Astonisingly it is a full year since the Sidepodtrip to the Belgian Grand Prix. A year ago, the Thursday of race weekend, we were on our road trip across Belgium towards Spa-Francorchamps. It doesn't seem possible that something so fresh in the mind can be so distant so soon. Clearly further events like this need to be organised.
Lukeh has been doing some drawing of the view from our grandstand, and a good job he's done too. Mr C has been doing some drawing of a very different kind, and a good job he's done too. Shiny.
Mav has written about Jerome d'Ambrosio, and is that a swish new inline quote box I see?
One of my favourite blogs has a guest post railing against some of the negativity sweeping across the racing blogosphere, particularly the IndyCar segment of it, some of whom do nothing but rant. It needed saying. (A rare non-sweary post for that blog ;).
Be sure to get your Belgian GP race info from Sidepodcast, with track notes and a preview from VivaF1.
Changing Careers?
Kimi Raikkonen, seemingly bored with WRC and NASCAR, tested a Peugeot 908 LMP1 car at Motorland Aragon (photo). This was a nice bit of PR for Peugeot, and he says he's keen so maybe something will come of it. I hope it does but I wonder if he has the patience for it.
Danica Patrick, seemingly bored with IndyCar (or the lack of marketability of IndyCar?), is finally at long last holding press conference at 5pm UK time to announce her plans for next year. It has been an open secret for months that she is going to NASCAR full-time in 2012, so much so that many are fed up with it already. But if you aren't, live streaming of the announcement will be here. Will she still come back for the Indy 500?
Willy T. Ribbs, the first African-American to start the Indy 500 and who was last seen racing in the 1990s, is making a comeback! He's 56 years old, that's even older than Schumi. He'll be racing in Indy Lights in Baltimore with a team he started, a good way to get publicity for it, I reckon.
We talked about this the other day, but DC has become a great ambassador for F1. Here is a video of his drive on the yet-to-be-tarmaced Austin GP track! And a nice little interview too. I'm sure a properly-edited version will appear at some stage.
Racing This Weekend
Here are the races going on this weekend.
- F1 Spa
- GP2 Spa
- MotoGP Indianapolis
- IndyCar Sears Point
- NASCAR Bristol
- F2 Spielberg
Ex-F1 and GP2 man Giorgio Pantano makes a guest-start in the IndyCar race, sitting in for Justin Wilson, and was 4th fastest in testing the other day. Perhaps he really is underrated after all.
A busy weekend, don't get square eyes now will you.
New daily ahoy!
Ooh, Pat, meant to say, you were correct that the auto-hyphenation is new. Very well spotted :)
Ha. :) I honestly thought I was going mad or had missed it for months, because nobody had said anything.
I assumed it was Mr C who did the tyres, btw, because he wrote the post. Apologies if a joint effort and I can change the post
Willy T. Ribbs must be desperate to try and make a comeback. He was never that great to start with so I can only assume he will be badly blown away.
It was indeed. Always a good guess to go with Mr C. I am usually more words than pictures :)
maybe two weeks? it only works on a few browsers, yay for upgrading :)
Clearly further events like this need to be organised
SIDEPOCKENHEIM. GET ON IT.
heheheh
via @TheSimonEvans
" @GarethAveyard: Steve Jobs' text was meant to say: "I reign as CEO of Apple" Damn you autocorrect! "
Firefox did it by itself! I like it when it does that and it takes less than a minute.
:D
:)
"is that a swish new inline quote box I see?"
had that for quite a while actually
Want to. I have a savings account now.
good start :)
Ahh sorry
Technically I've had it for a few years, I mean I put things in it now
I put things in mine and then I rapidly pull them out again. I somehow have to find money to pay for my Australian Open tickets next week that I don't have.
Maybe my parents were right when they said I should stop travelling :D
possibly don't use it much as I should, got a post coming next week with two of them though
new to me too, oops.
any more wrists need slapping? :-)
w00t!
Really I should be using it to buy another car or pay off my overdraft or credit card, and I know my parents would be happy with those.. but then they say you're only young once and you should enjoy yourself, and that means spending. Hockenheim might be off the calendar soon, best see it while it is still there!
I told my parents that I'm not in any debt so that already makes me better off than a lot of people and that if they want me to travel less they should make more of an effort to come and see me because half my trips are trips to see them because I miss them. So it's all their fault!
"He's 56 years old, that's even older than Schumi."
I love that line. I think the Vettel-Schumi-Bernie system should be adopted world wide
e.g. the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago, that's even older than Bernie
#whoops
Ah mine don't really know, they just know I'm spending as much as I earn which is true.. Stupid moving house twice in 13 months to a more expensive place each time.
It is true though, homesickness costs money!
surprisingly, only one formula 1 race winner is the same age - time for Alain Prost to make a bid for a fifth title?
Heheh. I'm smiling because a former employer who screwed me over but has tried to remain friendly afterwards, has invited me to go somewhere cool at cost price, as if nothing happened. He set up a tour company but beforehand ran a little trial trip for a bunch of us, says he wants to do a ten year reunion in 2013..
2013? that's #amyplanning
:)
I know! I can't think that far ahead
Just what you always wanted. The opportunity to give money to someone who screwed you so you can spend time with him.
Just listened to the latest TNT where Tom Merrick was discussing some of the messages people put on their twit bricks
This brick intentionally left blank
Push this brick for secret passage
And even a brick saying 404 error
Yeah exactly my thought. Mind you, it is a balcony to watch the Monaco GP. For some things you can tolerate bad people.
just genius! we tried to buy, i wish we coulda got through, such a brilliant idea.
At least that gives you the option to throw him off
love it
If he lands in front of Schumi at high speed, double bonus
They are still selling them because the room they are in is bigge tha they thought
:)
bigger
true, but now we've run out of money.
That is always a problem
also, i saw the bigger ones and want one of those instead :)
That is always a problem too. Just as well there are not shiny bricks
heh
Things I don't remember doing. Learning math by skype
http://www.upublish.info/Article/Learning-Math-Online-Via-Skype/605435
there can't be more than one?
There are loads. There is even one at NASA who is regularly credited on website items
unacceptable :)
There was one who turned up when I first got google alerts who had written a religious book. Now that is unnacceptable
Tony Fernandes has cut ticket prices at QPR
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/24082011/58/premier-league-qpr-reduce-ticket-prices.html
omg i want to hug him!
He knows how to be popular
I don't mind the odd adrenaline injection but this just looks scary
http://uk.travel.yahoo.com/p-promo-3361220
*holds something*
And he wants to buy Jenas, what a legend.
i'm thinking we could get there by tub from heathrow and christine could watch villa cheaper than at their home ground. win/win.
any chance he wants to succeed bernie in f1 too?
*tube not tub.
Would be a nice idea.
I was very confused.
Morning all
I must be honest - the Willy T Ribbs story knocked me for six. Without wishing to sound bad, having seen him recently on television, he needs to seriously work on his fitness to make the grade for Indy Lights.
How well do you know your Formula 1 history?
The book That'll be the Day: 365 F1 Stories takes a look at significant moments or quirky happenings on this day in Grand Prix history. Can you guess what event the following describes?
Just heard United Autosport will be running an Oak Racing Pescarolo-Judd in the LMP2 category at Petit Le Mans next month.
Stefan Johansson, Zac Brown and Mark Patterson to be driving.
Great stuff. I'm a fan of both teams. United seem to be getting themselves out a bit!
They've certainly done it the right way -- and with some good drivers too.
By the way, quite agree with your comment of Meesh's blog, although I wasn't too sure which weekly ranting blogger you may have been on about...
;)
:) :)
F1 coming back and everyone jumping onto Twitter again makes me realise I need to unfollow a lot of people :D
And just like that, a Q&A with Zak Brown will be coming in the next couple of weeks.
:)
Great Daily Pat!
Ooh nice.
ta!
hehe, i love that there are people in my twitter stream this week are complaining about too much talk of steve jobs or talk of football. i had no idea twitter was reserved exclusively for motorsport chatter.
people complaining about what other people tweet is always amusing. Don't like it? Unfollow :D
The people I've unfollowed are tweeting F1 stuff but its still not interesting to me so bye bye bye they go. So heartless.
My least favourite thing about Twitter is the people who say 'if you retweet person x, then your getting unfollowed'. It's my twitter I'll retweet whoever I like and if you don't like it then I don't care if you unfollow men.
that's the beauty of it. i unfollow, unlist, re-list, block and unblock on a daily basis.
sometimes i do it just to make people who track such things, a little more paranoid ;)
have never had that before, but that would = instant blocking for me.
I have no idea how many people are following me, I have no idea how many were following me yesterday, or how many were a week ago. I don't get why people care!
It's mainly from my Spurs followers, but I'm getting sick of it.
I unfollowed @ausgrandprix the other day because they're annoying me again and then I saw them retweeted a few times and I went 'nooo I can't escape them!' but I would never ask people not to retweet them :D
The only time I ever notice anything is if people follow me again. I sometimes think, "oh you followed me before, you must have taken a break, welcome back".
ahh I turned off my follower emails so I don't even notice that
Never had that. What I don't like is people who check who unfollows them and unfollows them back
*follows alex*
It has always seemed to me that the whole point isn't "people who I am friends with" but rather "people who I would like to read". I am sure that's why it is "follow" not "friend".
Pamela keeps a lot of people blocked on her app because she feels mean if she unfollows them, I tell her that most people won't notice and if anyone does, they probably won't be offended :)
*thinks - oh you followed me before, you must have taken a break, welcome back"
*hugs*
Yes I see that too... when I can be bothered to check my email notifications. :) I don't check the actual follower list.
Twitter isn't about friends at all.
especially because yeah, I might not be following you, but how do you know I don't have you on a list called 'the most awesome people on the face of this planet and every other planet'
I feel like that about my personal one. My TMR one I care a bit more about because firstly that's a project.. not to get followers but to get people to the blog. And secondly I'm constantly amazed at how high it is and why they bother, surely most are bots.
True. Like there are people who you'd be happy to spend all day with or drink in the pub with, but wouldn't follow on Twitter because their feed is a bit boring.
Yeah. I don't tweet much, for example. But I'm constantly reading via the dashboard or tweetdeck. So I'm mostly interested in what people say first.
I think it feels 'wrong' on Twitter though, that's what it is. If you choose people to follow based on their interests especially if their ID is a dedicated 'thing', like a dedicated racing feed. On the TMR feed I fill it with racing people and nothing else so if it is wall to wall football that can be annoying if I don't like football. Yet I'm well aware that's totally hypocritical because I don't only tweet about racing at all. :D
It's a new rule
;)
Yes!!
some take things a bit personally in digital land
Ooooh... afternoon listening
Interesting
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/michael-schumacher-to-test-dtm/
I have no idea either. Who cares?
@adamhaynicols: Vitaly just unwittingly blurted out the surprise that Bruno has signed for the next two races. Renault were being cagey
#whoops #rankings
It had been rumoured that Bruno and Romain would be sharing it for the rest of the season. It makes sense for two races, as Grosjean will be busy rounding up the GP2 Series first
Interesting.. or inevitible?
Wonder if Ralf will jump to BMW :)
:D
Give Roamin' Romain the after-Europe bit? Makes sense. I still think he has the drive for 2012.
that's funny :)
Hmm...
#Rankings!
Can you listen to 5 Live from an iPhone, BTW?
So Pat is planning to come over to Copenhagen the weekend of the Japanese GP. Can I write a short guest post seeing who else may be keen?
Abso-flippin-lutely.
Cheers!
It will be later on though, as I'm going out for bowling and a curry tonight ;)
At the same time? That could be a bit messy.
There is a band called Bowling For Soup, maybe he's Bowling For Curry
F1M ping: http://www.f1minute.com/news/bruno-senna-confirmed-at-renault-for-two-races
Should be fun :)
They do the Phineas and Ferb theme song.
Which is awesome.
Karun will be driving FP1 tomorrow - not sure who he's sitting in for though.
Confirmation: Danica Patrick is going to NASCAR, will do a full season in the Nationwide Series and 7 or 8 races in the main Cup Series.
Evening guys!
If you missed it earlier, a bit of pingage for Day 6: http://gridwalktalk.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/cutting-costs-in-formula-1/
How are we all? :)
and also via Twitter, the new President of the BRDC is Derek Warwick, replacing Damon Hill. An intriguing choice, I hope he carries on the good work there
Good, glad to be shot of the office :) yourself?
Hehe always good to get out of the office, and just one more day before the weekend.
I'm not too bad cheers. Haven't been feeling too great at all this and still not 100% but could be worse.
Good afternoon folks
Soooo, looking forward to Spa this weekend. Pity I can't watch FP1 & 2 live from work. How are we all?
Sorry I can't make it this time, too much going on in the next couple of months. :(
Hi bassano
Tell me about it, really really looking forward to this weekend but I just wish I could watch practise tomorrow!
I think this'll be one of the few I'll watch when I get in from work tomorrow, I can't wait for this weekend to get started.
Tune In Radio app is marvellous for this and other streaming radio
Not even going to explain how excited I am for Spa, Dr Who returning and Muse performing Origin of Symmetry on Sunday night. And then a bank holiday to top it off! Bliss! (no pun intended)
Looked at the BBC Weather earlier for the region and it suggested a wet Fri & Sat and a dry Sunday. Could cause havoc for the line up :D
Excellent
A much-needed bank holiday. Slightly wistful that it represents the end of summer though.
I thought that disappeared a few weeks ago
question y'all.
we're debating about dropping practice live threads, but keeping qually and race posts. at least for this season (we might bring them back next year if practice ever becomes interesting again).
anyone object to commenting in the daily thread until saturday afternoon?
If it cuts down the admin and is probably during a quiet period anyway, sounds fine
It probably isn't for me to say as I'm working during Friday sessions and sleeping during Saturdays, but my first thought on reading this is to suggest one post to cover all practices, the way we did it for the Indy 500.
And that post needn't be as detailed as they have been to date.
Enjoy a little something from the Sidepodcast back catalogue.
- Daily: 29th December 2010
Originally published 29 December 2010.
I only say that because it does aid reading them back later. And if comments continue to decline, lose that one then.
if it makes your lives easier than that's fine by me :) I've always loved watching practice sessions just cause of the interesting chat we get from 5live. it's like an extended video podcast for me.. only i can watch it on tv. I can see how alot of people find them dull this year though. They're much quieter than Sat/Sun so it makes sense really :)
I don't have any objection, only get to comment on the Saturday practise but I don't think getting rid of them will cause too many issues. It's not a disruptive thing for the daily or anything :)
Personally I use Realtime for all my Sidepodfollowing, so it would make my life easier during those two and three event weekends.
Ping: http://sidepodcast.com/post/the-boss-of-f1-should-bernie-name-a-successor
What about 1 post to cover all 3 FP sessions?
Or, going forward, using the Race Information post and doubling up until Qualy starts
I like that idea
Hm, not sure about that. I'll write one thread for three posts then, see how it goes. Hopefully there won't be confusion on Saturday when it has disappeared down the list a little :)
Wow, sudden deluge.. that's my walk to the shop scuppered :)
We keep getting that here too, earlier on I was thinking to myself 'Might be nice to go for a walk on my lu... oh... maybe not, hello sudden heavy rain.'
Of course, when my lunch was finished... the sun returned! And then soon went again. But that sneaky devil came back for more.
Heavy rain driving to work, sun sun sun all day, heavy rain just now.
I'm sure it'll be fine.
Joe is reporting that Heidfeld has gone to the High Court to keep his drive
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/heidfeld-goes-legal/
That's a surefire way to win friends!
Cos that always works! :)
#headlinesyoudon'tthinkyou'llsee
RNLI rescues Timothy Spall
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-14670050
Interesting piece from the Danica / Patrick / NASCAR press conference:
Interesting.....
Transferring the sponsorship to Marco Andretti? I don't see Conway as a Go Daddy boy.
Maybe they'll pay for DP Indy 500 drive too.
Apparently Michael Andretti is still pushing for four full-time entries...
The other day he said they might not be able to run four.
Meanwhile..
RT @curtcavin: @12WillPower fined $30,000 for his double-finger gesture in New Hampshire.
I think this very likely
As long as B.B. has to pay all the insurance claims on the cars he wrecked. Otherwise BOOOO!!!
Andretti nearly always run five cars at Indy and John Andretti has hinted that he may not be back.
I would think Roger P might pay that one.
FIA are missing out - they could make a fortune out of Vettel
:)
:D :D :D
OK. So am sitting in the kitchen applying for my provisional driving licence. I hate forms.
hah :)
exciting times
Hmmm... indeed.
It may make Leigh shudder but it seems I've missed an event from my list of races. Jon's favourite, the Citroen 2CV 24 hours.
Is that definitely on this year?
ooooh!
w00t!
Excellent
Yes. Jon's going and says he's doing the early hours shift again, and he's just RT'd a tweet from a team which is racing.
You can watch live here http://www.2cvracing.co.uk/news/149-24-hour-race-is-go
OK, so this is odd...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah3VaLf4SuU&feature=related
that's not in TMR game is it? got to be more predictable than NASCAR
better go make my picks come to think of it
ping: Belgian quiz http://www.vivaf1.com/blog/?p=8203
You'd be surprised, although potentially only because the laptimes are slower than Renault Clios.
they walk? :-)
feels like it from the onboards..
I love this non-F1 pic from Red Bull
http://instagram.heroku.com/users/redbull#p187498836
awful drag coefficient i believe
When did they get to the Millennium Bridge?
interesting ebook promotion for steven king's new work: http://paidcontent.org/article/419-stephen-kings-e-single-comes-to-klout-influencers-early/
essentially, the book is free for influential people. so if you have a lot of followers, you get the book free. otherwise you have to buy it.
probably worth signing up for Klout if you haven't already. thinking about adding the score to my CV, so many people have mentioned it to me recently.
Dunno, it was posted today on Instagram on their feed
So much for the classless society..
Ah I see. Shame I wasn't there on the day...
the risk being that they don't like actually like the book?
in theory klout should know enough about a person to offer only to influential steven king fans. have to see who starts tweeting about it. i'm ineligible.
I'm social media exhausted
heh. i think it's just getting started. always opt-in though.
i was about to say it's easy to see through that but then if people on Pat's blog are going to stop using vodafone and pirelli simply because the BBC are sharing tv rights with sky, i'm probably kidding myself
i mean, it's an opt-in thing.
I'm seeing too many dollar signs and it turns me off
i'm not seeing enough of those right now :)
I'm gonna need the futuristic equivalent of Click-to-Flash spectacles when I go out in the street in a few years. See No Ad spectacles :)
I mean in others eyes, so to speak :)
started writing something about schumacher and then heidfeld-senna kindly provided the perfect link-up...
ping: The Schumacher Affair http://www.vivaf1.com/blog/?p=8180
yaay!! best of luck with driving Leigh!
they'll find a way around it using the other senses
In other news, the funiest joke from the Edinburgh Festival has been announced: I needed a password eight characters long so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. :lol:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-14646532
I'll have a bit of this selective vision... Probably wouldn't waste it on adverts though....
ha!
Looks like I arrived just in time. This conversation is getting silly. Move on
#MontyPythonReference
http://beleben.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/hs2-is-getting-silly.png?w=355&h=395
:)
Heheh
“@djordan3223: @JustinWilson22 so its actually you now that you are "verified"?” Yes. I had been pretending to be me up to now
:D
I see Heidfeld has his lawyers involved now. Bruno may only get two races
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93943
I had heard it rumoured he only had Spa and Monza lined-up originally as Grosjean was due to share the seat. Not sure how much truth there was in that.
That was my first thought when I saw he had only two races
Doesn't Grosjean work at a bank or something? Why is he getting a seat?
;)
Grosjean can wrap up GP2 this weekend, why would they wait until Monza in that case? Surely they'd keep Monza flexible?
I think Heidfeld has already weakened his position by giving Renault these two races
You think he had a choice? He's dust
As far as I know, yes he still works at his bank.
DAMS (Boullier's team) have confirmed him until Monza to complete the competitive season. Abu Dhabi GP2 will be reserved for GP3 promotees
To be fair, I don't think Heidfeld has done enough; however I don't see Senna / Grosjean doing much better because of the lack of proper seat time.
And yes, I consider Grosjean to be a far better driver than he was in 2009.
Apparently he did turn up in the paddock this afternoon, in team gear. It's all very sad
Renault's problem is Petrov. If they just had a number two driver they could sign a race winning driver and have him as Kubica's team mate if Kubica comes back next season. However no race winning driver is going to sign when he will be out of a drive if Kubica comes back because the team can't drop Petrov
You think Kubica would come back?
Probably to back up his legal case. He is really just negotiating how much money it will take to make him go away.
Agreed
Probably. Not worth the risk though
I am not convinced but no driver is going to take the chance of signing on that basis. So Renault could end up with two number twos next year and that is not going to help them at all. A bit ridiculous when Hulkenberg can't get a drive
Has Force India come to an agreement with Liuzzi yet? These things take time
I don't really mean "would" I guess. His arm looked pretty grim.
That he has bad dress sense? I don't think he'll ever accept that
yeah, they're paying him not to drive for them.
it could be spin but the next op is supposed to be the last one. It's just restrictive elbow movement that has held up his physio, apparently
Unless Renault have come up with some serious updates over the summer, I can't see it making that much of a difference to the team. I can't see them beating Mercedes in the standings and I think they're far enough ahead of the teams behind them.
I think it will take a long time to reach his full potential after the accident. I would be surprised if he raced again
he's not having to play second fiddle to alonso for starters
Eurgh though honestly. Broken limbs are never quite the same afterwards. Forget something that's needed dozens of operations.
What I do not like is the public criticism of Heidfeld as a prelude to his dismissal by Boulier - could be construed as unfair dismissal as it is obviously due to Senna bring money into the team. I think Nick is now just getting back on the team - his F1 career is finished - but I think he could still do something in Le Mans series - what about teaming him up with Kimi? Personally I think they otus Renault have lost so much expertise that they will be lucky to finish the year ahead of Sauber.
I don't see why any potential driver wouldn't just ignore him basically. I can't see why that stops someone signing.
I'd love to agree with you but I generally think they are quite well enough ahead of us to stop that from happening. Realistically we'd need a few big finishes and I don't think they will happen a lot.
agreed, the top 4 will be mopping up most of the big scores
Trust me after having multiple fractures to shoulder, collar, upper arm and ankle it takes a lot longer to get through all of the physio and return everything to normal use. For me it only came right after about 20 months and I had only limited tendon damage with dislocation of the shoulder out of the socket - nothing like a partly severed hand I really feel for Robert but it is not going to be easy to get back to speed.
If they have the choice of a guaranteed drive or a drive that is dependent on Kubica not returning they would all take the other drive.
You never know... Lauda...
I also think he's much more capable mentally now as well. The entire situation with him being planted on the pitwall by Flavio at every race as a warning to Piquet Jr was never going to help.
Why would Peugeot want Heidfeld?
Schumacher has a DTM test according to Joe
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/michael-schumacher-to-test-dtm/
that's tantamount to him waving the white flag
You just have to have a race like Canada, but where conditions remain the same and Kobi could get a podium and all of a sudden that gap to Lotus Renault is almost halved. I think Kobi and Perez are a great team. The last few races Petrov has not even been in contention for a points scoring position and he is fourth-most overtaken driver during the fist half of the season - basically he goes backwards during most races. Will Senna be better than Petrov? For me Grosjean would be far more secure driver (his pace difference to Alonso was much closer that Petrov's was to Kubica).
That was a different thing. He didn't lose any function of his limbs. His burns were awful and Ferrari's treatment of him was worse. I can still remember reading Nigel Roebuck's description of him slowly and painfully peeling off his blood-soaked balaclava after his comeback race.
Kubica's injuries are a lot more debilitating and have a lot more consequences.
Oh my WORD. Someone I know told me they were doing some tv baking thing and there they are on the iplayer!? Crazy times.
Seems like Mercedes asking him to move over for di Resta
Statements from Heidfeld's lawyer and manager after instigating legal proceedings against Renault http://adamcooperf1.com/2011/08/25/heidfeld-camp-confirms-ongoing-legal-case/
That's very likely, and knowing how well Sauber have coped in those sort of races is promising. But again, Renault will still always be at the same pace at worse as Sauber, so I doubt any massive gains could be made.
Meanwhile, recording episode 4 of the Parc Ferme podcast. Have come up with some cheap noise dampening solutions for the mic.
http://twitpic.com/6b51tj
heheh. :)
I wonder why more people don't do that
Okay as long as you don't have a script to read
I knew there had to be a flaw somewhere
The joys of memorising stuff
:)
could knit it onto the inside
Heidfeld's main issue has been qualifying - during the race he is fast and has been mostly consistent and smooth in driving style - all of which suits long distance racing. In terms of points over three season he beat Robert and had two fastest laps against Robert's none. He may not be be a top F1 driver but he still got a podium in his second season in a Sauber which was not terribly competitive. Also 13 podiums and 259 points is still not that bad and it is not as if his team mates have scored wins when he has not (well only one under then illegal team orders).
Or just make it up as you go
He's also very reliable which is surely what you need in something like Le Mans. He doesn't break cars.
I knew there was something else
The other thing is the heavy breathing after the heat inside the jumper builds up, that'd get you the wrong kind of listeners
If I can turn them on to motor racing, then all's good
;)
My first thought upon reading this headline is exactly what Adam C wrote at the end - why bypass the CRB? The court can now decide to throw it back to the CRB as there is precedent to them handling cases like this previously.
Oh, and how ironic that 20 years after Schumi switches to Benetton and triggers the creation of the CRB, Heidfeld decides to bypass that very same body.
And the mic picking up the heartbeat
I have faith is Sauber's management both Spa and Monza are fast tracks suiting the Sauber aerodynamics - have faith in the team. I am worried that Force India could join the pack and hunt down both Sauber and Renault - during the race they are sometimes as fast as the works Mercedes!
Poor Leigh, we should be trying to come up with solutions :-)
It does seem odd. Maybe there is something in the contract the CRB would interpret as allowing Renault to park him but a court would interpret the other way
Seems so. While this would equate to manna from heaven for DTM, I do find it slightly disappointing that Schumi can't just quietly ride into the sunset. If he moved down from F1 to DTM and won, it wouldn't prove much. And if he didn't win... that doesn't bear thinking.
Given that Nick hasn't exhausted all avenues available to him within the sport before going to court, I am not convinced that he has a winning case.
Put the mic in a cornflakes box and tape the box to his face. Either that or go and and steal all the egg boxes from Tesco and stick the to the walls, floor and ceiling since that is how they make anechoic chambers in the first place
Depends on if we can get the medium compound to be our friends really, fingers crossed.
Am slightly worried about Force India, them and that pesky and annoyingly quick di Resta, *shakes fist*
I wonder if Merc will give him a new DTM car or make him do a season in a 2009 car
As I said earlier for me all he is doing is negotiating how much money it will take to make him go away
I think it was unwise to go this route - accept the team does not want your services and find another series to race in. He was always only a substitute for the injured Robert.
OI!!!!!!
If it comes to that - a new DTM car, no question. They're not going to make him go to DTM just to make up the numbers.
And if they do offer him a 2009 car, I really hope Michael has the prudence (and common sense) to say no and just walk away.
it's surely about a settlement, not determining the validity of his contract
be really scared if they decide to run the Hulk - personally I think he is faster than either of their regular drivers.
Doesn't BMW have a GT team in Le Mans now?
Don't think they will this season, but it is a worry for next year.
awesomeness ping from brij: http://sidepodcast.com/post/f1-teams-mid-season-performance-review
Which would certainly explain why he went straight to court. But given that Renault don't have that much money as it is, they just might go for a trial anyway.
Can I just say - it pays to be a lawyer for Dany Bahar. :D
Are they not all new next year? New formula.
this and to get back for all of the unfair comments Boullier has made .... in our country I am sure their would be grounds for significant compensation - especially the accusation about causing the fire that the team-made after Hungary and that the criticism started at the same time Genii was making deals with Brazilian capital companies. I thought Briatore to be a poor manager - yikes does not come close to this idiot!
I didn't know that
Yep
That is why the collective term is called a litany of Lotus Renaults
I think Eric Boullier himself isn't half-bad. But a lack of money (which Dany Bahar should be giving him to some extent) has forced him to make some questionable decisions.
Ping: http://sidepodcast.com/post/sidepodhagen
Just got home from awesome bowling (much harder than on the Wii), and a great selection of curries :)
because every time Renault go near an FIA court they complain they will have to quit F1 and then mysteriously come away scot-free ;-)
apologies my dog got in the way ... back to Boulier - one can understand a cash flow problem - Williams let got of the Haulk and they did not really hide the fact that it was a money thing. At the end of last year Boullier really came down on Petrov saying he needed a nursemaid to get him up in the morning - the guy is totally incompetent as a manager and the morale in that team must be rock bottom - this team will sink further than even Williams if there is not a change in management. Rumour has it that Renault does not want to supply them with engines next year (I think the issue is non-payment for past engines).
yay.