Credit: Stuart Taylor
Nick_Wirth_1.0 was famously responsible for Virgin Cola's Pammy shaped bottle
It's a weekend off from the adrenaline-pumping, blood-pressure-raising, edge-of-seat-wearing season of motor racing we've been gifted this year. But don't think everything's gone quiet because there's quite a bit you should be paying attention to out there in the big bad world.
This Weekend In F1
- Bahrain Slotted back into the Calendar: The FIA have agreed to take the less-than-enthusiastic F1 world for a race in the politically heated kingdom of Bahrain after the season opening even was postponed due to civil unrest. I'm not sure it's my place to make too much of an opinion on it, but let's say I'm not a fan!
- Senna Movie Released in the UK: After months of feverous waiting from racing and film enthusiasts, the Senna docufilm is now on general release in the UK (international readers, check out your local release periods). By the time you read this,
I'll have been lucky enough to have caught it and will let you know how I feelI have totally seen it and it's amazing and it brought a tear to my eye*. Experts predict this will lead to more motoring biopics, with Adam Sandler lined up to play F1 legend Taki Inoue. - Massa Hopes to Continue Momentum: Felipe Massa has worried his Ferrari team that he is suffering lingering side effects from his head injury sustained in Hungary two years ago, after he claimed he was hoping his momentum continued. Massas latest results have been 6th, 11th, Retirement, Crash. If the momentum continues, computer models predict his next results will be DNF, DNQ, Steps-out-of-his-private-jet-before-they-wheel-out-the-stairs.
This Time Last Year
- Red Bull in Crisis Talks: The Red Bull team organised an emergency meeting between the management and their drivers after the fierce rivalry exploded on track in a collision between Sebastien Vettel and Mark Webber at the Turkish Grand Prix. "The two drivers do not need to go out for dinner with each other, but they must cooperate," said Helmut Marko, a few days after insisting that Webber was an idiot for letting Vettel crash into him.
- Force India Take Action Against Lotus : Force India have proceeded in legal action against Lotus, specifically arguing that Mike Gascoyne stole precious FIF1 design secrets to the naissant team in his head. Given the evidence that the Force India performance isn't too far removed from the Lotus on track, Vijay Mallya may have a strong case. Expect the courts to haul Gascoyne into an MRI machine sometime soon.
This Time Next Year
- Bernie Announces Super Korea 2013: Bernie Ecclestone has announced a 'Super Korea' circuit for 2013. The 6.2 Km, Tilke designed circuit will actually loop back and forth over the border between North and South Korea. "You can charge a higher fee if you can get two governments to share the costs," noted Ecclestone.
- FIA to Introduce Traffic Lights, Corner Shops: As part of their continuing effort to keep F1 "road relevant", the FIA have announced that they are to introduce traffic lights and corner shops to all circuits from next year. "All road drivers have to contend with constantly stopping at red lights, and the lack of traffic lights in F1 makes its existence as a sport ever more out of touch with Mondeo Man." In keeping with road-relevancy, each driver will be required to pick up 2 pints of milk, a loaf of bread and a copy of The Sun over the course of the race. Jean Todt has expressed an interest in the drivers "picking up their kids from school" from 2014 onwards.
- Honda Returning to F1: Honda have announced a surprise return to F1 - not as a racing team or engine supplier, but as the designer of the robot body that will sustain Bernie Ecclestone for the rest of time itself. "Honda has prided itself in being the world leader in robotics and we are proud to be able to demonstrate our abilities once again in F1." Asumi-san, the lead engineer has stated that the biggest technical achievement was overcoming the extreme centre-of-mass problems brought forth by Mr Ecclestone's massive ego. "We solved the problem by putting his wallet in his shoe," Asumi-san noted.
*That's tear, rhyming with fear, not tear rhyming with hair. The latter would be horrific.
Have you seen these recent posts on sidepodcast.com?
- Daily: Saturday June 4th
- The Canadian Grand Prix Live... in London!
- Daily: 3rd June 2011
- Daily: 2nd June 2011
- Daily: 1st June 2011
Traffic Lights and Corner Shops will work. Bernies robot body on the other hand, maybe not
http://youtu.be/ASoCJTYgYB0
LOL, Will Lewis have to pick himself up from school?
I love all the stuff in the post about traffic lights, corner shops and pints of milk. Shows exactly how ridiculous it is to suggest F1 or racing is road relevant.
Evening
What a strange and interesting night!
Do tell.
Hi.
Oh good. What happened?
Nothing bad, just... quirky
Pulls up a chair and orders my usual- seltzer with lemon.
Ended at the bus stop in a discussion with a small group of young 20 year olds that was bordering on Life, The Universe and Everything :D
:D
Doesn't sound the same without the "Two pints of Guinness" preface
I was thinking the same. :)
Start there then
There was the Kilt vs Skirt discussion, Massa vs the sack, Italian banking [surprising, not in crisis]. We ran the whole gamut
There was wine rejection on the grounds of temperature [Italians are fussy about these things] but not much Guinness
Sounds like fun. Any points that they made that surprised you?
Massa is uninspiring and fit for the chop, the kilt thing was pure jest and not the argument I'd hoped for and the fact that Italians can keep an orderly banking system but not an organised government was the revelation
We'll skirt over the pavement table kebab eating eviction
I don't know anything about what this may mean.
I'll show you these strange British habits on your research trip :D
:D
Hello all
Hi Joe
Hi Joe, how's sunny Florida?
Pavement, table, eating and kebab don't seem to be words that would go together.
Rays are on the west coast, game time local 2200. So I'll hang out for a while
Such is the colourful urban life which I lead :D
It's an after pub ritual, maybe why it's a foreign concept
Hot but breezy
Breezy seems to be good when combined with hot
Kebab is food so eating is no great stretch from there and eating and table go together
Oh, I've munched plenty an after-drinking meal of street food. :)
You're right. It's the pavement thing that was throwing me off, but sitting down and eating it makes sense.
Oh yeah a great evening. I was in Maryland recently and it was freaking hot! Nephew graduated from the Naval Academy...congrats to him....again
Well done him
I'll pass it along. Aeronautical Engineering, trying to push him into F1, but he's got a 5 year commitment first.
Are you looking for a source of paddock passes? :)
Always
Good for him, congrats
If he gets a job with HRT, paddock passes are on me
headed out to the lanai to watch the Rays game. Have a great day/morning
Enjoy the game
Have fun.
I have just now discovered My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.
Yay for addictive trash and voyeuristic tv :D
I have managed to avoid that
It's perfect for a Friday brain-fried night. Oh, another reason to call it Fryday. (even though it's Saturday for you)
It's strangely good
I am not usually a watcher of that ilk but...
Of course not
Interesting article on Lewis Hamilton by Maurice Hamilton
http://www.grandprix.com/columns/maurice-hamilton/good-guy-bad-guy.html
Found it linked on facebook by the fabulous Paul-Henri Cahier
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Paul-Henri-Cahier/130126163675373
Good evening everyone. It's a beautiful one here.
Hi Dan
Looks nice there
It is. First decent weekend of the year. We're finally going to break 20 degrees Celsius for the first time this year.
Gorgeous.
Time for me to turn in. Good night. :)
Night
So Steven something bothering me all day.
I was just barely too young to remember all the controversy when F1 went to South Africa. How would you compare to what we heard today/yesterday?
Sorry Dan. I got totally distracted by something else I was doing. The South African thing was different because they had been there a few years before and at that time it was a feature in the championship. There was some protest but there were about as many people arguing sport could help bring change.
There was a lot more protest about rugby and cricket teams going to South Africa because they were representing a country. The odd thing is the Springboks (the national rugby team) were an icon for white supremacy so the black community supported the British Lions when they toured there. In 1974 the Lions went to South Africa with a lot of opposition but they beat the Springboks who were thought to be pretty much invincible. So the black community was ecstatic to see the 'boks beaten and seriously beaten.
The Springboks were famous for being violent on the field of play and the Lions decided that they were not going to accept that. They came up with command 99. The idea was that any member of the team at any time could shout 99 and every player in the team would thump the opposing player nearest him. It's kind of hard to bully a team when they prepared to do something like that. So the Lions won the series and the physical battle too.
5am is probably bed time
Night all
Night Steven
Love the daily Stuart!
We need to start the "This time next year" series and do it in the similar fashion as Conan O'Brien's 'In the Year 2000" sketch.
Oh, this is just HILARIOUS! :D
Have you seen these recent posts on sidepodcast.com?
- Daily: Saturday June 4th
- The Canadian Grand Prix Live... in London!
- Daily: 3rd June 2011
- Daily: 2nd June 2011
- Daily: 1st June 2011
If we were still doing the sidepodquiz phone in game, this would definitely be the killer questions for the teams.
Very disappointed with JYS' support of a return to Bahrain:
"I'm pleased. Sport is a very good equaliser in the case of unrest, because sport somehow unifies people. An F1 race going there hopefully might help to do that.
"I think Bahrain is one country particularly keen to accelerate the issue of democracy. It's a small country, and therefore has a better chance of doing so. And that may well be a good example to other countries in the Middle East.
"Having a Grand Prix there might be of benefit to the rest of the world recognising that there is movement taking place. Because if we just sit back and stop things from progressing, I don't think that's the right thing either."
That said, he is a very good friend of the royal family.
Morning all... Currently spending this morning selecting 1984 for tomorrow's Giggles Radio.
This is going to be a tough one... Sooooo much great stuff in 1984...
My short list is currently 4.2 hours (which if I added talking) would probably make a 6 hour show!
Need some trimming
Oooh! Requesting for The Heat Is On, Footloose, and Easy Lover! :D
I DON'T NEED MORE!!!! ;)
Surely they're in your current list already? I'm just asking you don't trim them out. :D
By the way, any news on the audio-only feed?
Alex, did you catch the brainstorm I had the other day for a great back-to-back play?
- Love Will Keep Us Together - Captain and Tennille
- Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
Ohh! Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer is in 1984!
They are... except The Heat is On... which I don't seem to own (somehow) and isn't available for MP3 download from Apple or Amazon.
I'm hoping for some testing later today.
nice :)
Really? Interesting. Relax would make more than a great replacement for it. :)
WOOHOO!!!!!! :D :D :D
Would you be happy with audio only and for me to kill the lo fi video option?
Relax, definitely. And People are People hopefully.
Damn, you're bringing back memories of listening to Rock Over London with Graham Dean, back in those days.
If you did an audio only feed, I'd be able to save it and listen to it at work as a "podcast". I'd heartily approve of an audio only feed.
Correction, Graham Dene.
And for you who don't know the show I'm talking about.
http://popdose.com/jesus-of-cool-rock-over-london/
Seconded. :) If I had to choose between lo-fi and audio-only, I'd pick the more reliable stream, less prone to buffering, and that's audio-only. :)
Just read the provisional calendar for 2011- really not looking forward to the new Tilke "Here's some ideas I had earlier" USA track, but is 21 GP too many? Turkey may go, but that still leaves other boring circuits on the calendar (sorry, Valencia).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/13647582.stm
You forgot to mention Abu Dhabi :)
Now you've reminded me of it. I hope you're proud of yourself :P
Morning everyone
Morning. Just running the clock down waiting to drop my nieces off at the train station...
Nice... just catching up on some GT1 at the minute - missed the last couple of rounds
That crazy Argentinian track that runs around the lake has been made for rFactor - can't wait to give it a try later!
Yes!!
Also, rF2 may be out later this year. My computer will need an upgrade me thinks
Have some writing to do today, although I'm still pretty angry about the Bahrain decision and even more perturbed by comments from Bernie and JYS this week
We'll see. In the meantime, Shift 2 is pretty good...
Spellcheck ehh...?
I'm not surprised. F1 has been to worse places and Sir JYS has his fingers in so many pies these days it's a wonder he can say anything at all!
And thats not a slight against sir JYS by the way. I just mean that with all his business connections he doesn't have much choice, does he?
True, but his comments yesterday were a true #facepalm moment
I've been playing diRT3 and I'm absolutely blown away. What a game.
Morning all.
morning lukeh
The most JYS could've done is stay quiet.
Absolutely
Have done a bit of blogging about the first few days at my new job PING:
http://wp.me/p1x0FA-h1
Good stuff Lukeh - nice to see things are going well
Welcome to service management! :D It can be a cruel world, but I've been in it for 4 years and no regrets. :)
life would be no fun if it didn't challenge you, bring it on I say!
Ping -->
Robert Wickens Joins Virgin Racing http://wp.me/pSi0N-18p
No idea why anyone needs to know this, but...
Not really here as I'm getting ready to go out, but I just saw this tweeted, good to have it back for this year's 24 Hours :)
http://www.baekdal.com/lemans
Woo! http://factbytefactbox.com/live
How does it compare to Richard burns rally? I get annoyed by codemasters that they don't make a pc demo - I don't trust them after f1 2010!
even though its varied with the classes it includes, like it has rally cross, buggies, even gymkhana stuff, its incredible. The actual amount of normal rallying has been increased too and they've done such a good job with it.
Have you seen these recent posts on sidepodcast.com?
- Daily: Saturday June 4th
- The Canadian Grand Prix Live... in London!
- Daily: 3rd June 2011
- Daily: 2nd June 2011
- Daily: 1st June 2011
yay!
And: http://sidepodcast.com/post/french-open-2011-womens-final
Amazing artistry and craftsmanship.
A matched set of "clockwork twittering bird pistols" in gold
http://thegoldensmith.blogspot.com/2011/05/twittering-machine.html
Have done a bit of blogging about the F1 2011 game, PING!
http://wp.me/pHfaV-c7
There is something absolutely brilliant about this photo, not what you get jumping at your car every day when you're taking photos
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/picturesoftheday/8554408/Pictures-of-the-day-3-June-2011.html
Rock Over London with Graham Dene. WOW. Blast from the past (in this thread and in life). Great memories. That radio show was a vital life line for me.
Hello, guys. Hey, did you see Senna's feature at McLaren site? It is amazing!
LINK: http://senna.mclaren.com
Amazing!
Looking at stuart's cartoon I've just realised the virgin racing logo is like a track with corners! Woah!
mind = blown
Morning...Afternoon...Ah I've just realised that that the tennis is on tomorrow... my guess is that it will be still going at 4pm... is that right?
freaked out that the Bryan Brothers both just tweeted to say that their music video is now on Youtube since we were just talking about the song, plus it is about two years old so getting a video now is very random :D
It starts at two and it's men, so probably yes.
Aha... Sounds like it might be a bit of a problem trying to put my radio show then then!
Hi everyone :)
In case you haven't seen it yet, here is Sébastien Buemi with his Red Bull in a Road Show in Japan.
And yes, he rans into a fan. http://youtu.be/J_5FQfUpfzA
crazy stuff!
Hello. The golf game with Dad resulted in a tie, am quite pleased though as I was 3 shots down at halfway..
The problem is that if I don't do the show tomorrow then it probably means that I won't be able to do the show for some time.. So maybe I should do the show early tomorrow? 11 to 2? or is that madness and I should just be patient?
Woah, the guy running about must be an idiot
that's crazy
That's basically a win :)
Afternoon :) I have my tax disc! :D It was redirected.... How do I make them stop :(
From my point of view that works perfectly for me. But I shudder to think you basing any decisions on my vote :)
It's up to you. You can do it at the same time, I'm not sure how much of a crossover audience there is.
He wanted to check how flexible was the Red Bull wing.
I think you should do it whenever it suits you.
Personally I won't be here late afternoon / early evening as I'm going to nan's to drop in a birthday present. And MotoGP is on at 1pm so I think no matter when you do it it'll clash with something, so you may as well do it when you want to..
You and Amy are the only two people who had a whole show dedicated to you and I think you'll be watching RG :)
I was hoping to try and audio only feed (in addition to a live video feed) so I need to do a practice version...
I will attempt to do this around 6:30 ish...
I don't plan on being up at 8am on Sunday, but I can always catch it later on. But I agree with Pat that for every person it works for it may not work for another, so do your thing and we'll do the best we can to be there. :)
or 6am, when it starts.
(apparently I can't subtract properly today)
Enjoy a little something from the sidepodcast.com back catalogue.
- Daily: 6th December 2008
Originally published 06/12/2008
Boooo Royal Mail working lazy half days!! Might need to write them a letter!
I think I'll just go for 4pm... That's got to be the best plan...
But will they deliver it?
Where they'll send it to is the question :P Why would they redirect my mail to a different house :(
I'll definitely be there, with leg warmers on (not bells).
#1984
Are they actually printing the redirection label with the wrong address? Might be worth checking their redirection website.
I've never set up a redirect. The previous occupant of the house should have mail with THEIR name on redirected to their new house. Things with my name on should not arrive hand delivered through the door ripped open weeks after they were posted with a redirect sticker on them.
Awwwwww: http://yfrog.com/h3sytudj
Go to the Post Office counter or sorting office during a lunch break and complain in person, sod the letter..
at least for now
I'm so glad to see he's totally fine. I'm just rewatching Monaco and seeing his accident. I remember he said he couldn't feel his legs afterward. eeesh!
But now he's in the London Eye and all's well. Phew.
Just posted two new Film Watches:
http://mrschristine.com/2011/06/04/film-watch-133-kill-bill-vol-1/
http://mrschristine.com/2011/06/04/film-watch-134-morning-glory/
Have you seen these recent posts on sidepodcast.com?
- Live: French Open 2011 - Women's Final
- Daily: Saturday June 4th
- The Canadian Grand Prix Live... in London!
- Daily: 3rd June 2011
- Daily: 2nd June 2011
In case anyone is waiting... sadly the audio only feed is playing up so I think I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow morning to try it again...
I know everyone is watching doctor who... but in case you aren't here I am... http://gigglesradio.com/live.html
Hello I am running a quick test... and I'm not wearing a blue shirt...
Spending the evening with one of my dads old mates who was a BRM engineer. Awesome chats
I'm guessing everyone is missing the non-blue shirt... :)
although I will be honest and admit it does have some blue in it... But it's mainly... another colour
Against the tennis it's not so bad. Against Doctor Who, you've got a proper clash :)
Oooh I can hear you saying you don't think anyone is listening :P
Except you've been rudely interrupted by an antacid advert....
Indeed... I don't really need anyone to listen to do this particular test. I would be watching Doctor Who, but Katherine is on the phone to her brother... And I can't look at twitter in case of spoilers obviously!
:)
Oh I see. I'll leave you to it then. I felt bad that you were trying to test and no-one would look.... :D
Thank you for doing it though :)
Sitting in the garden with my new kindle ♥
Awesome :)
And my computer.... I'm supposed to be working but hush.
and getting post redirected.
Hello Alex
I just told Alison a story...
But it is impossible to tell if she was actually there :)
Twas a goodun.
I've had men selling whistles that make seagull noises standing outside my shop for 3 days now. So erm I can't imagine compared to that, I could find any noise annoying ever again.
Caw caw caw...
Why would you want one? WHY?
OMG, today is http://drawingday.org/ ! Why do I never find out about these things on time!
Loved today's daily... loved it...
The wallet in the shoe line was awesome..
Oooh stripey!
Alison knows all of the secrets... all of them!
aw, thanks!
evening all
I think everyone's fallen asleep in the middle of Dr Who....
Hello!
Haven't seen it yet. In fact, I've some amount of Doctor Who catch-up to do
I just watched the two-parter leading up to tonights. I think 90 minutes is all I can manage though.. on to something else..
Not sure if that's because I didn't find it as a good as the previous stuff.
I know why the H sixteen didnt work from Br m :)
In other news, Ireland are beating Macedonia 2-0; if this holds out, we go to the top of our group for Euro 2012 qualifiers
:)
Everyone knows that. It was insanely over-complicated and had a cetre of gravity that was half the height of Mount Everest.
Evening all
hi steven
Robbie Keane scored twice as well... why can't he do that for his club?
He was an engineer on that and worked with bruce mclaren to get the v12 into f1
Don't forget, for those in the UK, there's a Murray Walker documentary on BBC 2 at 8pm - it will not be on the iPlayer afterward.
That should say tomorrow
Who was?
I see the FIA are looking at delaying the new tech regs. Making F1 more relevant by not delivering on time?
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/91958
Evening. I've been uploading loads of new pics to Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubbergoat/sets/
Might put some on Facebook later...
Hmmmm... Ireland are playing Italy on Tuesday.... in Belgium - why on Earth Belgium? Why not Italy or Ireland?
Nick's been out with this man and I think they've had a bit too much to drink....
Hi Gavin
Explains a lot. Like why Nick has ever heard of a BRM H-16
Aforementioned man is an ex BRM engineer as far as I can tell.
I am sure he will explain whatever he remembers when he sobersup
Evening :9
Hmmmm I think it's a family friend so he could maybe ask him again? :P
Job done - 2-0; Ireland go top of group B
:)
:D
I relented and watched it anyway :)
@MarshallPruett;
Nothing like finding a Vettel Red Bull sitting in the entryway at the local Carrefour market in Le Mans... http://tinyurl.com/3egsom3
A little late, but;
"Formula 1 Expands its 2012 Calendar" - http://theformulaoneandmotorsportsarchive.wordpress.com/2011/06/04/formula-expands-its-2012-calendar/
Not a fan of the 21 race calendar. Surely it can't happen. Surely?
It is crazy to have so many races
Turkey's still a big question mark, but even 20 is too many for me. The human cost is too high
Thank goodness Vettel is going to win the championship in Canada so it's not a big deal to fan-boycott Bahrain race
That's just the fans.
A variable number in the 16-18 bracket is good for me.
21 also means you can't plan the calendar memory game. Guessing the races in the right order. Could get a good success rate when it was 16..
I think we'll see a lot more politicking prior to the Bahrain race - probably starting in Montreal next week
I was thinking more along the lines of the crews, engineers and other personnel that have to go to every race to be honest.
I still think it would be a good idea to have 20+ host countries but a every country have to take a year off every X years so the number of races in a year is 16-19. They could use that year to improve facilities or whatever.
Anyway, my suspicions were definitely peaked yesterday - when I wrote this in March, Delhi were reportedly around two weeks ahead of schedule. In fact, many seemed to quite loud about it.
http://theformulaoneandmotorsportsarchive.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/formula-1-closing-in-on-dehli/
How convenient that they suddenly need a whole load of spare time...
'Cos that worked in the WRC..
I don't follow WRC, what happened
Attendances have pretty much plummeted to depths never before thought possible
There are about 20 events for a 14-rally calendar.. so they 'rotate' them, some get rested for a year or two.
I would guess that is the reason for Bahrain being re-instated. Something will no doubt happen that will result in Bahrain being cancelled again
The Monte Carlo rally which was the blue ribbon event decided it prefered to be in the IRC every year rather than in the WRC every two years. Now the IRC is massively popular
Thankfully Monte is back in the WRC now
It now counts for both championships from next year
I'm not sure the IRC is massively popular, it just has financial backing from Eurosport so it gets on their network whereas the WRC has lost any semblance of decent TV coverage. What the IRC has allowed is the Monte to go back to its roots rather than run a drastically shortened event. I note Todt now prefers the WRC to move away from centralised rallies, which Mosley implemented..
I'm not necessarily suggesting the change to rotated events is the direct reason for loss of popularity, gotta reckon Loeb winning all the time is a big part of that, but I'm sure it is a factor too.
Yep-a-roo
Mosley managed to screw up every world championship - F1, WRC, Sportscars
Mosley's issue was he kept sticking his unwanted nose in F1, but ignored everything else to death
Loeb winning and the lack of competitive cars has been a major contributor. THat is the main reason I pay no attention to it any more
The other problem is the events need the income to survive, though that might be different for F1 where many make a loss.
Oh deary me... nearly one week after the race and Graham Rahal is causing a bit of a rucas about JR Hildebrand / Charlie Kimball on Twitter.
Interesting to note:
PING: http://sidepodcast.com/post/daily-5th-june-2011
bit late but only by half an hour! :)
That's the earliest you have been late in ages
I know! *very proud of herself*