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.
It has been weeks coming but finally US F1 have stopped operations and admitted they are not going to make it onto the grid in 2010. Although there is no direct quote from the team, there have been several tweets from the inside, and Autosport has the story:
AUTOSPORT understands that shortly before lunchtime, production manager Dave Skog informed those staff who had remained at the team during its recent troubles that they were being laid off.
Updated: Futher to the original story, Autosport have posted more information, this time from team boss, Ken Anderson.
Ken has pointed out that the team still have hopes for a 2011 entry to the grid and confirmed that operations have been put on hold at the factory.
"We are waiting for a reply from the FIA and are working with them. In the mean time, there is nothing for the employees to do, so we have told them to stop working on the current car until we have a decision."
The battle for the new teams of Formula 1 to win the hearts and minds of race fans is beginning to hot up. In the past fortnight both Virgin Racing and Lotus F1 Racing launched their 2010 cars and respective liveries, and now we all have a lot more information with which to decide who, if anyone, deserves our support.
In the red and black corner we have Virgin, who managed to stuff up their launch before experiencing a disastrous week in their first ever competitive F1 test. Not a great start by anyone's standards. Conversely, working in their favour is the fabulous driver pairing of Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi, two men with the looks to sway even the most hesitant of fans.
In the opposing yellow and green corner, you'll find Lotus F1 Racing, a team who only launched on Friday, but managed to do so successfully and without suffering unplanned media leaks. They are leaning heavily on the historical Lotus brand, in a move that's already splitting opinions amongst the F1 community. Lotus may also struggle in the charisma department, with Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen lacking the magnetism of the leather clad Virgins.
I can see Christine being easily swayed by camp di Grassi (the collective, I'm not insinuating anything), and I will admit to enjoying their post-launch video featuring David Croft, but Lotus may just have swung it for me with the debut of a new podcast to coincide with the new car.
A new podcast by the way, that happens to be anchored by none other than top microphone man, Ted Kravitz.
Weighing in at a touch over 29 minutes, and featuring interviews with Trulli, Kovalainen and chief geek Mike Gascoyne, the podcast ticks all the right boxes. It's free to syndicate, so if you're an iTunes addict you can subscribe in-store and sync to your iPod/iPhone, otherwise the RSS feed can be found here.
The initial release went out yesterday with an audio glitch that's thankfully been fixed now, but I still have one complaint remaining - the official Lotus homepage doesn't appear to have a home for the show. I can only find an announcement in the news section, which seem like a major oversight when you just redesigned your website, like, yesterday.
The show has been pulled together by USP Content, who have previously been involved in F1 podcasts for Williams, Force India and Renault. The company are also behind the BBC's F1 radio coverage and accompanying podcast, fronted by the aforementioned David Croft. As a quick disclaimer, I should add that USP Content have in the past supplied Sidepodcast with more baseball caps than any one person can physically wear (although I have tried). Unfortunately they've yet to supply us with our own Ted Kravitz.
I'm over the moon (or should that be on top of it?) at the sight of a new official F1 podcast. For a while it looked like teams were cutting back in this area, but with Bradley Lord returning to Renault and Lotus dipping their toes into the water I'm hoping that audio output from teams is only set to increase this season.
I cannot for the life of me see how Virgin Racing can respond to the challenge Lotus have laid down, but even Tiny Timo and Tweeting Lucas can't sway me away from a syndicated Ted. Virgin boss Richard Branson may have one eye on Lotus' Tony Fernandes wearing his stewardess uniform come the end of this year, but on this basis Tony is off to a flying start.
The second round of 2010 F1 testing gets underway today, this time at the Circuito de Jerez located in the city of Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. Red Bull will likely be the star attraction, unveiling their RB6 chassis to the media for the first time, before action gets underway.
Update: The Williams team today launched an official live timing page for up to the minute test information. This includes driver position, gap, best time, most recent time for both the Williams car and for the rest of the field. See the team's website for more detail.
Credit: f1photos.org (creative commons)
Jenson gets a soaking.
Virgin Racing will be the first "new team" to turn a wheel at a test, when Timo Glock sizes the VR-01 up against the competition. Force India will also be on track, running the VJM03 that was revealed to the world, yesterday.
Tyres will be of specific interest to teams and drivers as the aggressive layout of this circuit will stress rear tyres to a greater extent than last week. Additionally the weather will like play a key part as rain is expected to fall in the region at some point before the end of the test.
On track action begins at 9am CET (8am GMT).
Credit: f1photos.org (creative commons)
Alonso finds little grip in Jerez
Circuit Information
Track length: 4.428km
Corners: 13
Lap record: 1:23.135 (Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Williams, 1997)
Circuito de Jerez is located to the South of Spain, close to border of Portugal.
Drivers and Teams Attending
The following teams and drivers are confirmed for testing on Wednesday
Twitter has become the medium for accessing up to the minute testing insight. We recommend keeping an eye on James Allen's Twitter service, as well as the following accounts.
Any semblance of an off-season is well and truly gone now, as we duck under the 50 day season start countdown, and prepare ourselves for upcoming team launches and testing. This week sees no less than five F1 teams unveil the designs they will race around the world this year.
As usual Sidepodcast will be covering all the announcements as they happen and there will be a dedicated thread per team, appearing in advance of each launch. During events we'll post photographs, video and embedded streaming (if teams allow it), before wrapping up what we've learnt at the end of the day.
Additionally we'll be tracking conversations on Twitter and as ever, please keep your insights, thoughts and observations coming in the comments. This year promises to offer the most connected and interactive experience Formula 1 has ever seen.
The first launch kicks off on Monday, with Mercedes being the first to break cover for their "team launch". The Sidepodcast Calendar lists all of the currently announced dates, but here's a quick reminder of what we're looking forward to.
Date
Team
Location
25 Jan
Mercedes Grand Prix
Stuttgart
28 Jan
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Maranello
29 Jan
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Newbury
31 Jan
Renault F1 Team
Valencia
31 Jan
BMW Sauber
Valencia
1 Feb
Mercedes Grand Prix
Valencia
12 Feb
Lotus F1 Racing
Jerez
Of note, there are rumours suggesting Mercedes may run their car for the first time on 1 February in Valencia, along with Williams. The calendar is continually updated with new information as it's available.
To ensure you don't miss out on any launch coverage this year, make sure you subscribe to the Sidepodcast Feed.
For the first time in six years neither Christine nor I will be attending Autosport International at the NEC, Birmingham today. We began attending the event before Sidepodcast existed, but this year we're keeping our money in our wallets and staying put.
Credit: Sidepodcast
DTM drivers talk motor sport at Autosport International 2009
Twelve months ago we reported from the event how much of a disappointment the trip had been, and little has changed in the intervening period to convince us this year might be different.
Part of the problem is the venue. The NEC has always managed to provide the worst event lighting ever experienced, casting as it does an awful orange glow across photographs that might be taken. Additionally, due to its location the National Exhibition Centre may change punters what it chooses for car parking, on top of the entry ticket price (£31 per person, per day this year by the way).
Zero Emissions
Another venue related issue is the environmental cost of travelling to such an event. I couldn't find any mention of it, so I'm assuming that the organisers Haymarket haven't considered making the event carbon neutral, including accounting for those travelling to Birmingham from far and wide. The FIA are attempting the same thing for every Grand Prix on the calendar, so you can't argue it's not a relevant concept to motor sport. Maybe they think it's someone else's problem.
Isn't there a more modern, more eco-friendly solution to promoting motor sport than this?
Cost and the environment aren't the only problems though, I'm beginning to question the relevance of attending trade shows in the age of instant media. Autosport International, like many shows of this nature, tries to appeal to two audiences. Those in the trade and also the general public - in this case, motor sport fans. I can see a certain appeal for fans queuing up for autographs of your racing hero (although predictably a large number are ebay bound), but for the life of me I can't fathom the appeal for traders.
Do companies still hold back product announcements until a conveniently scheduled show happens to pass through town, and if so, why? We live in a real-time world where information can be pinged around the globe in an instant, why would a company want to make a product release at a time that doesn't suit them? Especially if lots of people in the same field intend on doing exactly the same thing. How many small announcements will get lost during the next four days, because Jenson Button said something that stole the headlines?
Travel Trouble
The logic of it all doesn't make any sense to me any more. The UK is currently experiencing some pretty awful weather, travelling is hazardous unless absolutely necessary, yet because of Autosport for many it is very necessary.
Isn't there a more modern, more eco-friendly solution to promoting motor sport than this?
Trade shows seem to be something who's days must soon be numbered. Right now, I can browse the whole Demon Tweeks catalogue from the comfort of my couch. I know what's in stock and I don't have to fight to get attention from the person behind the counter. Why in the world do I need to drive to Birmingham to do the same thing?
With one hand in his pocket. Bernie is taking a keen interest in Saab Automobile.
F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone is teaming up with Genii Capital to bid for the motor company, Saab Automobile AB. The partnership was announced Thursday evening and sees Ecclestone join recent Renault F1 investors Genii Capital in going head-to-head against one time F1 team owners, Spyker Cars.
The American company General Motors currently owns the failing Saab brand and are looking to offload the entire operation. Dutch car manufacturer Spyker had expressed an interest and made several offers to GM. Yesterday the company revised their offer and Victor Muller, CEO of Spyker Cars said in a statement:
"We have continued a constructive dialogue with GM over the acquisition of Saab. We believe the Saab brand has lots of potential and would be keen to close a deal as quickly as possible."
The Luxembourg-based private investment firm Genii Capital put in a last minute offer on Thursday and stated:
"Genii Capital has decided that given an adequate and short timeframe for finalizing its offer, it will aggressively work towards a successful closing of the transaction with all the relevant stakeholders of the company."
In December last year Genii bought a large stake in the Renault F1 team, securing its position for the 2010 championship. Although it came to light yesterday that Genii might be interested in Saab, news that Ecclestone is involved has come as something of a surprise.
As yet it is unclear what involvement Bernie will play in the partnership, or what the long term ramifications on Formula 1 and the Renault team might be.
Flavio Briatore won his court case against the FIA on Tuesday. The former boss of the Renault F1 Team had a lifetime ban imposed by motorsport's governing body last September, but today that was overturned by a French court. Citing "irregularities" in the FIA's decision, the court awarded Briatore 15,000 euros in compensation.
In addition, Pat Symonds has also had his ban lifted, while he receives 5,000 euros in compensation. This result means both men are able to return to F1 will immediate effect, although the FIA have said it may launch an appeal.
Briatore has always denied claims of race-fixing and began his legal case in October last year.
The news comes the same day that the Renault F1 Team announced that Eric Boullier will be their new team principal for the 2010 season. Presumably the timing of the announcement isn't coincidental. Boullier's previous experience saw him work in both GP2 and A1GP, while recently he took up the position of CEO of Gravity Sport Management, a company associated with Renault F1 stakeholders Genii Capital.
The Court’s decision is not enforceable until the FIA’s appeal options have been exhausted. Until then, the World Motor Sport Council’s decision continues to apply.
In addition, the FIA intends to consider appropriate actions to ensure that no persons who would engage, or who have engaged, in such dangerous activities or acts of intentional cheating will be allowed to participate in Formula One in the future.
This news may serve to dampen Flavio Briatore's mood. Earlier this evening Briatore said he was happy and believed justice had been done.
"I would like to express my great joy with the decision handed down by the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance
"The decision handed down today restores to me the dignity and freedom that certain people had arbitrarily attempted to deprive me of."
It's been a while since we talked technical, and since 2009 is rapidly coming to a close, I figured now would be a good time to blog about website updates - where we are, and what we're currently working on.
I'm well aware that things would get done a whole lot quicker if we stopped discussing what we plan to do and just got on and did it. I'm also acutely aware that these kind of self serving posts can be intensely boring to read, so allow me to present to you a colourful graph.
Credit: Sidepodcast.com
Average homepage response time for sidepodcast.com
Exciting, isn't it? Unlike your average company sales graph, in this case, smaller is most definitely better and faster. As the caption on the chart states, the data is displaying the average time it takes for this site's homepage to respond in milliseconds, over time. Back in September, site performance was bad and pages took an age to load, but since then we released two major performance upgrades, both of which improved the situation dramatically.
We now have something of a sensible platform to build upon. It may not be perfect - the whole look of this place is somewhat bland at the moment, and we still have reliability issues to resolve during intense commenting sessions - internally though, we've drawn a line under the project marked 'performance' and while there will always be minor tweaks available, the big gains have been achieved.
Starring Christine... on the Internet
In amongst the upgrades a few features have sneaked in under the door. Lets take a look at those too.
Star ratings have been added to individual posts, and we'll be using those to gauge not only how well a post was received, but also how good or bad a podcast was. Additionally we may use the information to figure out how well a particular series is doing, or how a guest post has gone down.
In short, ratings are an important feature of Sidepodcast. While we appreciate all feedback, ratings are an especially useful way of giving us a quick indication, especially if you're the shy type who'd rather not leave a comment.
Show No Mercy
One of this year's ideas that helped launch the Playground was Show Selector and that has finally been integrated into the main site. A visit to the Shows page will give you the opportunity to create a custom subscription feed containing only the shows that you're interested in.
We're assuming that for the most part the main podcast feed will still contain all of the edited shows we put out but if you'd like to be more selective when it comes to what you listen to or watch, then Show Selector is the place to go.
Stream of Consciousness
We're trialling a new method of streaming video content starting this week. If you head on over to the most recent live show replay the video should begin almost the second you hit play and then allow you to jump to any point in the recording without needing to download the whole show before hand. If all goes well with the trial, we'll roll this feature out to other videos on the site in due course.
That pretty much covers where we're at. Aside from fixing minor issues, we don't have any immediate plans to make further changes in the short term. We're still thinking about revamping live blogging / live commenting using the infrastructure provided by Google Wave, but thus far the technology is a little too unstable for its own good. Fingers crossed something will be working by the time the F1 circus reaches Bahrain.
An update to the look and feel of the site is still pending, but we might hold back on that until the beginning of the season. In the meantime another challenge waiting in the wings will be to make similar performance improvements to our other sites F1 Minute and Media. Future. Change. We'll blog about changes on those sites as they occur.
Thank you to everybody who's put up with any usability annoyances that have come up prior to and since September, and please don't be afraid to yell if something isn't right.
The first lady of F1 podcasting returns to dispense her annual Alternative Christmas message. In previous years, she has summed up the sport as a pantomime and told the most important story of the festive season. This year it's time for another Christmas tale.
With so many twists and turns in the Formula 1 story, it was hard to narrow down the pivotal moment in 2009, but some of our favourite, and not so favourite, faces appear as we learn a very important moral.
Merry Christmas everybody.
An Alternative Christmas Message
Hello everyone, welcome to Sidepodcast TV. Things have been a bit quiet on the video front in 2009 but we had to return to bring you our annual Alternative Christmas Message. For the past couple of years, we have brought you tales of festive joy from the F1 paddock, and this Christmas is no different. This story has a particular moral though, so if you are sitting comfortably, let us begin.
There once was a man called Ebenezer Schumacher, who had spent a long time working and building up a fortune of money. His talent in a race car was indisputable but his ability to make friends was a completely different matter.
Despite retiring from F1 at the end of 2006, Ebenezer Schumacher remained within thesport, consulting with his favoured team, and almost returning to deputise for an injured driver. Sadly, previous excesses prevented him from doing so, but the opportunity had alighted a great fire within him.
He cast a sly eye across the grid. There were several new teams entering next season, and fellow German Tiny Timo approached Ebenezer to ask for his advice. Tiny Timo was driving for a brand new team, one relying heavily on him to help point them in the right direction. Aware of Schumacher’s legendary abilities in this area, Timo asked for any tips to guide him along the right path. Ebenezer was certain he had no interest in helping others, waved a hand dismissively and went to chat to his old technical director Ross Brawn.
Brawn’s new team were going through some changes, and he and Ebenezer discussed the future. Mr Brawn told him that hemight be able to put the new found fire to good use, but that Formula 1 had changed. Some things that used to take place when Schumi was behind the wheel were no longer acceptable, and there had been plenty of evidence in 2009 that cheating was no longer tolerated. Brawn advised that to get back into F1, Schumi needed to change his wicked ways. The seven times world champion didn’t care though, stating he had won his titles his way, and he was set on winning another.
Brawn shook his head, sadly, but he wanted to help so he hatched a plan. “Tonight you’ll be visited by three ghosts,” he said. “Expect the first ghost when the bell tolls one.”
At the anticipated time, ghost number one appeared, and Ebenezer Schumacher was surprised to see a familiar face. It was his old rival Jacques Villeneuve, who pronounced himself the Ghost of F1 Past. Villeneuve told Schumi how his questionable tactics in the Formula 1 of Old had led to Jacques a career heading in sharp decline culminating in him quitting F1 and taking up a career in music. He spoke of Damon Hill and how Schumacher had destroyed the champion’s self esteem, forcing him to spend his days fighting with Bernie Ecclestone instead. “Worst of all,” Jacques said, “Your wheel banging antics with Montoya set him up for a career in NASCAR!”
Schumacher frowned a little, but dismissed the first ghost with another wave of his hand. Promptly, the second ghost appeared. It was young Nelson Piquet Jr, who announced himself as the Ghost of F1 Present. Piquet described the recent Singapore Grand Prix scandal, explaining to Ebenezer how he had experienced first hand that cheating does not pay, how the FIA had begun to clean up the sport and that he was now facing a future driving trucks around in circles.. Schumi rolled his eyes, patted Piquet on the head and sent him back to his overprotective father.
The final ghost appeared, and Ebenezer saw that it was another fellow German driver, the Red Bull star Sebastian Vettel. “I am the Ghost of F1 Future,” Vettel said, and promptly went on to explain that soon, he will go on to win nine world championships, beating every one of Schumacher’s records in the process, and would do so without cheating, even one little bit. “I beat your records,” Vettel said, “the fans respect and adore me, I become a legend in our country and everyone forgets who you are.”
Ebenzer Schumacher was stunned. As the final ghost disappeared, the idea of winning at all costs didn’t seem such a good one and Schumi could see now, that his dirty driving of old was not the way it should be done.
Determined to prove his new found respectable motivation, and to repair his tarnished reputation Ebenezer returned to Tiny Timo the very next day and explained to him exactly how to guide a new team, how to build a team of people around him and best of all, how to organise a comfortable seat fitting.
As an added bonus, Ebenezer splashed out and gifted thesport a Turkey... so that Turn 8 would forever remain on the calendar.
Ross Brawn returned and told Ebenezer he was welcome back to Formula 1, and his new start would see him at Mercedes. A new era of Formula 1 had begun where drivers respected each other, never tried to ram anyone off the track, accepted equal status to their teammates and were nice to their brothers.
This made the 2010 season the best season ever.
Thank you for listening to my Alternative Christmas Message. I hope you’re enjoying the holidays, arehaving a good day today and will be looking forward to the next season of Formula 1. Merry Christmas.
An Alternative Christmas Message
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