Sidepodcast

Yesterday was bit a exciting, all things considered. Early on in the day Scott noticed Christine’s recent diary entry was featured on YouTube’s homepage, and then we finally had some actual Honda news to content with. Ross Brawn broke the silence by clarifying some key points about the teams future and confirmed initial talks have begun with Ferrari.

Key discussion points for today include:

• With a decision on Donington Park’s planning permission due tomorrow, more news is trickling in as the local media outlets cover the story. Apparently 18 letters had been submitted to the council, raising issues such as increased traffic levels, parking and noise problems, but organisers remain confident plans will be approved.
• Mark Superman Webber appears to be confident he’ll be fit in time for February testing. We were taking bets on the red bullog earlier this week on whether he’d recover faster than Schumi did in ‘99. Predictably, I’m saying he will.
• We could do with a couple more subscribers to the brand new Sidepodcast last.fm group, even though we don’t really know what it’s for yet. If you enjoy signing up for stuff, then this is a prime opportunity we’re presenting you with here.

Finally, as if is you could forget, the F1 community needs your votes:

Don’t forget you can vote once every 24 hours and Sidepodcast is nominated in two categories.

• Length: 1:00 
• Size: 1.1 MB 
• File: 2008awardsminute.mp3 
• Transcript: 2008awardsminute.pdf 
• Torrent: 2008awardsminute.torrent 

Don’t panic! This is still Sidepodcast. F1 Minute hasn’t taken over the world. Yet.

This is a one off special, because there are some serious circumstances that need urgent attention. We have been nominated for the 2008 Weblog Awards in two categories, and I’m here to ask for your votes.

Yes, this may be a shameless plug of a show – 60 seconds devoted entirely to pleading for you to take time out of your day to vote for us – but what is it they say? A vote for us is a vote for you.

That’s true, in fact, as one of the categories we are a finalist in is Best Online Community. That’s every single one of you that makes up the Sidepodcast Audience, particularly anyone who has commented on the site. You guys make Sidepodcast what it is.

Our other nomination is in Best Podcast. They are both very tough categories so every click counts. You can vote once every 24 hours, and all the information you need is on Sidepodcast.com.

That’s all. Thanks for listening, and I’ll go back to the actual F1 Minute now.

A while back we speculated on La Stampa’s claim that Carlos Slim might’ve stepped in to save Honda, but shortly afterwards Ross Brawn has quashed the speculation, stating.

“This gentleman never visited us and didn’t show any intention of buying the team either.”

I think all of our excitement over the original story simply shows how keen we are for the team to find a buyer and be saved. It’s not just about having another team on the grid, making up the numbers. We want that team, the one we have cheered on in the past and grown to love (even if love means ridicule).

Brawn himself has only been with the team a short time, but has clearly grown an attachment to those who don’t get all the glory. In recent interview with Gazetta dello Sport, he speaks candidly about what’s important, with top priority being saving jobs. He admits his own position as Team Principal isn’t as important as saving the team, and if he had to step aside, he’d be willing to do so.

Moving on to how development of the 2009 car is going, Brawn admits things are on a go-slow now.

“There’s no hurry because modifying the car to install a different engine requires at least six weeks of work anyway. It’s unlikely we’ll manage to be on track during the winter.

No testing for the Brackley team, then, which may put them a step behind if/when they make it to the grid. However, Brawn has used his connections to try and secure a decent motor for the car, approaching his old team Ferrari for a customer engine.

“We haven’t signed anything yet but I really appreciated the support from president Luca di Montezemolo and Stefano Domenicali. It’s like being among former schoolmates: they still see me as one of their own.”

I bet they do.

So things are progressing then, and we are still waiting to find out who these mysterious potential buyers are, and if any of them are going to work out. Whilst things are obviously flowing better than the Super Aguri sale did, I hope we hear some good news soon. It’s difficult to be in this limbo, not knowing whether to include the “team formerly known as Honda” in discussions about the new season. However, if Brawn is still being positive about the future of the team…

“Very good chances, I’m really optimistic.”

…then we can only do the same.

I’m not sure if we’ve mentioned it enough times yet, but we might’ve been nominated for a couple of awards this week.

We mentioned back in November last year that we were after preliminary votes for Best Online Community in the 2008 Weblog Awards, because we felt the wider world needed to know just how completely wonderful the F1 community is.

Amazingly, everybody’s efforts paid off and Sidepodcast was selected as one of the top 10 finalists in that category.

It Only Takes a Minute

Voting starts today, which means we again need to ask everyone to choose their best clicking finger, and register a vote for the most distinguished Formula 1 community on the Internet.

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As if by magic, the entire Formula 1 world woke up yesterday and the news stories started pouring in. Mr C found the difference amazing, after surviving on a holiday diet of GMM waffle, re-experiencing some proper journalism from Autosport felt like heaven. Here’s a quick rundown of the items on offer at the moment:

• We have yet to see any repercussions from Sir Stewart’s choice words in yesterday’s interview. There’s no doubt that the majority of us agree with his sentiment, but I can think of two quite influential people who won’t feel the same way. Will we here from them today? What will they say?
• Almost the entire grid came out with launch news today, okay, well, Ferrari and Red Bull. The Prancing Horse will be the first car we set eyes on, coming out next Monday. Ferrari also announced the return of the infamous traffic light system. Can they really have fixed it? And what state will the car be in when it’s launched on the 12th?
• Finally, there’s the small matter of some Weblog Awards that we have been nominated for. The voting has started, and whilst we don’t hold much hope against such worthy competitors, we would like to encourage anyone and everyone to give the Sidepodcast option a big click in both the community and podcast categories. We’ve even got some nice buttons for you to make things easy. Thanks for voting!

No doubt today will be just as fulfilling on the F1 news front. We’ll see you in the comments.

With the voting for the 2008 Weblog Awards due imminently, we’ve come to the sudden realisation that we’re up against some serious competition. In fact, we stand no chance, but that’s okay, because in the podcast category we are up against both This American Life and This Week in Tech - both brilliant podcasts that I listen to regularly and love.

With that in my mind, plus the fact that I have finally managed to catch up with my podcast feeds over the holidays, I thought I would share some of the non-F1 shows I listen to. Here are ten of the many, many podcasts I have subscribed to - not including the two already mentioned and in no particular order:

Buzz Out Loud

From the CNET stable of podcasts, Buzz Out Loud is a weekday show, roughly half an hour long, discussing everything that affects the technology and media industry. The show is friendly and informative, good at explaining some complex things, and is very happy to take feedback and be corrected by the growing Buzz community. [link]

Friday Night Comedy

This fine podcast rotates between the always excellent Now Show and the mildly amusing News Quiz. I know Mr C subscribes and unsubscribes just to hear the former, but I don’t mind chuckling my way through the odd news quiz while I wait for the amusing Punt and Dennis to return. [link]

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In the comments recently Trig pointed out Sidepodcast has a habit of making him want more gadgets and gizmos. It reminded me I was supposed to write a behind the scenes post about recent changes to our live setup. This is that post.

Know Your Limitations

Last year, around the time of Silverstone testing and the British Grand Prix, we put in place a rudimentary system that allowed us to follow comments on this site, upload photographs and even stream some live video. In most respects everything worked as planned, but we found ourselves with an excessive amount of equipment to carry, whilst being severely restricted by battery life. Additionally as soon as a website thread hit more than 500 comments, it became nearly impossible to load it over the air.

For 2009 we intend to solve those issues and improve our coverage, without breaking the bank.

Keeping it Real

More by luck than judgement, the real time commenting system that was introduced to help us follow conversations during a live show, actually appears to solve the limitations we experienced connecting via 3G.

Previously it was necessary to load a whole thread’s worth of comments just to catch up on the most recent submitted entries. With the new system however, we’ll be able to quickly access only the latest comments and add to the conversation with the minimum of fuss. The amount of data transferred is relatively small (and we’re working on reducing it further), which means costs should also be lower than before.

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Sidepodcast Diaries has seen quite the evolution since it was first conceived in the midst of 2007. We were travelling in the car, somewhat bored, and decided to switch the camera on. The idea was to feature some behind the scenes footage of us as we went about our Sidepodbusiness, so you could all get a glimpse at the inner workings of the podcasting scene.

However, it gradually evolved into my own pet project, a video blog of my thoughts on Formula 1. It lasted nine great shows in 2007, all exclusively hosted on our YouTube account. It was never really a part of Sidepodcast, more of an aside for anyone who happened across it.

In 2008, I tried to bring the format back, but whilst my production skills had clearly improved, the recording equipment left me slightly frustrated. Balancing a mobile phone on a bookshelf and hoping for the best didn’t really inspire me to continue. Also, last season, we introduced live streaming, which in itself gave plenty of insight into our thoughts about Formula 1 - including those which don’t make it into the podcasts themselves.

Nevertheless, the 2009 resolutions have spoken, and the Diaries have returned, with renewed enthusiasm.

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Jackie Stewart gave Formula One’s top men both barrels in an interview with The Times today, calling for both Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone to step down.

The former World Champion doesn’t hold back in his condemnation, suggesting Bernie is so focused on complete control that there’s no way for a succession plan to be even considered let alone executed, and that Ecclestone is, well… getting old.

Stewart continues his criticism suggesting Bernie and Max are so close as to be “Siamese twins” and offers the damning verdict that:

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It’s the first proper Monday back at work for F1 teams following the holiday period, so if nothing else, we’re expecting some actual news worthy of discussion today. Are the rumours true, and will Honda staff learn any more about their long term future in this sport? Or are they in for a protracted and drawn out Aguri-esque lead up to Melbourne?

In the meantime, here’s some discussion points to tide us over:

• Sir Jackie Stewart has blasted Bernie for having way too much power and lacking any form of succession plan. Jackie is always right so there’s no discussion to be had there, however, what can be done about it, and what would happen to F1 should Bernie not witness another sunrise?
• In the comments, thoughts are already turning to future planning and Alex is considering a visit to Goodwood FoS this year. Do you already have your F1 plans in place, and if so where are you going in 2009 and why?
• Additionally, we’ve been debating the subject of racing induced hearing loss and whether event organisers should be held responsible for providing protection (the people behind Goodwood FoS say “no chance”). So who should be held accountable for potential hearing damage in this modern era: organisers, promoters, teams, drivers, or the fans who turn up and watch?

All of this and much more to be considered by the Sidepodcommunity in the next 24 hours. You know where you’ll find us.