Shwmai pawb! That's 'Hello everybody' in Welsh, I thought I would open with something different there. Apologies to all the A-level students with hangovers who saw that and felt their brain kerplode. How are we all on this fine Friday as we continue through the latter half of the F1 summer break? It's been a quiet few weeks but the sport is slowly waking up as we prepare for Spa. I mean, just look how shocked this cat is at what happened with Rubens and Michael in Hungary! But there's lots to discuss and look and read and watch today so let's get those bullet points out!
- F1 news - So we actually have some news to discuss, finally. Did you know that Renault will be utilising their F-duct system at next weekend's Belgian Grand Prix? They feel confident enough that their system is gonna work and Eric 'We Like Him Because He's not Flav' Bouiller has given the system the green light. With F-Ducks being banned in 2011 being banned I find this a bit pointless but hey, who's the one sitting at home and not in the paddock? Well I imagine Eric is too but that's not the point. Formula 1 legend and subject of many bad F1 volume-related jokes Niki Lauda still isn't impressed with Ferrari and rightly so I say. He thinks that what happened at Germany should result in a pasting for the team, which worries me a bit but intrigues me as I'm not entirely sure what that would involve. Just make sure Rob is alright afterwards, Mr Lauda. I SAID, JUST MA.. ah, let's not go into that joke.
- Get your reading glasses on and plug in your Mr Potato Head ears folks because there's plenty to read and listen to this week with the incoming blog plugs/blugs/pliggetyplogs. First off, have you checked out the new Mini Series here on Sidepodcast? Christine is taking a gander at F1 circuits from past and present and I am absolutely loving having new and refreshing content here on the site, with the Spa entry from yesterday being the latest in the series. Now I do love a good rant, and our hosts here at Sidepodcast have had a bit of a rant at the BBC coverage which has been followed up by a very intriguing discussion in the comments afterwards. Feel free to join in folks because you're always welcome and we love new opinions. If you enjoy the rule-related side of F1 it's an absolute must you check out the latest installment from Alianora as she looks and explains the deeper rules of F1. The excellent thing about Alia's staggering efforts is that she really does make quite a laborious subject (in my opinion at least) worth reading and actually interesting, so thanks Alia!
- The past few days have seen the GamesCon event in Germany take place with lots and lots of news flooding out of Leipzig regarding the upcoming Formula 1 2010 and Gran Turismo 5. We all know about F1 but the GT series is Sony's big flagship racing series for the Playstation and without a new GT game in 4 or 5 years now, many are looking for this to be quite the game. Lots of quite incredible information has been revealed< - did you know that Gran Turismo 5 will have a Course Creation system and Karting in the game as well? And as well as this, the B-Spec mode has been overhauled to accomodate a management-style game for you to develop drivers and run cars around the world and sounds absolutely incredible. Onto F1 2010, Eurogamer sat down with Adrian Sutil as he played the new F1 2010 game at the convention, revealing his gaming side to life and his previous experiences with racing games that he seems really quite into! Go Adrian!! I myself wrote a bit about the new F1 game earlier this week so feel free to take a look if you;re interested in Codemasters' wonderful looking racer.
There we go, plenty to keep us interested through this Friday with that illustrious weekend approaching. Oh, by the way for the UK guys that remember Teletext - do you remember Bamboozle? It's back on the iPhone! YAY! I shalln't be writing next Friday's Daily Thread as I shall be sitting in Spa Francorchamps watching practise with other Sidepodders which will be awesome! If you're going the Weekend Schedule is now available to view, and even if you're not, why not meet up with the many commentors going to a Sidepodpubmeetup next week? It'll be great fun I promise! I'll be there! Although that has probably put people off now but still, you should definitely go! With that, I'll bid you guys farewell, have a lovely Friday and I'll see you again in a fortnight where we'll be in September! Have a great day and I'll see you in the comments!