Hello. I'm back writing the Wednesday Daily after a long absence due to holidays and the Spa Grand Prix. In fact, it was exactly a week ago that I returned from that epic trip, and I miss everyone I shared the experience with. You were awesome, guys!
Anyway, I found some F1 links for you:
Everyone's favourite mad Japanese Driver, Kamui Kobayashi, has signed with Sauber for 2011, with no word on who his team mate will be. I suppose it's fair - he's done decently with an OK car. But what of Pedalo, though?
Lotus are closing in on a Renault deal, primarily because the Xtrac gearboxes and transmissions designed to work with the Cosworth Engine have simply not been reliable enough. I wouldn't mind seeing a Lotus-Renault again!
Everyone's favourite circuit designer, Hermann Tilke, has given an interview with AUTOSPORT (behind the Paywall). He reckons it's not his fault, honest! Although, considering the budgets of some of these new circuits I find it hard to believe his hands were THAT tied up...
...but more importantly, today is the day where Ferrari have to appear before the World Motorsport Council to see if further punishment will be dealt out for the team orders debacle at the German Grand Prix. I hope they do get severely punished, but sadly in the past the FIA have not been so keen to pounce on the boys in red for various reasons. Expect to see a fine or the points from that race taken away (the equivalent of the wet bus ticket) I reckon...
Lukeh should have an excellent guest post about his KangarooTV experience at the Belgian Grand Prix coming up soon, which he has kindly allowed me to contribute to. Look forward to it, it's a cracking read!
Finally, I would just like to mention that as we prepare for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, it was this week 40 years ago that Jochen Rindt was killed at the circuit and became the first (and so far, only) posthumous world champion. I don't know much about him but I have found him to be a fascinating character, who has been largely forgotten in all except the unusual manner in which he became world champion.
To give you an insight into a driver who was destined for greatness, check out Tony Dodgins' article on AUTOSPORT (paywall) or catch the series by MotorSport Magazine called "Jochen Rindt - by his rivals" which was written by Anthony Rowlinson, now the executive editor of The Red Bulletin Magazine.
That's all from me. Enjoy your Wednesday and don't forget to unpack those tools and warm up those engines ready for what will be an exciting F1 weekend at Monza - I am sure of it!
The sky is falling. Well, not technically, but still, the earth is dying. It’s unavoidable now – people make movies like An Inconvenient Truth and Age of Stupid, TV channels screen adverts about greener products that seep into our consciousness while we take our mid-program bathroom break. The hippies (yes, I’m a hippie, but we can be party poopers) are trying to introduce carbon tax the world over (google-news “carbon tax” if you don’t believe me). And now F1 is trying to go green.
Let’s just think about this for a second. Is the attempt to make the cars less carbon-polluting essentially redundant one? A wee plaster over the wound from a shotgun blast?
Credit: Creative Commons: Olof S / Flickr
Bear in mind, that every F1 team flies all their personnel and equipment to grands prix (if you need to know why flying is a carbon concern, look here). Ten (52%) of the races on this year’s calendar are fly-away races, so shipping the equipment by road is not a viable option (I know most people fly to grands prix, even when the races are in Europe, but we’ll leave that out of the discussion for the moment). Add to that the amount that drivers, team bosses and PR personnel fly between countries for business, media and publicity commitments. I shudder to think of the results we would see if the F1 community totted up their carbon footprints (mine is 5.19 tonnes per year – less than half the national average of the UK, more than twice what it should be). We haven’t even started on the CO2 emissions created by the races themselves, and already it’s evident that the sport needs to do something about its carbon footprint.
To give them their due, the FIA has initiated the Make Cars Green program to lower the environmental impact of cars. However, while it is widespread, and they have posted the 10-point driving plan, there has only been one update this year. There’s obviously some tireless and diligent work happening on the program.
But what can the FIA really do?
Only have races in Europe? Yes, I snort laughed at that idea too. Di Grassi wouldn’t mind a few more races in Spa, but Bernie would never go for that. F1 is an international sport, it needs to happen world-wide.
KERS? Yes, the KERS system had its fans, but never really lived up to the hype. The units were heavy, forcing drivers to lose (in some cases, possibly too much) weight (let’s leave aside the discussions of the optimal rotundity of a driver’s backside, just for a moment. They’re athletes, and being too thin could be dangerous to their long-term health) or struggle against the extra weight in the car. Rumour has it that it will be included in next year’s cars, and the minimum weight for the cars is being raised to compensate for this. However, the technology hasn’t found its way into road cars (which would justify its existence), and a number of teams couldn’t afford the cost of the system when it was last used (it’s not being used for the 2010 season, although this was agreed upon by FOTA, rather than being legislated), so it’s not such a viable option. Besides, it doesn’t significantly reduce the carbon emissions (which is what’s really needed, if we’re all going to get our carbon footprints down to 2 tonnes per year before 2015); it simply makes the car go faster on the straights.
Electric engines? Okay, I nearly fell off my chair laughing at the thought of that. Low-performance engines with no noise? One of the reasons we love F1 is because the howl of a big, powerful, race-tuned engine being driven at 15000rpm makes us feel an excitement we can’t describe! Apart from the noise, nobody has managed to make a truly high-performance electric engine. If we had electric engines in F1, it would be like a slightly flashier version of the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car. While I’m sure Barrichello would be happy with that, it wouldn’t be very exciting to watch. So, electric engines are a non-starter.
Diesel engines? Okay, we would lose the noise, but it is a more efficient fuel. We’d have the speed, just with a little less noise. It doesn’t sound like too bad of an option. Yes?
Rocket-fuel powered engines? Don’t look at me like that – the hydrogen car exists, and it essentially runs on rocket fuel. Fair enough, nobody has yet worked out how to effectively store hydrogen, and the process of isolating hydrogen is an expensive and emission-heavy one. However, it could turn into a potential solution, once science catches up. Although, I’m not sure how easy a rocket-powered F1 car would be to handle in the corners.
Maybe those aren’t the solutions at all. Perhaps what we’re looking for is a multi-faceted approach. For years, hippies have been planting trees to offset the emissions they cause by the flights they couldn’t avoid taking. All over the world, deforestation is a problem (trees are cut down, so they stop being the efficient carbon sinks they were formerly functioning as. Bush scrub grows in their place; bushes are less effective at using CO2). Why not, in addition to trying to find real green solutions on the race track, use some of the (ridiculously large) profits and contribute to reforestation programs (I have been informed that the FIA does have a reforestation scheme, but can’t find any evidence of it online)? After all, the Amazon Rainforest is basically the world’s largest carbon sink, and it’s shrinking. The ecology folk would value the contribution, because keeping forests as forests is not economically efficient.
Maybe invest in making biochar the world’s soil water saver and fertiliser (since, at some point in the next fifty years, the ambient temperatures are probably going to be too high for plants to be able to survive without regular watering and soil moisture boosters)? It would be solving two problems simultaneously – world hunger and F1 emissions.
In promising news, Virgin are sponsored by a company called Carbon Green, who recycle tyres. One assumes that the myriad tyres that the team uses up over each race weekend are sent to be recycled. At least, this is the hope, since they would otherwise end up in a land-fill. According to the FIA rules, “no driver may use more than fourteen sets of dry-weather tyres, five sets of wet-weather tyres and four sets of extreme-weather tyres,” which clocks up a fairly large number of tyres used in the paddock over the course of a race weekend. Sure, recycling processes create emissions, but at least the rubber is being reused.
In other promising news, Red Bull have partnered with Siemens to make their factory more green. It’s definitely a step in the right direction, given that nobody ever thinks of the insulation of their buildings and energy efficiency of the manufacturing process. They’ll also save themselves money in heating and electricity bills, so they’ll be able to spend more on development – not that they need more of an edge.
Perhaps, just perhaps, if everyone does something about it, we’ll still have Monaco in twenty years. It would be a shame to lose that event because the sea levels rose above the level of the race track. Besides, where will all the drivers live if the sea drowns Monte Carlo?
It's fair to say that Silverstone is one of the more popular circuits on the calendar. Whilst the racing isn't always superb, the track is supported by lots of history, plenty of emotion, and of course, passionate fans. Why is it, then, that Silverstone is the one track that always seems to have a shadow hanging over it? If something is about to kick off in F1, just wait until the British GP for it all to become clear.
Credit: Sidepodcast
Welcome to to Silverstone, where press releases cause complete mayhem.
2007 - And Honda Makes Three
In 2007, we were knee deep in the middle of the spying scandal - McLaren and Ferrari were arguing bitterly over who was to blame, and Coughlan and Stepney's names were making F1 headlines for weeks on ends. On the Friday of the British GP, Honda dipped their toe into the water as well, by revealing that they had met with both Stepney and Coughlan. The pair had approached Honda for work, and the team were quick to point out that they were offered no confidential information. Many of the details must be marked with a big "allegedly" sticker, and there's no need to go over old ground again now.
I remember that day vividly, as we listened in on Radio 5live's broadcast from a tent in the Honda campground. Wait for it, there's more name-dropping to come. Our ears perked up at the discussion, but having missed the start, we had to wait to grab hold of Maurice Hamilton and pump him for information. He was very forthcoming, told us about the Honda involvement, and the rest of the evening/weekend was spent discussing the espionage events in great detail.
2008 - Could This Be the End?
With spying out of our minds, 2008 was a fresh start and to Silverstone we trotted, happy with what was turning out to be a fascinating season. In the midst of Friday Free Practice, it suddenly emerged that Bernie Ecclestone had handed Donington Park the contract for the British GP. Silverstone was no longer. Bernie couldn't have timed it to better effect, and you could feel a collective gloom fall over the paddock. Where previously fans had been snapping up merchandise and enjoying what they could of the weather, there were slumped shoulders to be found everywhere.
We all sort of thought it wasn't going to be possible, we kind of knew in the back of our minds that it wasn't really the end for Silverstone, but it certainly felt like it that day. Have a listen back to our podcast for the British GP that year and see what you make of it.
2009 - We Don't Want to Play Anymore
Just twelve months ago (is that really all it was?), F1 faced one of it's bigger challenges, and Silverstone took the brunt of it once again. With radical plans for a shakeup of the way Formula One works, including budget caps, lots of new teams, maybe even a two-tier system, things were looking shaky as the paddock descended upon Britain.
On the eve of Free Practice Friday, the Formula One Teams Association held a press conference and announced they were setting up their own breakaway series. There were so many questions regarding their announcement, and all the possibilities it created, that people talked of nothing else for the rest of the weekend. What do you mean there was a race on? Did someone win? It didn't matter. The important topics were - would Raikkonen follow Ferrari to the new series? Which one will you follow?
Of course, it all came to nothing, a waste of breath and poor Silverstone was buried underneath headlines that were out of date almost as soon as they were printed.
2010 - ?
So the question is, what massive revelation is going to come before the British Grand Prix this year? Will Silverstone finally manage to stand up and be proud without a shadow hanging over it?
In the week that followed the European Grand Prix, Joe Saward stopped by to discuss the hot air coming from Red Bull, a very French way of working and the all new solar powered F1.
Additionally, there's talk of exceptional drivers and the best kept secret in Formula 1. Plus, suggestions on providing your own Sunday entertainment, designing a better race track, celebrity Briatore and a look at what made FOTA green with envy.
As ever, all this and so much more in the Aside with Joe podcast.
It's another Friday and that means another Daily thread from yours truly today. Although things are a little different today as I sit next to Lou, watching over my every word making sure I'm giving you is top quality. Actually she's sitting on the bed playing/shouting at Monopoly on my iPod but shh. Anyways today is an awesome day as the Goodwood Festival of Speed starts today and we will be there!! WOO!! Although there was a moving motorsport yesterday but that is a fake day, where people move. In motorsport. Fun times! Anyways, time for my favourite companion since the Doctor's friends - the bullet points.
So yesterday the big Formula 1 chiefs met together to discuss stuff as FOTA and talk about stuff. It was generally full of stuff apparently. Some of the biggest names in Formula 1 attended including Martin Whitmarsh, Tony Fernandes and of course, Leigh O'Gorman. I found it all a little pointless as did many in the dedicated thread here on Sidepodcast - why have a chat about their warped version of reality with us fans knowing it won't happen? We all know what Formula 1 needs anyways - more Rubens. I'm very unsure about this meeting really but remember to jump over to it's dedicated thread to discuss the FOTA Fan Forum Fun For Fursday.
So Jenson Button yesterday had a seat fitted for his drive at Goodwood this weekend. Jenson will be driving Alain Prost's McLaren on Saturday in which I'm sure he will love doing so. According to Lou, Jenson likes Prost but McLaren play up his fandom a bit because of how much Lewis likes Senna. If you ask me, if Jenson wanted to drive a legendary car that has been driven by a hero of his, then he should be driving last year's Brawn GP car but with the number 23 on it. Ahem.
So we could be getting another awful looking race track from Spain added to the calendar in the future thanks to a new track proposition from Mallorca... or Majorca... or My Yorkie... whatever it's called. This would be another Spanish track if added to the calendar, what with Catalunya and Valencia already on the calendar. What would it be then? The Island GP? The Medditeranen GP? The Tilke Didn't Design This One GP? Let us know your feelings on the mystery Majorca announcement. Although I've never been there on holiday anyways, but we should definitely get to work on the Butlins GP if this race is going to be near some holiday sites.
I think that's enough for one day, it would be fair to say the distractions have been evident throughout writing this daily. Not that I blame anyone who has been sitting nearby me, ahem. No it was because of Location Location Location Location Location Location Location on Channel 4. Silly show. If you're going to Goodwood then please come and say hello to both Lou and I as we tour the grounds/stalk Jenson. I'm sure it'll be a fantastic weekend so I hope everyone else has a fantastic friday and a fantastic weekend!
Today in London, 150 motorsport fans got the chance to meet the leading figures from the world of Formula 1. The forum, put together by the Formula One Teams Association, hosted at the BAFTA Theatre in Piccadilly and moderated by ex-commentator James Allen, appeared to come across as a resounding success.
Similar in style to the Audience With... events that Joe Saward has been hosting this year, the forum aimed to bring fans closer to the sport, giving them a chance to put questions to those in the know.
On hand to answer questions for the inaugural event, was a panel of five, including:
Martin Whitmarsh, FOTA chairman and team principal of McLaren Mercedes
Tony Fernandes, Team Principal of Lotus Racing
Jock Clear, Senior Race Engineer for Mercedes GP
Luca Colajanni, Head of Motorsport Press Office at Scuderia Ferrari
Paul di Resta, test and reserve driver for Force India
A fine collection of F1 fellows, I'm sure you'll agree.
We couldn't attend the meeting sadly, given that it was held in the middle of a working day, and in the middle of London (that probably tells you something about the type of fans the event was aimed at). We did learn a lot from updates posted on Twitter though and here are some of the best:
Tony Fernandes: "I think it would be good to simplify the rules and get down to racing. Feedback from today will go into consideration."
Jamesallenonf1
Luca Colajini says concord agreement limits what info from #F1 can be made public
emmastonier
Jock Clear: "My mum loves F1, but she doesn't understand it all because the tv viewers don't get the data they need."
TheFifthDriver
Whitmarsh says that 20 races is too many. He also said F1 has made 'a hash' of attempts to hold a race in the States...
Jamesallenonf1
Great event - first ever chance for fans to grill the teams up close and personal http://twitpic.com/21hb4r
MyLotusRacing
Paul di resta says more testing is needed. He says teams what more testing to give young guys a chance and throw out the old guys.
tonyfernandes
JA asks Luca if he wants to answer questions on road relevance. Luca shrugs 'even our road cars arent road relevant'
chainbear
Panel passing notes among themselves...wonder what they say!
emmastonier
Other F1 people spotted in the audience... Mike Gascoyne, Frank Dernie, Matt Bishop, Ted Kravitz, Richard Woods
OfficialMGP
a few arguments for harsher penalties for making mistakes says paul, but its about getting a good balance of not putting the driver in danger
There will be a video to follow, and we'll post it as soon as it's available.
While we at Sidepodcast are keen supporters of the sport opening up more to the fans - and this concept does appear to offer that - the cynic inside of me says that none of the suggestions will be taken on board and this is simply FOTA paying lip service to fans in return for some free publicity and brand loyalty.
I'm sure neither Bernie nor the FIA will give a Flying Felipe about anything said in London today, and I'm convinced nothing will change for the positive any time soon. The attendance of at least one FIA personnel, in the shape of Richard Woods, is notable though.
Teams already know what the fans want, they aren't stupid. They simply are not in a position to do anything about the current state of Formula 1, regardless of what the Teams Association claim. Some might even say they had that chance last summer and blew it spectacularly. FOTA may like to believe they are an association with the power to change, but that simply is not the case.
I'd love to be proven wrong of course, but I wasn't born a cynic, Formula 1 made me this way.
It is July! The year seems like is just flying on by, it is day 182 of 2010 and with only 183 until the end of it is essentially the middle of the year. After the last couple of weeks of almost non-stop sport we have time for a breather with the World Cup taking a break and no Formula One this weekend, Wimbledon though carries on and as always there will be a post for that.
FOTA have got together and announced a carbon emissions programme essentially pushing for a 'greener' F1 future, this will be in addition to what the FIA is doing in trying to reduce the carbon footprint of the sport.
After Kamui Kobayashi's brilliant drive at Valencia at the weekend the Sauber team are working hard in order to prolong its form promising a series of updates to car over the next couple of races.
McLaren has just revealed a new video featuring Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button this time visiting a warehouse full of old McLaren F1 cars, this prompted a lot of talk in the comments of the sports past and a wonderful post on the video by Gavin.
There is a rumour doing the rounds that former World Champion and current World Rally Driver Kimi Raikkonen could be asked to test Pirelli tyres for next year's Formula 1 season. According to his manager it would come down to if Kimi was interested in the challenge and whether it will fit in with his schedule.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed starts tomorrow and Lukeh has been blogging about looking forward to the festival and name dropping just a few of the people that will be attending.
That is about it for this daily post, so I hope you all have a good day and I shall see you in the comments.
Ever since the FIA unveiled plans to ban refuelling from Formula One back in December 2008, we at Sidepodcast have been dreading the day such plans came to fruition. Today was that day and the result was as bad as we'd been expecting.
Massa being refuelled in the pitlane at the Spanish GP in 2008, otherwise known as the only place to pass in Barcelona.
Make no bones about it, the decision to remove one of the key variables in F1 racing was about money. No doubt those who agreed to the change, will claim that the goal was to improve racing but the truth is, in an era of heavy cost cutting, teams could no longer accept the freight costs for transporting heavy fuel rigs around the world. Neither could Formula One Management be persuaded to shoulder logistics costs, and thus the rigs were deemed inappropriate for the sport.
The change in regulations leaves the sport with a big problem. We know that the speed of modern F1 cars on todays racing circuits makes overtaking difficult, and we know that the aerodynamics of modern chassis contribute to the problem making it almost impossible for cars to pass on track. Attempts to rectify both of this issues has failed spectacularly in recent times, leaving us with dull tracks and fugly cars.
Given the understanding that cars cannot pass on track, and that there is no easy or cheap solution to the problem, why in the world would anyone advocate the removal of the sole variable that might allow for some change of order in the field? You'd have to be completely out of your mind, and yet that is exactly what the teams, the sports rights holder and the governing body all agreed to do. Utter madness.
Formula One provided an awful show this afternoon. There really was nothing to recommend from an entire afternoon of "action". Yes, it was the first race of the year and after a four month hiatus, any racing beats no racing, but can anyone honestly say that the removal of refuelling made for a better race?
I will concede that changes to the Bahrain circuit didn't help matters, and again those in charge agreeing to such changes have an awful lot to answer for. However, I maintain that if the sport still had refuelling, there may have still been a slim chance that the finishing order on Sunday offered some marked differences from the qualifying order on Saturday. As it was, we had the single failure on the lead car to spice up a desperately dull afternoon. Welcome to the new spectacle folks, following people is what we do now.
To further the point, today's post race BBC forum was all about the desperate situation the sports finds itself in, with McLaren's CEO Martin Whitmarsh suggesting what might be needed now is two mandatory pit stops per race. As if that is somehow going to be the magic bullet to solve all of F1's overtaking problems.
Truth be told somebody made a huge mistake and the sooner they own up to the fact and fix what is broken the better. I'm all for banning refuelling once it has been proven cars can pass on every track on the calendar, but I would much rather passing happened during the pitstops than it not happening at all.
F1 racing in 2010 finds itself in a desperate situation after race number one.
After originally proposing the idea of a single group launch with all teams represented in Valencia, the Formula One Teams Association have now deferred that plan for 12 months. Partly because it is expected that a number of new entrants will struggle to have their cars ready in time.
FOTA said in a statement today that:
The joint car launch project has been postponed to 2011, in order to ensure a totally successful event.
The teams will be organising individual car launches for the 2010 season.
Journalist Stuart Codling had already preempted the annoucement and noted a number of flaws in the plan: "...pretty much everyone except Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren were unhappy that they would be swept off the news agenda. There was no PR value in it for the smaller teams."
FOTA now has a whole season in which to re-evaluate the idea. In the meantime, individual low key launches are expected from each team.
It's Saturday, and for about half the UK, it seems like it's snow day as well. I have only seen the occasional flake but we're hearing about all sorts of various weather reports from around the country. I wonder whether it really will be a white Christmas. Anyway, here are some of the F1 related things we're talking about:
Stuart seems to have the scoop on the single launch idea going kaput, and there has been no official word from FOTA as yet on the matter. It seems likely that this is the case, though, because I can't imagine the smaller teams were at all happy with the idea.
The Schumacher comeback is looking even more likely, as Luca di Montezemolo wrote about it on the Ferrari website. The poor guy doesn't seem that impressed, using the age-old trick of claiming it is a twin brother involved, rather than facing up to the fact that Schumi just wants to move onwards and upwards.
Also, the future of the Turkish Grand Prix began to look a bit uncertain as Bernie has apparently asked for double the current amount to host a race. Needless to say the organisers are not impressed and that means the fabulous Turn 8 could be off our calendars from as early as 2011.
With so much news bouncing around, we realised we'd be doing a double show this weekend, and as Sunday is busy enough with the Sidepodparty, we'll be doing an impromptu live show tonight - a Saturday. I know, it's wrong, just like Doctor Who felt wrong when it was on Sunday. Still, we'll do our best to muddle through. Expect a thread about seven or eight-ish. I'll see you in the comments.
