The Blender F1 Challenge History
Curtis F1 2001The Blender F1 Challenge began simply enough with a "challenge". In the spring of 2001, I posted an image on the original Blender community forum (at blender.nl) of a newly rendered F1 concept car touted as "Schummi's New Ride". It was red, and had the famous prancing horse logo on the side. I had been using Blender for 6 or 7 monthes at the time so I was quite proud of actually finishing a model. That was until another Blender user (who shall remain nameless...) posted a comment that it looked like "80's technology". Looking at the image now his comment was quite accurate (see above and in every F1 Challenge web site banner) in that it resembled a Senna/Prost era McLaren. But at the time I was a bit put-out since I was trying to create a F1 car of the future. So in reply, I challenged the "other" Blender user to create a better F1 future car. He said he didn't have time immediately but could take me on in a month or two (incidently, he has never entered the Blender F1 Challenge so "my challenge" is still open...). Meanwhile, several other Blender users were watching this forum thread and asked if they could join the challenge to create a F1 car of the future. Needless to say, the rest is history as the Blender F1 Challenge, now in it's sixth year, has become the most popular Blender users contest ever. THANK YOU the Blender community for that distinction!

I certainly hope you enjoy the Blender F1 Challenge whether you are participating or not. And to all of you "Entrants", rev up those Blender machines and let'em rip!!
Ciao for now!
CurtisS