Sidepodcast

No Refuelling Equals Zero Entertainment

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.

FOTA Abandon Joint Launch Plan

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.

Daily: 19th December 2009

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.

F1 Advent Calendar 2009 - Day Fifteen

• Length: 3:26 
• Size: 3.2 MB 
• File: advent15.mp3 
• Transcript: advent15.pdf 
• Torrent: advent15.torrent 

Hello and welcome along, thank you for joining me for another episode of our F1 Advent Calendar 2009 mini series. We're about midway through December now, and moving on from the Hungarian Grand Prix - at last! What will we find behind the door of Day Fifteen - Take My Place.

Max Mosley had already confirmed that he would not be running for the FIA Presidency again, seemingly as part of the deal to halt the FOTA breakaway. He's said things like that before, though, and it wasn't until potential replacements began popping up, that I really thought it might happen. Jean Todt was the obvious candidate for the role, but it was Ari Vatanen who peaked our interest.

The Finn announced his intentions in late July, saying: "I think the time has come for a change. My main focus is to reconcile views within the FIA and bring transparency to its stakeholders. The duty of President is to defend a billion automobilists and the great sport of ours." As a former World Rally Champion, Ari certainly had the credentials on the sporting side, but it was the political side where he faced most of his opposition.

Ari said a lot of good things. He appealed to fans, and he was a fresh face in what has become an increasingly stale organisation. He talked the talk and he hit out at Mosley, which went down well in a sport that has been dominated by the man and his decisions.

His campaign started out well, but he began to run out of steam. When he announced his cabinet, most of the names were a bit of a mystery, and although he had some support, it seemed to be less vocal than the support for Todt. The lack of momentum put pressure on Vatanen, who responded in less than ideal ways.

Firstly, he criticised the FIA Foundation, suggesting that hiring a private jet to fly Jean Todt's girlfriend around the world might be showing a bit of favouritism. The Foundation rebuffed the claims instantly. Michelle Yeoh was an ambassador for the foundation, and an actress and name in her own right, not just Jean Todt's girlfriend. Whoever is right in that argument, it didn't reflect well on Mr Vatanen.

Next, he complained again about favouritism - this time suggesting that Mosley had told him he had already pledged allegiance to Jean Todt. The instant reaction to this is to wonder about whether the current president should be expressing such an opinion, but it was the circumstances that rebounded on to Ari. He revealed that in asking Mosley to favour him, Mosley had said he favoured Jean. Ah. That's slightly different.

Jean Todt and his cabinet capitalised on this, with a letter to member clubs saying: ""In our campaign, we have emphasised teamwork and the need for the mobility and motor sport pillars to work together. In contrast, the negative tone of our opponent's campaign risks undermining the unity of the FIA. Our team recognises that there is far more that unites than divides the clubs of the FIA."

Once again, it was not a surprise when October rolled around, the elections took place, and Jean Todt became the new FIA President. We had been backing Vatanen from the start, but Todt's campaign made more and more sense as the weeks passed, and it was clear that Vatanen wasn't quite right for the role. As yet, we don't know whether Todt is the right man either. We will have to wait and see... either way, no more Max.

That is all for this episode of our F1 Advent Calendar. I hope you're enjoying the series so far, feel free to email me your comments at christine at sidepodcast dot com. I will be back tomorrow with Day Sixteen.

Daily: 11th December 2009

Hello to all! It was a busy day yesterday, wasn't it? All that Formula 1 news sneaking out as we were busy digesting the last lot! That is good for my daily post though, it means lots of lovely self promotion. Let's get on with that now:

• FOTA met in Monaco yesterday and brought up the idea of the single launch event again. We've talked about this before, and we ranted a bit about this yesterday, but then we launched a poll. Tell us what you think - is the single launch event a good idea? Do you even care?
• The FIA have proposed another potential change to the points system - no medals this time though, thankfully. This time the excuse is to account for the expanded grid, but it really seems like another attempt to make winning a more attractive option for drivers. Will they get away with it this time?
• Pat came up with the Thursday Thoughts question yesterday - a great one about how F1 can broaden itself and it's coverage. He has a list of the participants on there, and it's not to late to leave your comments, although it's not Thursday anymore. If you want to host a question, why not leave your name on the wiki.

That's all for now, thank goodness it's Friday. How has your week been, and what are you planning for the weekend? Let us know and I'll see you in the comments.

A Singularly Silly Solution?

It emerged today that members of the Teams Association sadly hadn't forgotten their common car launch idea. The subject was discussed at a FOTA meeting in Monaco today, and they concluded that a single launch in Valencia was the way forward.

Credit: Glenn Dunbar / GP2 Series Media Service

Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències in Valencia is lit up during the 2006 GP2 launch party

We previously discussed these plans after a Thursday Thoughts question, and this afternoon shared some opinions in the breakout thread.

You would think there wasn't much else to add, but F1 journalist Will Buxton is a man who has experience of organising launches in the city of Valencia and he's written some very detailed insight into how he see's the event working. The argument does manage to put a new spin on things.

To my mind, it would make sense to limit team launches to a maximum of 30-40 minutes and get them all out of the way in the morning in one hour time allocations. By utilising the Opera House, the Hemesferic (which can be split into two launch venues) and the main Science building (which can be split into upwards of three separate launch venues), you have individual launch venues within walking distance of each other.

He goes on to say the afternoon could feature the media interviews, but it would have to be run for three consecutive days for everyone to be able to see everything.

To find a definitive answer, we're going to offer up one of our ever so scientific polls.

Teams will be spending the next couple of weeks working out the finer details, are they wasting their time?

Teams Finalising Details on Single Group Launch

Whilst at the Motorsport Business Forum in Monaco, Nick Fry has pretty much confirmed that the group launch will be going ahead. He said:

"I wouldn't wish to spill the beans on what we are going to do, but it is going to be hugely initiative. It is going to be a clear demonstration of how we are going to be working together. We are not all going off and doing our own individual launches, so we can do something that is a lot more customer friendly."

FOTA are apparently meeting up in Monaco later to finalise the details.

Update: Autosport are reporting this evening that teams unanimously approved plans for a single group launch in the Spanish City of Valencia.

January has been pencilled in and the next few weeks will be spent working out the format for the event.

F1 Advent Calendar 2009 - Day Eight

• Length: 3:25 
• Size: 4.0 MB 
• File: advent8.mp3 
• Transcript: advent8.pdf 
• Torrent: advent8.torrent 

Hello and welcome, this is our extended mini series - F1 Advent Calendar 2009. We’re opening up a new door every day to find bite size snippets of the 2009 season. So far we’ve covered all the goings on up until the Monaco Grand Prix, and now we’ll have a peek at Day Eight - Two Tribes.

The 2009 season had only been underway for a couple of months, and already attention had turned to the following year - and it was turning out to be a contentious issue. The FIA had opened up the grid to three new teams, and in trying to entice new entrants to the grid, had revised the regulations significantly. The idea was that teams signing up to a proposed budget cap had a lot more freedom when it came to engine and aerodynamic regulations. Those that didn’t sign up to the budget cap could spend what they wanted but were seriously locked down when it came to what could be on their car.

From the outside, this seemed completely ridiculous - potentially allowing the unrestricted teams several seconds advantage. From the inside, it was also an unpopular decision. The existing teams - in a new group known as the Formula One Teams Association - announced the so-called two-tier championship was completely unacceptable, but they were willing to work with the FIA on ways to reduce costs and still keep things fair.

They refused to enter the 2010 season until they could sort the matter out but it was to be a lot harder than that. They met up on Flavio Briatore’s boat during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, to discuss the matter, and subsequently offered a combined conditional entry. So if one pulled out, they all pulled out. And the conditions were that the rules were basically the same as the 2009 season with maybe a few tweaks.

Williams and Force India both signed up independently of FOTA and were subsequently suspended from the association. Williams in particular defended themselves saying they owed it to their sponsors and employees to continue in Formula 1 regardless of how the regulations evolved.

Fast forward to June the 18th, and with no agreement forthcoming on the rules for 2010, FOTA announced they would be setting up their own breakaway series. At the time, a statement was issued saying: “These teams therefore have no alternative other than to commence the preparation for a new Championship which reflects the values of its participants and partners. This series will have transparent governance, one set of regulations, encourage more entrants and listen to the wishes of the fans, including offering lower prices for spectators worldwide, partners and other important stakeholders.”

Sounds like heaven, doesn’t it? Well, it was not to be.

The FIA considered launching legal action against FOTA, they re-entered talks with each other and the entire mess dominated and ruined the atmosphere during the British Grand Prix.

Just six days later, another statement from FOTA confirmed they wouldn’t be breaking away after all. The regulations would continue as they were, with added cost cutting measures such as reduced personnel and less wind tunnel usage. Technical help was offered to the new teams who were signed up under the budget cap regulations. More crucially, though, Max Mosley was prepared to stand down from the presidency of the FIA, with FOTA urging for a fresh start come the elections in October.

That’s all for today. I hope you’re enjoying the F1 Advent Calendar 2009, and the chance to remember both the good and bad of the season. I’ll be back tomorrow with Day Nine.

Thursday Thoughts - Should F1 Teams Launch 2010 Cars at a Single Event?

This weeks Thursday Thought seems like a relatively straightforward question to tackle. The Formula One Teams Association are investigating the possibility of launching their 2010 championship challengers at a single event in the new year, to help reduce costs. Handy for them no doubt, but are they taking away yet another source of enjoyment for fans?

Common People

Dubbed the common car launch, Autosport today noted that FOTA representatives have met with Bernie Ecclestone to discuss the concept, so there's a very real chance this idea could see the light of day. My initial reaction to the suggestion was this could only be a bad thing. In the past we've seen FOTA's cost cutting initiatives pull regular testing sessions from the calendar. This denied fans the opportunity to see F1 cars at an affordable price, removed a significant layer of interest during the year, and hindered those teams who started the season with a bad car.

In my eyes, as cost-cutting measures go, 2009's testing restrictions have been a dismal failure for F1 fans. Could a unified car launch be similarly disastrous? I think it could be, but I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic.

This year was the first year we paid much attention to car unveilings at all. In seasons gone by, we noted any significant differences between the chassis, but we'd never followed all of the press that goes hand-in-hand with them. I will say we thoroughly enjoyed following with a closer interest, although I did object to the early mornings required to catch the announcements.

Variety was offered, with an online-only launch from Toyota, while Red Bull provided a fantastic explanation of '09 rule changes. Williams opted to roll the car out of the garage and then back in again.

Admittedly, between the various team websites dying and a general lack of co-ordination, you couldn't argue that the launches were a blinding success. Nor were they something that captured the interest of mainstream media. They did manage to keep us occupied for many days during winter though, and I do wonder if a single event might mean less coverage for each team and a number of them getting overlooked entirely. Revealing Mercedes' debut livery might steal the headlines from say, Red Bull trotting out the same driver pairing and colour scheme for the second year in a row.

There Goes the Fear

A significant reduction in manufacturer teams, coupled with a troubled economy, means any hope of a high-budget affair, along the lines of McLaren's 2007 run through the streets of Valencia are out of the window anyhow. If teams combine their efforts, it might still be a sight to behold and there is an opportunity to give something back to the fans too.

Although we don't know what FOTA's suggestions might entail, it would be fantastic if the combined launch was open to the public too. Better yet, run the cars around the track in the afternoon and double the unveiling with a scheduled test and ensure all the cars and drivers fit in a run.

Reducing costs, increasing testing and giving back to the fans. I can't argue with that.

All of the above assumes a level of common sense prevails and that every team will have something physical to reveal before February, which is by no means a given. In truth it's just as likely we'll see a low key, low cost event, attended by a handful of teams which leaves us longing for the good old days just like always. Cautiously optimistic I tell you.

Thursday Thoughts - Who Should Be the Next Boss of FOTA?

Jackie posed this week's topic for Thursday Thoughts, and she wanted to know who should replace Luca di Montezemolo as head of the Formula One Teams Association if he decides to stand down from his current role as president come the end of the year.

To answer that question, it's worth examining what it is the president is supposed to do. According to the FOTA website Luca is officially named Chairman of the organisation, although I'm assuming the term president and chairman are interchangeable in this instance. From the same site, his duties shall include:

The Chairman presides the Executive Committee and the Members General Meeting. He is responsible for implementing their decisions and for supervising the work of the Secretary General.

Chairman and Vice Chairman bind FOTA with their joint signature.

Chairman and Vice Chairman are appointed for one year.

The executive committee additionally receives guidance from the findings of a number of subsidiary working groups.

So now we know what Luca's role is, who should replace him?

It's a Man's World

According to the above statement, my list of possible candidates has been significantly reduced by the specific wording "He is responsible...". That makes the entire female population ineligible for starters.

However, it's perfectly possible that the wording on the site was tailored toward Luca and nobody saw a reason to recognise equal opportunity laws when writing the man's job description.

Taking this into consideration, the person I'm nominating as boss of FOTA is Williams F1 communications officer Ms. Claire Williams.

I can see me getting into some trouble here...

Communication Breakdown

Now I'd love to wax lyrical about how Claire is best qualified to fill the shoes of a person worth an estimated $400m, but I don't really know that much about her. I could pick up the phone and find out some background information in the morning, but that would be a really odd telephone conversation wouldn't it?

I thought so.

Instead I'm just going to point out that women are severely underrepresented within the upper echelons of Formula One, and that is reflected in the complete lack of oestrogen present in every one of FOTA's general meetings. I've no idea if adding a female voice to proceedings would make the tepid waters any smoother, but as no-one has any evidence to the contrary, we'll call it evens.

Given the absence of BMW and Toyota, the Teams Association need Williams more than ever right now, and Claire is lovely person, who has many years of experience handling public relations at the very top flight of F1.

She even presents her own podcast, what more could one ask?