We have reached Sunday, and for anyone looking for the live show, we must apologise. The live server is still not ready to rock and roll yet, and we weren't planning on doing any podcasting this weekend. However, we did record a Debrief episode yesterday, so look out for it in your feeds at some point today. Now, moving onwards:
We've been busy creating new pages again, with a new Sidepodcast Elsewhere page to have a look at. An expanded way to find where we are on the web, there are links to our Twitter pages, the Facebook Fan page and where we store some of our videos and photos. Have a look and let us know what you think.
While we're on the subject of Twitter, Mr C discovered yesterday that he retweets Lukeh more than he does me! This is so unfair, considering that I retweet the Sidepodcast account way more than anyone ever! I don't tweet enormous amount, though, so I can sort of see how this would be the case. Must try harder.
I know we've done nothing but talk about the Sidepodcast Calendar recently, but it's worth pointing it out again, as we've made the main embed a little bit bigger so you can actually see the items involved. It's just that bit wider, and just that bit longer and I like it this way. What do you think?
Anyway, let us know what you're up to today, and as ever, I'll see you in the comments.
Whilst the New Year marked the beginning of a new decade and the mouth watering prospect of a fantastic new season, it also means the Christmas holidays have come to an end, and Christine and I are heading back to our day jobs.
Sidepodcast is, was and hopefully always will be, a rather brilliant hobby that we love doing to fill our free time. We've been asked a number of times over the holiday period if there's anything that people can do to help make our lives a bit easier, so this post addresses a couple of pro-active things that anyone can get behind to help out.
Donate Your Heart to a Stranger
This site has been ad-free for over a month now, and we're not planning on bringing them back anytime soon. This means Sidepodcast is now fully funded by the kind contributions of listeners and readers. If you've enjoyed Sidepodcast for the past three years, please do consider a small donation for 2010. You have our word that every penny donated goes into making the site and the shows better and better. The easiest way to donate is via Payal, and the buttons below will allow you to make a one time, or recurring donation.
Writing to Reach You
As mentioned earlier this week, over 20 guest writers put their thoughts and experiences down in words last year, and JPancoast kicked this year off in style. We encourage anyone who doesn't already have a blog, to get one (they're free and take no time at all to set up), but equally we love to receive guest posts.
If you have time on your hands, and opinions, photographs or experiences to share, please do let us know. We're especially keen to hear thoughts that differ from ours, so drop your details in the following box and we'll get back to you.
You've Got the Love
Nothing helps us out more than spreading the good Sidepodcast word. We're beyond hopeless when it comes to marketing and self promotion but we do try to make sharing stuff as easy as possible. You'll find Twitter and Facebook links beneath each post should you stumble upon something you'd like to pass around, but if there's anything we can do that makes it easier for you to coerce your friends into listening, watching and reading please let us know.
In return, Christine's always on the lookout for interesting content to link to in her daily posts, so if you've written something worth reading, or have content to share with us, do yell in the comments and we'll plug as best we can.
Make Our Homepage Your Homepage
Seeing as we now have a super fast homepage (and one of the fastest F1 blogs around), we're encouraging anyone and everyone to set Sidepodcast as their default browser homepage.
You can copy and paste the http://sidepodcast.com/ URL into your browser options/preferences and we'll do our best to keep the page updated with fresh F1 content.
Those are a couple of ways you can help Christine and I out. We already ask so, so much of people - from leaving a short comment to hosting their own podcast, and we very much appreciate it when people respond. There's much to be done this year, and our lists never seem to get shorter but if there's anything else we should be doing to make your or our lives easier, please let us know in the comments.
It is Wednesday, and that means we are about to start properly talking about Abu Dhabi. I mentioned it on Monday, but it still doesn't seem like it's really happening yet. Hopefully, when the schedule appears, it will seem more exciting. Meanwhile, here's what we're talking about:
Glock won't be back in Abu Dhabi, which RG talks about in his Timo dedicated blog. It's disappointing, as I think it's fair to say Glock has impressed this year. Let's hope he can move on to better things next year. Discuss on RG's blog or in our breakout thread here.
Brazil was an interesting race all round, but Williams have opened up to allow their strategist to let us know how his weekend was. Stressful, is how I would describe it, but he describes it in much more interesting detail.
It's worth pointing out some of the new updates we've posted on the new sidepodcast.com/blog page, where you can now share posts via Twitter and Facebook. There are more details my introductory comment, and please, please test this out for us if you get a chance.
That'll do for now. As mentioned above there'll be a schedule post along later in the day, and you may even get some podcast goodness today as well. I'll see you in the comments.
It's no secret that this year the Sidepodcast community has rocketed. In 2007, we were excited to get double figures in the comments. This year, we've had so many amazing people leaving their thoughts and feedback, and some great ideas have sprung up because of them. If you've been following the comments for a while, you'll know we like to blame Steven Roy for everything, but actually, a lot of people have offered suggestions that have added to the Sidepodcast empire. Here's a celebration of some of them.
Don't Quote Me
On the difficulties of manually editing html in comments:
Well, tried blockquote here, will only know if I’ve done it right after I’ve posted. I’m sure creating that quote button shouldn’t prove to be too hard. Alenyaa
After a lengthy campaign, Alenyaa finally managed to get Mr C to introduce a quote button. With one objective successfully achieved, Alenyaa began chanting for an edit button. This was also forthcoming, although took a little bit longer.
Facebook Group
In early January, Paul Gibson emailed me with some ideas for promoting the podcast. He suggested a few forums, and casually tagged at the end of the message:
Also, why not set up a group on Facebook? Crash.net have one with links to their website etc. Paul Gibson
So, less than 30 minutes later, the Sidepodcast Facebook group was born. It soon went from strength to strength, with almost 100 members by Silverstone, and currently almost 400. There have been photos, videos and links, but more importantly, the "You Know You're an F1 Fan When..."
Just answer this question: You know you're an F1 fan when...
For example: You know you're an F1 fan when you celebrate all of life' achievements with a bottle of champagne sprayed all over the place. Dan Brunell
This game has proved incredibly popular, and there are some real classics. There are too many to list here, so I will just point you in the direction of the Facebook thread.
Fantasy Racers
Another topic on the Facebook Group was about which fantasy F1 games were any good. It was a subject I'd been thinking about, but thankfully, Dank beat me to it.
The alternative I've found is something called Fantasy Racers which is free to join. I've set a team up already and it only took about five minutes.
Perhaps consider setting up a Sidepodcast league on each? Maybe even the majority take part in the freebie one someone could conjure up a prize or two to make it interesting?! Dan Cross
Who would have thought that the league would be so popular, cause so much competition between everyone in the comments, and that in the end we would win it? A great addition to the year, and we can only thank Dan for dreaming it up. Never did manage to conjure up a prize though.
Sidepodnoun
The idea of the Sidepodnoun appears to have started with the introduction of Sidepodnews. Having seen some dodgy Sky programming, we thought we could do a better job. It would be a piece of Sidepodcake. Since then, there have been all manner of nouns, such as:
Well this is a sidepoddandy of a sidepodpickle isn’t it? Scott Woodwiss
The answer to that question might be sidepodmurder, you know. Dom
Aw come on, please, pwetty please with a sidepodcherry on the top. R.G
Now it is a matter of course to write Sidepodnouns whenever possible.
Drinking Game
We were honoured to have Stuart from F1 Racing comment on the site this year, but I don't think even he could have predicted where this comment would lead:
“Speaking of commentators, Bob C managed to do a 28-second ‘Champaaaaaaaaaagne’ into my colleague’s Dictaphone last weekend. Perhaps Sidepodcast’s listeners could be persuaded to ring in and see if they can match that?” Stuart Codling
The challenge was set, and several brave souls had a go live on the very next Parade Lap show. The results can be reviewed here, and are always worth another look.
Live Commenting
All of the above have added to the Sidepodcast community no end, but there really can be only one definitive idea that has changed us for the better in 2008 and this one came about five minutes before the first free practice session of the year.
Will there be a live chat here? or is there somewhere you can recommend? It would be great if there was a live chat here for races. Lou
Live Commenting was born, and where would we be without it?
There's bound to be some important ideas we've missed from the list, please do jog our memories in comments and please keep the fantastic ideas coming in 2009.
A catchup with all that's happened since the Brazilian showdown, this episode of the Debrief takes in yet more Red Bull misfortune, that Toro Rosso shoot-out and what is going on in France.
Intro
We got a bit carried away with Sidepodpanel, but F1 Debrief is back!
Good Week / Bad Week
Good week for Martin Brundle who has a job, and Sebastien Loeb who thinks he could have had one if he wanted. Bad week for the Red Bulletin and the current points system.
News and Views
We look at Red Bull news which features the constant bad luck of Mark Webber. Now with a broken leg, he's going to miss out on some serious winter testing, but how much will that harm him? We also cover Force India news and ponder their McLaren B team status. Then it's time to think about what we saw in Barcelona testing, and finally take a look at what havoc Bernie is creating on the calendar now.
Feedback
One full voicemail with some end of season round ups to follow, and a half a voicemail as it's actually led on to a much better idea. There's also a couple of Facebook messages and a few emails as well.
Housekeeping
There's a new commenting feature to test out for us, some daily posts to try and create some order, and as ever, we want your feedback.
The world of Formula 1 took a back seat this weekend as Le Mans took over, but Sidepodcast keeps it F1 related... for the most part.
Intro
Oh, wait, this bit is about Le Mans.
Good Week / Bad Week
Albert Park appears to have a bright future, but we're curious on the compromise, Force India are struggling with a former driver, Toro Rosso may have a new investor - but are they ready, and the track in Montreal is set for a change.
News and Views
If it wasn't for testing this week, the news would literally be just about tyre compounds. Thankfully, there were three days in Barcelona to give us something to discuss - Davidson at Honda, the Toro Rosso still being slow, Heidfeld getting some extra track time, and Ferrari's running out of fuel.
Feedback
Jordan leaves us a voicemail plugging his favourite F1 news source, and SidepodcastFan emails his in. Call us with your F1 site suggestions. We run down some Facebook stats, discussions and photos. Lou saw a Renault close up, F1 Wolf has some great photos, and we have some unclaimed ones on drop.io.
To follow up on yesterday's post regarding an impending server relocation... if you're reading this then all went well.
Born Again
Actually it was probably the easiest migration we've ever done (this being only the second), despite the fact that smack in the middle of the process WordPress decided to release a new version of their publishing platform. If you followed the comments and tweets yesterday, there seemed to be a 50 / 50 split whether or not we should upgrade at the same time as moving, but seeing as it basically meant less work for us, we opted to dive straight into version 2.5.
Ideally you shouldn't notice any changes, everything should work as before, only a bit faster. We know that a couple of the audio podcasts from last year have broken links meaning you can't listen to them right now, but that should be sorted within the next few hours.
The move entailed a switch from using PHP4 to PHP5 and a couple of lines of code had to be re-written. With any luck there should be no issues relating to this, but if you spot anything please let us know.
Finally, you are free to comment once more. Cheers!
The usual process of including guest posts on a blog is for the owner to ask some of their favourite writers to come up with a piece or two to be featured. As you well know, Sidepodcast likes to do things a different way. The Facebook Group has plenty of fascinating discussions going on, and we want to bring those to the main site. The idea is for you guys to write your opinions and entries over on the group, and then we pick the best ones for feature over here on Sidepodcast. Sort of self-selecting guest bloggers, if you will. If you want to get your name in bright lights, just join the group and get writing. We read everything and everyone will be considered.
This second guest entry is by Dan Brunell, talking about Lewis Hamilton and the hype.
One of the good things about living on the west side of the Atlantic is that Hamilton-mania doesn't reach my fair ears that much. Sometimes I will read someone lashing out on a blog, the random Telegraph/Times/BBC article or the occasional voice on the SPEED channel with unending praise. I consider myself lucky. The British press coverage of Hamilton is overwhelming sometimes. It's to the point where it frays some nerves. On top of that, there seems to be some deeper resentment of not just his press coverage, but at the speed with which he has achieved his success. Is all this really Hamilton’s fault? Do the people who hate Hamilton hate him, the ease with which he achieved success, or his media coverage?
To give Mr. Lewis Hamilton the benefit of the doubt, let’s go over a few things. First off, he is 23 years old. There is a lot of maturity left to be achieved, as with anyone that age. It just happens that his immature moments are magnified all over the television and the back pages of the papers. With that said, for a 23 year old, he carries himself in front of the media remarkably well. He is a very savvy individual; perfecting that "awwwweee… shucks", batting his eyes and laughing at every bad joke amazingly well. To some people, this is some sort of diabolical front to trick the masses. Whether it is genuine or fake, he puts up a front remarkably well. Is that the "real" Lewis? I don’t know and really don’t care to be honest.
It is amazing to me how some in the F1 community break this down and read into the slightest things with Hamilton. For example some in the blogging community broke down his victory celebration and press conference like the Kennedy assassination footage; looking for some nefarious motives behind his post-race actions and speeches. This is all a little excessive, if you ask me. I really don’t think a person who is in the euphoria of winning a grand prix is thinking "If I jump around like a mad man and talk about how good I feel, that will intimidate the competition!" If anything was intimidating, how about the margin of which he won the grand prix?
Second, there are some people who hate Hamilton because they feel he hasn’t "earned" his F1 seat and the ease which he has achieved success. There is no doubt that since a very young age he has been bred to race in Formula One by his father and McLaren. Some even go as far to say that he has been given everything in life and had an easy road to F1. My response is, how is that different than many others on the grid? You only need to look at Nelson Piquet, Jr., Nakajima, and others, how much their rearing into racing has helped them get into F1. More importantly in my opinion, it is hard to deny the man has a natural gift behind the wheel. Yes, McLaren has an advantage over a majority of the grid, but a car alone doesn’t win championships. You only need to look at Fuji last year to look at the god given talents of this man. Is his talent as great as the British press has hyped it up to be? I am not sure but only time will answer this question.
Now, given this talent and natural presence I can see the appeal of media to cover him like they do. Yes, it really annoys people like me who have followed F1 since the days of Mansell, Senna, and Prost. However you must remember who the media produces for. The media at it’s root writes/produces to make people interested in what they are covering. They write for their next paycheck and to draw more readers. Therefore they write what will appeal to the most people, even if that may not appeal to them personally.
After all, if you ask most people at a Grand Prix these days who are the two drivers for Super Aguri, most of the time you’ll get a blank response with some saying “Who are they?” If you ask them about Lewis Hamilton, their kids will get excited and they'll say something like “He’s such a swell guy! I hope he wins!”
This might anger people like you and me who follow this sport, dare I say, religiously. Yes, it is upsetting that the media is fawning all over the guy. Yes, it gets annoying that F1 has turned into “all Hamilton, all the time.” However, you can’t really blame Hamilton for that. It’s not his fault that they show his goofy smile every 15 seconds on the television and quote his generic speech in every back page. You can’t blame the media for it either because they are fulfilling what is a strong public sentiment for the guy. It is a monster which the media help creates, but that's what they are in business for.
With a little bit of luck, Hamilton-mania will birth a new generation of fans who find that there is more to the sport than this single personality. Let’s hope that they glance beyond the surface of Hamilton and look at the deep richness of F1.
As you may have noticed, we released a new video last weekend, and via the comments we received a couple of requests to enable better sharing of said new content.
We've become pretty adept at distributing audio with F1 Minute recently, so we have a pretty good idea of how to go about it, but we've been neglecting Sidepodcast on that front.
If you've been following the comments, you'll know that Lou suggested that F1 Rewind would make a fine Facebook application, while Shaun asked if there was a simple way of embedding the videos into his site.
We're always keen to receive input and feedback, and it seems only fair that when people make cool suggestions we act upon them, and we've done just that.
We have a shiny new Sidepodcast TV Facebook application ready and waiting to be added to your profile. We threw together a version during the weekend, and polished it up today. New episodes are added the moment we release them, so you're always up-to-date with the latest content.
For anyone still living outside the walled garden we've added embed codes to the information beneath each video on this site. The codes work just as you'd expect and allow you to copy a single episode onto another web page. Shaun has an example on his blog if you'd like to see it in action.
Finally, we've added one more piece to the puzzle, and that's the ability to add an entire playlist to another site. In short this means that you only have to copy the video player once, and you'll be sure that new content will appear as and when it's available (we're hoping weekly). If you have a blog with space to spare, stop by our video sharing page and check out the details.
There's one last thing to add. It's always been possible to embed episodes of Sidepodcast TV, using sites such as YouTube and Dailymotion. We've been uploading shows to them since the day we started and we're not going to stop now. We're simply offering additional options for anyone who wants them.
Many thanks to everyone for their suggestions and if you have any more requests / ideas for things we should be doing, please let us know via the usual methods.
The usual process of including guest posts on a blog is for the owner to ask some of their favourite writers to come up with a piece or two to be featured. As you well know, Sidepodcast likes to do things a different way. The Facebook Group has plenty of fascinating discussions going on, and we want to bring those to the main site. The idea is for you guys to write your opinions and entries over on the group, and then we pick the best ones for feature over here on Sidepodcast. Sort of self-selecting guest bloggers, if you will. If you want to get your name in bright lights, just join the group and get writing. We read everything and everyone will be considered.
The first blog entry comes courtesy of Dan Brunell, our guest blogger guinea pig, and focuses on the plight of Super Aguri and what it means for the future of F1.
As “me” and Christine have so eloquently pointed out, Super Aguri is in serious trouble. If they last the year it will be an achievement. If they get someone to buy them it would be a miracle. However, is their slow demise a sign of things to come in F1?
It’s an understatement to say that F1 is an expensive sport. Advertising arrangements with some teams are in the tens of millions of pounds. Manufacturers themselves pour in hundreds of millions of pounds. The strong economy of the last few years have allowed many auto manufacturers and companies to spend their efforts in F1. However, as the economy goes from bull to bear and wallets get tightened; their hefty spending on F1 might be one of the first things to go from the ledger sheet.
We have already seen Toyota, Honda, and Renault question their financial commitment to F1. Many grands prix are having a hard time finding proper sponsorship to pay the amounts demanded by Formula One Management. Plus, F1's own corporate hospitality and advertising business is $3 million in the red for last year. Add to this the uncertainty of F1 beyond Bernie and Max and this adds up to some troubling waters ahead. The last time the sport looked this uncertain financially, there was a massive turnover and upheaval in the sport due to the loss of cigarette advertising. The loss of several of the manufacturers and primary sponsors could have a similar, even more pronounced, effect.
In my view, there is a lot that F1 can continue to offer for advertisers and people involved. For Pete's sake, their estimate world audience for F1 is 6 billion people! However, unless F1 lowers its costs across the board and lower their expectations from advertisers and manufacturers, the long-term finances of Formula One looks very bleak. After all, for all the riches and egos in F1… these people still have to live on a budget and within their means. If Bernie and the F1 conglomerate which he leads continues to ask high prices of everyone involved in F1, the teams, races, and ultimately advertisers will go on to more effective advertising vehicles that are less costly. If F1 starts hemorrhaging advertisers, manufacturers, and sponsors, then the sport is in major trouble.
