Phew. A hectic week of launches has come to an end, and whilst it's great to see some F1 action, I'm glad for the weekend! We've seen a sleek Ferrari, a similar Toyota, and a sexy McLaren, I can't wait to see what else is on the horizon. However, there is plenty going on to keep us entertained.
- Ron Dennis finally announced his departure as Team Principal from the team. We're talking about it here, but the big question is, will he still be around on the grid all the time, or have we seen the last of Mr D?
- Meanwhile, the McLaren boys have been discussing their attitudes for the upcoming season, with Kovalainen saying he feels he did alright in '08. In fact, he thinks he needs to relax more this year. This seems like a bizarre thing to say from someone who was completely outshone.
- Finally, it's Sidepodiary Friday, so check out the new video on the Wiki. It's all about Toyota, although I don't really say anything nice about them. As you would expect. Anyway, let me know what you think, all feedback gratefully received.
Let us know what you're up to this weekend, especially if you have any exciting plans. We'll be around for the majority of the weekend, so I'll see you in the comments.
Aaah, Saturday. The best, most relaxing, soothing day of the week. Saturday is the Kimi Raikkonen so to speak. Lazy day, do nowt while watching Jeff Steling go bonkers about Dumbarton. No F1 to fret about worrying BMW will have the ugliest car on the grid. I love Saturdays.
Then you have Sunday, playing football in hurricane/flood/swamp/drought/blizzard [delete where applicable], homework, revision, no Top Gear, no nothing on the tellybox. Aside from LIVE : Sidepodcast, Sunday is pretty rubbish compared to the beauty and relaxation of Saturday.
Speaking of LIVE : Sidepodcast. Upcoming Schedule being Mr. Awkward, assuming its tomorrow at whenawhomagummy?
R.G - Anything else coming up on PSR?
Stay tuned. But upcoming live shows can be found
http://www.prosimracing.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=54
there
OOH, IT'S F1! :D
By the looks of it, one of the lower series of Formula Sim Racing at Belgium
LOL some guy called Fernando just spun it at La Source :D
These look like the 2007 cars.
If anyone wants to watch this virtual F1, go to http://www.psrtv.com and click "Watch PSRTV now"
It buffers properly the 1st time, then it suddenly buffers again and stops working altogether. Arg.
Scotland
http://www.quikmaps.com/show/90433
Decided on a quick sprint lap for slower formulae. Simple, just to get my imagination back, despite that being very simple ;)
around holyrood park. nice.
race on PSR is about to start!
Incident at turn 1, first two are wheel to wheel.
A massive shake up in the order behind the leaders.
i'm late to this party. what am i doing?
www.psrtv.com, then click Watch PSRTV now. It's a sim F1 race at Spa :P
damn, not working on a mac :(
i'll follow your commentary then.
Trust me when I say this racing is already producing more overtaking than we see in real life. Had a great 3 car battle from La Source all the way to Les Combes.
Just seen 2 passes into Les Combes, the battles for 8th and 9th, and 10th and 11th.
2nd place makes an error at Bus Stop and loses 1 place to 3rd.
6th and 7th wheel to wheel up to Les Combes! Positions stay the same, but this racing is immense.
Replay shown of 2nd place spinning on the exit of Bus Stop.
Reet, since I started this street track business I've always wanted to do one around two places: New York and Miami, especially the latter.
http://www.quikmaps.com/show/90435
Made a mess of the last few corners, if zoomed in you will be able to see correct route indicated with black markers.
Thanks, had a longer one going, but messed it up.
9th and 10th battling up to - yep, you guessed it.
now that would put valencia to shame!
Oooh, sim racing live commenting. :)
switch between 4th and 5th into Les Combes, overtaking around the outside.
1st place leading by 6.5 seconds
Les Combes produces another switch between 6th and 7th.
You do know there is a congestion charge in Edinburgh. You will get a ticket every lap.
leader pits at the end of lap 10.
rejoins 3rd
Another 2 passes at Les Combes
De Wit takes the lead as Keersmaekers pits. Comes back out 4th
Spengler and Kuncman continue fighting over 8th and 9th into Les Combes
Current gap between De Wit and early leader Marques is just over 9 seconds.
De Wit has a quick off while in the lead but stays there.
Replay shows De Wit going wide into the gravel at Malmedy as Spengler pits.
Smirnoff and Stroud go at it into Les Combes.
And with that I must go. Later all, someone else can continue if they want :)
...if i could see it!
see ya tomorrow bud.
Heh, sorry about that. I did mean anyone who could see it. Shame it's not available for Mac users, you're missing some great racing :(
Night :)
These simulator guys clearly went to the Schumacher take no prisoners driving school.
Spengler wins the battle for P7. ;)
Race has died down now. Marques is 3.6 seconds behind De Wit for P1. De Wit still has a pit stop to make.
De Wit pits and rejoins second. Marques should be pitting soon, I think...
Marques stays out for another lap. Really pushing now.
Marques pits and rejoins the race side-by-side with De Wit! De Wit takes the lead but the gap is now barely anything.
Marques retakes the lead! Still nothing in it, though.
Oh bloody hell, it's 2:30...
Morning nobody!
Morning, Dom. :P
Just had a look at the Toyota HD trailer and I thought my hearing was playing tricks on me so I played the vid again and I heard correct "It's time to win" after 7 years and one of the biggest budgets you would think they should have won at least 1 race by now. On another note it was mentioned earlier this week in the comments that F1 teams should not get their drivers to act, I have to agree F1 drivers can't act just look at Graham Hill in Grand Prix.
Morning all.
I hate logging on in the mornings, no news from last night to discuss, very quiet.
Currently watching NASCAR like sim on psr.
Me too, just watched the end of that race.
Oh, morning everyone :)
Morning Scotty, not a bad finish eh?
Yeah was pretty good. More Formula Sim Racing at Spa taking place now :P
Webber's back on 11 Feb
Someone want to count how many days that has taken between 22nd November to 11th February to see if he beat Schumacher's recovery from a broken leg?
Good news about Webber.
About 81 days I think
And now more Formula Sim Racing. How many divisions or so do they have?!
Lots. In order, Amatuer, Advanced, Pro, Ace and the biggie World Championship
So we're now watching Pro and there's still Ace and the WC to go right?
What a manic first few corners!
Aye, your good friend Carr-Smith is in this one.
Heh I only know him from RLB, I don't really know him that well :P
Aww man, the leader spun it and is now beached on the kerb at the Bus Stop.
Brilliant fight for 3rd, 4th and 5th right now!
4th place backs it into the wall!
Lucky that guy could even survive.
And another almost lost it at Eau Rouge
Race leader spins at the pit entrance and blows the engine! Amazing!
Wow, you can tell it's a slow news day today. :P
2008 Weblog Awards FINAL Results:Best Online Community:
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Best Podcast:
1st - EconTalk (5,046 votes)
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Congratulations, guys!
Darn it, my formatting got messed up in publication.
Wow, you can tell it’s a slow news day today. {Scott Woodwiss - 2 comments ago}
Another way of spotting: Reuters just wrote about the FIA dropping the three-race engine requirement as if it was news. Not to the blogosphere it wasn't...
I posted that the other day and Mr C said he would make a post about it in a bit. Unsure, what this timescale requires
That'll be SPC time he's using.
True, true. fourteen:05 currently.
Fourteen:07ish. :P
btw, I've decided I like the doohickey now.
Not exactly sure what made me change my mind...
Hehe.
I mix nowadays as well, currently using the lclt, but often use the doohickey. Depends on my mood.
Mostly I use the vanilla blog version, unless there's a video event going on.
Just looking at this week's Autosport mag, and in the list of people who took to the stage at AI, they've spelt Franck's name wrong.
This will not be forgotten.
or forgiven?
Uh-oh. I suspect Autosport will not be bought or visited for a long, long while.
used lclt for the first time in ages when it came to the toyota launch. improvements to both are pending though :)
who?
Uh-oh. I suspect Autosport will not be bought or visited for a long, long while. {R.G. - 3 comments ago}
At least not until it gets a proofreader who is capable of spelling Franck Montagny's name correctly.
I remember an amusing typo in a 2005 Autosport. On one page, there's a sidebar story bemoaning Tiago Monteiro's mis-spelt freebie T-shirt in Malaysia. Four pages later, on the qoutes page, someone at the magazine mis-spelt "scares" (by leaving out the e)...
In the letters section, they feature a small box with corrections for any mistakes in the previous week's mag.
They can get Mat Jackson with only one t right, but not Franck with a c. Grrr.
Whitmarsh: Engine rules still unclear
Do you think he's been reading Alianora's blog? ;-)
i'll do one in a bit.
i like to think so :)
nice job on the quikmaps r.g.
if anyone else has time to be a bit creative i'll write a post later plugging them too.
http://sidepodcast.wetpaint.com/page/Quikmaps
No worries sir, creating one right now to cure boredom.
grandprix.com have been digging into the honda kerfuffle this week:
"It is a fair guess that the original complaint was linked to Achilleas Kallakis."
"The coolness towards Kallakis is not entirely surprising as his empire, estimated to be worth around $400m, is hidden away in Monaco and Switzerland. Honda wants to avoid a situation in which the team is sold to someone who does not have the money to run it properly."
interesting stuff. offers a little respite for fry. more here: http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns21115.html
I think everyone has been... :)
mark hughes on ferrari's sidepod mirrors:
"A section of bodywork zones was created in the regulations in which such devices were outlawed."
"But Ferrari, by moving the sidepods further back, has created a narrow ‘blind spot’ not covered in the regulations, into which it has inserted this fin that in the process of creating more downforce will also give it a more choppy airflow wake."
that'll make it difficult to pass then! these new regulations are going well aren't they :)
more: http://www.itv-f1.com/Feature.aspx?Type=Mark_Hughes&id=44948
Bruno Mantovani, who creates F1 slapstick sketches, put together what he thought would be ideal liveries for the different F1 teams. So far, he's put up his ideas for Ferrari, McLaren, BMW, and Toyota.
http://mantovani.zip.net/
My personal favorites from his work are Ferrari and BMW. McLaren and Toyota have pretty good designs too.
The BMW and Ferrari's are lovely.
Some of his cartoons are good as well, like the Singapore one.
The one where Kimi was in a Ferrari bed, erm, car? :D I loved that!
the bmw is brilliant :)
Aye, quality stuff
just a quick note about fantasy racers. if you've not signed up to the league already, now would be a great time to do so.
have added a button onto the sidebar of the homepage, which takes you to the post detailing signup instructions. don't forget you need to sign in to the site and then add yourself to the sidepodcast league.
we might do a full run down of all the earlybird entrants during tomorrow's show, so if you sign up before say midnight this evening... that would be quite convenient :)
Speaking of tomrrow's show, what time, ish?
You should do a quick section on those who are entering 5 teams. ;)
goood question.
...
dunno. i'll have a word.
Thank goodness, something different on PSRTV. A 10 hour enduro! :D
surely not? not real people playing for 10 hours?
Its like Le Mans, 3 drivers per team, do about 3 and a bit hrs each.
Cheers sir.
bloomin' heck.
R.G - Are they just showing races from last year until the new seasons start?
Aye. Gentlemans racing the club (the touring car one) is starting this month, Sundays/Mondays I thiink
Gentlemans Racing Club even.
BATracer has been completed.
Coulda got pole there if I hadn't made a mistake I reckon. Well done Steven though.
Same here, goddamn semi-spin.
ahead of alex... but only alex :(
10 hours race has started.
woot 8th for a honda :D
11th again. Boo. I'd better do well in Fantasy Racers!
So what does this upgrade actually do then?
You're in a Williams, so we expect you to do better but for some mysterious reason, you won't do as well as we think you will ;-)
:D
Sooo... not much then?
Looks like Toyota have re-launched their website.
Not bad. Makes the team look a little more interesting then they actually are.
Question for you - in what way is Penske still involved in Formula 1? ;)
Just came back from seeing the Dakar (which conveniently goes past 20km from my parent's house during my vacations... :-) ). 12 hours, tons of dust, 35 degrees Celsius... But God: you can't really realize the size of those things until you see a 10-ton truck going towards you at full speed, passing by at 10 meters while braking at the last moment to take a 90 degrees turn...
flippin' heck. that's awesome!!
Isn't he still involved with Ilmor?
sweet.
I don't know but that's not what I was referring to ;)
If Steven's around, setup is spot on and i'm just about to convert it ;)
Something to do with Bourdais and their Indycar team maybe?
this is a fun game :)
i have no idea by-the-way.
The suspense is killing me! :)
Do you want me to tell you or do you want to keep guessing? :P
do you have a clue?
It's something to do with something that's been mentioned in this post already, before I asked ;)
Oooh, a game.
Penske own part of something at a street cirucuit
Aiming to get Franck (;) Montagny a race drive
mmmmmmnope :P
Some connection with Mercedes engines?
Nope.
I got it, he uses live commenting, live... thing?
Nope. :P
Had the teams name spelt wrong in Autosport?
Nope.
:D This is great
Unsure on engine regulation?
Plays on fantasy racers/BATracer?
Nope and nope.
hehe.
something to do with dakar?
Nope.
Intrested in buying Honda?
Nope.
As i said, it's something to do with something that was posted before I asked the question. ;)
what are we guesssing?
Connection with Williams? Toyota engines?
Technically, twas an elegible answer.
You're on to something with one of those teams ;) Won't say which one though.
Own Jarno Trulli's wines?
penske f1 connections.
Nope.
& that is based on the show car. Wait till the race versions turn up.
Wait, they have Penske Racing Shocks on the Williams car?
Almost, you're on the right lines, very close
On the Toyota car?
Correct! Penske supply Toyota with dampers :P
Involvement with Toyota?
*Drinks Celebratory Coke
Yay! Go me.
hey i just managed to break doohickey, in the same way lou does!
Give yourself a pat on the back for that one :P
it's taken me months!
mental note to self, using firefox on a mac. did nothing out of the ordinary.
Good ol Foxy, reliable as oot.
Thanks RG and Scott.
Hopefully this pole will last a bit longer than my other one. I didn't make the first corner in the lead then.
I seem to remember some involvement with McLaren. Somthing to do with suspension?
Hehe, it's OK, R.G figured it out :P
I'll do my runs shortly
No need Steven, save your tyres. Just load my current setup which has been converted for the drizzle and have a look at the tips I left you in team talk.
Thanks Scott
No problem :)
Same here and it happens to me from time to time.
I've got myself a second account on BATracer which will become my new full time account once all the games on my first one which I'm using now are finished. I've entered a 2008 F1 game in a McLaren and so far it's 2 wins from 2 races :D
Why the new account?
Perth GP
http://quikmaps.com/show/90457
Its long, and I do think I have this thing for bridges. Pretty much all my tracks have them. Aside from Edingburgh
Warning: story from Daily Mail.
Hamilton didn't know about Ron Dennis' quitting decision until a few minutes beforehand.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-1120740/Shocked-Hamilton-knew-minutes-mentor-Dennis-quitting-McLaren.html
I didn't think their relationship was strained anymore.
It'd be seriously awkward if he found out Heikki had known for ages. ;)
:)
According to James Allen: McLaren has no contractual right to propose drivers to Force India. They can give some thoughts but there’s not even an obligation for Force India to test any McLaren drivers.
They must be chuffed they can get Pedro for testing but don't have to put him in the race car.
No pics of the McLaren ontrack from today? Would be good to get a proper look at the bits they kept hidden at the launch.
Bad reputation on it. Especially the 21 sackee count.
it was a shakedown i think. testing begins monday. will have a scout around though.
here's some info (no pics though):
http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=316810
"After a delayed start to the day, the test team completed 18 laps in the MP4-24 during a private test, Pedro setting a best time of 1m 28.719s on his 13th lap. Pedro resumes the car's pre-season programme at Portimao on Monday and Tuesday before handing over to Lewis Hamilton on Wednesday. Heikki Kovalainen will conclude the four-day test session on Thursday. "
Just have to wait until Monday then!
What's the schedule for next week's launches? Just the two on Monday and that's it?
according to the "calendar of doom" (i try and make it exciting, it's just a calendar :) ):
- renault and williams on monday
- bmw on tuesday
http://www.f1minute.com/f1-calendar/
Excellent stuff, all three have a chance of bringing something new and exciting to the table. Or they could be pretty much similar...
I fear BMW's major ace up their sleeve will lie with the KERS system though, which unfortunately will all be hidden from view.
Except for the extra "K" button on the steering wheel obviously! :)
that's a great article from james. i'm amazed mclaren can run smashed up tub too. shame reanult can't do the same :(
monday's going to be a busy day :)
thus far, from what we've seen it won't be pretty. hoping they make it less angular.
From that James Allen post:
Not good news for Lewis perhaps?
mclaren have got to have taken his driving style into account this year, haven't they?
twice in turkey his strategy has been compromised and he's only been there twice in a formula 1 car.
if i were the engineers, i'd make sure the front of that car was a light as a feather. i guess the problem is they tend to rely on computer readouts more than most teams. tough call, i think he'll be okay though.
:)
My sources tell me not to expect a car from FIF1 any time soon.
before the end of march though, right?
Yes :)
that's a relief then :)
The trouble is because of the relative sizes of the front and rear tyres forr this season they have to shove weight forward.
can a driver change their style season on season? especially with so little testing?
I was gonna ask what you did but...
well, at least i'm not the only one :)
Do you think he’s been reading Alianora’s blog? {Gavin Brown}
I'm not sure he has. I did say that the penalty applies every time the ninth engine was used.
As for replacement drivers, I didn't mention them because it's the same system as last year; a replacement driver takes on the engine status the previous driver had. For example, if a driver gets to race 11 of the season having used four engines until they broke, has two partly-used engines and two unused engines, then the replacement driver has two partly-used engines and two unused engines to finish the season.
They must be chuffed they can get Pedro for testing but don’t have to put him in the race car. {Dom - 21 comments ago}
Given what happened last time Pedalo tested a Force India, McLaren may be less chuffed about the prospect of him testing for FI. But I am glad that FI get a free rein and can keep the drivers they've confirmed twice already.
My sources tell me not to expect a car from FIF1 any time soon. {Andy Taylor - 9 comments ago}
Start of March, if I've read the internet correctly; they're planning on having it out just in time for the final six-day test in Jerez.
I hope there are no major flaws in the car because there won't be much time to fix them...
The trouble is because of the relative sizes of the front and rear tyres forr this season they have to shove weight forward. {Steven Roy - 6 comments ago}
Expect Renault and Alonso to be in trouble then - Renault's always been rearward-biased in their weights to fit in with Alonso's driving style...
can a driver change their style season on season? especially with so little testing? {me - 6 comments ago}
No. Fisichella said he'd tried emulating Alonso's driving style quite a few times during 2005 and 2006 once it became apparent that the latter's driving style made better use of the car, and I saw no sign that Fisi ever succeeded in doing so.
If two years isn't enough to change from a relatively conventional driving style to one as extreme as Alonso's (and we assume that the opposite transformation is equally difficult), then I don't think we can expect Alonso to be able to significantly change his style in a hurry.
It is not impossible for a driver to change their style - but most cannot. This possibly distinguishes the really good from the phenomenal driver. Mark Hughes in his Lewis Hamilton full story makes mention than Alonso had to change his style from Renault with the reward-biased weight distribution which suited the Michelin tyres to the Macca. I am not sure whether any other current driver has really changed things as much. Heidfeld claims to have improved during 2008 but I think this was also due to car set up since the car towards the end of the season was not suiting Robert's style.
In the beginning I might expect this but Alonso will drive round it he is that good. I speculate that the new regulations should suit Lewis and Macca will be the team to beat.
Renault will struggle in the beginning - the car I am most looking forward to seeing is Red Bull - I think it is going to be radical - they are going to go for high risk extreme solution.
BMW are too confident that KERS will bring benefit - I am not convinced though.
I have a question can a team run one car with KERS and the other without? If so it could be one option especially for a team with one driver significantly larger than the other.