Sidepodcast

F1 Debrief - I Hate Them All

• Length: 47:38 
• Size: 43.8 MB 
• File: debrief134.mp3 
• Transcript: Coming soon 
• Torrent: debrief134.torrent 

Coming up this week we discuss moonlighting, licensing issues, ideal tracks, self sponsorship, Virgin’s woes, and F1 fiction.

Intro

It's Valentine's Day and what are we doing? Making a podcast, obviously!

Good Week / Bad Week

A good week for Stefan GP because they still have the belief they will get onto the grid at some point in the first four races. Also a good week for Ron Dennis who was inducted into the Motorsport Magazine Hall of Fame. A bad week for Heikki Kovalainen who had to take a second job for Finnish TV during the Lotus launch, and for team bosses as Bernie Ecclestone would like to license them.

News and Views

Before we talk about the launches, there's a quick update on Silverstone who confirmed they would be running the new MotoGP layout for the race. Damon Hill is not impressed.

Three teams unveiled their new cars this week, with Force India the first to do so. Their online launch was barely a launch with just a few photos making an appearance. The car and livery look exactly the same as last year. Red Bull also have a similar car to last year, and also to Toro Rosso, but you can tell the (magic) hand of Adrian Newey has been on the case. Their launch was marginally better, as the car was at Jerez already.

Finally, Lotus showed them all how it was done with a real life London launch, and the green/yellow livery caused no end of debate. They also have a podcast starring none other than Ted Kravitz (and some Lotus people...).

Here's the updated table of our launch scores:

We move on to testing talk, but really it was not as exciting as last week due to the weather. Virgin Racing had a terrible time, Michael Schumacher prefers to eat at Ferrari, and they like to run out of fuel on purpose.

Feedback

I'm keen on starting a Mailbag show, but for now, two voicemails kick off the Feedback section. RG is not at all impressed with this year's liveries, whilst Adie had a minor breakdown when the doohickey malfunctioned.

Luis tells us how Formula 1 is in Portugal, Myles credits Ted, Sandy confirms he will photograph the marmots for me, Alberto talks F1 and music, and Steve points out McLaren's latest initiative for bloggers and fans. Also, happy birthday to Zoe.

Housekeeping

The wiki is in a state of disrepair at the moment but I'm working on it. Also I have started writing some fiction, in which you can vote on the outcome.

Outtakes

Not really an outtake, but something you wouldn't expect Mr C to say:

Now to the good stuff:

Linkage

• Sidepodcast: All Up in the Air (KerbRider guest post)
• Sidepodcast: F1 2010 Launch Coverage
• Lotus Podcast (iTunes link)
• CNET Mailbag
• F1 Wolf: 2010 F1 Drivers Helmets
• Air Wolf One - F1
• Claire Williams on Twitter
• McLaren Fan Blog: Help Design the New McLaren Hoody
• Sidepodcast Wiki
• Ten Step Stories

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.

F1 Safety - Helmets and Clothing

• Length: 4:25 
• Size: 4.1 MB 
• File: safety1.mp3 
• Transcript: safety1.pdf 
• Torrent: safety1.torrent 

Hello and welcome to Sidepodcast, this is a new mini series called F1 Safety. We’ll be taking a closer look at all the things that minimise the risks of driving at 300km/h. We’ll be covering various topics over the next seven shows, and today our attention turns to helmets and clothing.

Every Formula 1 ticket across the globe heralds the warning: “Motorsport is dangerous.” And it is. No one could argue that driving at enormous speed around a narrow circuit would be anything but. However, F1 has taken great strides forward in safety since its early days, and now even the smallest details are covered with precise requirements.

The driver’s helmet is a perfect example. For a driver, his head, neck, and arms are the most exposed areas during a race. The rest of his body is tucked away behind sheets of carbon fibre, but his head takes the full brunt of any oncoming forces. Putting aside what could happen in an accident, every single corner taken by a driver can be a strain on the head.

It is no surprise, therefore, that every driver wears a helmet. They can weigh anywhere between 1250 grams and 1800 grams, and not only are they designed for safety, but also try to blend well with a car’s aerodynamic profile. Made out of layers and layers of carbon fibre for strength, the helmet is lightweight, virtually indestructible, with fireproof materials forming the cushioning on the inside.

There are a few main helmet suppliers, including Bell and Schuberth, and all are subjected to strict crash test procedures by the FIA. Each helmet is fully customised for the driver and most include holes for breathing, ventilation and drinking straws. The ventilation does include some filters to keep out elements of carbon, brake dust, oil and fuel vapours. The helmets also block out a lot of the surrounding noise, which allows for drivers to be in radio communication with their engineers in the pits.

As well as being able to hear, it also helps if a driver can see, obviously. The visor is about 3mm thick, and fireproof, with variable tinted shades depending on the time of the session, the state of the weather, and the track. At Singapore, many of the drivers had lighter visors to help visibility, whilst we know Felipe Baby wanted a lighter visor during the bad rain in Malaysia. Technology also exists to allow the tinting to adjust, as some sunglasses do. In the tunnel at Monaco, it can be slightly brighter, whilst at the exit it can darken again.

Underneath the helmet, the driver wears a balaclava made of Nomex, and this is a name you’ll hear a lot when it comes to safety clothing. Nomex is supremely flame retardant material, in that it can be subjected to open flames of about 300 to 400 degrees C temperature without igniting. It’s used for the drivers balaclava, as we’ve already mentioned, plus overalls – with elastic cuffs on the wrist and ankles – for drivers and the pit crew, gloves, socks and underwear.

The overalls also have zips that are designed to be flame retardant and more importantly, not to transfer heat onto the drivers skin, as regular metal zip would. Racing shoes continue the fireproof trend, but are also lightweight, with thin soles and plenty of grip to allow maximum control in the car.

Once the driver is kitted out and ready to race, he needs just one more piece of equipment – the HANS device. This Head and Neck Support device is a way of tethering the helmet so that a drivers head won’t flail around in case of an accident. The system consists of a so-called shoulder corset, made of carbon fibre, which is then connected to the helmet by small straps, and to the safety belts as well. The device is designed to allow the natural movement of racing, but it should restrict the impact of an accident. That kind of force could increase the weight of a helmet to as much as 560kg, which can be absorbed by HANS.

The FIA commissioned the development of the design from Dr Robert Hubbard of the University of Michigan in the mid-1990s, but HANS didn’t become mandatory until 2003.

There is so much technology involved in these helmets and clothing elements already, but developments are happening all the time. Recently, some drivers have tested out heated visors to try and help with the problem of fogging up in humid conditions. There’s plenty more innovation still to come.

That’s all for this first episode of F1 Safety. Tomorrow we’ll take a look at another element of safety within Formula 1 and until then, your comments and feedback are always welcome. You can email me Christine@sidepodcast.com.

Theme music: Headway, Safety.

Daily: 17th June 2009

It's the day after the night before and I can only imagine what kind of sugar hangover I will have after all that Milky Bar. Nevertheless, the week goes on, and here are some of the things we're talking about at the moment:

• Nick Heidfeld has been blown away by the number of submissions for his helmet design competition, with other 5,000 to date. Apparently one of the designs is a panoramic view of the Nurburgring, which can only be described as bizarre. If you haven't had a go yet, head on over to the site to submit your design. (Please note, we still think Button's competition is better.)
• I had an overdose of more than just sugar yesterday, when a host of Franck pictures hit the Sidepodcast drop. Firstly, James made me an awesome Franck montage, whilst Gavin - newly returned from Le Mans - has pictures of the man on the start line. Yay for pictures.
• In actual F1 news, Renault have defended Piquet's um, Piquetness, by suggesting that he is still learning, still inexperienced, and if there is no confidence in the car, how can they expect confidence in the driver? I would suggest that a lack of confidence is not the problem Piquet has.

Those are just some of the things we've been thinking about, if you have any more to add, please feel free to use the daily post to discuss anything on your mind. Yesterday, we managed to combine conversation about both politics and kettles in the same thread, so anything goes. I'll see you in the comments.

Winning Isn't Everything

It's well known in Sidepodcircles that guest writer Lou is a fan of Brawn GP, and in particular a certain British driver for the team. Here she tells us about the recent competition she entered and subsequent joy at receiving a prize.

I first came across Jenson’s design a helmet competition last year when it was originally launched for the 2008 British Grand Prix. It was something very different and I had a lot of fun thinking through designs I could enter and trying them out. Sadly I didn’t get any prizes last year , but when I noticed they would be launching the competition again for the 2009 British Grand Prix the combination of the winning prize and the fact that it was so simple and fun to take part in made me want to have another go.

This year the designs needed to be of a UK theme, so I wanted to incorporate the Union Jack and I also liked Jenson’s previous Union Jack themed helmet. The design I eventually thought of was slightly tricky with the tools they give you, and just my touch pad on my laptop, and it did take me a few attempts but didn’t take too long to complete. Sadly you could only submit one entry, otherwise I may have come up with a few other ideas.

When I opened the email telling me I had come third I was totally shocked. I hadn’t expected to get anything as there had been so many entries, so it came as a bit of a surprise and made me very happy. Initially it didn’t really sink in, but knowing Jenson had chosen the top three himself was almost reward enough.

I love my prizes, I think they are really unique and being a massive Jenson / Honda / Brawn GP fan I’m not sure I could have asked for more. They are certainly something I will treasure for a very long time. I wasn’t expecting the cap to be personally signed either so that was yet another welcome surprise and is now very precious to me.

I think these sort of creative competitions are brilliant and more teams and drivers should certainly try and do similar things. They are great fun to take part in, and I think they give a greater sense of reward than maybe winning competitions by answering a few easy questions would. You feel that it has more importance, and the prizes mean so much more because they require more effort and are judged by people in the public eye you look up to, e.g. the driver. I believe a few drivers have had similar competitions on their sites and I think it’s something that should really be encouraged, especially as they are generally free to enter.

Driver Safety - Helmets

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

We’ve already looked at the clothes a driver has to be kitted out in to make sure he is safe, but one of the most important elements for his wellbeing is the helmet. Whilst its main priority is simply to protect the head, the helmet has adapted over the years to become a cutting edge piece of technology.

Helmets used to be really heavy, weighing around 2kg. If an accident occurred, they could cause serious whiplash and neck injuries, especially under extreme deceleration. Helmet manufacturers realised that this was a big issue, and invested in making the materials lighter. It was worth the research, though, as now helmets weigh roughly 1.25kg, and are much, much stronger.

They are made from several layers of plastic and carbon fibre, designed to be strong and absorb any impact in the case of an accident. The inside of a helmet, the softer bit that goes against a driver’s face, is made up of the same fireproof materials as the overalls. The visor is made from special plastic, and can be tinted depending on the time of day. We saw in Singapore drivers used less tinting to provide more vision. Most drivers carry tear off strips of plastic on their visors at the start of a Grand Prix, so that they can tear them off as their vision gets dusty throughout the afternoon. Each helmet has to pass strict FIA tests, just as every part of an F1 car does, and has to work well with the Head and Neck Support device.

There are a few tricky areas, when it comes to helmets. Drivers tend to have a water bottle with them in during the races, especially at tracks with high temperatures and humidity. The helmets can have a hole in which the straw or pipe of the water bottle is fed through. This allows them to drink easily. Of course, they have to be able to breath easily as well, and the helmets have small filters on them to allow ventilation.

These days, the clever minds behind the best F1 technologies are including the helmet as part of the design of the car. The driver is just below the main air duct leading to the engine, and therefore the right shaped helmet can assist with air flow, directing it where it needs to go.

Driver Safety - Clothing

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

When it comes to driver safety, there have been vast improvements in the car, in the facilities and in the circuits themselves. A driver wouldn’t dream of getting in the car without a helmet on, and the same is true of the clothes they have to wear. You can’t get in an F1 car in your jeans and a t-shirt, the safety requirements outweigh the need to look fashionable.

The major requirement for a drivers outfit is for it to be fireproof. Nowadays we don’t see many fires, but with so many flammable elements to a Grand Prix weekend, precautions must be taken. There have been fatal crashes in the sport before, where a driver has died because of the flames from the fuel, rather than from the impact itself. We’ve also seen some terrible fires in the pit lane, where things are at their most dangerous.

These days, a drivers overalls are made to withstand very high temperatures and strong flames. The fabric needs to be light, durable, and not claustrophobic – things get quite sweaty in the cockpit. The plastic material is tested with a propane flame, and all of the overalls are made of the same material, the basic body suit, the sponsor logos, even the thread which holds it all together.

Another feature of modern overalls is a strip on each shoulder that acts as a handle. If a driver needs to be removed from his car in a hurry, he can be pulled out by these. The seat is actually detachable as well, meaning that if the worst came to the worst, a driver and his seat could be pulled out by these handles. They have to be very strong to make this possible.

Other aspects of a driver’s wardrobe include fireproof underwear, gloves, and special racing boots. The last two are especially important as they need to be safe, but also thin enough for a driver to be able to steer his car accurately. It’s no good being completely safe and wearing enormous gloves, if by wearing them you are inevitably going to crash. The soles of the racing boots are very thin, to allow a driver the best contact with the pedals. There has to be a fine balance between safety and the ability to race. Motorsport is dangerous, it’s a given fact. You can’t travel at high speeds and not take a risk. However, there’s no need for lives to be put in danger when they don’t need to be, and the clothes a driver wears add just that little bit of extra protection when things go wrong.