Last day of April, and we're expecting the last bit of news from the FIA for the month. They already essentially cleared McLaren to race for 2009, and now they'll discuss how things will shape up for the future of the sport. Here's what we're talking about:
- McLaren's suspended sentence means that they'll escape penalty if no further information comes out about the lying scandal, and assuming nothing else will happen in the next 12 months. It's safe to say that wil be the case, and I think most people are happy that the results of the hearing won't affect the racing.
- Despite Flavio's protests that KERS is basically rubbish, FOTA have confirmed that they are keen to work on the technology for 2010. Does this mean that Flav's efforts to try and break up the team's alliance is not working and that they are just ignoring him?
- Also, it turns out that the little parody I made for Felipe Baby is becoming kinda popular. Mr C has written a post explaining all about it but... basically... Rob Smedley has heard it. And I might die. That is all.
Keep the excellent comments coming, we should have lots to talk about today, particularly when we find out the budget caps and more. That'll do it for now, I'll see you in the comments.
ok, hands up... who stole april?
Not me.
15 years though. :(
Wow you are on the ball tonight .. only 6 mins past the bewitching hours and the new daily arrives
Makes a change from when Mr C was left on his own for the weekend. ;)
:(
Really ;)
For the second time this evening I have to say: Shhhh!
Please see my earlier post with the link in it.
Although wasn't he also suffering from a case of 'missing Christine' blues plus alcohol and takeaway syndrome?
And there was me thinking it was just the booze ;)
Had he been drinking?
Who woulda thunked it.
I'd never have guessed.
Doohickey V2 working well here, just stopped me from replying on the wrong thread :)
Time for bed any how, night all.
Night Andy
Oh that's just brilliant - the WHO just raised the swine flu pandemic status from level 4 to 5 a hour ago. Just the note I needed to end the day on...
How does that affect us here?
As horrible as it is for anyone to suffer, raising the profile might actually get something done about prevention and treatment!
But it just gets everyone worked up about it even more. I see your point but I'd rather we weren't running around like headless chickens and dramatising it in the press saying that we're all gonna die from it.
I was going to raise it from yellow alert to orange alert but I couldn't find the orange bulb.
I almost had an anxiety attack because I don't know whether to switch all my panicking over on to swine flu or keep some of it for HIV/AIDS/SARS/Bird flu/asteroid attack.
we've had this discussion. bruce is on standby for the asteroids. trust me, i watched the film again to be sure, and he has a good team behind him. it'll be fine.
I can hear helicopters already...
Look at the numbers who are dying from it and look at the number of people who die in road accidents. You have way more chance of bing killed in a road accident tomorrow than you are to be killed by that flu. How worried are you about dying in a road accident? Bear in mind you have run that same road accident risk very day of the year.
Governements need things for us to be afraid of. Doesn't matter if it is disease, communists, Nazis, terrorists or tomatoes. So long as they can say that if we give them the powers to tackle the problem they are happy.
24 hours later, anyone
Seriously, The Sun were always gonna have a field day with this, with or without The World Health Organisation
OK I will reduce the asteroids to yello alert and whatever other bulb I can find will dictate the alert for swine flu.
i agree and i just single-handedly survived the black death with no government intervention and just a trip to tesco to help me.
And it stops folk blaming them for the recession for a day or two
white bulbs are my department. allow me...
...
...
ok, crisis over. what's new in f1?
How many people are worried about asteroid strikes rather than flu? Probably none but we had two huge rocks pass within 50,000 miles of the Earth in the space of a couple of weeks a month ago.
Who woulda thought you could code your way out of near death!
That's what the Elizabethans were doing wrong ;)
That's true! Was wondering to myself in the city today that everyone seems to be forgetting the recession because of it.
Well...
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74942
Flav & Bernie are idiots
Oh wait, new? Errm
hadn't thought of that. think the nhs might be interested? they could get a new national database and cure the sick at the same time?
Now I am really panicking. Nothing has ever been as low as white alert before. I feel I am being kept in the drk about the real threat. Who has a paper bag?
A new campaign maybe - "Setting up a website single handedly cures all ailments"?
I do NOT need a blog
Was I hinting at you? Don't believe I was :P
Hmm, did we miss this through all the McLaren trial/Christine hype:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74940
Apparently the budget cap has been increased, though by how much isn't known yet.
It's been discussed for a few days, to be announced tomorrow isn't it?
I thought the whole thing was supposed to be going on on the 4th May? Or is that this FOTA thing?
terrible news. autosport forums are down.
good news. back in a few hours.
Do you think "you know what" has caused this maybe?
Very unusual for Branson to drop the ball on things, should have tied up that sponsorship deal after Australia
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74921
Do they have many Mexicans transcribing at Autosport?
I wasn't talking about that...the other thing, a bit closer to our site. ;)
:D :D :D
Steven Baby, stay cool! We're bringing you the white light bulb!
5 pints of ROFLcopter!
please, please tell me that phrase won't catch on!
:D
only if Rob Smedley says it?
It should make the dictionary though
I think Gavin holds creative licence of the 5 pints prefix so, it's down to him
I'll ask him tomorrow ;)
i'm not concerned about the 5pts prefix! no roflcopters or lmaonade.
I was just thinking that roflcopter sounds like an ale a friend of mine would probably like! :D
lmaonade is pretty good though
gah!
How about 5 schooners of FBSC (Felipe Baby, Stay Cool!)
Would you believe I had a phone call from the Engineers departing the aircraft with 'that' speedtape on it today? :D
I told them to look in the log (a school boy error on their part)
was the question... are you sure that will hold?
not sure if i missed this, but pat's post re: THAT song:
http://toomuchracing.blogspot.com/2009/04/felipe-baby.html
Schooner, I've not heard that term for a few years
[Approx 3/4 imperial pint, for reference]
3 Schooners of 'New' and 3 C*** S***ing Cowboys please
fbsc i likes :)
Nearly, as it had just come from Base they were a little bit surprised
[They know it'll hold longer than the composite panel it was stuck to]
Doesn't White Visor sound like an 80's cider?
I've not opened Tweetdeck for about 5 days, it's gonna be 300 comments about Felipe Baby isn't it?
Let's find out what Fake Felipe thinks
backpackers guide to f1, has updated with bahrain info. interesting thing i didn't realise:
"Driver parade didn't happen at this circuit. The drivers lined up on a podium and were interviewed but they ran out of time before they got down to Kimi and Heikki."
hehehehe. it really does.
That's what they say
[don't tell Amy, please ;) ]
lots of detail re:mclaren kers device in this post. wish i could understand the video though.
We had this vid earlier in the week. Probably when you had swine flu
Didn't the BBC do this very same thing during their post race 'forum'
[Err, emails, I don't think so guys]
Check your iPlayer
Ah yes, that was it
Though it was in English
ah-ha. i was asleep.
apologies. please ignore my previous comment.
I remember commenting that the battery back lookied like it had come from a Dell laptop
It fell on deaf ears :(
to make up for that last comment. did we know that:
"Heidfeld was able to equal a record that most people thought multiple world champion Michael Schumacher would keep for ever."
"Between 2001 and 2003, Schumacher managed to cross the finish line in 24 successive races – a unique achievement. But now, Nick has matched it."
linkage
i would've appreciated it, if i were around ;)
I emailed the show [one of dozens, no doubt] regarding Legard's poor skills
Needless to say, that fell on deaf ears too
Hence it's reprise
[Know your audience :) ]
You just need to write a bit of code that translates on the fly. Put it on the list
That was broadcast during the race
[You were probably in a plague indiced hallucination at the time]
I would gladly have not heard it if the marathon hadn't knocked off the R5L commentary from the Red Button selection. Grrrrrr!
I remember you saying that
by legard? i was listening to croftie.
oh, sure, why not.
i really don't remember that? i wonder if i was actually awake this weekend.
Maybe it was a London thing and the BBC actually mistaking that anyone was interested in foil blankets
http://drop.io/sidepodcast/asset/homeless-coder-jpg
we need him!
right then, one more link before sleeps. bernie may have put his foot in it, again.
although it doesn't appear as if the person writing the article is actually sure.
Will gladly offer my services to test but could not code for toffee
That's too close to the 'fair trades' for my liking
[That's Avionics not bananas, btw]
{Cone heads, to everyone else}
Cover all angles as well as writer's own behind, methinks
My link of the day is this
Blade Runner, starring the Kindle 2 and iPod Shuffle
Mr C, I like how you've simplified the link process for the layman :cheers:
christine's idea that one.
one more link, then i really gotta go. dare i ask if this has been discussed?
"If the teams do not sign a new Concorde agreement and their payment is cut, Mr Ecclestone said he would not rule out acquiring more race tracks for his portfolio."
Bernie looking for a knighthood for saving the British GP
Dare I ask if Felipe Baby was recorded to Song Smith?
Question for Steven Roy:
Did you read about the freaky planet with eccentric orbit on BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8020594.stm
Highly elliptical apparently: "The temperature on the planet is changing from about 3C - which is what you might have on Earth - to about 1,200C"
to protest this unacceptable behaviour I am officially boycotting the nation of Bahrain. That will teach them.
Monaco or bust!
Howdy!
For the record, I think it's great that Felipe baby was on the radio.
Hey Sean
Even better that it was through the voice of Sidepodcast
Or perhaps realising that if a breakaway series happens, owning the circuits will give him power
Welcome to the Tilke-drome (not!)
If only all infomercials were this good
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWRyj5cHIQA&eurl=http://
I want a Slap Chop now!
[I already have the Breakdance soundtrack!]
It actually makes me want to buy one!
This one's even better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzGccl8N0eM&NR=1
i want the gratey, i hate grating cheese.
Open palms is the key, mind those fingers
I preferred the other one.
Even with "my nuts"
No. I missed that. I know there are various bodies on very odd orbits so it is not that surprising. We have asteroids that have orbits that bring them in from the Kuiper(Kuyper?) belt past the Earth to very close to the sun.
Well, the Germans make good nuts bit was funny.
I still think Bernie is more likely to side with the teams on a breakaway than to stick with Max.
Kuiper
Especially if there's a dollar or two to be made on a new contract
[Who needs the hassle of having to dress up in a red blazer to shake down a new deal?]
I hate cheese. Solves the problem
I thought cheese was one of the major scottish food groups
I have a friend (ok, he is from Lanark) whose catchphrase is
"Feed me cheese and call me Jesus"
True story
pastry is a food group.
Only in a pie :D
That's Lanark for you. But you are right I am in the minority when it comes to not liking the stuff.
Next thing you'll be saying you don't like deep fried pizza or springs rolls the size of house bricks ;)
There are still 12 people on dropio. Normally there are never more than 4 or 5 but tonight there has been a constant stream of people to it. There were over 50 at one point. Felipe Baby has 55 comments. I think we can say it is a success.
I am not sure I have ever had deep fried pizza. I have had lots of pizza. Mozzarela for whatever reason is the only cheese I can eat. I have had lots of things deep fried but I don't remember eating deep fried pizza.
I do wonder if the people staying on the drop.io page [on some distant tab] are kinda responsible for it's lack of responsiveness lately
A victim of it's own success maybe, SPC should exploit that too methinks
Since I picked up on the high number there a few hours ago I have been watcching it and the number is constantly changing. It looks like different forums posting the link and people discovering the link then going to dropio. Shame they don't get directed to the main site.
Wod will get around, I rather we didn't get spammed by
Epic win & roflcopter comments as mentioned earlier
BTW Gavin: If you're post trawling "5 pints of roflcopter" is awaiting your approval :D
[Who can post trawl in these 900 posts per times?]
And it has been - a lot of people had asked who the sultry voice is, so they search, and, voila, they find the site!
We have our fair share of lurkers - I'd like to think a lot more people began lurking today. :)
One for Flibster:
Louis Armstrong & Danny Kaye - When the saints
*waves at lurkers and shouts*
"We can't hear you"
:D @ http://tinyurl.com/cajqk4
"a deer is like a horse with horns"
:D
Mr and Mrs C may want to keep an eye on the download numbers for the next Debrief - I'm sure some people would want to hear more of her lovely voice, so I think we may see a bit of a pickup in download numbers.
i regret my lurking days, i really enjoy the conversations here, and the chances to mention heikki being above lewis in the championship last week.
:) Aww, no regrets, Amy - everyone was a lurker at some point, but not everyone steps up and joins the community. You were one of those who did step up, and we're all the better for it. :D
Two weeks at number one should cover some of the server bills though or at least gather some "sponsored by virgin media" attention :D
Ah! Perhaps a "Rubens Baby" song?
We are looking at all the possibilities, aren't we? :) Hehe. Would be fun if they did get invited, though - they'd get to meet Joe S and Stuart C in person, too. :)
On a somewhat related note, looks like Autosport just today rebranded their forums from Atlas-F1 to Autosport.
You should tell the lurkers how much more fun you are having since you started commenting and how much less sleep you get.
LOL from Fake Kimi:
http://twitpic.com/4838g
We all missed the opportunity to meet Stuart at the ASI show. He was working for F1 Racing on their stand and none of us knew.
Hahaha! Well, that's because Amy and I are out East. :D You guys don't have to worry about less sleep. Besides, it's all worth it. ;)
it's an RT, a very good RT. :D
Aww, shame. Oh well, there's always Goodwood or ASI next year.
I should point out that it is 4am here
Erm... well... yes... it is. :) You and Bassano the only ones from that part of the world up right now. The rest are either across the pond or out East.
This must be one of the most eventful weeks in SPC history. Between the newhickey and this, I'll been nuts lately. :D
I just think it's good promotion, if nothing else. And it's fun :-)
Good thing there's no race this weekend then ey? Actually, a race this weekend may have been a good thing because with all the extra attention, maybe some of them would join us in the LCLT.
A LOT of fun! :)
and who would have thought Mrs C. could sing so well?
'If the blues had a country Muddy Waters would be our President, his slide and his guitar would act as his government'
Yep, that's what I was thinking. The quiet weekend means we probably won't be able to fully maximize this, since nothing's happening until next week. Oh well, if the Debrief does push through this weekend, it may still be recent enough to get more people to tune in. :)
Doohickey FTW
Either way, hoping more people will join us after finding us thanks to the song. :)
This actually reminded me how I found SPC - from the autosport forum. Only been following F1 for 34 years now.....
F1 minute for me
Wow! You and Steven Roy should relate pretty well. :)
F1Fanatic for me - when they interviewed Keith. :)
LOL
Oh great - fire alarm. Gotta evacuate. Grr.
iPhone?
I love how he commented first
Hope it's just a drill. Later, Paul. :)
:D
There will be a Debrief and the first sidepodpanel with two hosts. That has to be worth listening to.
Man,s got his priorities right, that's all I can say. ;)
For sure. :) Fingers crossed, we'll get more listeners.
Bet it is cold and wet. Never had an evacuation on a sunny day
I don't know where abouts in Oz he is, but if it's Sydney, it is cold and wet.
Our drills were always on sunny days. But it is very cold and very wet right now outside...
Sidepodcast is important. It's worth risking incineration so we don't worry that someone hasn't commented for a while.
OK I am going to try this thing I heard about. It's called sleep and apparently very popular with people who don't comment on sidepodcast. I asked here earlier and no-one seems to have heard of it.
19 people on dropio. I would love to know how many times the song has been played or downloaded today.
Night. I'm off too, not to sleep though, to uni. Well, actually, that means I probably am off to sleep as well. ;)
Meh, it's overrated. :P Good night, Steven. :)
Haha! later, sean.
I'm sure Mr C can find out for us. :)
Yes indeed. False fire alarm. Someone cooking toast for lunch perhaps...
Oops. Someone will get a sermon for that. :)
Students on work experience?
I found SPC by downloading the podcasts at iTunes then I realized they had a website and I've lurking ever since, old habits die hard:)
..or people chattering away in the kitchen
Took me about a month to work out the web site!
I would watch the video's for the upcoming races and I never clued in on the website address at the bottom of the screen or even when Mrs C said the name of the website.
Hehehe. :D Well, at least you found it. You've sure made up for it. :)
I see you're #1 most talkative by quite a large number, good job.
OK, maybe I'm biased when it comes to McLaren, but I think James Allen (of all people!) has summarised the situation well on the ITV blog. I had actually forgotten about the Schumacher/Monaco business.
I don't know how he does it. Every time I look at the bottom of the Doohickey page, he's the number 1 !!
we have been banned from making microwave popcorn at work, sets the fire alarms off every time.
I know what you mean, I just don't know where everybody finds the free time during the day.
*ahem* when we should be working....
Thank you, Aitch! :)
Well, that's only happened as of late. Won't be around starting midnight Sydney time, though, so that should give others a chance to catch up. :D
:D I'm not at work yet! :)
Probably won't be around for a full 72 hours, so I think Scott's quest to catch me will really step up a notch. :D
Speaking for myself ;-)
..and now I know how you do it - reply to yourself !!
I keep forgetting to mention something! ;)
Sneaky. Not that it's a competition or anything.....?!
I'd love to drag my laptop to work but it would be very hard to paint and comment at the same time plus I think my boss would have something to say about it.
Also I wouldn't want to get paint all over my laptop
It's not a competition... maybe. ;) :P
Hahaha! :D Nice day for a white laptop. :)
I will leave those that are are still here with one last thing 'On the 30th of April 1983 the blues world cried'. Hasta leugo muchachos and muchachas.
They already have one ;)
Not sure I get what you mean?
Hasta luego, Senor Aitch.
On the 1st of May 1994, the Formula 1 world cried.
Your telling me
Oh God, it's tomorrow :(
Wait and see ;)
Aren't you cryptic? :P Do you know something I don't? :)
Yup - and I really wanna know what he knows... It sure sounds interesting. :D
Yes, it is. But let's not be sad, let's celebrate his life and his legacy for the sport that we love.
Maybe sidepodidol is finally releasing a CD
Just that I may have sent something to SPC and they may not have pleayed it yet... ;)
Now I'm even more confused than when started - Gavin, you sing too?! :)
Scott, did you ever finish that Senna wallpaper for me?
Don't spoil the surprise - if it's worthy, you'll know about it! :D
All right, if you insist. Would be interesting if someone tried to use the song 'American Pie'... :D
Google search for F1 podcasts.
I was very bored at work one day. :D
What about the 30th of April?
Everybody forgets Roland Ratzenberger. Poor Guy. Didn't even get a mention in the Daily Post.
Never heard of Ratzenberger? That's it, I'm unsubscribing! ;)
A1GP finishes this weekend. :(
Mexico round has been cancelled for sensible and obvious reasons.
Second cancelled round this year though.
As I said yesterday - enjoy the racing, coz you ain't ever gonna see it again :(
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8025566.stm
The picture of Mosley scares me slightly.
That's begging for a Lukeh-shop :D
...and the she pushed it....
British GP News:
http://www.itv-f1.com/news_article.aspx?id=45740
The problem is they don't have the money and the goverment wants to help in other ways. What other ways are there?
It's shocking how much money is being wasted on the Olympics when a small portion of that could save F1!
I tweeted about him today, hooray! Poor guy, possibly the most overshadowed death ever.
2 ways spring to mind...
1) He says not state sponsored... They could use lottery money which is actually where some of the olympics money is coming from. A new scratchcard for example.
2) Planning permission and other permissions. Building road and rail links for them. That kind of thing. Things they would have to pay for the but the Government will pay for instead. That kind of thing.
I see thanks :D Still doesn't help the fact that the Donnington is in financial trouble.
I have. I've recorded multiple podcasts about that weekend, so I know the details like anyone.
Hadn't really thought of mentioning any of it in the daily post, really.
Yeah I was just having fun based on the Lola comment ;)
Just curious - why didn't you think of mentioning it?
Not necessary, is it? What can possibly be said that hasn't been said already?
Something, anything - just because the poor guy died and nobody even mentions him. He was a decent up and comer too :(
Okay. I hadn't intended to mention Senna either.
I think we all remember that weekend.
I did think of something on Tuesday - as a mark of respect, we could do a 3 minute silence tomorrow in the comments, 1 minute for each of Senna's 3 world titles. I wasn't sure how that would go down though.
Oh, morning btw. I won Valencia in BAT :D
and I got one point :D
So, Chistine, Rob Smedley eh?
Hey Scott, How's my Senna wallpaper coming along? ;)
I started work on it, but other things in the day made me lose track. I'll get it sorted today. :)
Legend ;)
Yes I am, and yes he was :D
one of my friends has a boyfriend who I'm quite sure is the NZ Rob clone. It scares me.
Really? I don't know how you feel about him, considering he was 'before your time', but a lot of us will be marking the day and paying our respects in our own ways tomorrow...
That's for the other thread, methinks. :)
Good job in Valencia, Scott! How did Lou and Al do?
I'm stopping whatever I'm doing tomorrow for 3 minutes to pay respect.
Woops, you are right
3rd and 2nd respectively. Urgh...
Mind you, the gap between all 3 of us is just 12 points. Another win and podium will help swing it my way. :D
That's going to look odd if you're in the middle of a street or in mid sentence ;)
You know what I mean! :D
I don't doubt it for a second.
Personally, I think Senna is remembered pretty much every day in F1 anyway, I don't believe it needs a special day as well. I also think, as you said earlier, it's very unfair on other drivers that died in the sport as well. There is no one else who gets the same revered treatment, and a lot of lives were lost.
I agree with this. Even Villneurve doesn't get this
Oh he does though! People talk about Villeneuve all the time and Zolder is always mentioned...
Well I haven't been to Zolder but he seems less remembered to me. I hope you are right
today was the coldest Melbourne April morning in 56 years, and it's not winter. Boooo.
Isn't this weather nuts?
That was well put. He does get more rememberance than other drivers, I think because of his standing and because he was the most recent. For me though, it's the only F1 death that truly saddens me. Every time I think about it, it moves me deeply in a way I cannot understand. Tomorrow will be a tough day, that's for sure.
It's really odd for me to think like that and I don't like admitting it. Perhaps it was because it all happened before my eyes and perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I saw him the year before at Donington, I don't know :(
it is cold, and people look at me funny because I quite enjoy frozen treats in freezing cold weather.
I think it might be the first more than the latter - like you say, Ratzenberger was a mere 24 hours beforehand, and he was the first death in 12 years, yet no one seems to remember. The two go hand in hand as far as recent goes.
Gilles is the 2nd-most remembered driver after Ayrton, but he's nowhere nearly remembered as much. We may all know May 1, but do we even know when Gilles passed away? Not even the great Clark is remembered this fervently.
And then there are others - Ratzenberger, de Angelis, Paletti, Pryce, Cevert, McLaren, von Trips, Bandini - who rarely get a mention, never mind a proper tribute.
There are so many others too :(
I propose we have an 'F1 rememberance day' where we respect all of the fallen heroes that were involved in F1.
I wouldn't have a clue. The only other one I know is Bruce McLaren - June 2. And I expect that I'm more of the exception than the norm there.
You and me have something in common you know.
I thought Jan was lovely when I met her too ;)
I know I'm late to the party with this, but the 'Felipe Baby' is popping up absolutely everywhere at the moment!
Lee McKenzie's on the case as well: http://twitter.com/LeeMcK/statuses/1657348420
It has officially reached the BBC F1 team then! :D
She was so lovely and down to earth, considering when we sat down to lunch she excused herself to 'go and ring Woking' and then she told a story about the time Ron rang her when he spotted her outside the garage. Not too many people I have met could say Ron Dennis has their phone number.
Wow
My Renault World Series tickets just arrived! :D
Awesome!
I ordered 4 under my name and address and 4 under my dad's so in total we have 8 :
:D
Oh. my. god.
:o :o
Morning guys!
Yep!
See FIA? This is what happens when we get to listen to the radios.
One thing about Ron is that he always has respect for his team's history. He knows McLaren did not start with him - it started with Bruce. And he's done very well to take care of his personal ties with them. Bruce would be very happy with how Ron has taken his team to the top of Formula 1.
And one of the reasons why I dislike the way (ron) has been treated
I have a feeling that bat racer hates me....
Howdy all
BATracer hates everybody!
I seem to always do amazing (for a Renault) in qualifying, good setup, and then it goes and crashes me or make me break down. not impressed
it hates my team mate for sure
you sound like felipe right there. :D
From JA's Good Week/Bad Week:
How can that be if they're still funding Brawn as we speak?
Then again, of course they'd never admit they're wrong...
I was just going to link to that!
Aww don't get me started on Honda!
Do you think maybe the agreement is to fund them as long as they have no other income, so the more sponsors Ross finds, the less Honda have to pay out?
I didn't know Buemi had BMW wing stuck on his wing. Didn't LeSeb gloat about beating him...?
Bruno Senna as a midseason replacement? Sounds interesting...
Le Seb is third most endangered after PIQ and FIS in my book...
G'Day everyone!
Hmmm... That could be possible, but I always thought that any sponsor money they get now would be for 2010? And that Honda money had already fully secured their 2009 budget?
Yes I would see piquet going first
I would place him above Fisichella at the moment. Plus, Flav seemed impressed with Piq after Bahrain, so he may have bought himself some more time too. Perhaps Bordy is top of the list!
I would say above Fisi, but I'd still put Piquet at the top.
Could be. Maybe they've just found a way to write it into the accounts so it looks better, because it's no longer a going concern for them.
Maybe... but I think it's time for some new guys to get a shot and TBH, I would not miss these three!
I think he's even more endangered than Fisi, to be honest. But yeah, they're definitely the top 3 endangered species of F1.
Agreed.
I'd say only a stay of execution though. I think it's a question of when rather than if for him at the moment.
Just goes to show how easily impressed Flav can be I guess, still think the negative vastly overwhelmes the positive for Piquet.
Spain will be a big race for him
How times have changed. LeSeb has really gone down the drain for you, hasn't he?
That said, JA said Piquet had a bad week:
Yup.
ok, hands up… who stole april? {Comment #1}
Script Frenzy, in my case. The presence of three Grands Prix, which dominates three days of my life each time, didn't help either.
So for me, the Office of Letters and Light (who organise Script Frenzy) and Bernie Ecclestone (who organises the F1 schedule) stole April.
Does Newmann Hass have a spare car?
That's possible. But that money is still being spent and has ZERO ROI, so I really think this is just a lot of spin.
I don't blame you - it's very difficult to like a driver that doesn't really do anything exciting.
Maybe. It was to be Milka Duno's but she lost her sponsor.
Wouldn't expect anything less from them, though :)
The only thing that spins more than Honda is Takuma Sato!
He did cry though!
He does exciting stuff - like stalling and stopping on track.
15 years though. :( {Comment #2}
F1 will never forget Roland Ratenzenberger. The massive safety crusade which (re)started after Imola 1994 is often attributed with Ayrton Senna's death, but the GPDA had already been re-founded the previous day on account of Roland's demise.
I do like his glasses under the helmet wearing antics though :D
McLaren mechanic on Twitter:
"Lewis will be doing some filming for Abbey in a secret location today....!"
And the president was to be ... Ayrton Senna!
Fate can be so cruel when it wants to be :(
:D
He was set to be assisted by Gerhard Berger, Michael Schumacher, and Christian Fittipaldi. Senna's death meant Berger had to quickly succeed him as president.
I am obsessively trawling through my entire mp3 collection to find a song I can in some way use to answer the killer question for the panel. Could be a long night.
Way to go, McLaren mechanic, now you've blown Lewis' cover! :P
Look at the numbers who are dying from it and look at the number of people who die in road accidents. You have way more chance of bing killed in a road accident tomorrow than you are to be killed by that flu. How worried are you about dying in a road accident? Bear in mind you have run that same road accident risk very day of the year. {Comment #20}
For that matter, at the current rate, you'd have about as much chance of dying from falling down the stairs on any given day as of the swine flu - and if you avoid Mexico until things have settled down a little, the chance of a stairs-related death is considerably higher.
I prefer my twitter person, who not only blew his cover, but also put my name on the guest list :D sadly his twitter has been deleted so no more insider scoop for me :(
I think I am missing out on all this twitter dirt
Driver parade didn’t happen at this circuit. {Comment #64}
That's rubbish. The point of the driver's parade is so that all the fans can see them with their own eyes and not just through a giant screen - or so I believed :(
“If the teams do not sign a new Concorde agreement and their payment is cut, Mr Ecclestone said he would not rule out acquiring more race tracks for his portfolio.” {Comment #92}
Slight problem. Concorde applies until a new equivalent agreement is signed (through the wording of the 1998-2007 agreement), otherwise the FIA would have had no authority to make any decisions concerning F1 at all since December 31 2007. Therefore, Bernie could only legally halve the prize money if the teams agreed to it. Otherwise he's taken the short cut to F1's constitutionary documentation being thrown across the path of an unsuspecting Swiss civil court.
They'll have written it all off now right?
Next thing you’ll be saying you don’t like deep fried pizza or springs rolls the size of house bricks {Comment #120}
My local chippie does some brilliant spring rolls that just about fit on a dinner plate. Somehow Mum always manages to sneak some fish and chips on there at the same time. I'd go so far as to say I expect spring rolls to be huge.
We all missed the opportunity to meet Stuart at the ASI show. He was working for F1 Racing on their stand and none of us knew. {Comment #139
I knew, the trouble was that with one thing and another, I never got the chance to talk to him...
This actually reminded me how I found SPC - from the autosport forum. {Commnet #154}
Originally, I got here through the blogroll F1 Fanatic used to have. Then I forgot about it for a while and then ambled in when the Sidepodcasts got married.
budget cap discussion time!
http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressreleases/wmsc/2009/Pages/wmsc_290409a.aspx
Budget cap published: http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressreleases/wmsc/2009/Pages/wmsc_290409a.aspx
£40m from 2010
Dammit! I was just a few seconds behind you.
http://www.f1minute.com/2009/04/30/fia-world-motor-sport-council/
On the 1st of May 1994, the Formula 1 world cried.
Oh God, it’s tomorrow {Comment #205}
On 1st of May 1994, I saw my first F1 start. I was still trying to figure out what the really long word starting with Q was (I figured out the word was "qualifying" about three-quarters of an hour into the re-start) when Ayrton crashed and immediately knew something unusually bad was happening because I could figure out one word in five of what Murray Walker was saying. This still wasn't enough to figure out what exactly had gone wrong (this was also the first time I'd seen one car crash on its own, so I didn't know what normally happened to compare), so it was a surprise to hear on the 7pm news that Ayrton had died.
The full significance didn't occur to me until a couple of years afterwards because at the time all I knew about Ayrton was for being Damon Hill's team-mate. As I got more into F1, I learned about the records he'd set, the championships he'd fought and won in and the understandably massive respect he'd earned.
That is the crucial bit...
Looks like we're finding out in June if USGP, Lola and prodrive are definitely joining us in 2010, looking likely with the maximum amount of cars being incresed to 26.
So unless I;ve missed out on somethging, $40 million for all teams then, not any kind of 2 tier thing?
That's a saving of as much as about £200million for some teams.
teams have less than a month to decide if they want to race under a budget cap?
I would think with the budget cap now officially set, we'll get something from all 3 soon.
Just just realised the word 'option'. Bah.
What if they choose not to? Two-tier system then?
Probably, I just meant the FIA are officially announcing all the 2010 teams in June
'The FIA will publish the list of cars and drivers accepted on 12 June 2009, having first notified unsuccessful applicants. '
Also, how many are the FIA expecting... "having first notified unsuccessful applicants."
that's lower than expected.
So I wonder if some teams could run chaper satellite teams?
at £40m... loads!
pah!
Booooooooooooooooooo.
"Sorry Mr. di Montezemolo, I'm afraid you haven't scored enough points or provided enough ice cream to your drivers. Therefore we cannot accept your application for the 2010 World Championship..." ;)
Wow. Didn't see that one coming to be honest. I know it was mentioned, but didn't think they'd really go ahead with it!
I remember the hoo-haa about safety when this was proposed for this year, what happened to that? Have they decided its safe enough to have cold tyres?
bridgestone are working on it. but no teams are allowed to test...
So another big design shake up for next year!
"The teams will also be allowed unlimited out-of-season track testing with no restrictions on the scale and speed of wind tunnel testing."
even for budget capped teams. mid-season testing isn't coming back :(
considering that some blame cold tyres for Sennas accident, it could be a poorly timed announcement!
When those who did the research really know it was the steering column.
About time! :)
I didn’t know Buemi had BMW wing stuck on his wing. {Comment #278}
Me neither. Suddenly Buemi's run looks considerably more impressive.
Just thought about something - Q3 next year isn't going to be about who's the heaviest or lightest, it'll be more a case of who can go quickest with on a full tank over a single lap.
Does this mean a return to proper qualifying? I do like the sound of that.... my opinion is still divided though.
Didn't some teams test " cold" three earlier this year?
Damn iPhone. Tyres, not three
Le Seb is third most endangered after PIQ and FIS in my book… {Comment #279}
At least Le Seb hasn't been given an ultimatum yet (unlike Piquet Jr.) - though given that Christian Klien lost his Red Bull seat in 2006 without warning and Scott Speed didn't get any before losing the Toro Rosso one the year after, that isn't much of a safety net...
Presumably they will quali without fuel. There would be no point in race fuel qualifying now?
Don't tell me they'll run Q3 on full tanks? Wouldn't they be better off running old-school light?
Don't tell me they'll run Q3 on full tanks? Wouldn't they be better off running old-school light?
Yay. Hope so
Will this make pitstop poker useless? Thereby forcing drivers to move up the order by passing and not by running heavy/light? Sounds too good to be true!
I don’t blame you - it’s very difficult to like a driver that doesn’t really do anything exciting. {Comment #297}
He does try to do sportscars and F1 at the same time, though. That's exciting in this age of extreme specialisation.
That means the big three will soon shift focus to 2010 and the normal order will be resumed next year!
no. what it means is you'll pretty much know the race winner at 2pm on saturday.
sounds awful.
Or that he over-corrected after bottoming out due to cold tyres!
Not if they use KERS to pass...?
“Lewis will be doing some filming for Abbey in a secret location today….!” {Comment #305}
OK, where's been closed off for filming?
they'll have kers.
thats what i'm worried about
sorry. they'll ALL have kers.
There's a picture which clearly shows the steering wheel still attached to a piece of steering column lying next to Senna's car.
They'll not only all have KERS but they'll probably all have the same KERS.
2005 was a good year and that had no tyre changes...
My guess is he's flying high above Troy again ;)
Are you assuming that there wont be any on track overtake moves or even off the line scramble to the first corner with KERS?
Maybe that broke in the accident though?
they're racers, they will race and overtake. and remember, tyre stops are still in play, but those who take care of their tyres better will benefit, since they'll need to make less stops.
After impacting a wall...
£40m from 2010 {Comment #322}
That won't go very far. I expect quite a few teams to sign up to the cap and then break it, either accidentally or through sneaky accountancy.
The thing is that this year KERS is important because some have it and some don't... AND... The ones who have it are behind on raw pace.
If they were ahead and had KERS nobody would be talking about it.
and i'm assuming that because i watched the race in bahrain. the aero changes haven't worked. f1 doesn't promote overtaking.
That's what the dividend bit is for. Creative accountancy. Mark my words!
they had refuelling.
Amys biased view says: not a good year for one reason. Kimi at the Nurburgring. I'M NOT OVER IT.
There's so many exemptions to the cap that you know the teams will use some creative accounting to get around it!
I bet demand for very clever accountants has rocketed today!
Depending on how heavily scrutinised the books are by the FIA, wouldn't the larger teams be able to put some of their employees on the parent companies payroll instead?
how many teams do you think will sign up to the cap? all, or just a couple?
And if you pay yourself all of Bernie's money via dividend you can do some clever things. Basically what you need to do is make your F1 division a profit center.
But it was proven that Williams had modified the steering column to suit Senna and that the evidence concluded the area it was welded back together failed.
All of them, then being F1 teams, they'll use all the loopholes like the clever people they are to break it!
No it didnt actually - that was thrown out by the court in Italy.
I've just noticed. Profits from F1 aren't counted towards the cap. Bernie once admitted that Ferrari gets £80m more than any other team for winning the championship. The budget cap is £40m.
If Ferrari ever gets the championship under these rules, it will have three times the budget of most other teams before it even starts.
You're not suggesting they would lie?!
ferrari aren't going to sign up to this are they.
Anything the teams receive for free (i.e. they did not pay for) will still be charged against their budget cap.
yet we've seen more passes this year than by this time last year? Bahrain 2009 still had a good 1st half. Bahrain 2008 had even less passing than that.
No. Just bend the rules as far as possible. It wouldn't be F1 otherwise!
one word... weather.
It's not quite as clear cut as that... The profits have to be paid out in expenditure as dividends. So not on racing.
The new aero rules work. KERS works. The drivers just don't want to take the risk, that's all.
We will still get pit stops for tyres though surely?
actually. you have half the field with kers and half without.
as soon as it becomes the norm. we're back to square one.
Whaa? So that means they can use these profits on their team over and above the cap?
Uh-oh. That spells trouble.
rubbish!
Some places yes - other places, possibly not.
Monaco would be perfectly viable to run without stopping with a harder tyre.
my brother says: "not passing is a problem, this makes no attempt to fix it"
Not a rule that favours Ferrari, surely? ;)
What they are saying is you can give all of Bernie's money to your parent and that not be part of your "expenditure".
Would you risk passing when you could wreck the car AND get a 10-place grid penalty for one or two extra points? I wouldn't!
Not if they use KERS to pass…? {Comment #364}
KERS helps the defenders more than the attackers because of the point at which it provides power is on the straight. Most overtaking happens in the corners because that's where the most differences usually appear between car/driver combinations.
So we're actually going back to the 80s now? Without turbos, that is.
Just like in A1GP - P2P is used mostly defensively...
If you go back and watch 1993 for instace, tyre changes don't help that much
So how will being fat with fuel help that situation?
australia was a fully dry race, bahrain was a fully dry race. yet both beat their respective counterparts last year in terms of overtaking.
\
true to a certain extent, yet button was able to pass hamilton in bahrain?
lewis hamilton did not sit behind vettel for half the race and trulli for the other half because of "risk".
did you see him dicing with button?
lewis followed because he couldn't get close enough in the dirty air. something the '09 rules was supposed to have solved. and hasn't.
yes. and some cars had kers and others did not.
it'll make you slower, and much more careful. or, you might say. risk-adverse.
Thats well documented as it was a request from Senna
The most likely cause is that the car bottomed out - this can be seen on Schumachers onboard footage, at that point it was doing 190mph in the Tamburello curve - lost most of the downforce and understeered
Senna corrected - as can be seen on the telemetry, and as he did that the car regained it's ride height and gripped sending him off the track.
Telemetry shows that he was applying force to the brake and to the wheel moments before hitting the wall.
And I'll say again... the ones that had KERS are slower than the others right now. That's the strange situation which is causing this.
Good.
and i agree 110%.
bad.
Why does F1 need a new era one year after beginning a new era. Stop changing things!
but there will be teams that will run softer tyres and make a stop and hope to get out in clean air. and because of the new compound rule, the softer tyre will usually be a lot quicker than the harder one.
I personally feel F1 should be going forward, not backwards.
But it's also said the steering column flexed and cracked as a result of the car bottoming out. So in essence both the car bottoming out and the steering column caused the accident.
also agreed.
What about the three-wide stuff at the start?
True, it hasn't SOLVED the problem but the cars can get a lot closer and they can use more of the tarck now...
Interesting... Side note... Vettel... Coming man, man of the moment etc... Was according to Christinan Horner able to creatively save 2 laps of fuel at a crucial moment during the Chinese Grand Prix.
A very useful talent to have under the new rules I'd say.
In Australia:
Button v Vettel v Kubica - none of them had KERS.
Barrichello's fightback - he didn't have KERS.
Toyota's fightback - neither of them had KERS.
It doesn't. There isn't a solution to this when you have a championship that is won and lost on consistency...
loved it. it lasted two laps.
then what?
If you want to make up places after a stop - you will have to pass on the track.
I don't give a flying fart in a high wind about putting in fast laps while the person you are racing is having a pit stop. Big deal - do those laps to get up behind and then use the skills you developed in the lower classes of racing to get past!
Anything the teams receive for free (i.e. they did not pay for) will still be charged against their budget cap. {Comment #393}
The trouble is that the FIA will be using assumed values and these are likely to be wrong. The moment a team doesn't like the value assigned to something by the FIA, there'll be big trouble in the courts. The FIA ones if F1 is lucky, real civil courts if not.
Also, there is serious encouragement not to reveal everything received under this system. If it is unlikely the FIA will see a certain thing, it is to the team's benefit to keep it a total secret.
Well what's your solution then?
*sigh* i really hoped they would forget about banning refueling. such a stupid idea :( hi btw.
heya lou, how was the exam? :)
Wow - 2 debates ongoing at the same time. I'll stick to the 2009 debate for now and just watch the Senna debate.
Shenanigans. That's impossible!
accept the f1 and aerodynamics don't promote overtaking... and... keep refuelling!
AHem. How would you encourage overtaking?
The fightbacks are happening because... you have fast cars only slightly ahead of slow cars with KERS at the start. The KERS cars get ahead at the start where the KERS is enough to overcome the difference over a small distance. Then later the speed of the faster cars (double diffuser etc) means they can beat the cars.
It’s not quite as clear cut as that… The profits have to be paid out in expenditure as dividends. So not on racing. {Comment #396}
But dividends to who? Also, remember every manufacturer is partly in for the marketing, so technically speaking everything could be covered by marketing or "car development" if a team needs an excuse.
Let them loose on kers!
in the pits. using strategy. i like f1 how it is!
Does this mean we're just asking for a Spygate redux? It's not necessarily espionage, but it'll be one of them dark alleys of F1. And as Stuart said, the only way this would be found out is if someone squeals...
they keep bring in these changes to encourage overtaking, but I refuse to believe that people don't overtake because "oh, I don't really feel like it today"
Don't you want to see overtaking on the track?
could have been better i think... but hopefully much better than my other history mock this week (was handed back to me with the comment - don't worry about it at least you've got the right style... you can work on the content). All i can say is thank god i have over a month until my history exams :)
That would work!
I shouldn't - but that made me laugh. :D
I now have images of Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman as F1 drivers - I'm not saying who is who...
The steering column may well have been cracked - but it was still intact. So while being weakened, would still be functional.
Just noticed that those teams that do opt-in to this budget will be allowed to go testing out of season for as long as they want. Kinda ironic that some teams have shelved their testing teams already and may find themselves doing a u-turn.
Shouldn't revs and nerves decide overtaking rather than a bloke with a computer with the drivers doing nothing more than following calculations??
Laughing at what exactly?
i'm with Mr C on this.
that's just over winter. they can use race teams.
well you've done it now so no regrets, justw ait and see how it goes :)
plenty of time to prepare though, yay :D
Why not just hold the race as a series of pitstop challenges then?
Pointless to go out on track.
True, but Rubens and the Toyotas had to pass a lot of non-KERS cars too (the Red Bulls and the Williamses - and each other!)
Why don't you want to see overtaking on the track?
They won't be able to afford to pay test teams?
This might sound like a stupid idea, but what about:
Everyone has KERS next season but for the start of the race, depending on what tyre everyone starts with, there's a screw or something on the side of the car which only the mechanics can get at that activates the system. So if you start on the soft tyre, you're not allowed to start with KERS activated, but you are allowed on the harder tyre.
The reason I say this is because those who have KERS and start on soft tyres blast past everyone at the start. By regulating who starts with the system on depending on their tyre selection for the first stint, it might level the playing field off the start. But that's just something I came up with in my head.
You calling Shenanigans - reminded me of a South Park episode.
Why does it have to be JUST about overtaking? We see some overtaking and we some strategy and the mixture is what we like.
If I wanted to see cars bashing past each other every five seconds, then it'd be all about NASCAR and BTCC.
I just don't get why the rules are changing away from a system at the moment that encourages on the track racing... what we have now seems to work very well with exciting races! It's just an unecssary bacxkwards step for the sport.
Once you come in for a pitstop, if you're switching to the other compound, the mechanic has to turn the system off.
LOL. A bad habit of mine picked up from the FARK forums ;)
i do to an extent. however, we haven't got that due to the use of aerodynamics. until aero is removed from the equation, the fia cannot remove refuelling. they just can't.
What if there is none?
do ya think nascar need a doohickey?
I agree, turn the wick up
Hey, it may even be road car relevant, now there's a thought
So what do you propose? Banning wings next?
:D
It's not about the aero. GP2, A1GP, Indycars, F3 etc... can all overtake and they have aero. So why not F1? Because they are too scared of losing points and getting penalised for it!
if you really want to see overtaking on track. banning front and rear wings is the ONLY way to do it.
bull****. that's doing a massive disservice to every driver out there every weekend.
You seem to be forgetting that in those series EVERYONE'S USING THE SAME CAR.
Someone here actually suggested that... was it Steven Roy? I'm not sure...
Absolutely! That's what I've always said.
Well...except for F3 anyway...
11:22pm
They're making a left turn!
11:24pm
Look - they're making a left turn!
11:26pm
They're making a right turn!
11:27pm
Only joking. It was a left.
11:29pm
It's started to rain - race stopped.
Bring back ground effect.
LOL :D
And kill all the drivers. Good one.
sounds more fun than.
- the start
...
...
...
- race finishing order as it started.
- podium ceremony.
there is overtaking on track atm.. and yeah it can be improved, but there are other ways that aren't so dramatic. plus i really love the strategy aspect of f1 as well as the racing. I like that different teams use different fuel loads and you get the odd surprise pole. It adds to more unpredictability to the sport. I don't want to see a race where the winner runs out of fuel or something like that. Plus isn't it going to mean races are shorter?
Exactly. Just what I was thinking there.
I was going to say that.
You missed Nakajima pulling off to the side of the road at some point.
Look at what happens to Hamilton, Vettel, heck even Le Seb - why would a driver risk a contentious move and fall under the wrath of the FIA? two points is not enough of an incentive!
:D
Then surely fixing that would be job one, rather than taking away from what we've already got.
look at button in the opening laps. look at rubens coming through the field.
two points is an incentive if you're lewis hamilton chasing jenson button for the title.
Exactly...
Have these people never heard of Science? Change one thing... See how that works and what the effect is... Then change one other thing and see how that works... Now we don't know what the situation is... Grrrr....
I'm not having a go at the drivers - it's the system that sucks.
100% agree with what is said here, I dont understand why the fia would want to take out the strategy aspect asides from costs sakes. We're gonna have shorter races with cars all mega heavy slowing them down and even if all cars have kers I dont think it'll make a huge difference with overtaking. At least with refueling (although now we can tell before a race of course) it adds a whole level of depth for every team to work out how to outsmart everyone else, instead of next year simply fueling up the car and hoping.
Yes the " nancy state" thing is a separate problem
But you all thought the second half of Bahrain was boring - why not make it shorter?
Look, the fact of the matter is - there's never going to be a solution to the problem that everyone agrees with. Everyone has different opinions and ideas on what the best fix for better racing. I say we let this season carry on and then reasses whether on the whole these new rules have indeed been an improvement.
I'm hoping the drivers I dislike run out of fuel. Might be the only interesting part of the day.
must go off to an ict revision session now :( (all flipping lunch time!) see ya later!
hehe.
see ya lou.
I happen to think you are totally wrong about this Gavin sorry. I think they do want the points they just can't get them.
How many opportunistic overtakes do we see? Vettel and Kubica for example. It wasn't like Vettel fell foul of a new rule - although the FIA were wrong to apply it. He still did it. Bet he'd do it again. Kub certainly would.
i didn't think it was boring at all. no races this year have been boring for me.
Our POVs really come down to what era of F1 we grew up in (or if you're the type who watches old races, which era you love the most).
Most of the older fans will like the refuelling ban because it helped promote great racing. The more recent fans won't like it because they love the strategy bit of the sport that they've always seen.
Until we start racing in 2010, it will be very hard to sway opinion one way or the other.
I actually didn't. But I am strange I understand that :)
Yep, just like in the 80s
see ya later lou.
Im not gonna speak for anyone else but I didnt think Bahrainw as boring at all, it's all down to personal taste. If in a football match it become boring for the last 15 minutes would UEFA decide to make all football matches 75 minutes?
Apart from China, where there wasn't really any "proper" racing going on because of the conditions, I've enjoyed this season so far.
you know what i enjoyed about the 2nd half of bahrain? the race between trulli and hamilton as to who would stop for fuel first.
Whereas there's never been any serious accidents from losing a wing. OHHHH hang on! That Austrian guy... Oh... what was his name....
Ground effect works. Other race series use it. It's also not effected by closely following other cars.
The only real downside is if the cars touch the ground - active suspension can sort that *but is banned at this moment*, or raise the minimum rise height.
The FIA talked about maximum downforce levels at one point - how on earth would you police that other than having a mobile wind tunnel at every track with a large set of scales mounted in the rolling road?
Removing the wings is fine, but you will need to replace the lost downforce somehow.
That happened a lot back in 1980s. But with computers doing a lot of the computation work now, I very much doubt this will happen too often.
The problem there is although we can go back to the rules of old, the cars are not the same. And that's why we can't recreate the past.
why? why do you need downforce at all?
I don't think anyone would want to go back to the extra wide road tyres and bath tubs filled with fuel era.... ;)
My favourite one. :D
So a reduction in power then as well?
I am interested that Journeyer dislikes the fuel strategy element when he is also such a huge Ferrari / Schumacher fan who used it so well...
And that Mr C likes refueling but not Schumacher.
Because without it, you'd get many more repeats of the "Flying Mercedes" from Le Mans '99
Very true. Have always likened it to James Bond. However, you can't bring Sean Connery back now to do it, it just wouldn't work.
I think the same is true for F1.
i dislike schumi for parking or crashing and then lying about it. i don't dislike him for driving fast on low fuel.
For a slow moment there you had me thinking what Sean Connery had to do with F1...
perfect analogy
No you wouldn't. That was an fundemental aerodynamic inbalance that has really only ever been seen in that car.
But how dissimilar are they, really? If you think about it, little has changed in the fundamentals of F1 from 1983 (the banning of ground effect) to now. Sure, a lot of details change, but the fundamentals are still the same.
i had no issue with the power output of an engine, so long as it's developed competitively and not to a spec.
No need to apologise. But if you want to improve the on track action, all you have to do is stop penalising the drivers for having a go, that's all!
Are you Steven Roy now? ;)
he has a point. the fia want to make front and rear wings movable. why not remove them completely?
it's not like the cars can get any uglier.
Too true. But I really think that even in an era of no refuelling, Michael would still have done very well. Probably not 7 titles-well, but at least 4-5 titles-well.
And tell me who didn't like the look of those early cars in Bernie's collection?
Back to the 60s then? Lotus 49?
very true.
it's gotta be better than banning refuelling.
I'm really disappointed nobody has said that if they do this they won't watch F1 any more. I like it when that happens :)
No refuelling in the 60's. ;)
:D
i suggested i'd take the doohickey and go watch nascar?
No wings tho
it may well be that one has to take a break from formula 1 until the economic situation improves and common sense (and investment) returns.
we shall see.
No refuelling, tyre changes and loads of deaths?
C'mon dude, that's madness!
I think you said you'd leave if they ran with the silly rear wing didn't you? Can't quite remember.
Yeah but have you seen how bad NASCAR is these days?
Cars with strange aero that can't overtake, tyre problems, dodgy stewards calls...
Oh wait...
Well the deaths were unrelated to the wings no?
Thats fine - I have no problems with wingless F1 cars. Some of the most beautiful ones have no wings.
Everyone with Ford Cosworth DFV's again with equal power outputs and almost all with the same gearboxes...
That sounds familiar....
did i suggest we bad carbon fibre? all i said was there will be little on track overtaking until aerodynamics are removed from the sport.
do i want the wings to go? no... i like f1 how it is.
He's not suggessting steel frame cars and Armco barriers
no. i think we said if they all run the same engine, that would be enough reason to find another hobby.
will you get past darrell waltrip saying, "BOOGITY BOOGITY BOOGITY! Let's go racing, boys!" ?
I can't - it's funny once or twice but now it's just boring!
can it be worse than legard?
He is, he suggested going back to Lotus 49's!
I'd like to see gravel making a comeback though.
If a driver goes of the track - he should bloody stay there! There is really no penalty for leaving the track anymore - miles of tarmac runoffs. :(
Uh, yeah, he is!
Hear hear!
give.me.strength.
must be time to sleep now. night all.
now my head hurts :(
Good night - I hope you don't have any nightmares about F1 in 2010!
Na, I said that in jest
Very. I told ya, Legard may be bad, but he's tons better compared to the others out there (or here where I am, as it stands.)
Good.
Didn't they replace gravel with tarmac because gravel means drivers also won't be able to brake when they slide onto it? And that would mean they're more likely to have a huge shunt?
Remember that Heikki's shunt in Spain last year was in a gravel trap. Same with Luciano Burti's shunt in Spa 2001.
The problem with gravel is that in the wrong conditions it won't slow you as much as tarmac with the brakes fully on. The really big problem is that it can flip the cars over if you go in sideways.
It's exaggerated with the semi-flat floors they currently have though can cause them to skip across the top of the gravel.
Actually - the budget cap of $58.8 million
What happens if the exchange rate changes dramatically? Like it did last year?
Say... $2.1:£1 down to $1.3:£1
You're screwed!
I'd assume the exchange rate would be pegged at a given date.
Exactly. So it's always gonna be a give-or-take thing.
I'm loving the FIA's Q&A on budget caps:
http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressreleases/f1releases/2009/Pages/f1_cost_cap.aspx
Two, no two, sets of regulations, have you forgotten already? Movable wings? No engine rev limits? Ringing any bells?
In the real world it won't be though.
So something that could cost £1000 at one exchange rate could cost 50% more at the other. Which value are they going to take?
One set of technical regs, divided into 2 parts - I'm sure that's how Max wants to spin it.
I'm guessing they'll take whichever value is more standard/uniform across all vendors (whether £ or $) and convert it accordingly based on their pegged exchange rate.
So the budget cap will be more of a guesstimation then
Which team will be first to fiddle the books?
The teams have to pay for their own prison guards? :-)
That spirit of the regulations thing again? Do they never learn?
Has anyone worked out what the penalty will be if you exceed the cap? What's the deal? A fine?
Maybe it would be better to run with the budget cap regs then go over the limit and pay the fine?
Or take out how ever much you overspend out of next season's budget?
The Q&A simply says there's no fixed penalty, they'll deem it only on what happens.
The large teams will have spent that already.
Make it up as they go along as usual.
Door buzzer going. :D
That'll be the Pizzas
Cost cuts all round... Bernie wants to cut his costs too by only paying half as much prize money. You gotta love the soap opera that is F1!
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/59214646-3520-11de-940a-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
Is it just me or does the FIA's budget cap and rules go against what the teams achieved as a result of their meeting in January less testing and cheaper engines?
eh?
It's actually a good idea to apply some form of budget cap this year to prevent huge amount being spent prior to the cap, but 'sprit of the regulations'??
Does this mean that no team must spend more then 50% of the budget developing a double defuser for next year?
Out of interst - I wonder how many teams will spend huge sums of money developing a new car ready for the last race of this season?
That is bad news. There should at least be some sort of scale.
Another little elephant trap for Mclaren perhaps?
Phew, it's lovely to have a bit of calm now :)
Too calm though!
I think we need a bit of calmness after the events of the FIA meeting :P
It was a bit mental - everyone in here were pretty angry!
Did we fail to spot this within the madness?
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74950
I'm still trawling MP3s, as well as trawling for pictures of Heikki from the Renault days (suddenly my hard drive feels.....dirty....)
sounds good.
I saw that.
Just a bit of passionate argument - nothing harmful. :)
Maybe you did, but a lot of us probably didn't, for obvious reasons!
It'd be so boring if everyone agreed all the time. I like that sidepoddebates don't turn into personal insults like everywhere else :)
I also only just realised yesterday was Martin Whitmarsh's birthday. What a boring way to spend it, hanging with the FIA.
Wow, that must have sucked.
One of the few places, actually, where F1 debates always stay civil.
Maybe Max threw him a party?
'Your team will have a suspended ban for the amount of candles that don't get blown out on your cake'
And the WMSC's gift was letting them off the hook. ;)
he did well to blow out 48 then ;)
Bet he was bloody delighted to only have 3! :D
How cruel would it have been if all of them were them were trick candles ;)
For those who used to watch rallying on the BBC - remember this?! :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsYrhNMZa6U
Is that the 'rally report' intro?
Yeah! :D
Do you know what the song is?
Erm...the song name's in the title of the video?
Right, I'm off to the beach then. It better not be raining there. :P
I'll see if I can drop by from time to time, but otherwise, I won't be around for the next 72 hours. :)
Enjoy yourselves, kids! :D
See ya journeyer, enjoy yourself :)
Song name - it's called "Duel" or something isn't it?
Have fun Journeyer, we hope to have passed you in the comments by the time you come back! :D
Excellent blog by Jakey of the BBC F1 team in bahrain, lots of photos!! :D
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jakehumphrey/2009/04/my_bahrain_grand_prix_photo_di.html
It's a remix of a song called Duel by Propaganda called Jewelled.
Cheers :)
pink shiiiiiirts
and Martin doing a Kimi, love it :D
Guess we have that Sunil bloke for the great music :D
It's not a true impression unless it's a Magnum ;)
They usually do, but I think today was pushing it slightly.
On the subject of music, I was informed recently that the incidental music used when the Beeb look at the F1 calendar, with the animated cars in the background, is the same as was used during a cooking segment on Blue Peter.
Recycling in action :)
According to the little letter you get with the World Series tickets, this is what's going to be at Silverstone when I go on Sunday:
Demos from the R28
Race programme includes: World Series, Megane Trophy, Clio Cup and FRenault
Special historic track demos of Renault cars from rally and racing as well as "record-breakers"
F1 race simulators
Pit stop challenge
Autograph signings
Chance to learn about Renault's developments in safety and environment
Free funfair
Latest Renault models and also used cars (???)
Classic and performance Renaults on display
They call it a motorsport festival. I call it a free day out :D
The Sunday it's being held of course, not this Sunday! :P
Oooh, funfair!
I am composing a song for the Killer Question. Refuse to sing it though :D
Goodwood doesn't have that, I don't think ;)
Oh go on, that would be an excellent debut :)
It has lots of racing cars, sure, but what does that have over a free funfair? :D
I sorted my playlist by length, and tried to find the shortest song possible I could work with :D
Hehehe. I may be wrong but I think Goodwood does have stands with candy floss, and if I'm honest, that's the only reason I go to funfairs :)
Silverstone might have candy floss. I'm not sure, I only go there for the racing. :P
I'm excited though, means I get to see the new Megane Trophy car! I love those things. "Meganes overdosed on steroids" best describes them. Absolutely mental! :D
For those who don't know what a Megane trophy car sounds or looks like, check this onboard video. ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQlrq57GmWA&feature=related
This is from 2006, by the way.
Agreed.
I call it the way things should be done for a race meeting :)
Right, I need to quickly nip to the library to return some book. Enjoy the video and I'll be back in a while ;)
;)
Hey everyone.
Miss anything big today? (IE, anything, just literally come home)
big might be an understatement :D
http://www.f1minute.com/2009/04/30/fia-world-motor-sport-council/
Urrrrrrrrrm... welll... I guess!
They got rid of refuelling. Nooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Yes, £40 million budget cap, refuelling banned next year and World War III on the daily post straight after ;)
Oooh. Minimum weight up as well - didn't spot that earlier.
From 605kg to 620kg
No Refueling ?? no more great pitstops ?? Whaaaa!! Bring Back INDY!
I guess they need more weight for fuel, so 15kg isn't toooo much in the scheme of things
I like this guy
Yay, Indy month starts tomorrow :D
ooh the game of tennis I want to watch has been pushed back to 3am from 1.30, even I won't stay up for that ;)
Except the 620kg is excluding fuel.
So that'll be the KERS system then.
oh god you can tell I need sleep, duhhhh
Didn't Scott link to a story earlier that had an interview with Norbert Haug, that said that mclaren had one of the lightest systems at 25 kg? So the increase in weight limit won't be enough!
But they can fit the McLaren system in now can't they. This just stops it being a penalty for the heavier drivers I guess.
Hmm, all quiet here. Did we scare people off earlier?
can't talk, federer ;)
Playing the very end of Metal Gear Solid 4!
Looks like the teams might not be fans of the two-tier approach. AUTOSPORT has both McLaren and Williams speaking out against it.
Not a fan, I'm afraid :(
And JAMES ALLEN has said Ferrari are against it.
Maybe we should capitalise all news sources? I think everyone is trying to copy GMM ;)
:D
Oh dear, you'd better get comfy - it's quite long an drawn out!
I am thinking SIDEPODCAST would look better, but how would one convince Mr C of it?
MR C you mean ;)
sabotage of caps lock buttons?
His hands would explode trying to type it ;(
I loaded up a new game of GPM2. Too darn addictive. Taking Jaguar back to the top, with Tiago Monteiro
Actually I wonder if this is McLaren and more obviously Williams basically saying, "we don't want anyone to not take the budget cap".
I can never get that to work without crashing :(
I have a commerce degree I have never used, I am more than willing to offer my services to the teams to help them stay under budget :D
:(
You got it on CD?
OMG - someone just walked by me on the train that looked EXACTLY like Catherine Tate!
That's because commerce is the new arts degree!
Yep, pity I found out my degree is useless after I graduated
No. Sort out aero. When we had no aero bits and no refuelling we had lots of overtaking. We don't need to try to find out what gives overtaking because it usd to exist so you simply create the same conditions again/
for once gmm is actually correct... unless autosport really is an acronym for something?
I'm not saying anything cos we've already had this debate. We've already sorted out the areo and the only reason for no refuelling was that it costs a hell of a lot for transport, nothing mentioned about overtaking = no refuelling.
What did I say about not saying anything?
That is about the most insane thing I ever heard. Why not have a randomiser attached to the throttle stop. So that every time the driver lifts off the throttle the throttle stop adjusts how far down the pedal can go the next time.
i'm not saying anything either. however, i maintain that the fia should prove that the overtaking problem has been resolved before making any changes relating to refuelling.
so, nothing from me.
Yes. Gilles Billeneuve wanted wings banned in 1981 because he understood the problem
*cries*
That. Was. Awesome. I hate ending these games, they get me all emotional!
Brining back some level of ground effect is eminently sensible and not necessarily more dangerous
Old school science Alex. Experimental design and Tagucchi mean we don't do that any more.
But isn't banning wings immesly dangerous to the stability of the car?
I won't consider my expert in the situation, but surely you can see when a team loses a rear wing, they spin off (Firman in Japan was it not?)
alex was discussion the fia decision making process, right?
you're advocating that max considers experimental design?
That's the second time you've agreed with the FIA! Scary ;)
I believe this is because the cars weren't expecting to not have a wing... If you see what I mean. Quite different from being designed with no wing in mind.
That car had loads of downforce. No downforce and the car would have had enough suspension travel to deal with the bumps
Yeah, I sort of realised that. But still be quite difficult to design a car going at those speeds with no wing surely?
Not a chance. The guy was hopeless wheel to wheel. I reckon he would have been lucky to win one title under 1960s or 70s rules. He would have been one of these guys who was mega quick but never quite made a habit of winning.
I love the way sometimes you think you're talking to Steven but you're actually talking to Steven catching up with you from hours ago...
Always a strange sensation :)
I came up with the answer to that last year. Somewhere on the circuit you have a little lay by like a short pit lane. If a driver runs off the track on the next lap he has to go in to the penalty area and do a few donuts. So we get penalties that are entertaining.
hehe. you know he'll get there though.
Good lord, I'm back from the library and already it's WW3 all over again about the regulations again!
Absolutely. It's a dedication that is truly amazing!
Wouldn't it be WW4 by now ;)
Also tarmac is great in the dry but not to much good when it has half an inch of water on top of it
I blame Steven.
Sensible option :D
When I arrive at work in the morning I read through all the posts from when I was sleeping. Perhaps I should start replying to them all as well ;)
It means teams are going to have to hire currency traders and choose suppliers based on the currency they price in. F1 hedge funds
how do you ever find the time?
the problem is money, not time. I don't have a data plan on my mobile!
hehe. i read every comment on sidepodcast up until this christmas and then, i had to throw in the towel.
still trying, but mostly failing.
Boo the Australian Grand Prix Corp has changed their sale date again, it went from April 21 to May 1 to June 8. I just want to buy my tickets!
You never know someone on the radio may play it to Heikki
Put speedtape on his caps lock
Not necessarily. If you ban wings the rest of the car design will change. If you just take the wings off a current car and try to run it you will have problems. People have run cars with the current levels of horse power before without wings and without modern tyres or brakes.
My argument has always been that if wings had been banned the first day they were proposed we would not have people saying that wings were the answer. People tend to want the status quo regardless what that is.
If we currenlty had global cooling rather than global warming all the people who today are concerned about the polar ice caps melting would be just as agitated about the prosepect of them becoming covered in ice and killing off whatever was growing there. We have no idea which is the best situation but there are people who are fervently in favour of one for no reason other than it maintains the status quo.
That's is because they expect the rear wing to be there. If you drive a corner expecting there to be no downforce and there is no downforce it is not a problem. If you drive a corner expecting to have down force and that downforce disappears you have a big problem.
There is a Sanna Kovalainen from Suomussalmi on skype. Heikki's sister is called Sanna, isn't she?
I am arguing that it is not necessarily unscientific to change more than one variable at a time. There are lots of classes running to lots of rule sets and historically even more. Experimental design in this case is simply looking at existing data and interpreting it.
I don't think I agree with much the FIA does
kathi, i feel you might be taking this 'ringing up random people' idea too far.
;)
Hi Alex
Hi Steven :)
:D
I don't think you do either...
Kathi,
Have you thought of setting up a skype detective agency?
Okay this is true. However it is very hard to see at the moment what the effects of the different changes are. And if we change again quickly, as they are advocating we will probably never know. And by next season we'll probably change everything again. It doesn't seem very scientific. It seems unplanned and random.
38 people on dropio and Felipe Baby now has 68 comments
The way the FIA make changes is Max makes knee jerk decisions based on nothing and then makes a follow up knee jerk to that. I expect one day in the next five years he will arrive at the ideal set of rules then two races later knee jerk back out of it.
It is so random. You can see it clearly in that they are not banning refuelling for any kind of improve / worsen racing argument. They are banning it simply to reduce costs.
Don't encourage me!!
I blame Steven :)
:D
given that you don't have a mic input at the moment, isn't cold calling someone a bad idea?
Evening. :)
I am going to need proof in future before accepting blame for anything. I blame Lou for this change of policy.
hey dom.
Skype chat?
it'll be a bit one sided without a microphone though.
As in text chat?
As far as I am aware. In the blame cascade it now goes blame Bassano, who blames Steven, who blames Lou, who blames Mr C, who blames Christine, who then stares at Mr C, who then... I think... Blames Bassano.
Steven is now merely a cog in the larger blame cog.
Don't mention cog.
:D
I thought we were trying to narrow down who invented the wheel for blaming purposes.
I see you lot are trying to make sure I spend the rest of the day catching up on the comments... ;)
The first rule of cog club is don't mention cog club.
Try saying that five times fast!
Sounds like a plan...
We could blame Elton John and Tim Rice for "The circle of life" that's quite close to it.
they do deserve a lot of blame for that.
I blame Elton has a certain ring (geddit) to it!
He has been a-round a long time. ;)
:D
My Blue Peter expert from earlier also let me know that one of the presenters took part in an A1GP pit stop practice.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00k3731/Blue_Peter_29_04_2009/
11:15mins in if anyone is interested. After some weird thing about dogs.
Just thought of something - why do Renault call it the World Series when there's not one race that takes place outside of Europe?
haha :D
this blue peter expert...
Is it Christine?
Or is it her imaginary friend called Franck Sebastien Smedley? ;)
Baseball World Series in America?
Same thing.
i'm watching blue peter now, and it's the first time i've seen it in about two decades.
i know that it isn't me.
So true. Although do they mean "World" as in the diversity of nationalities taking part?
Does that Matt Barker or someone or other still do it?
I doubt it, probably mainly from North America and Japan.
In that case, I don't get it.
Because the Europe plus one series doesn't have the same ring
They normally let a couple of Japanese teams in for good measure. I think one of them won it once, that really didn't go down well.
There are not any Japanese teams involved and none that could come close to win it. It is a domestic championship
Hmmm, not sure what I'm thinking of then. I know there is a competition where some Japanese teams go over to America but I'm not sure what it is.
There was a strange thing when Baseball was briefly in the Olympics. America didn't qualify. They had sent such low end players because they thought they could still beat the other countries. They pitched it a bit low. Some people thought that meant America wasn't as good as Japan at baseball. But that wasn't really true.
Football?
Nope. Can't remember the MLS ever doing that mad a thing.
I'm surprised Japan's national sport hasn't become drifting - they're mad for it out there!
World Baseball Classic is the thing I think. Japan won it the first year.
Maybe it's the Olympics I'm thinking of then? I know I've seen Japan beat America at baseball at some point.
:D
Just searched on Google "Japanese teams in america" and I'll I'm getting back is baseball.
Here you are...
I thang you :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Baseball_Classic
That'll be it then, nice one.
Can I just say - IF I win the BAT game, I'm claiming it as a solo effort. Not to sound harsh, but Chris hasn't been around as much as I'd hoped. Sure, people have other things to do and I appreciate it, but all it takes it 3-4 minutes to sort everything out for the next session. I hate teammates like that who just leave you to do all the work...
How very sporting of you.
Is it as annoying as when people say they're going to set up a game and then disappear?
I haven't seen you remind him on here or anything though? I'm sure he reads the comments and may see you make a comment here and there perhaps catching his attention.
...plus the fact I'm only saying this because I want Lou to win the championship though >_>
that would be really annoying wouldn't it? and embarrassing too..
I won't lie, I did to to Ali, who I've said sorry to, but at times it can become boring and repetitive and those 3-4 minutes sometimes to me seem like 3-4 pressured minutes to do something. He might have simply lost intrested and to be fair, its a game in which you can lose intrest in easily.
ooooh! :D
When did that happen again? And anyway, that wasn't my fault. The game deleted itself!
There are some Japanese players and US teams tour Japan pre-season but the World Series is just hte final of the play offs for Major league Baseball which has teams only from the USA apart from the Totonto Blue Jays.
i think she deserves a ping for that :)
:D
Weirdly, I just learned, that Japanese players must play for 10 years in their home league before they can leave and go to America. I suppose to keep the Japanese league alive.
It might sound harsh but to be fair I managed to win that race in Valencia with no help on the setup from Chris at all. So it's not as if I'm suffering as a result. Just takes away from it being a "team effort" if the other guy isn't playing his part as well as he could and should do.
I didn't know that. It seems surprising that they can be held to that. I wonder how long before Tony George sets up an American only version of MLB
That's surprisingly sensible.
Then why are you complaining?
I wasn't complaining as such, more like making a point.
Sounds like Mansell syndrome. The whole world is against me and anything I achieved was because of my own efferts despite everyone being against me.
Well my love of racing was started by a signed picture from the guy and a Facebook quiz tells me if I were a racing driver I'd be Our Nige, so... :D
Must buy Scott a fake mustache to finish the ensemble :P
:D
Having now read much more about it... Was just interested in how they would do this legally... It seems that the players are under contract with their teams and can't become free agents (and move wherever they like) for 10 years.
Previously players had retired and then moved to America.
However you don't have to stay for the 10 years as you could be bought while in contract which means you have to pay the club a release fee.
Apparently:
$100million dollars just for one player?! Mind you, it's just as bad in football...
The most expensive footballer was £46 million (Zidane) which still falls short of that baseball record.
How much is Kimi?
I think Basketball is the most expensive from memory
Preicelss ;)
Couple of magnums and a pair of shorts should tempt him. Chuck flip flops in and you've got a deal m'friend.
Baseball spends an awful lot more on players than football does.
I could swear it was baseball. But thats like being paid £20 million for cricket.
Looks to be tied at the moment...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p002vzm0/Lisa_McCormick_29_04_2009/
Schumi down in 7th!
That sheet is confusing because it's contracts totals listed but it's rating them in order of per year basis.
I'm getting the BBC Tees link
?
Even more confusing with it being a link to iPlayer.
That was a silly and well drawn out ending. Stoopid!
Oh dear... I am stupid...
http://www.businesspundit.com/25-biggest-and-most-expensive-sports-contracts-ever-signed/
Although I am now even more confused with that page...
it was BRILLIANT!
Ok, fair enough, It may have been about 80 minutes long but brilliant brilliant brilliant. Loved it. :P
It's called "post trawling". I am doing it now. Hi everybody from 16:31pm! :)
I'd rather watch a film personally.
Welcome to the club
I loved MGS2 but I watched the first level of MGS4 on YT and stopped after about halfway through. The cutscene to gameplay ratio must have been 10:1. Ridiculous.
You do also realise its in descending order, so its like Schumi is 18th
Yay for a Global Warming rant!
I knew there would be a lot of basketball players in there but I didn't expect that many. Surprised Payton Manning is as high as he is.
They have also put a picture of Felipe for Kimi's contract?
It's like time travel. You can arrive and say something and someone can reply but the reply doesn't get heard till much later.
Douglas Adams had it right though. Time travel is impossible. THe reason it is impossible is grammar.
An interesting viewpoint. Completely wrong, but interesting all the same :P
Amazed that Giambi is number one. He is not even that good.
Baseball World Series?
There's a Kiwi driver in it, so you have both ends of the earth there with the European drivers...
D1 Grand Prix?
:D
Well that explains the driving standard of Sato, Ide and Nakajima!
That is an epic series to be honest.
The list is in reverse. I am still amazed that he is on the list
Indeed. You sound like Alonso now!
That reminds me ... when shall we look at the MarioKart tourney? Are all those who were keen and didn't have a copy got one now, etc?
Indeed. Effort that isn't rewarded. Too random for me.
But Scott, that's very unsportsmanlike to say what you said. You should have taken it up with your team mate and not aired it out in public...
He's just getting into the true F1 spirit :D
Yep, that's it! :D
I have it..
Ping!
Yeah we know!
we're gonna pass at the moment, cheers. just too busy.
Ah - a typical Global warming argument. You're right, we're wrong and we must be evil kitten eating heretics for trying to sort out the actual science.
It's worse than religion, I tell ya!
Me too. Give it a month and I'll be well up for it though.
Maybe in a month then, so as not to distract those with exams.
Phew! Caught up now!
Hmm, I've got it, now until after the 25th is bad for me with exams and my trip to Cardiff.
25th June that is
Sounds good, I realised yesterday I have a pretty horrid May myself :(
May 30th though it's all over till october, woot!
I'm not writing this from up a tree at the end of a runway you know :P
To say it's all about nothing more than maintaining the status quo is nonsense though.
Oh absolutely. But let us question the science, even if we agree that we should be changing our ways!
Righto, June it is then!
But how long do we sit around questioning the science for while things keep getting worse?
Not what I said. What I said is in any situation there will be people who will argue vehemently to amintain the status quo regardless of whether that is a good thing or a bad thing.
Global warming has other apects to it which are never considered. If we raise the temperature of the planet we get a much wetter climate all round. People in Africa are dying every year due to drought so a wetter climate seems like a good thing.
We don't. We change our overconsuming, polluting and wasteful ways anyway.
That is a religious argument. We should believe in god and hope he exists rather than prove he does not.
That's the problem though, a lot of people, politicians in particular, try to ignore the problem by saying more research is needed.
God isn't destroying the planet though.
A politician will always say that about everything!
Ah but how do you know? ;)
Can I ask people to not get into another war here today?
Pretty please :)
surely that depends on your beliefs?
I was just thinking that!
:D
in other news. we have an annoying-hickey update on it's way later today. this one sleeps.
I would say
'No more wars or I'LL KILL SOMEONE'
But that defeats the point I think..
What does the trouser pythobn guy say in the end cut scene of MGS4?
Something about being the children of war so the next generation can be the children of peace?
oooh! Doosleepy! :D
Because he doesn't exist
Sleepy-hickey?
What's that again in English?
awww!
No, he died 15 years ago tomorrow...
doohickey is being updated so that it turns itself off if you leave it alone long enough.
It sleeps instead of polling all night when no-one is in front of their computer.
cool!
:(
That's a very optimistic view, but sadly the positives are massively outweighed by the negatives.
I don't think this is hostile at all but please say if you think it's getting that way!
It took me a few moments. :(
Just a small suggestion here, but I was thinking last night that there could be a 3 minute silence in the comments in respect of Ayrton (one minute for each of his championships). But it was just something that popped into my head so I don't know how people would feel about it. Whatever happens, I'll be paying my respects.
He thought he was god. That is a bit different
Why just him?
:)
No he didn't!
People worshipped him like one though.
Didn't we already have this conversation?
Because unlike you we weren't around when Gilles passed.
i thought so.
Your right Steven... I don't.
ok... that is more than enough.
A 3 minute silence on sidepodcast? That'll never work!
So... slow F1 news day?
It's not that it's getting hostile... But rather like the earlier debate on Senna's death... It's the sort of thing that's unlikely to be actually resolved. People have a view at the beginning and will almost certainly stick with that view regardless of the arguments presented...
I doubt that we will solve what killed Senna or Global Warming here tonight... That's all :)
See
I would have thought god could get the your/you're thing right. ;)
:D :D
:)
agreed.
Hehehe. Maybe that's the right way and we've all been doing it wrong!
very true.
i have misplaced a kitkat somewhere though guys, if anyone really wants to solve a mystery
for the sake of my sanity i'm moderating comments until we find something else to talk about.
did anyone else enjoy that blue peter segment?
Is it in Tate Britain?
i'd like to volunteer to help find it?
Very true. Discussions like that never translate well when they're not face to face.
Oooh I didn't look at that yet.
Now that's a dilemma!
Did you eat it and then forget?
I saw it by my tele on a desk. it is not on the desk any more.
*strokes beard*
Only if I get to keep it if I find it.
:D
Also... I have just been Wii Fitting (if fitting is the right word).
In the football heading game you have to head footballs, and avoid heading football boots or...
Heads of Panda costumes!
really? how do i not remember that.
Going by ze evidence I suggest that ze look behind ze televizion
Mr C, how come you can call my comments rubbish and bul**** and yet I get moderated for commenting on a thread that someone else started?
I would have thought you would know me better than that. If you had just asked me to back off I would have respected that - there was no need to just mod me like that?
What have I said today that was so offensive anyways?
I know! It's a travesty, isn't it?
No I was looking forward to eating it and now I can;t! oh the trauma...
The finer gets a finger of the kitkat, so if 4 people find it, you all get a finger each, woo!
i am moderating any mention of certain words gavin. as just mentioned.
*Thinks of the Panda commercial with the Kitkat*
I want to know why there are so many of them at a football training ground. How many mascots do they have?
hahahaha.
What if someone less honest than me finds it and doesn't tell you though?
They also need to invest in better shoelaces.
That's fine. Please read the comment in the mod queue (no need to publish) to understand what I actually meant about ******.
Then you are not welcome to my kitkat! :D
Just got moderated
And better Panda costumes!
Hehe
Sorry Steven, I can't properly explain myself to you either.
Oh.... (*lip covered in chocolate... looking slightly guilty.*)
I have to say, the Kit-Kats over there are a lot better then the ones here in the states. What the heck do you put in them?
you mentioned about 9 blocked words in that comment! at the moment, i really, really cannot face a debate on the subject.
IKitkat update
I've found a Boost chocolate bar in the kitchen... but this is not a Kitkat dagnabbit.
Zaha. I think you vill find ze kitkat in ze fridge/cupboard/anywhere where you keep kitkats...
I only quoted a Nigel Roebuck column.
A clue!
I bought it from an ice cream van not long ago :P
Steven, gonna message you on Skype mate.
I am now being moderated??
What are these words??
that is the perfect answer. thank you.
Kitkat update: My mum ate it.
:(
I've never trusted ice cream van chocolate. No idea why.
Your Mum's a Panda!
test
NOOO!!!!!
(fall to knees, raises arms to the sky)
Kitkat!!!!!!!!
The doohickey hates me now. :(
Darth Vader style.
tis okay. i fixed. soz, your email was tripping the moderation.
I passed on this information to be given a very straight stare back at me :(
...whilst she put the damn kitkat wrapper in the bin... farewell, sweet chocolate...
But you and your mum know what I am talking about, right?
I don't know what that means but... oops!
I think you should strongly consider grounding her... Or at least sending her to her room without her supper!
It is wrong to steal and it's right that she should learn that sooner rather than later.
It means your email contains a keyword that is now banned?
I know!! Talk about setting a bad example to her chi... oh.
Anyway, what a day. We are moving office and they decided to start knocking down walls today instead of saturday. Yay for noise-cancelling earphones!
I went out for dinner tonight which was average, and now I'm finally watching the forum from Bahrain.
I'm already used to a race every week. I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself this weekend.
i still haven't seen it :(
Catch up on other Motorsports which I am sadly behind on!
and monday.
It's on the BBC F1 site now, isn't it?
I've got some relatives over. Coming from York and staying overnight before heading up to Edinburgh. To watch the rugby league that is, I stay here, lose my room for two nights and probably be on here less often.
no time.
Monday?
bank holiday... isn't it?
Bank holiday. A day off school, makes me happy.
Next friday for the Vikings...
Not for those of us in the wonderful world of retail it isn't. Although saying that, I have a feeling I've ended up with the day off by chance anyway.
My shop is closed every bank holiday, so i'm a lucky chappy in that respect for bank holidays. And we sell cornettos now. Which rocks. Not that i've hinted at that recently.
You are the luckiest guy in the world mate!
Yeah cornettos rock!
...the holiday stuff ain't so bad either. :P
LOL :D
If you don't mind me asking Chris, where do you work?
Probably best you don't say that here.
ah, oki doki, I tend to ask too much sometimes. Was just interested to retail sake. No worries though. :)
Could ask over the wiki pm?
Really?
There are loads of horror stories about people slagging off their work and getting into trouble with it. Just be careful and don't mention your company on the web where possible...
That's true.
Fair point, better safe than sorry I guess.
I slag them off in work!
Well that's different I guess?
Nah I'm only joking anyways, I know what you mean, like has been said, always betetr to be safe than sorry. In our law lecture's we;ve been studying the efefcts of stuff like facebook and privacy law with bosses and corporations being able to check up on you for example.
I love how Martin Brundle smacked down EJ over the 'blazer brigade' comments!
Oooh interesting. We have a problem where our guys are putting pics of work stuff on Facebook - it's not allowed and it's a security risk. But people don't think that way when they want to show off how cool their job is to their mates, do they?
I'm shocked to say this, but I completely agree with Bernie that the British Government put some money into the GP instead of wasting it on the olympics...
PM'd you on the wiki Lukeh
The thing with that is you may have a biased opinion (on F1, same with me), so you'd think F1 deserves it more. But the thing for the british government is compared to the F1, Olympics is going to bring in waaaay more £££ instead of F1.
Imagine the uproar if they did though. Ironically, the complaints would probably be from the same people who complained about all the money going to the olympics in the first place.
Nope, especially with law here as well. Data protection act, Computer Misuse Act and all that, a lot of corporations seem to get the idea that because they're an employee, they as their employer have the right to control what they do on facebook whereas it's quite the opposite. lying or criticising them or other little things, as has been stated, not so much but is a very very big grey area in law or so I've studied so far... you'd have to ask a law student about that for greater detail, it's just a module for myself.
But the Olympics will only do it until 2012 whilst F1 will do it for a whole career.
Yep. But it's bad form and unprofessional to slag off your company on your blog or facebook.
Hmm, might be true. Depends how much they spend on it I suppose
And even if they can't fire you for it, it isn't going to do much for your relationships or job prospects within the company.
Yeah it is. I've just noticed now someone's status at where I work in a bit of a huff and a puff about work coincedentally, and I know our boss has us on facebook, so I'm quite interested to see if anything happens there...
9.2 billion apparently.
With the amount they are spending on it, I'm not sure if that's true?
Evening all. Home from a 'crappy as usual' day at college followed by trying to nurse home an overheating car.. Time for a cup of tea, a curry and a beer.. then comment and twitter catch-up...
evening pat :)
I meant the F1 side of it.
Maybe, but the fact of the TV Revenue will be loads, they might make a profit.
If you had overheating problems, you should have run it in clean air ;)
As opposed to 100 million to save the GP. That's like 1% of the budget for the olympics!
Do you drive a Brawn?
I'll be honest I have no idea what I'm talking about. All this money at my age is something I want, not how to spend it wisely
I did. :-) Got caught behind a guy doing 40 so I overtook him. The road was closed ahead and we had to back up a mile to go another way, he said "now you have to turn around you d***". It's not like I cut him up or tailgated him, I left acres of room.I suppose being stuck in a Trulli Train on the alternative route didn't help the temps which is why it cut out on me - 100 yards from home. Just sat and waited for it to cool for 5 mins.
It is white, and funnily enough after the comments yesterday about Lou's car I briefly (very briefly) considered putting Brawn stripes on it, before I realised I'm not a chav.
I'm not sure... if I remember correctly, they weren't entirely sure whether they could make a profit back when the cost of the games was expected to be 5 billion...
The thing is though, as much as it costs, hosting the Olympics is a rare honour. I'm really excited for it. Attending an Olympic event is a once in a lifetime opportunity for most people.
True, but look at the debt it will cause... and all the empty venues after. If it's not done properly, the Olympics could become a parasite...
So it is to go to a GP, depending on where you are/how much money you have...
Yeah, the main stadium, could easily be turned down to something like 60k for a football team in the area, like West Ham.
True - but just to play Devil's Advocate here... an F1 track also has many other uses than just for a Grand Prix...
Oh, I agree it's all far from perfect, but I'm still excited that I will be able to experience it first hand.
Photo diary from Jake - http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jakehumphrey/2009/04/my_bahrain_grand_prix_photo_di.html :)
I'm bored. As always! Will be nice to get back into work on Tuesday :)
Well done mate - it's about time you had a lucky break!
Well, Mr C has been busy in the background again and we have new Doohickey updates to play with.
If you refresh, you should see a link next to the dropdown saying Active Thread - which when clicked will display the post.
The sleepyhickey will also have a nap if you leave it for a certain amount of time.
Hehehe, thanks :)
That's a cool feature, I like it :)
It's worth noting that if the post is too long, it falls off the page in the lightbox... uh, box. I've got him working on that one.
We're also looking at being able to play podcasts in the lightbox too.
Ping.
Whats next? Portable cupcake machine?
Nice stuff guys ;)
Very nice, loving the update! Good stuff guys :)
What means exactly that? It won't refresh if I don't look at it for an hour, for example?
Its just 'gone to sleep' on me after approx. 45 seconds whilst I scrolled up to read....
Does this mean that the doohickey suffers from sleep aponea?
Is that that condition that just makes you randomly fall asleep like 90 times a day?
Anyone seen this?
http://www.crash.net/Formula+One/News/146142/1/ecclestone_f1_needs_a_black_female_jewish_driver.html
“I don't care who drives,” the Formula One Management (FOM) chief executive told Spanish newspaper Marca, before adding: “It would be fantastic to have a female driver who is black and Jewish.”
Awwww:
"Shhhh.... Real-Time Doohickey is sleeping right now
[click to wake her up]"
:)
Well that's beaten my Kitkat hunt for out of nowhere moment of the day.
one other change to note, not directly related to doohickey, is the removal of comment counts at the base of the page. we've also removed "most talkative" list from the homepage.
in future we'll add some kind of comment "hearting" that will allow people to accrue positive votes against things they've said. we'll likely have a list of "most hearted" commentors at some point too.
the reason is to remove quantity of comments from being any kind of reason for praise and instead focus on quality of comments from here on in. in theory the funniest and most informative should get rewarded, rather than those who spend way too much time in front of the screen.
anyhow, that's for another day, just hightlighting the reason for removal at the moment.
Don't worry, it went to sleep and explained itself :-)
...wtf?
cool. the timer is set very, very low today. only for testing purposes and to garner feedback.
will likely increase to several hours tomorrow, or during the weekend.
I like the idea of awarding people who provide good, useful comments, it should be a good system and people here are more than nice enough to know where a comment deserves a bit of recognition so sounds good :D
I'd better get onto to topping the table quick before it ends!
Only kidding. I think the idea's great. Rewards those who make an effort to comment well rather than comment a lot.
alex suggested the heart awhile ago. it should be a good way to reference the best comments come the end of the year too. again, more work to be done first though.
glad you approve :)
So this was aimed primarily at commenters like me, then? ;)
So after 'waking up', the snoozehickey loads all the comments from when you are away?
Sounds good. :)
I like it too - and for any posts about Schumacher we should start at -10
RG is also still on -1,000,000 ;)
Does it still tell you how many comments have been left while it's asleep though?
your ongoing battle with journeyer was becoming slightly decremental to the overall conversation. if every time you said something, he responded, it gets tiresome quickly.
however, it always was a flaw and the comment numbers these days are so crazily high any kind of count was pointless. plus it's too easy to "game" the chart. the new chart will be much more of a challenge. especially when you consider you may have to earn "hearts", before giving one, for example.
fun and games to come... for sure.
correct.
any idea if you'll be testing it for a time with the comments and seeing it how it goes with the commentors?
If I can be honest here, I rarely think about trying to beat Journeyer on comments. Even though it may not seem like it, I'm just commenting as I normally would. The fact that he comments directly after I do either suggests he's more preoccupied about it than I am or it's merely coincidence.
nope. it really is asleep.
should've been clear - if you post a comment the timer resets.
this has been introduced to reduce unnecessary server load for machines left polling overnight. if you haven't left a comment for three or four hours, you likely don't need to know how many comments you've missed.
That would be a nice addition
Thank you - it's a very, very good idea this. Hopefully we will think a bit more and provide longer comments.
Here's a suggestion - when the snoozehickey wakes up, can it tell you what the last post was before it loaded in the new ones (like a book mark)?
I do!
I dunno about this sidepodcast sleepy time hour thing. I went off to do other things, came back and thinking there was no comments only to check 10 mins later to find theres loads.
no real plans actually. am making most of it up right here, right now.
good suggestion. will give it some thought.
Put in that way, you're right. I was confused with the 45s it takes now to go to sleep
really, why?
don't worry. the timer is set very low. we shall increase to a sensible amount after more testing.
Seems to work fine here - I get a comment count and everything...
Okay. Just a thought. Didn't think it was always gonna be so soon. Just caught me out.
Awww, I like the doosleepy message, it's cute :D
When I'm doing other things, I only have to check back when it tells me a comment has been left. I'd have to check back every so often to find either nobody is leaving comments or I've missed loads.
The comment count was a great idea!
that's still there though.
surely you don't watch comments coming in for more than three hours without ever responding to one of them?
What about - remove the comment count for commenters, but keep the one for threads. You'll still know how many comments have been left, but not who left how many.
I think this will be solved once the timeout goes above an hour... There's no chance nobody will comment in an hour.
bingo. exactly that.
Aww, it is isn't it.
And nice to see doohickey is a girl as well.
alex is reading your mind wayyyy too much today :P
Hmm. If I've been away for that long, it's helpful to know how much I've missed.
see, now i really want to (heart) that comment :)
he's a bit freaky.
heart that comment?
but that's the point. if you're away, just wake it up upon your return?
yeah.
I'm going to take it I've missed something here?
That makes sense...
the bit i just said... never mind.
Mr C just explained a sec ago about the upcoming hearting comments idea he has. It sounds hearty :)
Okay, was it before i got all confuggled with this sleepy time thing? I didn't read back her comments and just complained.
I am... It's a well known phenomenon...
do.. do.. da.. do.. do...
phenomenon...
do.. do... do... do...
phenomenon...
do.. do... da... dah... dah... da... do... do... da... da... da.. da..
ahem ;)
(hearted)
Sold. :D
w00t!
Oh darn, I appear to be starting in a uncomfortable posistion with this 'me hearty' busines..
Just wanted to share this, the commentary from Darryl Eastlake is hilarious :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nflj21etu5E&feature=related
The contrast between Darryl and the co-commentator reminds me of another commentary duo... ;)
Comment in moderation
Another thing that was a bit odd was that as I was scrolling back through comments it just went to sleep. But again... not an issue once the timeout is larger.
On a server bandwith problem does it make that much of a difference if you bulk up the requests (as the waking from sleep effectively does)? I suppose it misses all of the requests when there is nothing new?
Shiver me timbers RG lad. We are all in this together 'me harty's
Ah, so not a panda then; but a relative of a certain type of black bear from Peru?
it does that, yup. it's actually processor requests we're trying to reduce. not bandwidth.
a bandwidth request for 'no new comments' is a tiny 2kb of data. but it's database time and cpu time.
Evening all, just been catching up with the comments.
Are we allowed to mention *****, ******* ****** and ******* yet?
Nice to see God posting again, even if it is to deny his own existence. But then Douglas Adams had quite a lot to say about that :)
I like the "doohickey is sleeping" message too.
If Douglas Adams posts to tell us he no longer exits then we'll know we're through the looking glass!
it's been a long day!
it's a hard working doohickey.
That's because it's learnt to be a good doohickey now and not cause problems ;)
On this bit of software I use there is an icon in the top left hand corner... He's a kiwi and if you hover over him then he pecks...
http://www.fogcreek.com/FogBugz/
And if you log in to the software and it's past midnight then you find that he's asleep...
http://11.media.tumblr.com/bhKTvCKNA37rrbkbhPijJfff_400.png
OK. Fair enough.
I forgot to mention that I was amazed by the exclusions from the $40 million budget cap for teams. Not including driver salaries I can understand, but marketing and fines? Fines should absolutely be included - if a fine takes the team over budget then they should have to deal with the consequences of not being able to test. It might make them behave a bit more.
hehehe. that is sweet.
forgot to ask btw. has the doohickey caching problem been resolved? whereby you click back and some really old comments get loaded and all the new ones have to come in again?
quick question for either mr or mrs c is there a panel this weekend? and how is hosting it?
All is good again after a quick check ;)
yes there certainly is...
yourself and jackie i believes.
I
Oops.
nice one.
Interesting - it seems there is a limit to the number of threads that show up on the doohickey. Not a complaint, more an observation.
in the drop-down? should be 10.
Heart!
good. cause it's a bank holiday and probably the only time i could do it now until exams are over. :) oh and i ;&hearts the proposal for some kinda hearting system.
I think it was Gavin who mentioned it but yowzer.. James Allen on the PS3 demo of the F1 game is incredibly annoying. He seems to only speak on corners and it puts you off so so much! Plus it always goes 'We... are... RACCIIIINNNGG' as you start, so annoying. Where's that Legard fella? :P
yay!
It now no longer caches... Which must be better for you...
Before quitting Chrome bottom comment was from you.. Now bottom comment is from Scott. Solved :)
It was me - he makes me crash because he puts me off!
;)
Yep, 10 it is.
Also, in an attempt to conserve posts, I also applaud the decision to remove the most talkative list. Quality over quantity FTW, it will hopefully make it easier to keep up to date.
I just took out Webber on turn 1 of catalunya because of it :(
it just gets better. we is winning!
I find your fascination with Taxi Racing interesting. Tell me, do you watch it often?
oops... that was meant to be ♥ :D
I took I think Schumacher off and the commentary was off. I think he was being telepathic or something.
I used to but I haven't watched it for a while now. I'm more interested in the final group A years and the first few years they went to the 5.0L v8 formula.
In other words, the best part of the ATCC... Good lad!
:D
It didn't ever refresh until I actually pressed F5 though :(
ahh, ok. no worries, that i can look into.
Right I'm off campers... Have fun :)
night alex, and cheers.
Night Mr Alex, might head off in five minutes as well.
and r.g.
Interestingly the sleep sign came up... and when I dismissed that it still didn't pick up the new comments... Not a biggie though :)
Night Alex. :)
Night all!
Cheers everybody!
I said in five minutes ;)
Its the 1st of May tomorrow (obvious I know) and for me it is astonishing to think that this will be 15 years since we lost the best Grand Prix driver of all time (cue debate). I still remember watching the race in our little cottage and waiting for the 9pm news (no internet in those days) to find out what we knew had already happened.
Raising a glass right now to the great man!
Rob
no more. i surrender.
Uh-oh :(
That was quite interesting. The commentary too.
unfortunately not like that these days - a bit boring now...
It really is amazing when you think about it. 15 years - man, where did they go? :(
I love the way he snuck past the moderation queue too. :D
I'll watch Bathurst though. But yeah, the racing ain't what it used to be.
unreal!
Why uh-oh?
I always remember May 1st - formative times and all that... :-)
Shall head off now.
With the Doohickey no a girl, am renamind it Lucy.
Live Ultra Commenting Yathingy
Same here. Bathurst is worth it, but it aint the same as the Group A days!
Haha, Martin Brundle's 'commentary' is hilarious on F1 Championship Edition. It's like he's readign a book :D
we had that debate this morning. and then... we had that debate this evening.
don't worry, everyone is humouring me ;)
If you search on Youtube "ATCC" and then add 1990, 1991, 1992 or 1993, you'll find the full series videos all uploaded on there. ;)
I'm currently watching the 1993 Oran Park Grand Final Race 2. :D
Umm, read back from earlier. Let's put it this way, it was a disaster of epic moderating proportions. I was totally wiped out!
"Once upon a time, kiddies..."
Before one goes for good, shall say I really like todays Big Picture for some reason. Nice close up of the cars. Nice find.
How about LUCIE - Live Ultra Commenting Interactive Experience?
Just curious here, but how do you plan to deal with tomorrow?
Nice one.
Right definatly gone now, ciao to all, and lucie.
Ta for the link. I'd put it on twitter but not here, can't recall why now.
It's getting a rather big number of clickies...
my take (and i am very aware that i'm in a minority here), is that we celebrate / remember events way too frequently.
so call me in 10 years time and then we'll have a significant number worth discussion.
on that basis we'll cover the 15th anniversay the same way we covered the 14th.
I can think of other ways to do it, but if Mr & Mrs C really don't want us to talk about it then it really isn't worth the hassle of trying...
Why would you want to circumvent a moderation queue we've put in for our own sanity? Seems quite mean.
How to deal with tomorrow?
Stick on the old VHS of Monaco 1992 - and enjoy with a beer or three!
Pre-wedding trip with the current wife - happy days..
That's what I meant ... kinda. I'm trying to say that the best thing to do here is not to try, so it respects the house rules etc.
I refuse to believe anyone hates cheese. [yes I'm trawling]
apparently I can
Stop talking about it. They don't want us to talk about it. We get moderated for mentioning it!
Cheers Pat, I missed that one!
Is this now becoming an unmentionable? I'll get the Wiki ready...
I guess it is, sadly :(
Whatever it is, will I know it when I trawl that far?
Yep pretty much.
in fairness, it's not the subject matter that's the problem.
it's just there's a limit to how much arguing any sane person can take. my limit was reached at 1pm. let alone having another argument 9hrs later.
It most certainly is not an unmentionable. If there are sensible thoughts and comments to be made, we are more than happy for them to be shared.
We get that all the time on the place Gavin and I talked about in London and is the reason I for one am fed up it.
Not to start anything up, but I've seen no arguments about the matter at hand. Although it seems there's now something brewing regarding whether it can mentioned or not.
no. not at all. arguments are the thing that are becoming unmentionable. especially crap ones like we had this morning.
e.g. "you mean you want drivers to DIE, DIE you say, men with children, you wish them to be all KILLED?".
that kind of nonsense belongs at planet-f1.
If you haven't seen it, it means we're doing our job properly.
Exactly. Sadly I haven't even logged in there since before Bahrain because (a) I know exactly what is being said and (b) I know exactly who is saying it. We nearly got there today...
What? I'd never post anything like that, and I know that's not what you're suggesting. Whoever gets their kicks writing stuff like that is being ridiculous and really needs to get a life.
Who said that ? That looks like it was taken out of context!
nobody said it. but that was basically where the conversation was leading.
So what is planned for this coming weekend, given that it is a long one (ha!) and there is no GP to watch, and therefore no BBC to mutter about?
Indycar, A1GP and BTCC (finally!)
Work, then stress about uni, then panel time! :D
am wondering if bernie does this on purpose. the first weekend we can actually relax and fit everything... nothing to do.
If I may say something about the "great man" and try to get things back to normal, I love him because at times he was so philosophical. He used to come out with brilliant quotations and I consider them not only to relate to racing, but to life in general. He really was someone full of knowledge and wisdom. Man, how I would have loved to have just listened to him speak in person...
Maybe. I think we all just got too fired up and carried away. I for one will make more of an effort to make sure that what I post is not as 'impulsive' as it was earlier, but I certainly don't appreciate being modded without warning and I hope it doesn't come to that again.
I wouldn't doubt it for one second. :-)
I thought BTCC was last week. Unless you mean you're catching up on Thruxton?
Dude, I haven't seen Brands yet!
Man, are you in for a treat with Plato in Race 3 ;)
Oh, I already saw that ;) Great stuff from 'tato there!
1 x haircut (if I get up early enough), 1 x round of golf, 2 x IndyCar races, 1 x finish college project. I need this F1 break!
Thompson was great on Sunday as well. There was an incident in Race 3 in which he displayed some great car control. ;)
Right, I have to go to bed - I'm knackered. I hope you all sleep well and see you in the morning ;)
g'night buddy
understood, but i did explain the reasoning in the comments.
i don't like having to walk way from spc comments, but i had to today. i come back, and an hour or two later and it all kicks off again. it was either moderation, or switch off the comments altogether.
we like to have fun at spc, we name corners after singers named after foodstuffs. that's about our level.
Isn't there some sort of racing this weekend somewhere... I sat through Blue Peter this morning trying to work out if I was just weird, or if it really was a german team that comprised of brits....
Bye Gavin
also kitkats hunts. :P
them too :)
British A1 GP isn't it?
Still not sure what went on early and not sure I want to, but from your Tweets earlier my thought was that this has all the hallmarks of a chatroom rather than a forum. I know SPC is neither and both, but..
And mocking James Allen's new style with hand gesture and puddles. ;)
You forgot comedy songs, but I agree entirely.
You're making me feel guilty for not posting my weekend preview with all the weekend's racing :-)
A1GP, FIAGT, WTCC
Oh, that was it...
I was half asleep, not being someone who functions well unless I have to at half eight in the morning...
Mr C, is there a hangar at Kemble?
I read today that an aircraft we are debranding is having an engine change there tomorrow
Hangars aren't essential but quite handy for that task
plenty.
are you expecting it back? the one that was there when i watched mclaren was being dismantled for scrappage.
It's the start of the FIA GT3 championship at Silverstone this weekend, I believe. I read about it in the latest Top Gear mag. Some awesome cars in the lineup.
we do those better than anyone!
They're expecting £2k discount on a new plane?
Curiously the Felipe Baby song was posted there today, and neither Gavin or I put it there (they don't know we are here).
oops! shhhh...
Quick comment ;-)
Do we think the next FOTA meeting is going to try to change the FIAs mind about the rule changes, especially the "two tier"?
It's an old 737 so probaby not, but they did say engine change not removal so it could be sold on or passed back to the lesors
Um.... doesn't this count as outing yourself outing yourself....
OK, I accept. I come here for fun too, and I don't want to see the flaming and stuff like in other forums - we are better than that, I know we are because I've met all of you and you are a fantastic bunch of people :)
To stop this happening again, just remember that we all have so much fun and we really get on well - I know it can be a bit different typing here but words still mean a lot.
...And this time I really am saying goodnight!
I don't care anymore. People on 'there' are asking why nobody posts anymore, yet no-one can be bothered to answer because it started a flame war.
ZZZZZ at keyboard now!
shortly to be followed by all the other letters....
hope you don't awaken with too many imprints :-D
ha. love it :)
Here's something interesting - extreme conditions test of the iPhone versus a netbook - it involves motorsport too.
http://cultofmac.com/iphone-vs-netbook-in-extreme-typing-test/10356
I don't care anymore. People on 'there' are asking why nobody posts anymore, yet no-one can be bothered to answer because it started a flame war.
ZZZZZ at keyboard now!
All the "discussion" is circular there. Same people, same arguments. I stick around for the odd good post and the community ties (oddly most of them are great guys in person). But it's all very verbose. Here it is more 'grown up', not in age but in attitude.
messed up my quotes on that last one.
edit button? where's dat list?
:D And so it gets ever bigger.
People were talking earlier about how they found SPC: I'd written about podcasts on my blog, Gavin left a comment mentioning I might like yours...
Does it tell you how the iphone keeps changing the words you type, and the fact you only get one in three letters right?
I go have food and watch half a film...
400odd comments!
apologies for another question mr c, ive probably been throwing them out all evening, but how would an edit function work with the doohickey?
The edited comment would just appear when it'd been edited the same as a new comment would appear...?
i remember that!
:-)
simple answer. don't know.
i think, it would have to morph over the original. but then how would you know it's been changed?
it'll be the last thing on the list, because it's the toughest to solve.
bitter, bitter experience...... I had a dent in my forehead for 2 days once following falling asleep on a deskedge/keyboard....
Is the "doohickey sleeping" thing new? It just started happening to me today.
it does seem a toughie, i was just wondering then and thought i'd give a shot asking but I can see why it's the very final item of an ever growing list :P
oh wow! that's some kinda dent. when i sleep at my desk, somehow i remain upright.
yeah. it's temporarily annoying. and soon it'll happen less frequently.
One could always abandon the doohickey and go back to the 'main thread' to make amendments if it really mattered that much?
I'm still just sighing cos it works for me!!!!
was it not very good then?
with ever passing hour.
hehe. old school.
that could work, except for desktop doohickey.
I think that my main mistake was resting my head down to think for a few seconds... it was 6 hours later when I stopped 'resting'
Although, I had managed to finish the article in question about an hour after that!
I think the Doohickey is great as is. The "stream of consciousness" thing is good, and edits would stop that.
It's been a lot more marvellous since the new version was made to prevent cross threading me thinks.
Plus those 2 days it fell apart were worrying days with my love affair for the desktop doohickey :P
I won't ask just how big it is then! Save you the trouble ;)
Ah - so doohickey = metafiction then?
(sorry, I can't the the only person who gave up actually reading Mrs Dalloway and just hunted for relevent quotes to support the thesis I decided was the 'correct' response to the question? )
Pirates of the Crappybean...
Yes indeedy. Not saying it can't be even better. But edits are bad, apologys are better :-D
true if you're following the conversation live. but less useful if you read back months later. it's a tricky balance.
Goodness, who has that much spare time?!
we reference old comments regularly. if i were to pick one from say novemeber. you might read up and down that particular thread to garner the context.
in that instance, edited comments would be heaps more useful to you as a viewer.
Archivists? PhD student looking at the formation of an online community? me trying to answer the question 'what were you doing on xxx date'?
:-)
lpg runs and hides and wonders how she can persuade andy to put the kettle on and make some tea?
that is a really useful thing.
in fact f1 minute is proving super useful for that right now. this time last year run-off areas were under discussion after heikki's accident.
*Clearly* I need to up my addiction level.
You could just ask! I'm sitting right here...
if it's that simple...
please?
ah, um, I don't think that tea would be hot by the time it got to you....
it was worth a shot.
You can get a one cup kettle that has a usb plug on it.
oooh. i might want one...
How about http://www.paulinesart.com/art/Panda tea.jpg
Now you want a link. Unfortunately it was months ago I saw it.
Try ebay - you can get anything there
Plus I'd need an address, liquids don't tend to traverse the Internet very well.
A very smartly dressed Jenson supports the budget cap...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8028092.stm
:D
that's a better shirt than he had in december.
on the list?
s'ok, one ahead of you
http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/usb-cup-warmer/index.html
http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20060627/readywhenur-sms-kettle/
best I can do at short notice...
Have you tried? I have so many holes on teh front of my PC, *one* must be for drinks?
Looks like Internet liquids are already out there:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/07/03/wine_usb_tap/
I should hav known iwantoneofthose.com
I've seen PC cases with a coffee maker attached. Probably best not to resurrect the old cup holder joke.
the down side to all this is that it is delaying andy from actually getting to said kettle....
that's a warmer though. i want a usb kettle.
whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!
That is the best thing on the internet
Look - I pointed out that it was short notice...
I found you an sms kettle!!
Ha. Old school.
meh!
;)
Does that go with the toaster that puts the weather forecast on the toast?
surely it should be a twitter kettle now?
What we need is a Twitter Kettle.
Some of us just don't find twitter attractive...
meh!
I think this is already on the list.
Damn, beat me to it. Real-life twitter here:
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1909386
everyone take a look at pictures of my cat!!
What happened to the Top 5 Commenters bit?
gone. removed. kaput. it's an ex-widget.
It just seems that every blog I go to these days has a twitter stream of conciousness alongside or embedded in it.. it just makes me go arghhhh I don't want to know that you are on your 3rd spoon of icecream and jelly or that your cat had brought in another mouse... or that your toddler has failed to get to the loo for the 4th time in the day, they are only just 2 let them wear their nappy for a bit longer and stop punishing them for accidents that they don't know are going to happen
arghhhhhhhhhh
///off rant. sorry... felt quite good to let that go :-)
OK
LMFAO! :D
woah!
:)
more info:
http://www.sidepodcast.com/2009/04/30/daily-30th-april-2009/#comment-284026
Sorry...
where's the vrf smilie thingy...
tis ok. a different perspective on microblogging :)
I guess I had better go and put the kettle on then...
Oh dear, is roflcopter that popular?
hehehehehehe.
I guess you've seen the spoof - nano blogging?
Please.dont.say.that.
Another word for the mod queue I think.
yeah. christine wants the glasses.
Sounds fair
i'm scared to put anything in there now.
erk!
Well, can people please take note and not use that word. For my sanity this time.
Thats me shafted... ;)
heh!
So time to teach it to the children then....
need a horned smilie now... how far down the list are the smilies?
Doohicky 2.5(?) goes to sleep really quickly...
Commenting for 'most posts' will be replaced by angling for 'most hearts'. Nice idea but little to no difference IMO..
:evil:
how'd you mean?
temporarily, yes. am monitoring it.
If the tweets are the everyday thing all of the time I agree. I think you should only have a blog or a twitter profile if you are to use it to talk about something you enjoy.
What's the idea behind the sleeping?
I forsee lots of begging.
"please give heart me, please heart me" "was that good enough for a heart?"
I've just realised that it's a bit like the BBC Have Your Say comments, which I'm not sure is a good thing.
:evil:
ah
its based on that then... use that elsewhere :teehee:
bet that one doesn't work now....
save computing resources if you leave your machine on. in essence, you don't need realtime updates if you're asleep. timeout is low, because i want to be confident it always restarts when you tell it to wake up.
erm. what's that meant to like like?
Yep... I just wonder how much parenting some people are actually doing whilst they are managing to tweet every tiny teeny little thing...
ooooh. hadn't considered that one.
what if you had to earn hearts though, before you could give them away?
no idea what that is?
Sounds like my housemates at uni...
OK, thanks.
sorry :-( Its a sniggering one (with its hand over its mouth).
I might just give up on getting tea now though...
Oh no. "Kharma". It's a bad idea, trust me.
Possibly... sort of a 'regulars' thing..
Hearts could end up being like the whole facebook 'friend' thing
erk
My pillow is calling out my name so time to head off onto the train of sleepy into the land of dreams
night everyone :)
Think of all the racist, sexist bigots in the country arguing online. This comment generator is scarily accurate:
http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/the-twat-o-tron/
OK, OK. I get the message.
Uh oh - Mod points. :S
sidepodspace update
Has the world stopped spinning? NASA have moved a launch forward. Theshuttle mission to Hubble will now launch on May 11th instead of May 12th.
message received. any better suggestions though?
see ya lukeh.
Have to read back on this thread first. I was involved with this sort of thing at a place I worked once. Sadly it was driven by a guy with quite an ego, who was mostly looking for a way to make himself look good I think.
Not sure we need them?
I guess there is the Digg model....
depends on how you look at it i guess. right now we have more comments than i can read. if comments were hearted along the way, i might be able to filter just those that were relevant. an important link, or an insightful opinion, for example.
i don't necessarily need to see every hello, good morning, and good night. or maybe i do? i don't know.
that too. although digg has the option to mark down as well, right? it would be nice to only be positive and highlight the best. as opposed to trying to bury comments as well.
Yes that would work here at the moment, because you ahve managed to create a very friendly community, hence no need for voting down. You really only need that when the trolls arrive.
However, if people aren't too thin skinned, voting down can be useful, just to show how many people disagree. Slashdot uses this as well.
Probably not, but then this is part of the attraction of this place - in that it's not a forum or a chat room or twitter or whatever - this is Sidepodcast.
true enough. the problem actually has been resolved. we no longer have comment counts.
hearting is an additional feature, the idea appeals to me, but it may be completely unnecessary.
Probably.
I suppose it depends on whether your readership/contributors as well as yourselves are intrinsically or extrinsically motivated? So far, most seem to fall into the intrinsically group - possibly why SPC seems/is more 'grown up' than many places?
Oh the wonders of running a web forum.
We really can't thank you enough Mr C.
Never heard the word extrinsically before. Interesting.
Personally I am not a big fan of all the thumbs up thumbs down systems.
it's very interesting watching everything grow. actually a privilege i guess.
it's already bigger than we ever imagined. i guess the question is how big is too big?
do you think we need any form of highlighting system?
It can be a nice thing to have, certainly when you are first building a disparate group into a cohesive one; but given that currently peeps here are not slow to comment on things that they like (or don't) generally, its probably not something that you need to see as a priority.
Now *there* is the question.
For me no but it depends how it is used. Obviously it is ridiculously difficult to read all the comments now so highlighting interesting comments has a value. However I would hate to see people pleading for hearts or complaining that someone gets hearts more easily than they do and I think that would happen.
Hmm. Could you have a radio button system, to define "social" or "topic" posts maybe? Just to weed out the comments on Kettles and Pandas etc?
April 30th 1983 was the day that the father of electric blues, Muddy Waters, passed away. Sad sad day.
The Computer shop where I used to work had an advert where a guy takes his computer back to the shop and gets it exchanged. The reason why? The CD tray wasn't big enough to hold his cup.
Can you imagine the look of horror on the salespeople's faces when marketing presented that advert to us instore for the first time?
Yes that's right - stunned silence and looks of absolute horror. A proper David Brent moment. IIRC, we never played the ad in store! :D
Does this mean we’re just asking for a Spygate redux? {Comment #454}
Absolutely, Journeyer. You've got it in one. In a way, I hope for the sake of the sport that it's Ferrari that gets caught first because that way F1 might have half a chance of surviving Max's wrath (and it's clear from the comments he made about Ferrari today that he intends to be around in 2010...)
It’s not about the aero. GP2, A1GP, Indycars, F3 etc… can all overtake and they have aero. So why not F1? {Comment #482}
Because in those series there's a large difference between the quality of the drivers. Apart from a couple of drivers at each end of the scale, this tends not to be the case in F1.
(I would say that unequal cars, especially in terms of having strengths in different elements of racing, helps too, but it happens that all the series you've mentioned as having overtaking are spec series...)
The FIA talked about maximum downforce levels at one point - how on earth would you police that other than having a mobile wind tunnel at every track with a large set of scales mounted in the rolling road? {Comment #520}
In 2008, there was a maximum downforce level (12000N) in the preamble to Article 3, and no I haven't got a clue how or if they enforced that. It has conspicuously disappeared this year...
why? why do you need downforce at all? {Comment #523}
So that the cars stay on the track in corners. With no downforce at all, the cars would need to be much, much heavier to get round corners at above 100mph...
But they can fit the McLaren system in now can’t they. This just stops it being a penalty for the heavier drivers I guess. {Comment #659}
Adrian Sutil can't fit the McLaren KERS system in his car because he's too heavy for the system to be of benefit. Besides, a flat 15kg increase merely moves the goalposts - the heavy drivers still fact the same disadvantage as before. They should have done what the drivers suggested in F1 Racing last month and imposed a mimimun driver-and-seat weight instead of messing about with the basic weight.
Yep, pity I found out my degree is useless after I graduated {Comment #679}
Same here, unless you count the improvement it made to my blogging :( In fact, I'd have been better off trying to enter the sector I was aiming for without a degree, as I ended up overqualified for the base level and underexperienced for the level above.
I won’t consider my expert in the situation, but surely you can see when a team loses a rear wing, they spin off (Firman in Japan was it not?) {Comment #689}
Hungary 2003, second Saturday practise (and that's something else I'd like to bring back - one Saturday practise sessions isn't enough excitement for me...), but yes - lose a rear wing in the middle of a run and the consequences are serious. Besides, they make the driver ahead liable to be the innocent victim of "kippering" (being attacked from behind by a car with enough speed to climb onto them) while the perpetrator frequently gets away with it.
If you lose a rear wing before the car ever gets onto the track, you redesign the car to make the whole thing balance out again as best you can.
why do Renault call it the World Series when there’s not one race that takes place outside of Europe? {Comment #746}
Erm... ...wishful thinking?
Global warming has other apects to it which are never considered. If we raise the temperature of the planet we get a much wetter climate all round. People in Africa are dying every year due to drought so a wetter climate seems like a good thing. {Comment #847}
The trouble with that theory is that it doesn't all get wetter. The average place may be wetter, but prevailing air movements and topography mean that only some parts of the world get more rain. For example, the Sahel (the part of Africa between the Sahara and the central African grasslands) is drying up very quickly. So for the people who live there, global warming is making their situation worse. Conversely, India (another place where the agriculture struggles to keep pace with population) is getting wetter and, at least in this respect, benefiting from climate change.
I doubt that we will solve what killed Senna or Global Warming here tonight… That’s all {Comment #885}
Quite. In neither case do any of us have sufficient information for that to happen, even as a group.
i have misplaced a kitkat somewhere though guys, if anyone really wants to solve a mystery {Comment #892}
It's in the last place you'll look.
Kitkat update: My mum ate it. {Comment #930}
Oh no!