Ah-ha, we have some F1 news at last. Just as we were starting to wonder whether F1 had been a simple figment of our imagination, we are blessed with a serious rumour. Okay, it's nothing concrete, but it's a start, isn't it?
- Speculation hit us yesterday that Honda may have been saved. Carlos Slim was in the frame as a buyer and rumour has it he's the guy. However, Autosport are adament that nothing has changed and Slim is just one of four potential owners. Didn't it used to be three?
- The BBC have posted some pictures of the journey Honda has taken in Formula 1. They're not the best photos I've ever seen but do spark some memories.
- Talking of photos, we've posted the first part of our 2008 in Pictures article. Last year it all managed to fit in one post, so either we have been out more this year, or we just have more to say about it.
That's it for now. Don't forget that the Daily post is here for you to share your thoughts about anything, it doesn't have to be limited to what I've mentioned above. I'll see you in the comments.
Some Swiss lot are interested in Honda apparently? But who? Nestle?
I was thinking, why don't we all make some F1 related predictions for 2009? Say a number of predictions each? I think it would be interesting to look back on them in 12 months time.
Me again!
New Alonso-Ferrari rumour.
Alonso off to Ferrari in 2011? Or even sooner if Kimi doesn't improve next year.
Brilliant idea. Tell you what, hold off on them for a bit, and we can write a specific post to encourage predictions. Then we can immortalise everyone's words FOREVER.
Not to scare anyone off or anything. :)
Cool. You can do all the hard work then :-D
only if you make predictions too :P
Can do.
:D
Hmmm....
I take that this scurrulous and boring stuff is being spread by Dank and not actually "me"....again....
On the Kimi front...(although any side works for moi...)... funny how the Schumi contract and Chris Dyer news comes out at a similar time...
Is there a live show tonight? Schedule says no, so am guessing not.
Top Gear Vietnam special is 8 - 9:15 by the way, looks good
Well BMW Sauber are based in Switzerland...
But I don't think Peter would be interested...
On the other hand a number of other ex F1 types live in Switzerland...
Some have even built a small pad... or castle ..there...
Could this be another take on the Dominicali Schumey contract stuff?....
Unlikely, I grant you....
No show tonight. Can't compete with Mr Clarkson on a regular weekend, let alone a Top Gear special.
Let's hope for some firm news to discuss in the new year then
No. Still has a 20% in BMW and the name is still BMW Sauber. So not really gonna go anywhere soon.
Golf-putting game is terribly addictive, have 6 now but goal is 8
Still, it has stopped me playing the Turkey Shoot game
http://www.southbank-design.co.uk/turkeyshoot/index.htm
Afternoon folks
Picked up the current issue of F1 Racing and it has the results of the ING F1 survey they did. They are as follows:
Most Popular Team - McLaren, 29%; Least Popular - Force India, 0% (That's less than even Super Aguri who scored 1% along with Toyota)
Most Popular Driver - Lewis Hamilton, 27%; Least Favourite - Jarno Trulli, 0.1%!
Fans want to see more on TV - Interviews with drivers (86%) and team engineers (69%) and also more pit-to-car radio (60%). They don't want interviews with celebrities (5%)
The future of F1 for fans - They want F1 to continue at classic venues (90%), more emphasis on driver skills (88%) and it must be more affordable to attend the races (88%). They don't want refuelling banned (18%) or reverse grids (17%)
What's important in F1 - Quite obvious really, it's the overtaking (74%), with the best drivers second (63%) and informative and engaging commentary third (59%). Not concerned about the glamour though (15%).
Technology in F1 - What matters the most here for fans is the want to see new tech innovations every year (74%) and to reverse their judgement of KERS until next season (64%). Although, to quote from the magazine, "...while 8 out of 10 fans claim to have a strong knowledge of the sport's technical aspects, seven percent said they didn't know what KERS was (!)."
Uh oh. Trulliometer will be low again, then.
I managed a 7 last night which I fropioed because no-one will ever beat it. That should get Lou's competitive edge going.
Fropied!
Trulliometer will drop when he sees that
Doesn't work making fun of other people's spelling mistakes and getting it wrong myself. Rats.
What? BMW not the most popular. This is an outrage.
Seriously, this is the UK, this is Lewis Hamilton, fans will have supported him for what he does, therefore, liking McLaren, as proved by
2% must like Kovalainen then :D, and whats wrong with Trulli? I like him a bit.
Woulda had pit-to-car radio for me.
The quoting went a bid cukoo at the end
Fropioed should go in the dictionary.
I have an excuse as I am typing one handed between mouthfuls of mustard chicken pasta
1.4% for Kovi. :P
Should really do a worldwide poll to make it fairer.
Am retiring at 12
http://drop.io/sidepodcast/asset/bassano-golf-12
According to F1 Racing, it was.
"The ING/F1 Racing Global Fan Survey was completed by F1 fans from all over the world, including the Americas, Europe, the Far East and even places as remote as Pitcairn Island and Burkina Faso."
Lewis is just a popular guy, it seems.
I've never even heard of the Pitcairn Island
Is that not where the Bounty abandoned some of its crew following a little bit of a disagreement?
According to wikipedia, yes.
ah damn it! now i have to go play it again.. i was gonna get so much work done today ;)
Have you noticed that someone else did a little better than 7?
yes... yes i have...
oi! it makes sense though.
alonso's wages are paid by slim's funding of piquet. if that ends next year renault can't afford alonso, and kimi is far and away the most over paid (and based on last year's efforts overvalued) driver on the grid.
taking alonso onboard will save philip morris money (and secure santaders income) at the same time. and what do they lose?
sounds like a bargain!!
With apologies to Lou. Kimi is more overpaid than Button? Are you mixing your unnamed energy drink with your wine?
Great dictionary entry. Got me laughing anyway
nope:
- button wasn't driving a winning constructors car last year. the honda was a pig to drive. i suspect plenty of people could have made a better fist of the ferrari though, including jenson.
- button didn't get he backside kicked by a younger and more erratic driver.
- button didn't lose his "team number one" status during the course of the year.
by the way, didn't ferrari claim that kimi was scheduled to run a bucket load of testing miles this winter. has he done more than anyone else (including massa) thus far? haven't really been following what the ferrari's are up to, but maybe they've decided it'll be cheaper and easier all round to just tweak the car for felipe?
woot! 'me' stood up for jenson :P
i've given up on the golf thing btw. it's too difficult.
Did you manage to beat my score of 1?
I managed another two sixes then out of the blue did 14 which has been dropioed.
yes, i got 3.
Bah.
Well, My best is a 6. But that was done ages ago and the closest I've come since is a 4
lol well i beat you on the reindeer racer game, so i suppose we are even now.
I am sure you will go back to the golf game later.
:D
I now remember the reason i chose not to follow my parents and gave up golf when i was 9.
to be fair i am better at wii golf :P
hmm... i doubt it, i was getting a little frustrated... perhaps just one more go...
Careful, lou, it's a slippery slope!
just to let you all know, after the sucess of last years gingerbread house (see drop.io)
we're currently making a gingerbread houses of parliament and big ben.....big ben is going to be over 70cm tall....
eeeek!!
wow!! please drop.io it when it's done. :D
I'm going to have to come out of retirement now :D
Bloomin eck. How much does all that gingerbread cost you?
Oh damn
it costs me nothing, my parents are paying :D wooo
You lucky guy. Good luck with it then
:D
Is there a world record for the biggest gingerbread houses of parliament?
i've even got my friend into it now.....
lol i hope we beat it.
Just got 10.
The highest I'm gonna get for a long while
well done.
:(
lol Steven, my friend blames you for bringing this game to my attention as she is now addicted to it. tis funny, the blame steven game has ventured outside of the sidpodcast community :P
It's worse than crack, just 5 more mins! :D
Just tell her: Steven Roy told me to.
haha
I always thought I would be famous for something better than taking the blame
You only have yourself to blame :D
haha. she lolled at that comment :)
She is seriously addicted, and already doing as well/badly as i am.
XD :D
:D
'me' told me to do it
'No Honda F1 buyout, says Mexican billionaire'
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/28122008/3/honda-f1-buyout-says-mexican-billionaire.html
afp again? i wish they'd make up their minds :D
god, it's a flipping roller coaster of emotions supporting Honda atm.
i swear i am never promoting philips razors again:
http://tinyurl.com/phillipswinner
;)
Funny, because ITV have just got round to the Slim story:
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=44845&PO=44845
And it's already over.
one day someone will explain to me why in the world itv still have an f1 site?
Technically, they still own the rights for F1 for a further 77 hours and 49 minutes
Right, Top Gear coming up next on BBC2! Better ready the hot chocolate and hobnobs :D
Have moved to the Daily thread.
I'm out of choccie biscuits, but I do have scones and chocolate spread :)
scones and chocolate?
Why not? I make scones with chocolate chips in them :)
not sure. never heard of that before.
i know someone who might approve though :)
And very nice they are as well :-)
(Put it this way, on the odd, rare, occasion that there are any left over - from a double batch!) - the children have eaten them by the time we get up in the morning... or I have snuck down at silly O'Clock and.....
This Top Gear so far is brilliant :D
i want chop-chip scones :(
;)
Yeah, pity Jeremy is being such a tit.
Don't forget looking like a tit on that moped :P
Lamb or pork? :D
eh?
You asked for chop chip scones...
i got excited by the prospect ;)
Loving Top Gear - an Evel Knievel bike as a backup :)
I'll have to bring some to Brum.
Yup, probably gonna go down as well as the slogans on those cars in their American trip
LMFAO at Hammond and that model ship on his bike! :D
Clarkson falls off! :D
LMFAO at those clothes!
"Jeremy Clarkson - FAIL" :D
Looks like Jeremy, James and Richard should also have enabled International Roaming :)
:D
...Crikey.
That looked painful for Clarkson
Yay they made it! :D
HAH! That's a twist! :D
HAHA! Me and Hammond said "Don't say that!" at the same time! :D
Not quite...
LMAO! :D
It's like the channel challenge all over again
Is this the longest and greatest Top Gear challenge ever? :D
BEST. TOP. GEAR. EVER. PERIOD :D
I think the Polar and African challenges were better.
At least it's up there with them anyway :)
That was great, I LOVE Vietnam and have to say that was a pretty accurate potrayal.
Sailing through Ha Long Bay is like being on a James Bond set
The Botswana was the best, that was brillaint, I think the presents ruined the episode (the painting etc), other than that, twas a good episode, specially with James falling in the water at the end.
Actually, the Florida-New Orleans and Polar were better than that.
I fell asleep in the middle od James May's childhood and woke up just as Clarkson got face planted with 10 minutes left in Top Gear. I guess I will watch it on the iplayer later.
Wow, Nick Mason has a Ferrari F1 from the Turbo era :D
That's relatively normal in Nam I think :D
Love the sound of The Chain
Fingers crossed the BBC bring it back again.
With the suit as well?
oh goodness, Max was in one of the question's in the big fat quiz of the year on channel 4 at the moment.
I had a a shirt made with an embroidered dragon on it, it's my poker shirt.
I should Frop.io it
Aye watching it.
So are we the only person watching the Mille Miglia programme?
Pretty pretty cars....
shall be watching it on iplayer later ;)
No. I won't move from the TV till it is finished.
http://drop.io/sidepodcast/asset/vietnam-poker-shirt
US $10, made to measure
I'm watching too! I had no idea Mika Hakkinen did the race as well :D
Despite all the safety stuf in F1 these guys will race anything however insane given the chance.
His race can't be over already can it?
Perhaps Top Gear lent him the reserve car from the Botswana trip?
That engine does not sound good. Sounds like it needs an F1 pit crew to fix it over night
:( I think it's over. I feel so sorry for him.
Or maybe not yet.
He spent £850k on it and he thinks the cost of flying a few valves in for it may be too much?
Perhaps he should have listened to his co-driver when she said not to rev over 3.5k?
When you're trying to stay in a race that you've dreamed about, you'll do anything regardless of cost. At least I think so.
He seemed way to over-excited to me so it is possible that he over-revved it. You need to be in control of the andrenalin in a race car
I agree. The cost of shipping valves which will fit in someone's pockets is nothing compared to what he has already spent.
Yep, that's it. He's out :/
Damn, all that money for a shoddy rebuild, so it seems. I would be both quite upset and angry. No doubt anyone who'd spent as much as he did would be.
I love the idea that they get handed glasses of wine on the ramp.
Do you think the chap at the Maserati factory had said something that translated as "well, normally we'd be able to have it done by Thursday, but trouble is you can't get the parts these days..."
"Motorsport is 98% pure nightmare and 2% pure enjoyment" Now that's a quote.
I thought that was 'me's' description of a live sidepodshow.
:D
When he got to the factory to look round, my first thought was 'ah, the producer had arranged to borrow one from there for him to 'carry on' in then!'
They said that the producer wanted him to carry on in another car but he refused. However it does seem odd trying to fly valves in from England when the factory is within driving distance.
Should really do a worldwide poll to make it fairer. {R.G.}
The ING poll was supposed to be worldwide, though given that it was in English I suspect that English-speaking people would be unfairly represented.
wow James Allen has surprised me -
http://allenonf1.wordpress.com/2008/12/24/my-festive-top-ten/
I expected him to put Lewis higher up the list ;)
‘No Honda F1 buyout, says Mexican billionaire’ {Bassano Clapper}
Grrr! Good thing I said it was provisional on my blog - I feel silly enough as it is...
one day someone will explain to me why in the world itv still have an f1 site? {me}
Er... ...to give people something to do while they wait for ITV to reassign them to doing whatever's replacing F1 in their schedules?
Simple - their contract doesn't run out for another 3 days...
Is it Top Gear presenters' night on BBC2?
When's the Hammond show on?
Didn't they say they site would remain (though they didn't say for how long)
If the Ad revenues pay for it, I guess it'll stay until they don't
Aren't they replacing it with Poirot or something.
"Ah, Poirot has found ze culprit of the missing Formule 1 coverage, ze BBC"
Roll on David Richards :D
"Speculation hit us yesterday that Honda may have been saved. Carlos Slim was in the frame as a buyer and rumour has it he’s the guy. However, Autosport are adament that nothing has changed and Slim is just one of four potential owners. Didn’t it used to be three?"
Sloppy, Christine, sloppy... :-p
I'm a bit disappointed the rumour turned out to be false, but I guess it does show how badly everyone values having a certain amount of teams on the grid.
erm?
at the moment we're certain it's false either are we?
not certain, sorry.
Honda Racing have denied that they are in talks with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim regarding a potential takeover, with team principal Ross Brawn dismissing the rumours as "pure speculation".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/4000204/Honda-Racing-deny-reports-billionaire-Carlos-Slim-is-ready-to-take-over-the-team.html
it is believed that apart from Slim they are Prodrive boss David Richards with the Kuwait-based Investment Dar Company (TID), Greek shipping magnate Achilleas Kallakis and an unidentified Swiss group.
Force India boss Vijay Mallya had also been linked with the team, but this is believed to have been purely an interest in the assets should the team have been closed and their facilities put up for sale.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72581
have read a couple of these today, and we're still no closer to knowing for certain. annoying if you're a honda fan, but fun to watch it develop all the same.
Poor Lou
Ok, Me, tell me, did I just have a brainfreeze? I would swear it should say "use to be"?
If I turn out to be wrong, please forgive me. English is not my native language, as you might have suspected.
It can be either. I think "used to be" is less common but not incorrect. Thank you for picking it up though, I love a good grammar question :)
agreed.
it's also probably a bit bad for la stampa, who yesterday we decided seemed to be a reputable source. mind you if they turn out to be correct...
:)
Thanks on that one.
My poor mind was confused there as in school they always hammer on avoiding to use past tenses incorrectly :)
I think La Stampa is quite a respected Italian rag but I guess it's a slow news week for sports
Would be the greatest comeback since Lazarus.
To quote Sid Waddell.
the bbc wrote a post about... well nothing. but they must have thought they needed something public out-there for some reason.
annoying is an understatement.
consider it a test of your faith.
ha! a test indeed.
i'm just hoping that at one point in the next 87days and 22 hours* they find and announce their buyer, details, and their drivers plus get everything ready so they at least have a car capable of completing a race by Melbourne. That's assuming they get a buyer, which is obviously what i am hoping for ;)
I'm not sure if i'm just obsessed or just plain nosy but i just want to know what's happening... silly i know cause they won't announce anything until its all finalised (whatever it is) but i just wanna know if i'll be supporting Jenson in a car (the ex honda) or supporting him as he trys to get a drive for 2010.
*i don't know that off by heart or anything, i checked f1.com ;)
Rubens was drivng the same car and did very well in Silverstone, so I do not think anything was wrong with the Honda, however, there was a design issue in the Ferrari where the Sweet Spot was extremely narrow. The Ferrari had the pace as can be proved by the number of Kimi fastest Laps.
Button did worse. He got his backside kicked by an older driver, more sedate drive.
You need to have number one status before you cna lose number one status, me. When did Jenson have No. 1 status this year?