Sidepodcast

Old Man and Me

Hypothetically speaking, imagine there were a seven times Formula 1 World Champion, who despite a career marred by controversy, opted to bow out at the top of his game. Imagine also, that in doing so he earned the respect of even his strongest critics, and that during his last appearance managed pull off the move of the race, putting a number on his replacement in the process.

Credit: Mercedes GP Petronas

A bad day at the office for the comeback kid.

Stretching reality to its limit, imagine that such a person would decide after almost three years away from the sport, to replace a sidelined ex-teammate in an awful car. Feigning injury would likely be the only way out of that situation, reputation still intact.

Imagine still, that such a person would then choose to make a season long comeback for the reigning World Champions, and in the first qualifying session of the year, manage only 7th position. Two whole places behind a teammate who nobody in the paddock rates highly and who's yet to achieve anything of note in his four year career. That kind of result could be painful to swallow for someone used to achieving so much.

Mind you, if such a situation had occurred, words could not describe how happy a certain person would be feeling right now.

Renault F1 Announce HP Sponsorship Agreement

Credit: RenaultF1

HP branding will appear on the R30 from the first race of the year.

On the eve of the first F1 practice session of the year, the Renault F1 Team have announced a major sponsorship deal with technology company Hewlett-Packard. The new agreement means the R30 cars will run with significant HP branding adorning the bodywork.

The team will also obtain access to HP technology in order to further develop simulation technologies on the back of HP High Performance Computing servers. Additionally HP will help the team to reduce its carbon footprint, by implementing 'greener' data centres, and utilising low-energy-consumption workstations.

Renault F1 Team Chairman, Gérard Lopez commented:

"F1 has a proven ability to boost brand awareness around the world, and we are proud that Renault F1 Team will be HP's partner of choice in achieving this goal."

A rather optimistic HP representative noted the company intended to offer the best technology to support Renault F1 in their quest for victory.

Hewlett-Packard have long been using Formula One as means of promoting technological development, running a major branding campaign on the Williams teams cars from 2002 to 2005.

Force India "Win a Lot of Races" in the Simulator

Credit: Force India

Adrian Sutil surveys the Bahrain scenery ahead of the season opening Grand Prix.

Just in time for the start of the season, Force India have released a new 33 minute audio podcast. The format has changed significantly from last year, and there is a new feed to subscribe to. In the first episode, drivers Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi talk about the upcoming season, while Friday man Paul di Resta discusses testing.

The newly promoted Mark Smith, who recently replaced outgoing Technical Director James Key, offers insight into what the team have planned for the first race of the year. Updates include an aerodynamic package tested during the last two days in Barcelona, focusing on front and rear wing improvements plus changes to the diffuser. Smith says the team consider themselves to be in a mid-grid position and are looking to move forward.

The most enlightening section of the show comprises of an interview with Team Manager, Andy Stevenson. Talk turns to regulation changes including the reduction in available tyres and the banning of refuelling. Andy raises a number of important points relating to pit stops, including:

• He doesn't think we'll see any sub two-second pits stops at the start of the season
• His team have rehearsed pit stops over 1,500 times during the winter
• Drivers absolutely must hit their pit marks this year, there is no time to adjust wheel gun positioning
• The stopping tolerance drivers are working to is a 5mm margin of error.

Stevenson also noted that teams will only have a few seconds to make strategy calls this year. In the past it was possible to predict to the nearest lap when someone might stop, but in 2010 they'll have no idea. He's also confident they've done their homework when it comes to strategy.

"We are running race simulations daily with [our engineers], and throwing scenarios at them and seeing where we come out. The nice thing to say is we win a lot of races in the simulator."

The podcast wraps up with a chat with the left rear wheel gunner, Chris King. He'll be one of 12 people changing the tyres at a race, and while he's "happy with his wheel" he notes the extra pressure on the role this year. Worryingly he quotes a three to four second turnaround at this point in time.

You can listen to the full show here and either subscribe in iTunes or directly to the feed. We noted after the release of the recent Lotus podcast, that audio output from teams is likely to increase this season and it's good to see Force India are still committed to their podcast.

Live Telemetry and More From F1 Teams This Year

This week, two F1 teams launched revamped websites to coincide with the new season. Both have taken different routes and both have pushed the online F1 experience forward in their own unique way.

AT&T Williams

The new Williams site offers inline commenting on all stories including news items, and iWitness columns. Additionally you can rate posts, and leave feedback on videos. This puts user generated content front and centre within the site. No longer are thoughts from fans tucked in a corner where people in suits hope no-one will spot them.

I love that the Williams teams have done this and the only downside appears to be the need to register before commenting. When Red Bull Racing revamped their site a few weeks back, they too opened comments on posts and multimedia items, but allowed anyone to comment with ease.

Another tantalising section of the Williams site promises driver blog updates throughout the year, apparently Rubens is up first and blogging in Bahrain. This is something we've been calling for since Sidepodcast started way back in 2007, and might just set new standards in F1 coverage.

One notable exemption from the Williams site, is the live timing system, which debuted during winter testing, and that is where McLaren have the edge.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

Team McLaren will to be pushing the technological envelope to it's maximum this weekend in Bahrain, with the launch of their new Race 1.0b Live Data Viewer. A system that will provide live information to fans during every practice session, qualifying and the race.

Credit: mclaren.com

A screenshot of the Race 1.0b live data viewer, offering insight from the pit wall.

McLaren are no strangers to supplying live updates over the web. Last year they came up with a peculiar telemetry widget which detailed information on braking and acceleration changes from both of their drivers on track.

The Race 1.0b (no I don't get the name either) appears to be a vast improvement though. Amongst other things, it promises:

• Live GPS circuit map data
• Detailed car telemetry
• Comments from the pit wall
• Comments from mission control (in Woking)

The accompanying teaser video also suggests driver radio messages will be transcribed and relayed back to us, which will be a massive boon after the commentators have talked all over them.

We are very much looking forward to seeing the 1.0b in action. Whilst we can't pretend to be huge fans of the revamped McLaren web site, the offer of live data more than makes up for the kooky design. In fact it pushes McLaren to the forefront of fan interaction. Can anyone raise them?

Bahrain 2010 - Race Information

Formula One has returned! We are gearing up for the first race of the season and by all accounts, it's going to be a spectacular one. Although Bahrain has a lot to live up to, replacing Australia as the season opener, there is so much going on, it's bound to be a fantastic weekend.

The Weather

The long range forecast for the weekend suggests there will be nothing but sunshine for F1 to look forward too. Saturday might see a little cloud, but nothing that should make a difference to the action and the high appears consistent for both Saturday and Sunday.

Regularly updated weather information can be found on the BBC.

The Circuit

This year, the Bahrain circuit sees the first major change to its layout since it began hosting F1 races in 2004. The track has been extended by nine corners and the number of laps reduced accordingly.

Credit: Bridgestone Corporation

Bahrain Circuit Map

Event Schedule

An F1 weekend comprises of events spanning three days. Action begins on Friday and ends on Sunday.

Support races for this event include GP2 Asia and the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup.

Press Conference Schedule

Official press conferences are organised by the FIA and happen four times during the weekend.

The qualifying and post race press conferences will take place after the television unilateral interviews.

Podcast Schedule

Sidepodcast provides comprehensive coverage of every Grand Prix weekend with free audio podcasts.

Following Live

A thread will be created on Sidepodcast.com for every session and every thread is live enabled, meaning you can follow along and contribute to the conversation without refreshing the page.

Additionally, for every session this weekend we'll be providing up-to-the-minute F1 information via the all new Factbyte Factbox.

Introducing the Factbyte Factbox

Sidepodcast is today turning its F1 coverage up to eleven, with the release of the all new Factbyte Factbox. The interactive web panel enables us to provide real-time updates on any live event, be it an F1 session, another motorsport event or live streaming podcast.

Factbyte Factbox (FBFB) was first proposed back in April 2009 and has been something we've been keen to see launched for a very long time. Back in April, we described it thus:

Designed to take live shows and live racing to the next level, the FBFB will provide a secondary stream of information, highlighting any relevant data depending on circumstance. For example, offering up-to-date scoring during a panel show, or listing the closest battles during a race.

Almost one year on and that is exactly what we're launching today. Additionally, we're planning on using the tool to augment future live streaming podcasts, providing real-time show notes and enabling interaction via live voting, results of which will be fed back into recordings.

We should point out that what we're launching today isn't the final iteration of the web panel. It carries a "beta" tag because it is a service that's still undergoing heavy development. However, we felt that this was something that should be available from the very start of the F1 season, and thus we're opening the doors today. We're expecting teething troubles coupled with rapid development for the next few months.

If you're interested in seeing what all the fuss is about, the live commenting page currently houses the FBFB. The plan is to make it available via other pages in due course. Furthermore, we'll be running a live beta test at 21:45 GMT, should anyone be available to offer feedback.

Updated: The live test has now finished, but you can view the full list of updates below:

A Lap of Bahrain With Mark Webber

Red Bull have produced a stunning track guide for the first race of the Formula One season in Bahrain. Mark Webber is in the hot seat, and the two minute video takes viewers on a lap of the revised Bahrain International Circuit, from the cockpit of the team's F1 Simulator.

• Length: 02:17 
• Size: 26.8 MB 
• File: video27.m4v 
• Transcript: video27.pdf 
• Torrent: video27.torrent 

Production quality in the clip is second to none, and Webber does a fine job of covering the tricky points of the track. F1 simulators are becoming significantly more important as testing becomes ever more restricted, and this footage offers a great insight into the steps a modern F1 driver goes through to prepare for each race of the season.

There is a lot of information to take onboard in the lower third of the screen, and it's worth watching this one more than once. A fantastic effort from those involved and the only worrying thing is that there's nothing left for us to add.

Thursday Thoughts - Why Do You Blog?

This week as the off-season comes to a close, it's the final Thursday Thoughts for awhile. Unusually we have a question in front of us that both Christine and I can answer, but in different ways. So this is my take.

Maverick has put bloggers in the spotlight by simply asking, why do you blog?

This is a bit of a tricky subject to approach, because originally Sidepodcast was about audio and about video. The written word was, and still to a degree is, a secondary consideration. Two scenarios have driven the direction of site in a more textual direction - it is expensive to create two-way conversation using other media, and when time is of the essence, text delivery is faster and more convenient.

The latter is especially true when working on projects on a part-time basis.

Mr. C and Me

I only write blog posts for Sidepodcast and very occasionally for F1 Minute. You might consider me the lesser productive half of the team. I can't remember how I ended up getting roped into writing (I swear I only agreed to a speaking part), so a trip back into the archives is in order.

59 words made up my first post back in 2007, and it wasn't F1 related. A further month passed before I had a go at Ferrari. Following the archive trail through '08 and '09 it's easy to conclude that I primarily blog to promote things.

Catching right up to date, I can see that my text output has increased as more things have needed selling or explaining. My typing speed has not.

I'm confident that if project Sidepodcast ended tomorrow, my writing would cease along with it. There just isn't a burning desire within me to type anything.

All for F1

A year or so ago, we had a problem with people suggesting that we were F1 journalists, or reporters, or some such thing that we weren't comfortable with. For me, Sidepodcast was never a stepping stone into the Formula 1 circus, it wasn't a way to showcase any skills to the wider world, it was simply a vehicle with which Christine and I could work together. To that end it's work incredibly well, despite all the writing I've had to do.

This final Thursday Thoughts question closes the 2009-2010 off-season for me, and I've appreciated reading every question and all the posts that have spilled forth from them. I may not give so much back as some, but I love being a part of the F1 community.

Karun Chandhok Confirmed at HRT Formula 1

Credit: Alastair Staley / GP2 Series Media Service

Karun Chandhok aboard the Indian Empress in Monaco, 2009.

Former GP2 driver Karun Chandhok, has today been announced as Bruno Senna's team mate in the second seat at HRT Formula 1. The HRT team, previously known as Campos Meta, are expected to officially reveal their new branding at a presentation in Spain later today.

The team presentation will happen in Murcia, a city in the South East of Spain from where HRT will run their F1 operations.

Speaking of the signing, Team Principal Colin Kolles said:

"We have been very impressed with Karun's performance in GP2. India is a great country. It will be great for the sport to have an Indian driver on the grid for the first Indian Grand Prix. Murcia is part of the roots of the team."

Chandhok previously partnered Bruno Senna in the iSport GP2 back in 2008.

Only 12 Teams Named on Official FIA Entry List

The official FIA Formula 1 entry list was released on Wednesday and it featured only 12 teams. Team US F1 did not appear on the list, neither has Stefan GP been added.

The FIA also confirmed that it was not possible to replace USF1 so close to the start of the new season, but they will be looking into what can be done in 2011.

The USF1 Team have indicated that they will not be in a position to participate in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship. Having considered the various options, the FIA confirms that it is not possible for a replacement team to be entered for the Championship at this late stage.

In the coming days the FIA will announce details of a new selection process to identify candidates to fill any vacancies existing at the start of the 2011 season.

The recently renamed Campos Meta outfit, HRT F1 Team (or Hispania Racing) do appear on the list, but with only one named driver, Bruno Senna. The constructor is named HRT Cosworth.

Note: The USF1 Team have indicated that they will not be in a position to participate in 2010.