Say hello to Wednesday as we reach the middle of the week. Who is getting unbelievably excited for Free Practice on Friday then? Yesterday we were discussing whether it was acceptable to leave a wedding early so you can watch qualifying. I say yes, how about you? Meanwhile, here are the other things we're talking about:
The Factbyte Factbox had a radical overhaul yesterday and finally completed the goal we had in mind for it since it debuted a year ago - live updates. There's more information about what we're trying to achieve, and what happened during the brief test last night on this post. Don't worry if you missed it, though, it'll be back plenty of times during the season!
It was a day for refreshing websites yesterday, as McLaren launched their new site, Williams had a fresh lick of paint, and Autosport introduced a new 2010 Season Guide. The new season preview edition of Grand Prix Plus emerged yesterday as well, so make sure you check that out if you haven't already. All good stuff that should keep you busy for a little while!
Whilst doing a bit of admin for F1 Big Picture, it occurred to us that we'd fallen into our trap of introducing concepts and not really telling anyone about them, so we decided that for 2010 we'd try and be a bit more transparent - or at least plug things more. This post over on F1 minute explains the pattern our Big Pictures take ahead of each race.
That should do it for now. There's more good stuff to come today, so we'll be keeping busy, but I will see you in the comments.
Tuesday has arrived and before I do anything, I must point you towards yesterday's F1 Debrief. The show itself is marvellous, of course, but in the show notes there are some rather excellent outtakes - if such a thing exists. Actually, I might just post them again now anyway. Mr C and I could do with the embarrassment.
Now, on to other topics:
Adam Hay-Nicholls has an unusual post on his Metro F1 blog - spending some time with Tamara Ecclestone. She has some rather forthright views on Jenson Button, but if she's anything like her dad, I don't suppose she worries about what she says.
I mentioned yesterday that Mr C had spent some time watching NASCAR, and it looks as though that sport has just as much politics as F1. There was an incident involving Carl Edwards that he admits he caused on purpose, to try and knock his opponent out the way - revenge, if you will, for an early incident. Leigh has some thoughts on the concept of on track payback, and suffice it to say, it's not a good idea!
Today is the last day for the Joe Saward competition, where we are offering you the chance to win a signed copy of his book The Grand Prix Saboteurs. We've had tons of entries, but there's still time to get yours in, and you never know, luck might be on your side.
Finally, a quick plug to the TOTAL 2010 Grand Prix Travel Guide. It's clearly a marketing ploy, but has plenty of useful information in there including: "Where to stay in Korea? Where to get a drink in Bahrain?" The things you need to know.
That should do it for now. I hope your week is going smoothly, and as ever, I will see you in the comments.
The weekend is here, and whilst I am still fighting off germs, we're busy gearing up for the racing to start. This is the last weekend before everything kicks off in Bahrain, so I hope you're making the most of it! Here are some of the things we're talking about, in a super duper extended daily:
A quick plug before we get into the motorsport stuff, I quickly posted a new episode of Media Future Change last night. It had been delayed a few days because of voice issues but finally made it into the public domain. Hope you enjoy listening, and as ever, feedback is always appreciated.
I finally got round to updating the about page on I Heart Franck to feature more information about who I am, obviously, and how I discovered Monsieur Montagny. Not that I discovered him or am taking credit for his success or anything. I was tempted to write a bit about how I would faint on sight of FKM, but then I remembered he has read the site in the past, and that wouldn't really be a great opening line.
Whilst we're talking about yummy people, Lucas di Grassi has partnered with some watch people. They sponsor Renault as well, which is slightly odd, although he was a development driver for them. I wonder if this will affect his position in the rankings.
We often get people asking if we're bringing back the video previews and at the moment the answer is still no. Teams aren't really giving out as much footage as they used to, and now we know why. Red Bull kept it all for themselves! They have shared the packaged video with us, though, and it's pretty awesome. We'll let them off, especially as they intend to do it for every race.
Don't forget the competition to win a signed copy of Joe's book. It closes on Tuesday, so if you haven't already entered, make sure you do!
Whilst we're doing reminders, it's worth mentioning the Fantasy Racers league. We'll be doing a roll call of all the teams signed up in this weekend's show, so if you haven't yet joined, are planning to, and want a shout out, make sure you join the Panda Racing league before Sunday.
That should keep you going for now - double the usual number of items! Let us know how your weekend is going, and I will see you in the comments.
We have reached Thursday, and I have started to put the day in the introduction for each daily thread, as I know it helps some people (like me) who get confused about what day it actually is. It's a busy day on Sidepodcast today, as it was yesterday, so here's a round-up of what we've been up to:
We have completed the Aside with Joe specials - a two part series taken from the Evening with Joe in London. They make for a fabulous listen, and even if the quality isn't the best, Joe is on fine form as usual. I hope you enjoy them, Mr C worked particularly hard on editing these, so leave him your feedback for part one and part two.
It's our final Thursday Thoughts before the season gets underway, and it's Maverick who has come up with a lovely question to send off the series nicely. I hope everyone will make a special effort to participate in this final one - and make sure to link back to your posts in the thread so we can follow the conversation.
The FIA published the revised entry list, following US F1's departure. There are only 12 teams on there now, which screws up pretty much all my preview shows. Oh well, now I can't wait for the season to start - if only so that nothing else changes before we get there! Have your say about the new-look list in the breakout thread.
That should do it for now. Let us know how your Thursday is going, and I will see you in the comments.
Joe came to London to talk Formula 1 in February, and in part two of this special podcast the man returns to tackle more of Formula 1's difficult questions. A brief break gave attendees the chance to stretch their legs, before settling down for more insight from inside F1.
On the agenda in part two - Joe covers investing in the future of Formula 1 and self drive hill climbs, dangerous sports and keeping oneself young, plus art directors and the genius of Murray Walker. Finally the evening is wrapped up with a look at the mindset of a world champion and the motivation of a famous son.
On the 26th February, Joe Saward took to the stage at The Engine Group building in central London, to host his first ever "An Evening With..." event. Sidepodcast was there to capture all of the discussion and insight. Part one of this podcast covers the first half of the evening.
Topics of interest include - Joe's take on the current F1 field, the future of new teams and a classic case of Japanese bravery. Also on the agenda is the future of Formula 1 media coverage and where it all went wrong for the sport in the United States.
I like to judge the success of an evening by how long it takes one to recover, and given that Christine and I were still feeling the after effects of Friday's inaugural Evening with Joe on Monday, I'd consider it a blinding success.
Joe tackles Formula 1's big questions with a microphone and a glass of wine.
Friday 26th was a busy day for us. We arrived in London uncharacteristically early, which gave us plenty of time to look around the designated venue, The Engine Group, just off Oxford Street. It's a great place, in an ideal location and Joe had booked the entire upper floor for the evening, bar included.
Wifi was provided, which was a great boon for Christine who was planning to live blog the whole evening, providing text and picture updates throughout the night for those unable to attend.
Before the doors opened, a quick soundcheck revealed the only major headache of the day - the building offers a fully integrated audio/video system to feed satellite TV to various speakers and screens, but there was no means of obtaining a direct audio feed of Joe's talk.
Joe took his seat just after 7pm to an almost full house, and from that point the night turned into something of a blur. Questions came from the floor thick and fast, and Joe tackled each one with candour. Every question was a good one, every answer detailed, insightful and often humorous. Still the questions came.
Although the original plan was for a Q&A session followed by a meet and mingle, the never-ending quest for knowledge meant questions continued past the enforced break, and kept on coming until event organisers eventually shut the bar and threw us out... well almost. I have no idea how Joe managed to talk for a whole evening and make it feel like five minutes had passed, we all wanted more and the night came to a close far too soon.
If we had a complaint it was only that there wasn't quite enough time at the end of the evening to meet everyone present. Being in the company of so many dedicated and intelligent Formula 1 fans must be a very rare thing, and I wish we could've spoken to everyone and for longer.
Eventually we really did get thrown out, packed up our recording equipment and headed to the nearest pub for yet more F1 chat. Sometime around 3am, we found our way home.
If you didn't manage to make the inaugural Evening with Joe, you really missed out. There is a second event planned for March 29th in Melbourne, and further talks around the world throughout 2010. Don't miss them.
We did eventually manage to record the whole evening using a room mic, but we've ended up with something like 3+ hours of content, so it might take an extra day or two for the podcast to see the light of day. Lou was designated official photographer for the evening, so watch out for plenty more pictures coming soon as well.
In conclusion, I think Joe's onto a winning idea, and I'm hoping that more F1 journalists give some thought to reaching out and meeting fans. F1 may be becoming more open than ever this year, but it could do with getting a bit more personal too.
A big thank you to Joe for putting together a fabulous evening's entertainment, to everyone who came over and said "hi", and to those who bought us drinks. I wonder how we can get to Melbourne?
Yesterday was definitely a day of rest in Sidepodcast Towers, but having said that Mr C just keeps on coding. I was busy trying not to fall asleep all day, whilst some new commenting updates were in the works. I'll leave him to tell you more when the updates go live, but keep your eyes peeled. Meanwhile, here are some of the things we're talking about:
The reason I'm so tired is thanks to the most excellent evening out in London, listening to Joe talking. So far we've heard all good things from the people who went, and I'm hoping we'll have some blog posts and photos to share with you soon. Lou has been posting a couple on her Twitpic account, though, including ones of me looking ever so thoughtful as I kept the comments updated. Turkey Machine has also written a quick post about his evening.
I caught up with a couple of days of testing news yesterday, and posted two F1 Minute episodes. The first talks of Glock at Virgin - he's enjoying being the number one - and the second is about Schumi's predictions - he's changed his mind. I love the idea that Michael might have suddenly realised he said something he shouldn't have.
Whilst we're on the subject of testing, I hope you're keeping an eye on Gavin's summaries after each day, as well as the updates over on Viva F1. Maverick and Gavin both use lots of pretty graphs, and now we're at Barcelona and conclusions can be drawn from what we're seeing out on track, it's worth looking deeper at the statistics. We'll be asking for your predictions soon enough!
That's all for now. Let us know how your weekend is going and what you're up to, and I will see you in the comments.
This is the live thread we promised for our trip to London for the Evening with Joe. It's not clear how much we'll be in contact, but it's useful to have a thread just in case. Having said that, I know Alex is taking multiple Apple devices. We can use this thread for the many, many, many pictures from him, and we'll try and get a word in sometimes as well.
Hopefully we can give you a little insight if you can't actually make it to London, and it might spur you on to snap up tickets to the next Evening with Joe event.
We'll be keeping an eye on the comments, so if you have any burning questions you'd like us to throw at Joe, we'll see if we can get them answered.
The event starts at 7pm, but no doubt Mr C will be live commenting the journey to London as I do the driving. We will see you in and around the comments!
Updated: Joe has posted an update from the venue. Just half an hour to go.
Updated: Some mobile pics (sorry the lighting is a bit iffy):
Sidepodcast is heading to our nation's capital tomorrow for the Evening with Joe that has been highly anticipated for many weeks now. We're going there both as fans and as crew, to record some audio and take some photos for a podcast to promote the event. In some ways it's sort of like An Aside with Joe Live.
We're running a competition at the moment to win a signed copy of Joe's book The Grand Prix Saboteurs, but if you're lucky enough to be attending, Joe will be selling and signing books at the event.
If you're planning on being there, please do let us know in the comments, and we'll do our best to match any new names to faces. Don't forget that part of the evening includes "a chance to talk informally on any subject you care to mention", so make sure you arrive armed with plenty of questions and your best speaking voice.
We'll also open up a thread for the Joe talk on Friday so that us and others can feed back what's happening to those unable to attend. We'll be recording audio during the main part of evening for a future podcast, although I don't think there are any plans to do anything in terms of video.
There's no F1 Debrief show this week, but we hope to have some Joe audio edited out for you over the weekend, so if you're attending the event tomorrow, you can relive it, and if you're not, you can catch up with some more of the man's thoughts.
