We've been away for the weekend, and appear to have missed out on a lot of commenting fun, but normal service has now been resumed - except for that emergency Debrief tonight. Until then, there seems to be plenty going on that needs discussing, although not all of it F1 related.
- Sébastien Loeb never really entered on my radar until he tested in F1. I'd heard of him, as one hears of multi-champs, but now for the first time ever - he has brought rallying to Sidepodcast. You guys were commenting as he steered his team to a manufacturers championship, so I'd love to hear what is so appealing about rallying. Perhaps I can be convinced to join in some live commenting on it next year.
- The annual Autosport Awards were dished out last night in London, and the BRDC award went to Alexander Sims. Never heard of him, what makes him worthy, and is he destined for F1?
- Vettel picked up the rookie award, Hamilton is officially International Driver of the Year, and McLaren's MP4-23 won the gong for best car - although sadly the acceptance speech left much to be desired.
- Dank offered up a link to Brundle's plan to save Formula 1. There's a mine of information there, some of it new, some of it not, but all of it from an insider who knows how things work. Let us know what you think of Brundle's suggestions and if you can come up with any better ones.
As mentioned above, we'll be back later this evening with a hastily scheduled Debrief show. Expect plenty of talk on Honda and all the recent goings on, but we'll cover all the usual F1 goodness. Until then, I'll see you in the comments.
wow cool header. :) it certainly catches your attention.
Hmm, I have the Ferrari header in Firefox and the Yellow Nose one in Safari
A cookie/cache thing I guess
I use the beta site for commenting most times so see neither unless I'm looking for news on the front page
I had the new header and now I have the Ferrari one back again?
I have the new one and I like it. Definitely better than a Ferrari.
Just refreshed and new one is in both browsers now
SidePod Towers does strange things to the interwebz. I bet geese get lost when flying above it, weird ju-ju
Good point :D
What happens if you clear your cache? do you get the new one?
to start with i had the new one in FF but the only one in Chrome, after a few refreshes Chrome soon caught up though :)
Am interested to see what Chrome's like when it reaches the Mac. Am flicking between FF2 and Safari these days. Wish Safari had the Ad blocking capabilities that FF add-ons give you
It came back by itself?
Stop trying to confuse me! :P
"The design of the window is based on Windows Vista"
Maybe I'm not so interested having read the Wiki entry on it (not SPC :D )
it's not that bad. the very fact you can move tabs into new windows by dragging them away from the top is something that i miss if i don't have it (like when at school). it's like one of the things you don't realise is great until you don't have it any more.
I'll probably give it a go when it's ready. Still think Firefox is bestest to use and Safari the one that looks betterer :)
It's really hard trying to comment in the style of Mark Blundell!
I probably should make a header for each team. I only have to do 9 now. Thanks Honda!
Brundle's plan makes a lot of sense. We all hate the idea of standardized engines and even standardized "brakes, gearbox, wheel hubs and fixings", as Brundle puts it, but to be honest, if it keeps the sport alive, then no-one can really gripe about it...
But is it really Formula 1 or is it something else like Formula 2? GP2 or Indycar European Version?
Maybe the winning team can have the SPC header for the week.
Great work Scarab btw
Am guessing that when Drop.io is 'preparing a file' that has recently been added, it's really just waiting for approval.
Not a bad plan chief. According to "Doctor" Mario Thiessen, BMW will dominate the header next season. Yeah right.
Footnote: I was curious as to why Mario is called 'Dr'.
Turns out he has a doctorate in mechanical engineering... Lucky bastard. I'd love to have the title 'Dr'. You could get away with anything...
I've been down since the Honda announcement. This brought up my spirits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlQ9wEP8pUg
As for Martin's plan, I like a few of his points, especially regarding testing. I have a few more suggest however. I really believe if we want more teams to compete in Formula One, we need less regulation not more. Right now, the regulatory maze in the sport led to confusion and counterproductive rules regarding the cars themselves. Some of things I would suggest is:
- Require that any Formula created to govern the sport are set in stone for five years at a time in order to create a consistent, predictable environment for the teams, owners, and sporting regulators. Any changes to the formula must be approved by all three interested parties (FOTA, FOM, and FIA.)
- The only downforce elements of the cars are the front and rear wings. The only they are restricted in size (surface area) and cannot extend past the center line of the wheels. All other rules are thrown out.
- Customer chassis and customer engines are allowed. However, a customer team cannot have the same engine / chassis combination as any other team on the grid. For example, Prodrive couldn't use a McLaren chassis and a Mercedes engine; they would have had to choose one or the other and get the engine or chassis from somewhere else.
- I really like the idea of open team inspections. I would like to see it every race. How about Friday after second practice, the cars are put on the grid in order and the teams are allowed two hours of open time to inspect cars. Fans can stay and watch the teams inspect the cars. To see the look on Ron Dennis' face when team Ferrari comes in with their measuring tape would be priceless.
- Also, on that front. No more secrets in the paddock. Teams are required to provide real time telemetry and radio chatter without any censorship.
-The current 2.4L v8 engine formula stays but standardizations efforts are thrown out the door.
Morning all,
I was at the Awards last night. The announcement of Alexander Sims came as a bit of a surprise to people who are 'in the know' (who'd expected Christodoulou to win). Family Sims, at an adjacent table to ours, were predictably pleased.
I think the Christodoulous have faced a bit of an uphill struggle for credibility over the past few years, ever since the question of Papa C sorting out hooky engines in karting.
In other news, we greeted the John Bolster Award with our traditional fanfare. This involves pretending to smoke a pipe and then holding forth with one of the deerstalker-clad tech legend's most famous utterances (many years ago an Autosport staffer answered the phone; Bolster, at the other end of the line, and without troubling to introduce himself or say hello, spluttered furiously, "Now see here! Some c--t's cut my copy!"
In other other news, Damon Hill responded to Anthony R.
"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about and I don't know who you are."
maybe the sidepodcast header should be a Honda...it would show that sidepodcast is not biased ;) cause the team don't really exist anymore. ;)
I was very surprised too, i guess it's about what happened on the test at Snett rather than what happened this season.
Stuart, what are your feeling about the FPA Shootout winner getting a place on the BRDC award thingy-magig?? Do you feel it should be dealt out in the same way as the other places?
chrome is super-duper fast. it starts faster than safari, and is mostly stable. i wish it were available for the mac too :(
:)
i think we've used them all now, we can either have a poll, pick our favourite now and stick with it. or if you have time to make some more, please be our guest.
nope, that means it's struggling to create a preview or convert it. we don't approve anything.
we're not 'bolstering' during the live show, ever!
i bet he says that to all the boys ;)
Well, I’d imagine that this happens for reasons of expediency and quid pro quo, given that the people behind that series also happen to own the circuit that’s used for the evaluation, and circuit hire isn’t cheap, etc…
Sims was the most impressive person on the day – quicker than Gary Paffett in the DTM car, apparently – and he was the only person not to go off the circuit at any point. Compare and contrast with the aforementioned FPA chappie, who managed to barrel-roll the F3 car after trying to take Riches flat.
More text mania news from Friday evening: Simon A (Motorsport News) texted Anthony R to say “Meet you in the Albert at 6”.
10 minutes later he got a phone call from Anthony Hamilton saying “What’s this about the Albert???”
Bulgarian GP in the future?
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72401
LMAO! :D
Thought this might be the case, i guess if it means they can use Snett then thats a good thing, but i think it would be better if they could actually choose someone who earnt they're place during the main season (and who would get chosen because of that) rather than someone who wins a 6 race championship on 2 circuits.
please take part in my formula one survey
http://www.tigersurvey.com/survey.php?survey=8528
Thanks
will do shortly alex :)
me - thank you :)
do you think this will change next year given jonathan's association with the fia's f2 project?
that, presumably would provide a more realistic benchmark.
Have done so, Alex. Do you want to tell us all a bit more about what the project is, and why you're asking the questions? :)
sorry, my minds not working well today. what do you mean will change?
what the chuff?
"It'll be very difficult but I think we'll succeed," said Nikolov, saying that they hoped to submit a plan to the FIA on December 15, for consideration by Ecclestone a day later.
bernie's put that nikolov chap up to this hasn't he? why by the 15th of december and why must bernie consider it on the 16th?
is something important happening on that date then and since when to bulgaria have any interest in f1? nothing about that story makes any sense.
palmer won the tender to promote the fia's new feeder series, f2 earlier this year:
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns20779.html
yep knew that, but how does that affect the BRDC Award?
actually scrub that. i forgot about this:
"the winner of the F2 championship will get to spend time in the Williams F1 simulator and then get a test in the car out on track"
http://www.f1minute.com/2008/10/04/04-oct-08-f2-champ-will-get-chance-of-williams-test/
to be honest though, it sounds like you’d be better off winning fpa and getting a macca drive + cash, wouldn’t you?
i was thinking that running the f2 cars might be better. but don't worry, i answered me own question above!
not just that, you win an aston martin gt1 test and a watch too.
plus, most of the people who get nominated for the award (the ones who come from FRenault and FFord) are the ones who have roughly the amount of money for F2 anyway, so the £50k will just help. Plus the award helps drivers get sponsors too.
grandprix.com says lenovo will move from Williams to McLaren , not much good news for Williams these days...
I might have missed something but anyone realized that only Renault and Force India still haven't said much after that Honda thing happened ?
I love the Murray song
I didn't know about that. I thought Wayne Boyd would win. I saw him at the start of the season and he just blew me away with how good he was. When I found a photo of him he looked like he was about 12 years old. I guess we should look out for him to do well in it next season.
Pleven is hardly the sort of place to get a GP. They would have a lot more chance if they put in in Sofia the capital or Varna on the Black Sea.
Is there an F1 journalist capable of sending texts to the right person?
Best win the Autosport Award and get the McLaren test then go and do F2 and win the Willimas test.
ahh shucks!
it says the team aren't offering on-car advertising, instead concentrating on trackside promotion. aside from a logo near the roll-hoop, it sounds like they've taken the same approach as santander.
presumably there will be something on the drivers overalls though?
I'm thinking Lenovo will take Santander's place on the car when they go to Ferrari.
I'd seriously get rid of the advertising manager, cos he is not doing a good job.
Will Williams be around by then?
haha, people and there phones
Did someone mention poll?
I vote Beemer
Why's he got Damon Hill's phone number then?
Just to confirm, you're putting sidepodcast on at the same time as Spurs v West Ham and The Gadget Show, 8pm.
i didn't know that. but as i don't watch tv, or follow football, knowing that probably wouldn't have changed anything.
we're just fitting it in during the only spare 2hrs we have this week :)
Have a great time this evening all. I unfortunately won't be able to be with you.
I thought I would mention a topic for you to discuss in case you are running low on news in the off season. Apparently... Honda are leaving F1! Yeah I know crazy huh!
;)
Fair enough. I'll just have quite a few browser's open tonight ;)
how can watch football and the gadget show at the same time? you're make for goodness sakes :)
Are you serious. Honda are leaving F1 ????
I have sky+, brilliant concept.
Are you SURE you're okay to do a show today?
i meant "male" :(
Yeah that's what I heard... Sounds like something we might want to talk about... A bit.
Well you mainly as I won't be here.
gutted. i can't believe it.
I think Me sounds a bit tired...
I know. You'd have thought more people would have mentioned it!
Right enough of this tomfoolery. Have fun everyone!
good news for williams :)
http://www.f1technical.net/news/11222
"The AT&T Williams team today confirmed that Oris SA of Switzerland, the premium Swiss watch maker, has extended its sponsorship engagement with the team. This renewal will bring the partnership between Williams and Oris to eight years and reflects an established relationship based on mutual commercial benefit and a resonant sponsorship logic."
Speaking of Williams:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/homepage/d/int/sport/top/3/-/news/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7771407.stm
They have to be committed to it though, don't they? F1 is what they do.
Maybe they just like the media attention?
Certainly doesn't do them any harm.
hey guys, am stuck at school doing the tech for a rehearsal of an ancient greek play our classics dept is performing this week, and the next rehearsal starts at 7... i should probably be home by 8 for the show, but who knows. hope everyone is having a better evening than me (have been standing in the tech box for 2 hours and am freezing!) :)
This doesn't look good: http://www.f1technical.net/news/11223
Amazing how some people behave really, think he's the best since he's competed in F1, shouldn't behave like that.
But, something else to talk about on the show, as if you didn't already have enough
I think what they're trying to say is that they're not going to become Honda anytime soon and they're silencing any thoughts that they're next to go bust.
do we have to keep going on about it. i'd kinda like to try to forget it's happening. ;)
Not sure this show will appeal to you then :)
Is a tech boss like some sort of control room?
tech room even
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72368
Ross Brawn says he and Nick Fry had a meeting with senior Honda people last Friday expecting to have to cut costs and not to be told that the team would be sold or shut down.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0WYsGgr_pNE&feature=channel
Interesting video about how Button got to Williams in 2000 and the teams launch that year
Cracking new header.
I watch Formula One and occasionally, just for a second, think it looks easy. Of course I know it isn't. With rallying, I'm always in awe of the drivers' skill. I watch thinking, 'He's going to crash... wow, how did he do that?'. Here's an example:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=B-l9FDqc1Vw
I posted a link to a Mac version in the comments a couple of weeks ago. Did you see it, or was it a case of it not working on your machine? I tried the Linux build, and that was OK. I'll dig out the link again if you want it.
i didn't? google have my email address and say they'll let me know when it's out.
what am i missing?
Just realised it's the emergency show in ten minutes. I'll have to make do with something quick/easy for tea - like junk food and beer. Sidepodcast is clearly responsible for my unhealthy lifestyle.
(That last bit isn't actually remotely true, but is the best excuse I've got.)
Don't panic. We're not ready.
I found out what Jeremy was doing in Ireland when he lost his voice - Top Gear Live. Go figure :P Here's a video of when he was on 5Live on Simon Mayo's show.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xRCSKJm17Dc&feature=dir
Have you ever been to a race? The speed these lads go around corners is insane.
http://www.codeweavers.com/services/ports/chromium/
It's lightening quick. Opera claim Presto 2.2 is faster, but I've tried the beta of version 10, and aren't convinced.
Oh I'd agree that the speed factor in F1 is more impressive than rallying, but if a rally driver makes even a tiny mistake, they're off a cliff/wrapped around a tree/taken out a couple of hundred spectators. It's the skill level that most impresses me about rallying.
F1 is also also highly skilled, but I haven't felt this has always come across, even at a track watching live.
"Have done so, Alex. Do you want to tell us all a bit more about what the project is, and why you’re asking the questions?"
Yes please :)