Sidepodcast

Daily: 18th March 2010

Hello and welcome to Thursday. It's usually a horrid day but I'm sure today will be completely different because it is a certain Timo Glock's birthday! Happy Birthday Mr Glock. I hope that RG has bought his favourite driver a present, it seems only fair. Now you have wished Glock a happy birthday, your day is complete, but I would just like to share some of the other things we're talking about first:

• Ollie has been blogging like a demon recently, and posted an interesting article about the possibility of the record books being changed this year. I hadn't really given it any thought but we have seen youngest drivers and 100th GP winners over the last few years, so I wonder what we'll find in 2010.
• Over on VivaF1, Maverick has a post discussing the potential introduction of the 107% rule - how it would work and whether it would be a useful thing or not. I have never seen such a rule in practice, so I'm not sure about it, but head on over and leave your thoughts.
• Finally, Lukeh has been keeping his eye on all sorts of news outlets to get information about the new F1 game, and he has collated it all here with his initial impressions. Some of the career aspects do look very interesting, but from a personal point of view, I just wish you didn't have to actually get a car round a track. It's quite impossible.

That should do it for now. I hope everyone is having an okay week so far, and as ever, I will see you in the comments.

We're About to Get Jealous

On this week's debrief episode, I gave a quick shout out to Alex Snell who has just embarked on the dream. He is going to every single Grand Prix this year, travelling to each country, and following the F1 circus as it meanders about the globe.

The man himself introduces the prospect on his travel blog:

I'm an ordinary guy who happens to be a big F1 fan. This year though, I won't be watching the Grand Prix from the well-worn comfort of my lazy-boy. Nope, I'll be at the circuit. In fact I'll be at all of the circuits, for every race, for every session, and for every lap.

You're envious already, aren't you?

Alex is documenting his travels via Twitter, and using the travel blog site Get Jealous, where you can find photos, journal entries and a map. From the entry prior to the race:

It's now the morning of the race and I'm typing this as the Asia GP2 cars scream past. Had a good start to the day, on the advice of one of the official photographers we plonked ourselves infront of the entrance by the stage, why? Because this the entrance all the teams use, we managed to see the Ferrari engineers, the guys from lotus, virgin, and RedBull - so pretty cool.

I've also managed to add the autographs of both virgin drivers, so that's 4 down and 20 to go for the full set!

Di Grassi's autograph? Yea, I am pretty jealous by now.

As I type this, Alex has just landed in Melbourne. One race down, 18 more to go. I'll be following along, will you?

The Stewarding Process, Now With Added Drivers

Credit: Williams F1

Alain Prost and Damon Hill, pose with a sponsor at Kyalami, '93. The FIA is putting it's trust in these men.

For the 2010 season, the FIA are introducing an F1 driver to each stewarding panel, in an attempt to make their judgements fairer, and to provide a little insight into what was happening during each incident. We've previously discussed this idea at great lengths, pondering whether it's right to allow drivers in. Their added experience can only be useful, but might they be a little impartial to their former teams? It's an unknown at the moment, but what we do know is who will be taking those positions for the next few races.

Alain Prost

Prost is at the helm in Bahrain this weekend, taking the reigns as the first former driver to participate in the stewarding process under this new ruling. The Frenchman was last seen driving in the sport in 1993 for Williams. He's also driven for McLaren, Renault and Ferrari - and had a held a bitter rivalry with Ayrton Senna along the way. Prost has four world championships under his belt.

Prost went on to start his own F1 team which lasted just five seasons.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen

Frentzen hails from Germany, and was last behind the wheel of an F1 car in 2003. He's since been competing in DTM. He's driven with Sauber, Williams, Jordan and Arrows, but never managed to grab that elusive championship. He won three Grands Prix, though, the last being in 1999. He was disqualified only once during his F1 career - for leaving the pit lane under a red light.

Alex Wurz

Wurz has never been far from our consciousness, last seen racing in China 2007. He attempted to launch his own F1 team for the 2010 season but the application was not successful. He's driven for Williams, McLaren and Benetton, but made more of an impact as a good development and test driver than a sparkling racer. He has no championships or wins to his name, but is known for speaking his mind, and as a comentator on his home TV networks in Austria, he'll be good at calling things as he sees them.

Wurz has on occasion been trusted at the wheel of the FIA medical car.

Johnny Herbert

Herbert has driven for quite a few teams during his 12 years in the sport, with the last Jaguar Racing in 2000. He's also been involved with Stewart, Sauber, Benetton, Ligier, Lotus and Tyrrell. Herbert never won the championship but stood on the top step of the podium three times, and picked up 98 points during his F1 career. Since leaving the sport, he has participated in Le Mans and BTCC, and advised Jordan and Midland before they became Spyker.

Damon Hill

Since leaving F1, Hill has kept himself extremely busy heading up the BRDC and managing their exploits at Silverstone and in keeping the British GP alive. The former champion won 22 races and one title in his eight years - driving for Jordan and Williams amongst others. Damon is a media friendly figure, but isn't afraid to share his frustrations, making waves and headlines in equal measures. Hill has been confirmed as a steward for two races.

What do you think of these driver choices? Will they make sensible decisions? Who else should be added to the list, and more importantly, who should not?

Daily: 10th March 2010

Say hello to Wednesday as we reach the middle of the week. Who is getting unbelievably excited for Free Practice on Friday then? Yesterday we were discussing whether it was acceptable to leave a wedding early so you can watch qualifying. I say yes, how about you? Meanwhile, here are the other things we're talking about:

• The Factbyte Factbox had a radical overhaul yesterday and finally completed the goal we had in mind for it since it debuted a year ago - live updates. There's more information about what we're trying to achieve, and what happened during the brief test last night on this post. Don't worry if you missed it, though, it'll be back plenty of times during the season!
• It was a day for refreshing websites yesterday, as McLaren launched their new site, Williams had a fresh lick of paint, and Autosport introduced a new 2010 Season Guide. The new season preview edition of Grand Prix Plus emerged yesterday as well, so make sure you check that out if you haven't already. All good stuff that should keep you busy for a little while!
• Whilst doing a bit of admin for F1 Big Picture, it occurred to us that we'd fallen into our trap of introducing concepts and not really telling anyone about them, so we decided that for 2010 we'd try and be a bit more transparent - or at least plug things more. This post over on F1 minute explains the pattern our Big Pictures take ahead of each race.

That should do it for now. There's more good stuff to come today, so we'll be keeping busy, but I will see you in the comments.

Daily: 7th March 2010

My calendar tells me that it is Neil Denham's birthday today, so happy birthday to Neil. I hope you're celebrating it appropriately - cake and presents. Here at Sidepodcast Towers, it is the calm before the storm. Or maybe the storm before the storm. We are scurrying around making sure everything is ready for the season to begin. We're getting there. Anyway, here are some links for you:

• I was a little bit told off yesterday for not featuring the Mexico rally in either of my daily posts so far. The rally has been going on since Friday, and I'm now giving it a well-deserved shout out. Kimi has been struggling, I think, although I must admit I've not been following it as well as I should. I know Mr C is rooting for Kimi as he has him in his Fantasy Racers team.
• Meanwhile, if you are gearing up for the season ahead then it's worthwhile reading Jake Humphrey's post. He is super excited for the racing to get going, although he seems to be a bit at odds with himself. Sometimes he's saying he misses F1 so much, and in the next sentence saying it's five minutes since he was in Abu Dhabi. Well, Jake, it will be five minutes and you'll be in Bahrain. Woo!
• Finally, I didn't mention this yesterday, as there's no way I would have remembered such a thing, but it was the anniversary of the creation of Brawn GP. Lou has written a fabulous post about the event and why we should recognise it, and I am just sorry I missed out on putting this in the correct daily!

Anyway, that will do it for now. We're back to our regular size daily for today. I will see you in the comments.

Friday Fun - Selling F1

It's the final Friday Fun for this off-season, and we've had some great ideas over the course of the series. From planning parties to writing job descriptions, we've covered every aspect of F1, but now it's time to turn our attention to the racing about to start.

In the comments, Maverick noticed that there has been very little advertising from the BBC for this season. Last year there were trailers every five minutes, and you couldn't escape the build up. Now, even Chris Moyles isn't talking about it.

So, our last Friday Fun outing for now asks:

How would you promote F1? Who would you use to sell the sport to non-fans? What slogans can you come up with?

As ever, the crazier the idea, the better, but serious suggestions are welcome to. I like the idea of coming up with a slogan for the sport, and for the year ahead.

Thanks to everyone who has helped with Friday Fun so far, all the great ideas we've had, and all who have taken part. Now, get your thinking caps on!

Daily: 5th March 2010

Friday has reached us at last, and I know I'm not the only one who is glad Thursday is over. From the very beginning when I thought it was still February, everything that could go wrong seemed to go wrong. But never mind, we're on to another (hopefully better) day and here are some things we're talking about:

• The very badly named HRT team dominated headlines yesterday as they launched a new car and confirmed another driver. With a full line up now of Senna and Chandhok, they're gearing up for the season to begin and team principal Colin Kolles is still suggesting they could be the most successful of the new teams. I'm not sure about that, they haven't had a minute out on track.
• It looks as though we might be getting another of those pre-season controversies, with Red Bull "asking the question" about the McLaren's rear wing. This brings back so many bad memories of the diffuser issues before the 2009 season got underway, and through the first few races. Let's hope they can sort this out before it gets anywhere near overshadowing the action.
• Renault will be running some Lada branding on their car this year, as the manufacturer get on board sponsoring both the team and Vitaly Petrov. Presumably they don't mind the horrible red mirrors, then. The name looks good on the car, although I can't decide if that's just because it's nice to see sponsorship rather than empty chassis'.

That's all for now, let us know what you've got planned for the weekend, and I will see you in the comments.

Daily: 4th March 2010

We have reached Thursday, and I have started to put the day in the introduction for each daily thread, as I know it helps some people (like me) who get confused about what day it actually is. It's a busy day on Sidepodcast today, as it was yesterday, so here's a round-up of what we've been up to:

• We have completed the Aside with Joe specials - a two part series taken from the Evening with Joe in London. They make for a fabulous listen, and even if the quality isn't the best, Joe is on fine form as usual. I hope you enjoy them, Mr C worked particularly hard on editing these, so leave him your feedback for part one and part two.
• It's our final Thursday Thoughts before the season gets underway, and it's Maverick who has come up with a lovely question to send off the series nicely. I hope everyone will make a special effort to participate in this final one - and make sure to link back to your posts in the thread so we can follow the conversation.
• The FIA published the revised entry list, following US F1's departure. There are only 12 teams on there now, which screws up pretty much all my preview shows. Oh well, now I can't wait for the season to start - if only so that nothing else changes before we get there! Have your say about the new-look list in the breakout thread.

That should do it for now. Let us know how your Thursday is going, and I will see you in the comments.

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.

Daily: 3rd March 2010

We are halfway through the week now, as Wednesday has arrived. I thought yesterday might have been a Thursday, it wasn't going very well - particularly for US F1 - but apparently we still have one of those to come this week. Meanwhile, here's what's happening at the moment:

• As mentioned, yesterday was not a good day for US F1. The team have ceased operations and the entire handling of the situation doesn't reflect well on Anderson and Windsor. Apparently they are still keen on entering the sport in 2010 - but who would be keen to work with them now? Have your say over on the dedicated thread.
• You have to feel sorry for all the employees, but Jose Maria Lopez looks like he's got somewhere to go. The Argentinian driver appears to be ready to join Campos as reserve driver - but is that just jumping from the frying pan into the fire? At least he gets the chance to remain in F1 which is the first step.
• I released the third episode of the four-part F1 Digest 2010 Season Preview special. This time round we're looking at the calendar, so expect a trip round the globe as I give you a brief overview of what to expect at each circuit. Except for Korea because they haven't actually built that one yet.

That's all for now, it's the middle of the week, so it's all downhill to the weekend from here. I will see you in the comments.