Shwmai pawb! That's 'Hello everybody' in Welsh, I thought I would open with something different there. Apologies to all the A-level students with hangovers who saw that and felt their brain kerplode. How are we all on this fine Friday as we continue through the latter half of the F1 summer break? It's been a quiet few weeks but the sport is slowly waking up as we prepare for Spa. I mean, just look how shocked this cat is at what happened with Rubens and Michael in Hungary! But there's lots to discuss and look and read and watch today so let's get those bullet points out!

• F1 news - So we actually have some news to discuss, finally. Did you know that Renault will be utilising their F-duct system at next weekend's Belgian Grand Prix? They feel confident enough that their system is gonna work and Eric 'We Like Him Because He's not Flav' Bouiller has given the system the green light. With F-Ducks being banned in 2011 being banned I find this a bit pointless but hey, who's the one sitting at home and not in the paddock? Well I imagine Eric is too but that's not the point. Formula 1 legend and subject of many bad F1 volume-related jokes Niki Lauda still isn't impressed with Ferrari and rightly so I say. He thinks that what happened at Germany should result in a pasting for the team, which worries me a bit but intrigues me as I'm not entirely sure what that would involve. Just make sure Rob is alright afterwards, Mr Lauda. I SAID, JUST MA.. ah, let's not go into that joke.
• Get your reading glasses on and plug in your Mr Potato Head ears folks because there's plenty to read and listen to this week with the incoming blog plugs/blugs/pliggetyplogs. First off, have you checked out the new Mini Series here on Sidepodcast? Christine is taking a gander at F1 circuits from past and present and I am absolutely loving having new and refreshing content here on the site, with the Spa entry from yesterday being the latest in the series. Now I do love a good rant, and our hosts here at Sidepodcast have had a bit of a rant at the BBC coverage which has been followed up by a very intriguing discussion in the comments afterwards. Feel free to join in folks because you're always welcome and we love new opinions. If you enjoy the rule-related side of F1 it's an absolute must you check out the latest installment from Alianora as she looks and explains the deeper rules of F1. The excellent thing about Alia's staggering efforts is that she really does make quite a laborious subject (in my opinion at least) worth reading and actually interesting, so thanks Alia!
• The past few days have seen the GamesCon event in Germany take place with lots and lots of news flooding out of Leipzig regarding the upcoming Formula 1 2010 and Gran Turismo 5. We all know about F1 but the GT series is Sony's big flagship racing series for the Playstation and without a new GT game in 4 or 5 years now, many are looking for this to be quite the game. Lots of quite incredible information has been revealed< - did you know that Gran Turismo 5 will have a Course Creation system and Karting in the game as well? And as well as this, the B-Spec mode has been overhauled to accomodate a management-style game for you to develop drivers and run cars around the world and sounds absolutely incredible. Onto F1 2010, Eurogamer sat down with Adrian Sutil as he played the new F1 2010 game at the convention, revealing his gaming side to life and his previous experiences with racing games that he seems really quite into! Go Adrian!! I myself wrote a bit about the new F1 game earlier this week so feel free to take a look if you;re interested in Codemasters' wonderful looking racer.

There we go, plenty to keep us interested through this Friday with that illustrious weekend approaching. Oh, by the way for the UK guys that remember Teletext - do you remember Bamboozle? It's back on the iPhone! YAY! I shalln't be writing next Friday's Daily Thread as I shall be sitting in Spa Francorchamps watching practise with other Sidepodders which will be awesome! If you're going the Weekend Schedule is now available to view, and even if you're not, why not meet up with the many commentors going to a Sidepodpubmeetup next week? It'll be great fun I promise! I'll be there! Although that has probably put people off now but still, you should definitely go! With that, I'll bid you guys farewell, have a lovely Friday and I'll see you again in a fortnight where we'll be in September! Have a great day and I'll see you in the comments!

Cast your minds back six months, when we were eagerly anticipating the first proper race of the season - the Australian Grand Prix. Our Melbourne correspondent, Amy, attended the race and promised to write a few words about her experience there. We've waited and waited, and now her thoughts are finally together enough to entertain us during the summer break.

The 2010 Australian Grand Prix kicked off with the behind the scenes tour for GP Advantage members (those who bought their tickets early) on Wednesday 24th March. I went to this for the first time in 2009 and it really is a fantastic event. First is a wander through the V8 paddock, followed by a walk down pit lane and some driver interviews to finish the afternoon. It started at 3.30pm and I didn’t finish work until 3.30, so I was in a desperate hurry to get there on time! Of course this meant all the trams seemed to be running slower than usual and it was 4.30 by the time I arrived. Driver interviews were supposed to start at 4.45 so I raced through as quickly as possible, stopping only to photograph the most important garages.

There was no chance of getting any photos of McLaren, Ferrari or Mercedes as the crowd was 10 people deep. Did these people not know there were interviews about to start? I’d rather see a driver than a garage with a screen in front of it any day!

Unfortunately the crowd for the interviews remained standing the whole time and as I was late arriving I couldn’t see a thing for most of it. Last year the crowd sat down which meant that everyone had a view of the stage, and being rather short I had been hoping this year would be the same.

The interviews were being conducted by Louise Goodman (ex-ITV) and Peter Windsor (ex USF1). I heard lots of murmurs among the crowd among the obviously more knowledgeable F1 fans who were surprised to see Peter Windsor anywhere near an F1 track. We later discovered that although he was working for GPTV, who do all the video content for the super screens around the track, he wasn’t in possession of a paddock pass to actually get anywhere near the teams. Even we got our hands on a paddock pass! But that is a story for later...

The driver line up for the interviews had been announced beforehand and I was kind of sad to see no Heikki in the line up. As it turned out due to other commitments they just grabbed who was available at the time so the drivers were completely different to those who were supposed to be there. First up were Sutil and Liuzzi.

Then Kobayashi and de la Rosa.

Then UNEXPECTED HEIKKI.

Unexpected Heikki is the best kind. I was kind of sad that I had left my Finnish flag at home, since I didn’t expect to see him. I decided at that moment to take my flag everywhere for the rest of the weekend just in case.

After Heikki came Barrichello and Hülkenburg.

Finally to wrap things up was Buemi.

Because it’s taken me so long to write this I couldn’t really tell you what was said in the interviews but I’m sure it was the usual PR lines we’ve all heard before. Paul did comment at the time:

I am really liking heikkis interview he's really relaxed

---

Paul

...and I posted:

He is so funny. My day has peaked

---

Amy

...straight afterwards, so clearly Heikki’s interview was the best.

After the drivers had left I was trying to find Paul in the crowd when I got a tap on the shoulder and when I turned around, I was asked “Are you Amy Fulton?”

I said I was and Pamela introduced herself to me and said she would be at breakfast tomorrow. I had been pimping Sidepodbreakfast for ages, so I was very happy to hear someone would be coming, and a lurker at that! Whoever would have known that a tap on the shoulder would turn into a regular post-race dinner with her, but I for one am very happy she did it!

After Paul found me and introduced himself, we decided to walk to Fitzroy St and get some dinner with Jeremy. We decided to go to 2 Doors Down because it was the venue for the next day’s breakfast so I thought it would be good if people knew where it was. Plus Wednesday night was $12 steak night! Jeremy showed up a little bit later and we had a fantastic night getting to know each other and chatting about Formula 1 and how awesome the Sidepodcast community is. With the next day being the first official day of the Grand Prix weekend we called it a night earlyish.

To be continued...

The first session of the German Grand Prix weekend was undoubtedly a little bit wet and saw plenty of drivers struggling to keep their cars pointing in the right direction. We almost had a repeat of "five Massa spins" but he kept it all together to finish second fastest. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton had an early end to the session when his McLaren met the barrier. Ultimately, it was Sutil that posted the fastest time.

Poor Sutil. You'd imagine that if he'd faced off against anyone rather than Jenson Button, he might have had a better shot at making it into the next round. As it stands, Jenson made the break, and so we turn our attention to the next matchup. This time we're looking at a multi-world champion who has made a rather lacklustre comeback, to a long-standing test driver who's trying his hand at a race drive.

Michael Schumacher

Love him or hate him, Michael doesn't do things by halves. Until recently, that is. The seven times world champion has created a massive fan following, both in Italy and his native Germany. Extremely passionate F1 fans hang on his every word. Equally, the man has created his fair share of naysayers, those who would question his every word. The comeback has not so far been successful, but how has Michael's character withstood the pressure?

Pedro de la Rosa

We've already established that Pedro doesn't do much to draw attention to himself, particularly when it comes to gathering points in Christine's Rankings. However, that doesn't necessarily reflect on his character. He does his job well and stays out of trouble, and he's been on hand as a test driver for a long time, arguably doing more for his employers than he does in the car itself. He doesn't have many enemies in the paddock, so he must be a likeable fellow. Will he get your vote?

Finally, we have had a matchup that didn't come to the last tense few seconds. Barrichello has easily stripped di Grassi of a chance of winning the Sidepodcast Character Cup this year. Now we must move on to our fourth pairing, and we shall see if this one will be a walkover, or another close battle.

Jenson Button

Button is making the most of his time at McLaren - a move that baffled both fans and paddock insiders at the start of the season. However, his partnership with Hamilton is working out well, especially compared to the struggling Red Bull team. Generally a happy chap, Button has been known to let the pressure get to him occasionally, but he can usually be relied upon for an honest and frank interview, and plenty of great PR stunts, when required.

Adrian Sutil

Sutil has been around in F1 for a while now, and still hasn't made a huge impression on the sport. With Force India starting to move forward, we should see more of the German, and find out more about him than that he used to play the piano. From a character standpoint, he seems pretty calm even when things go wrong, generally quite philosophical. He's also not scared to take on Trulli.

McLaren dominated Friday in Turkey, and Vettel took first dibs at a fast time this morning. Who will be able to convert their speed into pole position?

Weather Update

Although it is raining here in the UK, everything seems nice and bright at the track today. There is no fear of adverse weather conditions affecting today or tomorrow, it seems.

One to Watch

Adrian Sutil had some hydraulic issues in Free Practice today, so the first question has to be whether his car is fixed enough to even take part in qualifying. Then will he be able to do anything noteworthy with an hour's less practice than everyone else?

Predictions Please

Who will be on pole position? Will there be any big name drop outs? Will traffic cause a problem? Will anyone meet the barriers at the wrong time?

Red Bull finally make their mark on the weekend, with Vettel taking top honours for the first session of the day. Sutil, meanwhile, didn't manage to set a time after some mechanical issues meant he couldn't complete a single flying lap.

Even if Free Practice 1 was a low-yielding round in terms of laps, there was still plenty of interesting things to chat about. You can relive the session via the brand new Factbyte Factbox highlights, and get ready for FP2.

Weather Update

Things took a turn for the scorching during FP1. The track temperature started around 30 degrees and shot up to 40 degrees by the end of the session. The air temperature remained around the 30 degree mark, so it's fair to say it's pretty hot out there.

One to Watch

Mr C was hilariously wrong about Webber, phew! I'd keep an eye on Michael Schumacher for this session as he appears to be slightly behind Rosberg at the moment. Pit lane suggests he was in a bad mood, and the car was bottoming out severely, so he's got some work to do.

Predictions Please

We didn't see anyone properly crash, the large run offs help that - will there be any accidents this afternoon? Will Sutil be able to retain his P1 position? Will Chandhok actually make it out of the garage? Let us know what you think!

Circuit Guide

Don't forget that comments automatically update on this post, there is no need to refresh the page this year. You can also follow up-to-the-minute session updates via Sidepodcast's Factbyte Factbox

The first session of Free Practice is done and dusted, then, and we have a Force India at the top - although fuel weights have to be taken into account. The new teams had varying degrees of success but the moment of the session was seeing Senna and Hispania make their F1 debut.

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.