Sidepodcast

Fantasy Racers 2010 - Bahrain Reminder

Fantasy Racers is back and this time it's blog-only! We're not going to be talking about it in the show as the rule changes make it just that little bit too wordy for a short podcast section. However, it's taking pride of place on the blog and this is where you come in. I have selected Strategy 2, which is the option to not change your drivers but have a higher starting budget. Therefore, I will run out of things to say about my team very quickly. I want you to tell me about your team, who you're choosing and why. Email your thoughts to christine@sidepodcast.com and I will publish them in the next reminder thread.

For now, though, we have a league this year called Panda Racing 2010. You can get more information on joining up on this post, and please do! We'd love to have you. My team is called Chief Operating Panda, for obvious reasons. As mentioned above, I'm sticking with the same drivers throughout so my choice was important. I've gone with:

• Fernando Alonso
• Lewis Hamilton
• Sebastian Vettel
• Lucas di Grassi

I think I've got a good mix of championship potential and deliciousness. Who are you going for?

I had a message from Simon, part of which we read out in the latest debrief and part of it I saved for this post, as it related to his Fantasy Racers. Here are his thoughts:

I went for the 45m version, as my internet access is sporadic at best and therefore may not be able to change this during the season. My team is: Kamui, Lewis, The Hulk, Rubens, Kubica.

My reasons: I thought Kamui's performances in the last two races in 2009 were outstanding, the most exciting F1 debut since Lewis. Following the yawnfest that was the arrival of Buemi, Bourdais, Speed etc. etc. it was great to see a young driver with almost no F1 testing drive that well. I am delighted that he secured a drive following the demise of Toyota - so he was a must, my first name on the list.

Then Lewis, because it would be churlish to not have the man who will win the world championship in your fantasy team. Next Nico. I have been very impressed with his performances during pre-season testing and I also have a hunch, or is it just a hope (I miss the good old days of Hill etc.), that Williams will be competitive this year.

This left me with 17m to spend. So I had two choices: get one more top driver (would have been Vettel - I couldn't bring myself to pick someone in a red car!) and then have 5m left - not enough to get another, so wasted money, or get two 'best of the rest ' drivers. Rubens, for the Williams reason mentioned above, and because Rubens came to F1 around the same time I did and I have always liked him. Kubica, because well, I definitely think he fits into the category. Not the best but not the worst.

Fab stuff from Simon. Don't forget you can send me your team decisions: christine@sidepodcast.com. I also want to point you in the direction of Lukeh's blog post about his team Amazini Barresistancello. That one is definitely worth a read.

Also, don't forget to take part in the SofaF1 championship this year, as Alex has worked hard on creating a very interactive page for selections. F1 Wolf has a great predictions game going, and check out Pat's post for other worthy games.

Daily: 2nd March 2010

We have reached Tuesday and I am busy dreaming up the final part of Life in the Fast Lane. Keep your eyes peeled throughout the day for the big finale. The voting closed last night, and I was once again surprised! I won't spoil it for you. Let's talk about more F1 related things:

• With the start of the season not far off, it's time to start thinking about Fantasy Racers again. We've had a couple of questions about our Panda Racing league, and all the information can be found on this post. Otherwise, head on over to Gavin's blog where he has a fabulous introduction to the 2010 Fantasy Racers season.
• Steven Roy has written a great guest post over on Viva F1 about how the FIA goes about making it's selection for new teams. It's a hot topic at the moment, with the apparent imminent failure of US F1 and the struggles for Campos. Check out Steven's view on the subject, and add your thoughts in the comments - there are some excellent opinions in there too.
• I found myself missing testing today, it was nice to be able to check in with the action every now and again without having pressure to keep up with everything. Having said that, I'm looking forward to seeing who is legitimately fast or not. On the subject of conclusions and predictions, F1 Punter is back with a roundup of testing but from the viewpoint of bets and odds. I always find Punter's posts fascinating, even though I can never get my head round betting.

That's all for now, l hope your week is going well so far. Let us know what you're up to and I will see you in the comments.

Fantasy Racers - Panda Racing 2010

Fantasy Racers was a mixed experience in 2009. The rule changes were of a similar magnitude to those in Formula 1 itself, and some of us adapted well, whilst others of us did not. Kathi led the way almost from the very start, and put on a really impressive show to make the Sidepodcast League the top scoring league of the competition for the second year in a row. She also completely outclassed the rest of us in the field, meaning we simply have to try harder in 2010.

Preparing to defend our Fantasy Racing title again. Click to join.

There are a couple of changes to the Fantasy Racers rules again this year, and we're also tweaking the way we play as well. Starting with the competition, though, you can now choose between two strategies, as detailed on the site:

Strategy 1 allows you to make unlimited changes during the course of the year, with a 40.0m starting budget.

Strategy 2 does not allow you to change your drivers, but has a starting budget of 45.0m. You may only remove a driver that is sacked / injured / unable to compete.

As a particularly lazy person, I have selected Strategy 2, although I have yet to choose my drivers. You are welcome to choose either option, and the selection you make will show up against your team in the league.

With the added complexity this gives the competition, we've realised it's going to be almost impossible to cover it in a sensible amount of time on the podcasts, so generally speaking, Fantasy Racing is now a blog-only thing. That doesn't mean we're not encouraging you to sign up and join in though, because we want you all to go ahead and do that now.

Sign up is free, just head on over to FantasyRacers.com, pick a team name, your strategy and your drivers - if you're thinking that far ahead already. I believe at the moment you can change your mind on the strategy front, but that will most likely be locked down at some point before the season begins.

We've created a league for everyone to join, although we want it to be less Sidepod-centric this year. Thus, we have named it Panda Racing 2010. To join the league you can simply click here, or search for Panda Racing. There's no password this year, so you can just sign right up and get choosing. Once you've done that, come back and let us know your team name and what your strategy is.

Welcome to My Wiki World

We've had a couple of new people pop up and say hi in the comments recently (hi!), and I noticed some attempts to persuade them to join the wiki. We talk about the wiki a lot, I know, but it is a great way to make Sidepodcast even more collaborative and even more of a community. I wanted to take a minute to talk about the wiki and encourage you to join.

What is the wiki for?

Originally, the wiki was a place to host some of the fun games we shared in the comments, plus plan some of the upcoming shows. When we're in the midst of a run of Sidepodpanels, it's invaluable for guests to sign up, and the scores to be recorded.

Since than it has ballooned into the best place for the community to share and plan together. We've got a dictionary of words born out of the comments, we have guides on everything from how to sleep better to making a microwave chocolate cake. There is information about past Batracer leagues, plus a roundup of both the Fantasy Racer competitions we've participated in, and top five league positions for each race.

There's documentation on how this website is taking shape, plus space for requests and bugs to be tracked. Live Commenting instructions live on the wiki, in case anyone is struggling with the doohickey or LCLT, and there are lots and lots of links. From teams, to drivers, to bloggers, to journalists, we're compiling the best of the web.

What can I do?

If you're not sure where to start, the best place is the SPC Regulars page. Registration for the wiki is free, and then you can create a sub-page of the Regulars page for yourself. Your own little home on the Sidepodwiki. You can put as many or as few facts about yourself as you'd like, but make sure to update the birthdays section, so I can add you to our calendar. Also, don't forget the Listener Map to pinpoint your country with a pretty red pin.

Why not help us fill in some of our F1 information pages? We've got plenty of missing info on the links pages - both drivers and teams. We're trying to keep track of who is going to be in which team for 2010, and who is being left on the sidelines, so if you hear something we don't, then please fill it in.

We also have some of the games that start in the comments, such as the Numbers Game page - where we list F1 facts by ever increasing numbers. We're up to 80, but there must be more, I'm sure we can get to 100. Or perhaps you would prefer the ideal three sectors game, where you select your perfect circuit with the best bits from the entire calendar.

Ultimately, the wiki is huge, and there's a lot to take in, but the best way is to sign up, start browsing, and then just hit that edit button. It's super easy to do, you don't need to learn any new codes or languages, it's a pretty simple editor. If you're looking for a particular page, don't use the search on the wiki, it's not very good. Either use the super Sidepodsearch on the top right of this site, or visit the Sidepodsitemap to find what you're looking for.

Where do I start?

Here are a couple of the pages mentioned above to help you get started:

• SPC Regulars
• Listener Map
• Driver Links
• Team Links
• Numbers Game
• Ideal 3 Sectors
• Sidepodsitemap

Once you've dived in and had a go, come back and tell us how you got on. We love the wiki and we want you to love it too.

Daily: 18th December 2009

It is Friday, and we are still waiting for the F1 news to die down this week. There have been breakout threads flying all over the place, and I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to the weekend for a rest! Yesterday was all about another driver announcement but here are some of the other things we're talking about:

• Over on Metro F1, there's a couple of reviews for some games, just in time if you're planning to buy an F1 fan something like this for Christmas. We had our own F1 2009 review, of course, but it's always interesting to see other people's takes on it, plus a couple of other games for good measure.
• I missed this when it was initially posted, but I see that RG has been doing some detective work, and discovered a potential new design for Timo Glock's helmet. It's probably a bit early to think about helmet designs, the season is still several months away, but it's good to see some colours.
• Stuart has some thoughts on Flavio Briatore and his attempts to overturn his lifetime ban from motorsport. There are already sme disagreements happening in Stuart's comments over this, but it's an interesting topic, and will be fascinating to find out how Flav gets on.

That'll do it for now, let us know what you have planned for the weekend, and as ever, I'll see you in the comments.

Friday Fun - F1 Christmas Parties

As we are heading into the Christmas Party season, it's time to start planning your F1 themed party. Imagine you were hosting a party for various teams, drivers, engineers, management etc. How would that party go? Here are some things to think about:

Who would you invite?
What music would you play?
Would you be handing out the mistletoe?
Would there be any party games?
What food and drink would you serve?
Would it end up in a drunken brawl with Trulli and Sutil fighting, or would it be a nice peaceful event with an after dinner speech by Murray Walker?

The possibilities are endless, and I want to know what would happen at your F1 Christmas Party.

Friday Fun - Games They Play

It's Friday and that can only mean one thing - time for some fun and games. That is quite literal this week, as due to my forgetful nature, I asked for suggestions in the comments and Gavin came up with this:

Because this week they had 'Young Driver Testing', can you come up with kids' games that they must have played while passing the time between test sessions?

So far we have had suggestions such as Twister and Skittles, based on their performance out on track.

I'd also like to extend the game to things they might have played as kids to try and prepare for their F1 future - such as Monopoly, to hone their business skills in case they ended up facing one of Briatore's contracts! Let us know what toys and games would be useful for an up and coming driver - both in preparation, and to pass the time once they are in the garages.

Also, if you have any suggestions for Friday Fun, you can email me christine at sidepodcast dot com. I'd appreciate it, as I am more than likely to forget again this time next week!

Friday Fun - Ultimate Circuits

This week's Friday Fun was suggested by Mr C who in turn stole it from a text sent to 5live during a practice session. If it's good enough for Maurice Hamilton to fill five minutes, it's good enough for us.

Combine three sectors from any current or previous F1 racing circuits to create the ultimate F1 track.

I have given this a small amount of thought already, and have picked Eau Rouge which is in the first sector. My reason is because it's Eau Rouge, obviously, and because I like big hills. Then I thought I wanted the final few corners of Brazil, because they have provided some great racing over the past few years, and because I like big hills.

Finally, I picked out Turn 8 at Turkey as I have always had a soft spot for that corner since it was introduced. Mr C has pointed out that I have a bit of a problem as my first sector goes up and never comes back down again, and the same can be said for my last sector. I have always thought, though, that F1 should have more cliffs in it, don't you think?

Anyway, that's my initial thoughts, I'll be adding some more later in the day and would love to hear yours.

Daily: 21st November 2009

I am slightly late with this daily post, as Mr C and myself were caught up playing the new Wii game. On the strength of Lukeh's review, we went out and bought it and then hijacked our inlaws for their console. Apologies for that. Elsewhere:

• Lou has written up a post about her experience meeting Jenson Button at a book signing in London. It's a really great read, if only for the bit about Jenson describing F1 photography.
• Whilst we are playing our game, we're also keeping an eye on the Children in Need telethon in the UK. Lewis Hamilton made a brief appearance, visiting a centre for disabled children, and playing some games with them. Button also popped up plugging the various ways you can donate. Good stuff!
• There was a small amount of F1 news yesterday, as Williams took on a new shareholder. Joe has written about this and as ever, explained what it really means, so it is definitely recommended reading. It's been a quiet couple of days, though, just as we hoped for!

That's all for now. We are into the beautiful weekend now, so as ever, let us know what you're up to and I will see you in the comments.

Friday Fun - Create Your Own Press Release

It's Friday Fun time again, as we try and lighten the off season - something particularly important after the week we've just had! This time, I'd actually forgotten it was Friday, but thanks to a last minute idea from Lukeh in the comments, we have a game to play. Here's the premise:

Create your own press release. Choose a driver/s, choose an event, choose a consequence/action

This is a very interesting one as it can vary wildly from serious business to something rather ridiculous, and I know we're going to see some great responses.

For now, here's an example from me:

Press Release
Rockall 20.11.09.
Sidepodracers would like to confirm that they have signed their drivers for the 2010 season - Franck Montagny and Yun Zi - the baby panda.

Understandably, we have brought Franck in for his considerable expertise and epxerience, whereas we have gone for youth with Yun Zi. We are hoping to be able to train the panda up. Our only concern is the language barrier between our two drivers.

Yes, that really is our only concern.

End.

I'm sure you can all do much better than that, though, so I look forward to seeing plenty of press releases throughout the day. Get typing!