Hello, hello. I have returned to man the controls and the daily post duty returns to me. Thank you to everyone for our first week of fabulous guest daily posts. I think it's safe to say the experiment was a success. A greater variety of links, ideas and content, some of them even relating to F1. Good times. If anyone else wants to get involved, there's always room for more volunteers. Now, on to some things I want to share:
- Talking of how good the daily posts were, Giggles was really impressed with Lukeh's epic post yesterday and not only printed it out - he also bound it! Mr C thinks this might be the best video he's seen all year.
- We discovered yesterday that the Race of Champions will be held at Germany this year, which can only be an improvement on last year's Beijing event. We live commented the event in 2009 and weren't that impressed with all that we saw. RG also had some thoughts at the time on how it could be better. Let's keep our fingers crossed that they're listening!
- As Lukeh mentioned yesterday, I have started the second series of Life in the Fast Lane - where you, the reader, get to decide at the end of each chapter what happens next. We're on to Part Two now, and voting will stay open until I remember to close it at some point this evening. If you need a quick recap, I've got a dedicated page that should help you out.
That's all for today. Let us know what you're up to over the weekend, and as usual, I will see you in the comments.
It's the end of the week once more, and we've enjoyed five days of discussing brand new cars. Well, a new car and a livery anyway. With all the teams turning to online streaming to give fans an insight into the launches of their new machinery, we've suddenly realised just how stuffy the events can be. Suits and cameras, interviews and PR speak, aside from looking at the new paint job, the launches do leave a lot to be desired.
So, the big question this week for our Friday Fun game is:
How would you make F1 launches better?
We're talking from the smallest little details, to the very big things such as location. In fact, here's a list of things that you could decide upon, although tell us anything you've got in mind.
- Location and timing
- Who would host the event?
- Would you have any special guests?
- Background music, or invited bands?
- What would you get the drivers to do?
My first thought is that I'd get the media onside by handing out sweets, and I would get the drivers to answer the questions whilst also having a go on a bouncy castle. I think that would spice things up a bit. I'm going to have to give it some more thought though, and while I do, please leave your launch ideas in the comments.
Nick takes the idea of improvised comedy and applies it to the world of Formula 1, taking a superb set of panellists through some great scenarios and seeing what they can come up with.
Highlights include:
- Sponsorship Endorsements
- Martin Brundle's Gridwalk
- Flavio Briatore in conversation
Related links:
Instead of us rehashing our thoughts of the 2008 season, we invited the Sidepodcast community to send in their own reviews. Bundled together, they become the best Megamix of the year. Taking part in this extra special end of year show (in no particular order):
Notably, this may be the first ever episode of Sidepodcast in which neither myself nor Mr Christine feature. I think it's all the better for it, though, so thank you to everyone who took part, and everyone who joined us for such a great season.
Featured music: Orange Is In, Final Song and Fall of Snow, You Said Nothing. Find out more about the music played on Sidepodcast here.
In which we discuss all manner of important things, such as ride on lawnmowers, marker pens, and chocolate ice cream. Oh, and that Belgium penalty business is analysed by us and some guests.
Intro
We will talk about it but before we get to the thing on everyone's minds we have to look back a bit first.
Good Week / Bad Week
It's both a good and bad week for Bridgestone as they seem to have plans for the future, as long as they only involve white. Williams have got their grass-cutting measures sorted, whilst we're worried about the Irish in F1.
News and Views
Ted Kravitz said it first when he realised there would be a problem regarding the close proximity of Donington Park to the airport. In happier news, Ron Dennis supports charity, and fishing.
Qualifying
Raikkonen keeps getting fined, but it might not have been his fault this time. Alonso had a good day, but not quite as good as Hamilton... or Bourdais. Also, why do Force India have such poor performance when they've got a Ferrari engine bolted in the back?
The Race
We discuss the pre-rain merits of the race, including the first lap corner and spins, plus tyre decisions and poor, lonely Piquet. Then we discuss the inevitable, the event that everyone wants to hear about. We also get four guests in on the act, Journeyer, Jordan, Steven and Scott all have an opinion on the subject as well.
Feedback
Lots of lovely emails this week. Nigel joins the league in 18th, Dan finishes 20th, Keith needs a new camera, Drew needs to send me some mail, and Carlos and R.G. discuss the relative performance of TV Coverage in Mexico and Portugal.
Housekeeping
Parade Lap was so much fun that we're going to have to do it again, this time next week.
Linkage
