At least they recently added a function to contact the Facebook ads team. The only problem is that they usually take more than a week to get back to you.

Nevertheless, Facebook is an awesome way to advertise. Due to people filling in so much information in their profiles, you can target extremely small niches on the cheap. I personally prefer Facebook to Google Adwords because of this.

It’s really funny how sensitive some people are to ads. Or rather how sensitive they think the average person is. Yet another ad has been taken completely out of context. BMW’s new “Expression of joy” ad was banned in Australia. This is pretty ridiculous. The BMW in the ad is being driven at low speed with paint on its tires, on a huge white canvas, with the purpose of creating a piece of art. The Advertising Standards Bureau gave the following explanation:

“The board noted that the advertisement does depict in a number of places the driver intentionally allowing the wheels of the car to lose traction and perform . . . a four-wheel drift,”

One of the people who viewed the ad on TV complained that it “would encourage car hoons to spin and burn their tyres”.

Watch the ad below, and let me know if you are encouraged to go drive like a crazy person.

I think I may go after his record. 1 down, 134 to go…

Awesomeness on four wheels: The M5

I have always wanted to experience an M5, so when I drove past a used car dealership the other day and saw that they had one in stock, I decided to take a look. It was a 2001 dark blue with black interior, in perfect condition. I told the salesman I was considering getting an M5 (which was not a complete lie), and asked for a test drive.

I slowly drove out the door and around the block. Then once the engine warmed up, I floored it. The traction control light flickered through all of first gear, and well into second.  Then I decided to lift off, as I didn’t want to upset the salesman and I was over 80km/h already in the middle of town. I’ve read that with traction control off it’s possible to get wheelspin into 3rd gear. I then drove out of the town, to feel what it can do on the open road. Once again, it did not disappoint. No matter what speed I was doing, or in what gear, flooring the throttle would generate a massive burst of acceleration. Shifting gears is a mechanical process, which provides a lot of feedback. It feels like you’re pulling and pushing a lever, that you’re actually moving stuff around in the gearbox. And then there’s the noise. Although it is very subdued due to the stock exhaust (a less restrictive one would do wonders), the sound at 7,000rpm is incredible.

When I returned to the dealership I was seriously considering buying the car. However, it has more than 175,000km on the clock, and although it’s been looked after, there are some problems. And it is way overpriced.

The E39 M5 is already a legend, even though it went out of production only 5 years ago. It has four doors and a big boot, and can do 0-100km/h in less than 5 seconds. It’s a supremely comfortable long-distance cruiser, but can be used at track days to destroy most new sportscars. Plus it’s extremely understated, which in my book makes it even more awesome. Most people would think it’s just another older 5 series, not the potent musclecar that it is.

What makes the E39 special is that it’s a relatively simple car. It has a normal clutch, with a normal manual gearbox. It has only two buttons to control the driving experience: traction control on/off and sports mode. The E60 M5 (which replaced the E39) is a computer on wheels, with a stupid SMG flappy-paddle gearbox, and millions of settings to set up the suspension, steering, gearbox, engine, etc etc.

So now I am seriously looking for a perfect E39 M5. The power is intoxicating. I’ve always wanted one of these, now I need one!

P.S. It’s so diverse, it can even kick Madonna’s ass:

How quickly things can change when people start getting dramatic. Just a few days ago the 8 biggest teams in Formula 1 (the eight remaining FOTA members) announced that they were starting their own breakaway series. They were reacting to Max Mosley (dictatorpresident of the FIA) who had made some outrageous demands for the 2010 Formula 1 championship. As it turns out, the teams were united to sign unconditionally for the 2010 season the day before they announced the breakaway series, but when the final paperwork arrived from Mosley the terms on it were not as it was discussed. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The teams were outraged, and caused them to make the announcement.

The final opportunity for reconciliation between the FIA and FOTA was yesterday, when they had a meeting in Paris. If this meeting didn’t go well, the plans for a split would have continued. Fortunately, it all went well. As it turns out, FOTA was able to sway the FIA to do what they want to them to do. Bernie Ecclestone (commercial rights holder of F1, who got stinking rich from that position) realised that without the FOTA teams F1 would lose most of the money coming into the sport. This fact is probably what swayed him to change his tune, and submit to the teams.

So what were the teams’ demands? First of all, they demanded that Max Mosley not stand for re-election as FIA president in October. Secondly, they demanded that F1 keep its current regulations for the time being, with a more gradual reduction in costs. The FIA agreed to all of this. All the current teams agreed to race in F1 until 2012, and the new teams will be helped to get up and running by the existing teams (as they demonstrated when they helped Brawn GP at the beginning of the season).

Hopefully what all this means is that we will see FOTA’s representation of F1. This means clear and transparent rules, and cost reductions. FOTA also demonstrated that when the teams stand together, they can force the FIA to do their bidding. Which does actually makes sense, considering the teams are the ones spending all the millions of pounds and carrying all the risk.

All in all I think this is the best possible result we could have gotten out of this mess. It was unfortunate that it was all very public, which did a lot of damage to the sport. But F1 will recover, and I believe within a year the sport will be better than ever.