Sidepodcast

Pity the F1 Fool

A constant discussion within the Sidepodcommunity is the validity of news, and how best to check sources. Here, RG shows how easy it is to make a mistake, even if it is a deliberate one.

Twitter can highlight both the best and the worst of F1 on the internet.

I could fool you. I could fool the whole world if I wanted to. It would only take a little bit of effort and time, and possibly a bit of luck, to do it. The funny thing would be that hardly anyone would question it; they would believe every single word that had been written down in front of them.

In 2009, Twitter took off big time. It does indeed feel like the majority of the world is on it. There are, admittedly, some very good uses for using the service, especially if you are a fan of Formula 1 (which I suspect you are, considering you are on this site). Follow the right people, and you are given the latest information within seconds of it being released to the media. Instead of having to wait for an article to appear on Autosport, it is out on Twitter and can be discussed even before the first update on that page is out on the internet.

But that is only if you manage to follow the right people.

Peter Sauber. In my own mind a simple legend, of course, I am totally biased. He is, of course, the owner of the returning Sauber team. Now, I don’t wish any offence onto the great man, but can you really see him being the type who uses Twitter? No, I can’t see it either. Perhaps his son, Alex Sauber might be the type (now in charge of the team’s marketing activites).

So I do indeed wonder why a certain Formula 1 “news” agency opted to pick up on the fact that Peter Sauber, on an unverified twitter account, said the following:

“second driver to be announced next week. The team is ready to work. happy new year.”

This was posted on the 30th December 2009. Sauber has only just confirmed Pedro de la Rosa this week.

Amazingly, when a certain “news” company picked it up, it spread round the internet quicker than Usain Bolt down 100m. It didn’t take long for a reliable account, in the form of Jonathan Noble, of Autosport, to make a quick check with the real Peter Sauber, to prove it was a simple fake account.

To fool the world, though. It does sound like a bit of a challenge, doesn’t it? You would think it may require me to be on the television. Or indeed, turn into a taxi driver and spot Cristiano Ronaldo walking out of White Hart Lane (fans of the BBC live text of transfer deadline day will know what I am talking about).

In fact, all it needs is a half decent connection to the internet, a Twitter account and the ability to use hashtags. When Tom G suggested in the comments that we should lead a certain “news” company up the garden path, the following tweet, on my own Twitter account, followed:

“I've heard from some sources that Campos Meta will announce Vitaly Petrov as their new driver. Bringing in 7million euros to the team #f1”

I can confirm that I have no sources inside the F1 paddock. I will also happily say that seven million Euros was plucked from the air. I don’t know however if Vitaly Petrov will go to Campos Meta 1 or not. That will have to be seen in the future. What I love about my rumour, is that it is perfectly possible, but the way to spread a good rumour is the use of a hashtag. Some F1 fans that use Twitter do indeed follow the #f1 hashtag to possibly catch up on the news.

Originally, I was disappointed at the end of the Sunday evening, that only five non-Sidepodcast people had retweeted that message. I was indeed sure that more had read it. I’ll take this time to apologise to the people who believed that message, yes, I did lead you all up a one way street. Block me if you like.

I did think all was lost, but that was until Tom (once again) came across a link on a Spanish speaking website. Although the use of Google Translator was required, it did appear that the main structure of my tweet was involved. Seven million Euros is indeed mentioned, with a company called Megafon, which is a Russian mobile phone operator.

Easy. Too easy. I could do it again if I wanted to as well, I bet some people won’t read this article properly, so won’t realise that when I say:

Ralf Schumacher is going to USF1.

That I am totally lying. It won’t happen but a select bunch of people don’t read the whole story. That is the important thing, the whole story.

My tweet could have easily been caught out; it was on my own account, in the middle of me discussing the West Ham v Arsenal game on at that time. Odd timing for a breaking news story. I have clearly no previous history of correctly breaking Formula 1 stories and I never backed it up with anything.

Check the sources, how important is that. I’m stating the obvious but probably 90% of Formula 1 fans on the internet don’t know about the best and worst places. Sidepodcast sorted that out a year ago, a page which is still relevant today. Sadly, the “news” sources which produce the most incorrect stories still seem to end up everywhere I go. Be it something like the BBC Sport website, a forum or even in general chat with friends. (When football isn’t the main discussion)

So if you are reading an article with a three letter abbreviation or a certain German newspaper near it, it is more than likely to be incorrect. If you see something on Twitter, not by an inside source, or a journalist, again, it is likely to be incorrect.

The internet. Used by bunch of liars. Me included.

Daily: 28th November 2009

Hello! RG here and as today’s first ever guest writer for the Daily, I believe it is my duty to welcome you to the weekend. For me, I am delighted it is the weekend, having spent the past day and a bit stuck in bed feeling ill. Not ideal, but yesterday saw some awesome news to keep me happy.

• The brilliant ‘Tonio Liuzzi was confirmed at Force India alongside Adrian Sutil. Fantastic news there, Force India managing to keep two decent drivers and with more testing for him, I do think Liuzzi will go out in 2010 and score a few good results. Especially since he is awesome.
• Then there is the news of Montreal being confirmed for the 2010 season. Brilliant. One of my favourite tracks on the F1 calendar returns. Of course, that is where BMW Sauber scored their one and only victory in 2008. All we need now is a race in the USA and to get rid of a few other circuits. I am looking at Valencia and Abu Dhabi for starters.
• So to top that off, there will have to be something really special. That something special came in the form of BMW selling the team back to Peter Sauber. To a lifelong fan of the team, this is simply the best news ever and has kept a smile on my face. Of course it is with conditions, but I am certain Sauber will be on the grid next season. Can’t wait to have Sauber next year, perhaps a return to the popular blue liveries? I have my fingers crossed.

Of course, I won’t go away without some plugs. My Timo Glock dedicated blog at Only One Timo Glock and my general blog The Northern Waffler. Do also check out one of the ten kazillion posts that were wrote yesterday, a personal favourite of mine being Predictions Revisited, showing how many of us were wrong more or less this time last year. Have a fun Saturday!

Oh, nearly forgot to mention, it is the birthday of a certain Rob Smedley.

Sidepodradio - The Nostradamus Effect

Our guest post spot today is filled by RG, who wants to talk to you about his Sidepodradio show - The Nostradamus Effect. Let me make my own prediction for you - you're going to want to listen to this show.

Sunday 20th September 2009 is coming way too quickly, and unless you couldn’t tell by now, it is Sidepodradio Day (if you couldn’t tell by now, then you obviously didn’t read the title, or even the little introduction given by Mrs C). And I, will be attempting to do what people have tried to do for centuries, predict the future, and I shall be given half an hour to do it in. (More or less determining how well Mr C does at cooking). I present to you, The Nostradamus Effect.

So what is the principle of the show? Well, simply, to predict. Use my gut instinct to predict things from the world of Formula 1, the world of sport and even simply the world. So far I have a few ideas jotted down in my notebook; those ideas will remain a top secret until the show is aired.

However, I do want to get the audience involved, hopefully after I have rabbited on for the first part of the show. How to get involved I hear you ask. Well, simply enough, e-mail the folks at Sidepodcast at christine@sidepodcast.com, or go to the wiki page where there have been suggestions from Jordan and Steven already,  or you can voicemail them at 0128 28 TRACK or search them on Skype. But please do pm me over the wiki as I do have an inability to predict on the spot. Time is short.

With contact details out of the way I can exclusively reveal I will be trying an ambitious prediction right at the end of the show. I believe ambitious may be pushing it, this is one thing I really don’t want to reveal until the show, so don’t try and get it out of me. You won’t get it out of me as easily as, well, you know what.

The show starts at 18:30 BST, or as I’m using it, whenever the dust settles from The Cooking Show which will air before mine. Thanks for letting me predict at you.

Couldn't Have Asked For More

Frequent commenter, and BMW fan, R.G. sent us this email which was an excellent, and very complete and thorough round up the year. I wanted to read out on the show, but then it occurred to me that it's quite long and would work better as a blog post. Take it away, R.G.

Well, what a race that was. Couldn't have asked more for a championship showdown in Brazil. Though I may have accidentally jinxed Felipe Massa by announcing he was the champion thirty seconds too early. Needless to say, not long after, Hamilton passed Glock to win it. Well done to Hamilton nonetheless. Shame Coulthard retired on the first lap, especially since it appeared it was not his fault, he's had a great career. Just a pity his retirement will be overshadowed by Hamilton. Massa was unlucky, and I'm impressed with him that he took it on the chin and didn't wail his eyes out.

Shame for BMW to finish the season with no points from Brazil, but I'm optimistic for 2009, and I think we will be able to fight the big guns right to Abu Dhabi in a year's time, hopefully with both Kubica and Heidfeld battling for the title. And with Renault likely to be more competitive, we could see a Raikkonen, Massa, Hamilton, Kubica, Heidfeld and Alonso battle for the title. And I thought 2008 was good.

I've enjoyed the season massively. And I think the best races were in the tracks not made by Tilke, Australia, Monaco, Canada, Britain, Belgium, Italy and Brazil. I think that says something about the tracks Tilke made. As a BMW fan the clear high point was the Canadian GP win and 1-2, seconded by our first podium in Bahrain. The low point for us is the end of the season, scoring 7 points in 2 races, none of them in Brazil.

As a general F1 fan, the best race was possibly Monaco, the rain and the walls, and Sutil's performance really made that race enjoyable. The worst was definitely Valencia, with a massive build up to being on of Tilke's best tracks, it turned into a dull fest and one I wished I hadn't missed 90 minutes of sun when I was on holiday.

My driver of the year goes to Massa, proved everyone wrong after an awful start and winning the most, brilliant drives in Bahrain, Turkey and Brazil, but made some silly errors like in Malaysia. Hamilton had some quality races, Britain and China, but like Massa, made some awful judgement in Canada and Japan.

Disappointment of the year for me is shared by Raikkonen and Kovalainen, two drivers who can drive, in good cars, but were nowhere near quick enough to match their team mates.

Surprise of the year is no doubt Kubica and BMW, could have got pole in Australia and Canada, did in Bahrain. We got a 1-2 in Canada and many podium finishes. Only retiring twice, once because of Nakajima's fault. No mechanical failures and Heidfeld becoming the first driver to have finished every race in a season.

Brilliant season this has been, and thanks massively to sidepodcast.com who have livened up my season no doubt, live commenting has been brilliant. So thanks to everyone in the sidepodcast community since Canada, kudos.

Roll on 2009!