Coming up this week, we discuss tyres, skipping races, Ferrari moaning, Doctor Who, green paint, plus a special Tremayne.
Intro
Everyone in the whole world is counting down to the season now, so it must almost be here.
Good Week / Bad Week
It's been a good week for Michelin as they're contemplating coming back into F1, although we can't figure out why. Also for Ferrari as Alonso really rates their car. It's been a bad week for race fans as the Abu Dhabi race is still safe, and for Alvaro Parente who is out of a reserve driver role.
News and Views
We consider the future of US F1 and Campos. US F1 don't seem to be struggling something chronic, and I'm not happy about their desire to miss four races. If they miss four then I want to as well! Campos, though, have found a way forward at least, but it seems as though they won't be the Campos we know and, erm, love.
Testing was mixed weather, starting out rough much to Ferrari's disgust. It improved towards the end of the week though, so we evaluate who was fast, who was slow, who James Allen rates, and the Lotus/Virgin battle.
Feedback
A quick hi to a Twitter user, plus an update on the McLaren hoody contest. We get a voicemail from Dan and an email from Tom regarding the green paint situation. Zach says we are mostly fun, whilst Lewis has a major Tremayne about Twitter and liveries. Adie has launched an online magazine, Peter wasn't keen on the CSI New York episode with added motorsport references, and Mike updates on his coverage in Canada. Finally in website feedback, Darryl is impressed, whilst Dr J wants a little tweak to the breakout threads.
Housekeeping
No real housekeeping except to say there's no show next week, because of Joe's meetup on Friday, plus the real important testing over the weekend. When we return in two week's time, it's the last show before the season begins.
It's been a pretty quiet week in the world of Christine's Rankings. Most of the drivers have been keeping to themselves, busy with pre-season testing. There haven't been any launches which means no major public appearances, but that doesn't mean we haven't been eagle-eyed.
Heikki Kovalainen has been brought to my attention the most. Firstly, he joined Twitter which was good news, particularly as he was tweeting from the garage in Jerez when he wasn't even driving that day. However, then he went and starred in a video for MTV3 and some of these pictures are quite scary. A horse!
Heikki isn't the only one to be moving around on the list though. Di Grassi and Glock both make a move, whilst Webber and Hulkenberg join the rankings.
Position
Driver
Score
Additional Notes
1
Lucas di Grassi
7
+2 for appearing in that Virgin video in a deckchair
2
Timo Glock
5.5
+2 for appearing in that Virgin video in a deckchair
3
Fernando Alonso
4
4
Sebastian Vettel
4
5
Felipe Massa
4
6
Rubens Barrichello
3
7
Nico Rosberg
2
8
Bruno Senna
2
9
Nico Hulkenberg
2
+2 for completing the most laps in Jerez this week - I like a new guy who'll work hard
10
Jaime Alguersuari
1
11
Heikki Kovalainen
1
+3 for being on Twitter and -1 for posing with a horse
12
Mark Webber
-1
-1 for swearing unnecessarily when talking about his future in the sport
13
Michael Schumacher
-7
14
Sebastien Buemi
N/A
15
Jenson Button
N/A
16
Lewis Hamilton
N/A
17
Kamui Kobayashi
N/A
18
Robert Kubica
N/A
19
Tonio Liuzzi
N/A
20
Jose Maria Lopez
N/A
21
Vitaly Petrov
N/A
22
Pedro de la Rosa
N/A
23
Adrian Sutil
N/A
24
Jarno Trulli
N/A
There's just one more week of testing left for our drivers to get onto my radar before the season begins and the real points start flying around. Don't forget you can let me know if you spot anything I should be aware of for next week's rankings, be it video, interview or photographs. Leave a comment below, or email me christine at sidepodcast dot com.
Another week is ready to get going, although it seems like all the fun stuff is towards the end of it. We've got testing in Barcelona plus a meetup with Joe, but that doesn't kick off until Thursday and Friday. I'm sure we can keep ourselves amused until then, though, and here are some of the things we've been up to:
It was guest post central this weekend, as we had four posts over the course of three days. I've mentioned some of them already in previous daily threads, but in case you missed them, here's the full run down of the guest posts we had. It started with Lady Snowcat's In Search of the Iceman, then on to Lewis with Silverstone vs. Silverstone. Lukeh got us feeling optimistic with Approaching the Start Line and finally Brawn2bwild spent A Sunny Saturday Afternoon in Jerez. If you've got a story you want to share, please get writing and forward it to christine@sidepodcast.com.
If you're looking for more to read, Jackie has a great selection of posts to peruse in her Something for the Weekend roundup. I love reading the roundups in case there is something I have missed, which there usually is. Definitely worth checking out.
SpeedTV's Adam Cooper has written an interesting post about the possibility of a return to F1 by Jacques Villeneuve, although it really is more about the likelihood of Stefan GP making the grid. I can't believe there are so many team changes this close to the season beginning, but it's certainly giving the journalists something to do!
That should do it for now. There'll be an F1 Debrief podcast along at some point this evening, and until then, I will see you in the comments.
New guest writer Brawn2bwild was at the Jerez test yesterday, and on her way home, noticed our call for your stories of F1 events. In this excellent post, she shares her experience of the brand new 2010 cars, close up and first hand.
The hills are alive with the sound of music – or in this case F1 testing – which is music to my ears at least! Although I've been a stalwart fan for more than half my life time, I'm finding this year's off-season harder than usual. For me, 2009 was quite simply fantastic. Having supported the Brackley based team since their inception in '97, as well as JB since his Williams days, I feel that last season was my reward for the years of derision and torment I experienced through the dark (and boring) days of the Ferrari/Schumacher era. Now though the '09 season is sadly over and although Bahrain is in only 21 days it still seems far too far away.
Fortunately I live in the south of Spain at the moment. I chose to live in Seville, not for it’s wonderful culture, great night life or beautiful architecture (though it certainly has all of these) but for it’s proximity to Jerez Circuito de Velocidad.
As I approach the turn off from the motorway I can already see that there is a stream of cars going into the car parks and the police are out directing traffic. I'm beginning to hear snatches of engine noise over my taxi driver’s radio and the sun is (finally) shining - I've definitely made the right choice in coming down here today. As I walk up to the entrance gate with a legion of others, the noise of the cars bounces off the hills and the crowd cheers – Alonso must be on track.
Credit: Brawn2bwild
Based on the angle of his helmet, I reckon he's looking at the crowds in this one.
The Spanish have a reputation for being somewhat laidback and prone to procrastination, especially here in Andalucía. They are not known for their punctuality or customer service either, but if there’s one thing the Spanish do, it’s motorsport! Despite the high volume of Tifosi and other fans, the traffic is flowing, there are no long queues at the ticket booth or gates and gaining entry is a piece of cake. I am a little surprised by how many people are here today as historically Spanish petrol-heads have tended to be of the 2-wheeled variety more than the 4. This is not surprising when, as is the case in Italy, mopeds, scooters and bikes are the preferred mode of transport. But unlike their Latin cousins they don’t have Ferrari.
Now though, on this sunny Saturday afternoon, the car parks are full and there are people everywhere. Even though this is only a test session there is a good atmosphere with packed stands and men, women and children of all ages standing up to wave and cheer for their hero in his brand new shiny red (and sadly white) beast. As I walk up to the nearest fence for a view of the track Alonso obligingly slows down to avoid the Ayrton Senna chicane and instead takes the Alex Criville corner and drives sedately past one of the packed stands, much to the appreciation of the crowd. Standing here I am struck by how varied the crowd is, unlike my previous experiences of motor racing it seems to be roughly 50/50 men and women with all ages and walks of life represented. Next to me some young boys press their faces to the fence for a closer look and a young child is lifted onto his father’s shoulders to enable him to see over the tyre wall.
Credit: Brawn2bwild
The back half of the car doesn't look so bumpy from the side.
I can see now why I've been told that Jerez is a great circuit, from my initial stand point alone, I can see that it has some significant changes in elevation, although it doesn’t look to be as much as Spa. The track itself nestles amongst some small but steep hills, giving many possible view points to the adventurous spectator. Right now there is evidence everywhere of the uncharacteristically wet weather we’ve been having lately, with pools of water and a fair amount of mud lying around. In places the concrete paths connecting different stands have been completely covered over by deep mud slides. But this does not put off the intrepid Alonso fan in his pursuit of the perfect vantage point. Everywhere I look I can see people scrambling over steep muddy embankments in an effort to get to the other side of the track. There are old men with walking sticks and even a guy on crutches battling through the mud.
I also decide to go for a walk about in an attempt to find some interesting camera angles, I realise I don’t even mind messing up my favourite trainers to do so either. I start to climb up and around the track in an anti-clockwise direction and soon wish I had better stamina or was in some way related to Sir Edmund Hillary! It takes a while but I manage to clamber over near to the "Dry Sack Curva" without twisting my ankle or dropping my camera, and find a nice big rock to sit on. It’s pretty hot now the sun is baking down as it should be for this part of the world and my rock is nice and warm. It gives me a great elevated view down onto the turn but over the fence and heads of those in front of me. Unfortunately though there’s not much going on at the moment - only Trulli's Lotus out on track - so I decide to take advantage of the quiet spell and change location again, this time finding a half empty stand quite low down and close to the track at the Angel Nieto and Peluqui corners. I spend quite a bit of time here playing with the settings on my camera and end up taking what I think will turn out to be my favourite photograph of the day. It’s of Jenson going round the corner all slightly out of focus except his front left suspension. I take a lot of photos from here and get to see all of today’s drivers and cars except Glock's Virgin which has not been seen since just after I arrived around midday.
Credit: Brawn2bwild
The Renault is amazingly bright to the naked eye, it's hard to explain just how strange it looks based on photos alone.
The only downside to being here and not in front of a computer screen is that despite the size of the crowd, there are no screens or timing boards up and without an internet capable phone, I've no idea of the times the drivers are getting. I do notice that Lotus and Sauber seem to be putting a lot of laps in while, sadly for the crowds, Alonso’s Ferrari hasn’t been seen much at all since I first got here. Happily for me though, I get some good shots of the Red Bull, Williams and McLaren. I'm excited to see JB putting a lot of laps in but manage to restrain myself from cheering him – I stand out enough here as it is. It turns out he’s been top of the time sheets for much of the day.
Eventually I summon up the energy to return across the wet, sticky mud of the landslide back towards the entrance. I've managed to walk approximately half of the circuit and I've taken photos from 7 different places along the way. I've also met some cool and interesting characters too. There are a few Brits dotted about here and there and the odd German too, I saw a cute little girl in a McLaren race suit and an incredibly old man in a wheelchair halfway up a hill with his Ferrari hat on, a big flag attached to his chair and a huge grin on his face.
Right now though the clouds are starting to come back over and I fear it might rain again (more than likely as I've not brought my umbrella) so it may be time for me to think about how I'm going to get home. I can get a train from Jerez station, only problem is the track is out in the countryside and there’s no bus route out here or taxi rank. I could call a taxi but it’s gonna cost me an arm and a leg as I’d be paying for both directions. What I really need is to hitch a lift. (This is where being a blonde woman in Spain finally pays off) So I head out to the car parks, where there is still a steady stream of people coming and going from the track, and I strike up a conversation with a friendly looking guy walking out with a couple of kids. I'm in luck as he’s going my way and it turns out the children go to a school that I used to teach at. It works out well; his kids get 20 minutes of private English practice while he takes a short detour into the town of Jerez and drops me near the station – result!
As I write this now from the comfort of the train I realise how exhausted I am as with any race track spectators cover a lot of distance to get about. My feet hurt and my shoulders ache from carrying my camera bag but I've done a helluva lot of walking/hiking today! All in all though I'm very happy. I saw some beautiful cars and some eye-watering ones (boy is that Renault bright!). I met some nice people and watched some of my favourite drivers. In some ways it’s helped with my F1 withdrawal problems but I'm also more excited than ever now for the 2010 season. Bahrain can’t come soon enough!
Sunday has arrived, and with it brings a live show... but not from us. Giggles Radio is scheduled to begin at 4pm today, so I hope you will join Alex as he brings us some excellent music with added chatter to go with it. Meanwhile, here are some of the things we're keeping an eye on:
Mr C has been making some more tweaks, this time the Sidepodcast Feed. If you subscribe to keep up with the blog posts, you should know find an added bit at the bottom of each entry so you can check the ratings, click through to comments and find related posts directly from your chosen feed reader.
If you've been struggling to keep up with everything from testing in Jerez, then F1 Minute is here for you! Yesterday I posted a special episode to catch up with the final day, but there is 60 second coverage for each day of testing, including who was fastest, who was slowest, weather updates, and of course, who was causing all the red flags.
It was a day of guest posts yesterday as firstly Lewis discussed two separate events at Silverstone and how they compare and contrast, and then Lukeh told us why he's looking forward to the upcoming season and why we should too. It's a great insight into the mind of a Rubens fan, obviously, but there is also plenty of optimism to go round.
That should do it for now. We should have a podcast along either later today or some time tomorrow, and as ever, I will see you in the comments.
Today teams will head into their last day of testing at the Jerez track, before everyone decamps and heads for a final four day test in Barcelona next week. Time is rapidly running out for all concerned.
Friday seemed to be red flag day in Jerez, with a total of six stoppages throughout the test causing all manner of delays. Kamui Kobayashi appeared to suffer more than most though, only managing 28 laps, Timo Glock faired little better with just 34. Notably Jarno Trulli will finally see some testing action as he settles into his green and yellow Lotus office.
On track action begins at 9am CET (8am GMT).
Circuit Information
Track length: 4.428km
Corners: 13
Lap record: 1:23.135 (Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Williams, 1997)
You'll find Circuito de Jerez located in South of Spain.
Drivers and Teams Attending
The following teams and drivers are confirmed for testing on Wednesday
Hi there. I'm a bit late writing today's daily post as I spent all of last night fixing my mother-in-law's power shower. It was in turns fun and a bit stressful, and I ended up quite damp, but the astonishing discovery is that I really quite like doing DIY. However, it is time to concentrate on Formula 1 related stuff, and here is some:
There's been a bit of a shuffle around at Campos as Colin Kolles - formerly of Force India - has become team principal, alongside new investor José Ramón Carabante. We have a breakout thread on the topic, and it's fair to say the news hasn't come as an enormous surprise, but it's good to see the team have some investment, and they may gain some momentum as we get closer to the season.
Webber was on top for the third day in Jerez this week, after finally a day with plenty of dry running. I haven't managed to do F1 Minute yet (see shower related issues above), but the sixty second catchup will be along as soon as possible. For the second day in a row there were four red flags, one of which was caused by the pace sitter Webber. Oops. Most of the attention was on Lotus vs Virgin Racing again, though, and it looks like Lotus are winning the pre-season battle.
Finally, and actually this is not F1 related, but Lady Snowcat has written us an excellent guest post reliving her recent trip to Sweden to watch Kimi rallying. The post includes some excellent descriptions of what it was like to be a spectator at the event, and I feel cold just reading about it!
That's all for now. Let us know what you're up to this weekend, and I will see you in the comments.
Friday has arrived and with it comes more testing in Jerez. It looks as though it might be a little less damp out there in Spain, but since when did the weather people ever predict anything right? I've been enjoying consuming testing through our dedicated threads though, so I hope you'll join us through the day. Anyway, here are some other things we're talking about:
The digital version of Autosport Magazine was launched yesterday, with three magazines available to peruse. We snapped up a subscription instantly, and although it isn't exactly a bargain, if you were thinking about subscribing to the paper version, definitely consider the digital version instead. You also get access to all the online stuff, including Forix, so it is well worth the money.
Yesterday, I mentioned the US F1 rumours which are still just that at the moment. More respected sources are reporting the Argentinian newspaper thoughts, but we're still not sure of anything official. Meanwhile, Campos are getting ever closer to being bought out and it looks like former Force India employee Colin Kolles might be involved as well. I do wish these teams would sort themselves out, don't they know I have an F1 Digest Preview series to write?
In former F1 driver news, Takuma Sato has secured himself an IndyCar drive with KV Racing, David Coulthard has said that he would like to have another test in a DTM car and apparently Mercedes are considering it, and finally Kovalainen is still keen on trying his hand at rallying despite having his work cut out with Lotus at the moment. I like to see drivers keeping busy.
There were other things I wanted to link to today, but at the time of writing Wordpress.com had spectacularly died, leaving me without some of our favourite blogs to share. Hopefully it is already back, or will be soon. I will see you in the comments.
Lotus F1 Racing had a fantastic first day of testing, completing 76 trouble free laps before the end of the day. Seemingly the only issue the team faced was the enforced lack of power steering, something the drivers will no doubt be keen to see resolved quickly.
Vettel in the RB6 headed the pack with a time of 1:22.5 after covering 99 laps, while at the other end of the scale Timo Glock managed just 10 laps for Virgin. They'll be hoping for much, much more today.
On track action begins at 9am CET (8am GMT).
Circuit Information
Track length: 4.428km
Corners: 13
Lap record: 1:23.135 (Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Williams, 1997)
You'll find Circuito de Jerez located in South of Spain.
Drivers and Teams Attending
The following teams and drivers are confirmed for testing on Wednesday
Although it was raining in Jerez yesterday, it was intermittent and that meant we saw a good bit of running, even if it wasn't representative of anything. Virgin Racing are still struggling, and they are who I am keeping my eye on today. I hope you'll join me in the dedicated testing thread to do the same (or similar for whichever team you're interested in). Elsewhere:
We're also keeping an eye out for any US F1 related news, as the rumour mill is really hotting up that there are bad vibes coming from Peter Windsor and the team. There is nothing concrete, and it's all speculation at the moment, but this is a similar feeling to the one's that happened before Honda and before Toyota.
In better news, KerbRider gave us some more thoughts on the upcoming season in another great guest post - this time focusing on the relationships between the drivers in the four teams we'll all be watching closely. There are some interesting thoughts in there, and it's well worth a read. The inter-team relationships are going to be super important this year, I think.
We were curious why Lotus ran Fauzy on their first day of testing, particularly as Heikki was at Jerez, tweeting away from the garage. Apparently, the car lacked some power steering though, so perhaps Heikki didn't want to bother when the car wasn't going to be setup right? Either way, the new team did really well, certainly won the battle of the new boys in terms of first day of testing!
Dan Brunell has published this week's Thursday Thoughts question and it's a tough one. Head on over to his site for more detail, and leave a comment or blog your response before the end of today. Don't forget to plug like crazy if you take part.
That should do it for now. Let us know what you're up to, and how you're coping with horrible Thursday, and I will see you in the comments.
