Sidepodcast

Sidepodtour Heads North to Grove

We've been out and about again. This afternoon, thanks to the lovely people at Williams Grand Prix Engineering, we got to spend some time in Grove, Oxfordshire poking our noses around the gorgeous RBS Conference Centre.

As mentioned a couple of shows back the team's fan club is on a temporary hiatus while they develop it into something more modern. As a final farewell they invited a bunch of us for a tour of the F1 Grand Prix Collection.

Learning from previous mistakes, Christine managed to squeeze this visit into her hectic schedule, and she was mighty glad she did when Sir Frank Williams arrived for a surprise Q&A session.

As to be expected from a team that's been in Formula One for 31 years, the collection was a sight to behold. We were treated to a lesson in ground effects, saw the six-wheeled FW08B up close and decided that the more modern BMW powered machines were by far the best looking of the lot.

In addition we got to chat with Claire, the host of the AT&T Williams Podcast. She was very lovely, despite not having much of a clue who we were, and I found myself more star struck after meeting her than I was Frank.

As ever, we'll talk more about our adventures on this weekend's show.

It's Just Plane Odd

The Williams F1 team continued to push the boundaries of acceptable marketing strategies this week, when they painted a passenger aircraft in their familiar racing livery.

TG Daily reports that an odd looking Airbus A320 was delivered to Malaysian low-cost carrier AirAsia yesterday. Sporting a striking blue and white colour scheme, the plane was covered in many of the logos from the team's main sponsors, while the tail proudly reminds eveyone that AirAsia are the official airline for the AT&T Williams Formula One team.

It's the cockpit however, that's most striking. Chosen, one would assume, in order to fit a different selection of sponsors onto the airframe, the front section is painted to look like Nico Rosberg's helmet!

Personally I wouldn't fancy being greeted on the runway by this thing, but I have to admit the look is quite impressive. What will they think of next?