Sidepodcast

Bahrain 2010 - Race Information

Formula One has returned! We are gearing up for the first race of the season and by all accounts, it's going to be a spectacular one. Although Bahrain has a lot to live up to, replacing Australia as the season opener, there is so much going on, it's bound to be a fantastic weekend.

The Weather

The long range forecast for the weekend suggests there will be nothing but sunshine for F1 to look forward too. Saturday might see a little cloud, but nothing that should make a difference to the action and the high appears consistent for both Saturday and Sunday.

Regularly updated weather information can be found on the BBC.

The Circuit

This year, the Bahrain circuit sees the first major change to its layout since it began hosting F1 races in 2004. The track has been extended by nine corners and the number of laps reduced accordingly.

Credit: Bridgestone Corporation

Bahrain Circuit Map

Event Schedule

An F1 weekend comprises of events spanning three days. Action begins on Friday and ends on Sunday.

Support races for this event include GP2 Asia and the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup.

Press Conference Schedule

Official press conferences are organised by the FIA and happen four times during the weekend.

The qualifying and post race press conferences will take place after the television unilateral interviews.

Podcast Schedule

Sidepodcast provides comprehensive coverage of every Grand Prix weekend with free audio podcasts.

Following Live

A thread will be created on Sidepodcast.com for every session and every thread is live enabled, meaning you can follow along and contribute to the conversation without refreshing the page.

Additionally, for every session this weekend we'll be providing up-to-the-minute F1 information via the all new Factbyte Factbox.

Introducing the Factbyte Factbox

Sidepodcast is today turning its F1 coverage up to eleven, with the release of the all new Factbyte Factbox. The interactive web panel enables us to provide real-time updates on any live event, be it an F1 session, another motorsport event or live streaming podcast.

Factbyte Factbox (FBFB) was first proposed back in April 2009 and has been something we've been keen to see launched for a very long time. Back in April, we described it thus:

Designed to take live shows and live racing to the next level, the FBFB will provide a secondary stream of information, highlighting any relevant data depending on circumstance. For example, offering up-to-date scoring during a panel show, or listing the closest battles during a race.

Almost one year on and that is exactly what we're launching today. Additionally, we're planning on using the tool to augment future live streaming podcasts, providing real-time show notes and enabling interaction via live voting, results of which will be fed back into recordings.

We should point out that what we're launching today isn't the final iteration of the web panel. It carries a "beta" tag because it is a service that's still undergoing heavy development. However, we felt that this was something that should be available from the very start of the F1 season, and thus we're opening the doors today. We're expecting teething troubles coupled with rapid development for the next few months.

If you're interested in seeing what all the fuss is about, the live commenting page currently houses the FBFB. The plan is to make it available via other pages in due course. Furthermore, we'll be running a live beta test at 21:45 GMT, should anyone be available to offer feedback.

Updated: The live test has now finished, but you can view the full list of updates below:

Enhancing F1 Conversation in 2010

Just prior to the start of the new year, we discussed site performance improvements and plans for the future, specifically those related to the start of the 2010 F1 season. Today, with less than 12 days to go before action gets underway, we're adding significant enhancements to commenting functionality.

This morning we released updates to the site that make every single post across the whole of Sidepodcast "live enabled". That means whenever you read a post, or browse through comments relating to it, you'll be notified when anything new is added to the conversation. You no longer need to refresh the page to pick up new comments, the site does all the hard work for you.

Click to view pending.

Keeping It Real-time

In practice, whenever new information is posted, a pop-up notification will appear near the top of the window to let you know there are unread comments. Clicking on the notification will take you directly to the relevant information. Similarly, when contributing to the conversation, comments are added to the thread without the need for a page refresh. If you don't interact with the page for a period of time, updates will pause until you return.

In an ideal world, this is the system we would loved to have in place two or maybe more years ago, it's how the internet should work. Feel free to try out the process by leaving a comment below.

So Last Year

Ever since we started live blogging races back in March 2008, we've been looking for better and better means of commenting on events. Originally, we and many others, spent our days endlessly hitting the Refresh Page button, before the introduction of bespoke solutions such as the Live Commenting, Live... Thing and the Realtime Doohickey.

We now have the ideal means to further the F1 conversation. It is open, accessible and, most importantly, on by default to everyone who browses Sidepodcast. It just works.

Hover and click to share on Twitter.

One or Two More Things

In addition to the live updates, we've also made commenting easier and more social. Much like individual posts on the site, you can now share comments using Twitter. Hover over any comment and select the "share this" link to post to your microblog.

Not only that, we've added shortcut key combinations to speed things up. Shortcuts work in two modes. When you are typing a comment, the "Ctrl" modifier key provides the usual shortcuts you'd expect from a word processor. When the comment box is not in focus, single key presses perform various navigation actions.

Please note, that we're still working through the best use of key combinations and the above are subject to change. Finding memorable combinations of useful shortcuts that work across all browsers and operating systems can be tricky. Feedback in this area, is greatly appreciated.

More Than Words

It should be noted that, as with anything online, the more recent your browser the better your commenting experience will be. We're still testing, tweaking and improving as we go, and we're aware there are plenty of issues still to overcome. Mobile browser support can be, at best, considered experimental, and we're still working through various issues with older desktop browsers. It is also questionable whether the new functionality isn't an overkill on archived posts, again we'll adjust as we learn.

We are very pleased to have rolled out this new functionality before the F1 season begins. We're now able to create any number of threads for live events, sit back and join in the fun. Live commenting for every F1 session this year will begin in less than two weeks, just as it did in '08 and '09. This time around, though, joining in could not be easier and there is no excuse for not taking part.

We will see you in the comments.

Daily: 19th November 2009

I am declaring 19th Nov to be LCLT day - the day when we give the much-ignored Live Commenting solution some love. I know it does have it's hard-core fans, and that is excellent, but I think we need to raise awareness to the Live Commenting single-thread goodness. Perfect for tracking each conversation separately, and more importantly, posting your thoughts in the right place. If you haven't been there for a while, why not give the LCLT a try today, and see what you think?

• Elsewhere today is also Thursday thoughts day. We'll post a question at some point this morning, and if you are a blogger and feel like having a go, why not type out a few words and let us know how you find it? Naturally, all suggestions for questions are noted and they do not have to be about the news of the day or anything like that.
• There was plenty of that news though, as we are still recovering from the idea of Kimi not racing next year, wondering at the bizarre pairing of Button and Hamilton, and celebrating at the confirmation of Spa. When will the actual off-season begin?

That'll do it for now. I have two days off now, so yesterday was my Friday and I have thankfully avoided terrible Thursday. Let us know how your day is going, I'll see you in the comments.

Farcical Front Flap Adjustments

For the best part of the season we have bemoaned the look that is a 2009 spec Formula One car. Heck, we were complaining about the fugly high rear wing and boxy lines from the moment the first Williams hit the test track a year ago. Things didn't improve when the likes of BMW followed suit.

After witnessing a whole season of modified bodywork in action, I'm still not sold on the revised profile. I'd prefer it if we could just pretend the changes didn't happen and roll back to something far sexier and dare I say, more "normal". It would of course have helped if the changes, introduced to solve the distinct lack of overtaking in modern F1, had achieved anything of note.

Flap Your Wings

My favourite regulation debut, has to be the concept of adjustable bodywork. Enjoy this prime example of such a device at work.

In case you missed the vital moment, you're watching Barrichello's front wing enter the main straight in Brazil, and six seconds into the video you might just catch he lowers his front flap, before raising it again four seconds later. Don't blink and don't be surprised if you can't see it, only Steven and Iaian spotted it at the time. I'm also pretty sure this was the only time anybody in the live comments saw a front flap move the whole season.

Once.

We watched 85 sessions this season, and that clip is about the sole difference it made to our enjoyment of F1.

It Gets Pushed Down, It Gets Pulled Up Again

Introduced with the aim of allowing cars to run closer together, to facilitate overtaking, adjustable bodywork could and should be considered a dismal failure. Did it improve the racing? Not in the slightest. Was it a waste of money and effort? Almost certainly.

Formula 1 went cost-cutting crazy this yet, yet managed to spend time and investment creating one of the most pointless developments the sport has seen in a long while. The majority of casual fans likely don't know about it, and even the drivers, who should feel the most benefit, don't appear that interested. In an interview with Maurice Hamilton, Alonso was brutally honest in his conclusions.

I never touch it! So far, nine races, I never use it. It's not useful at all. KERS, the aerodynamics, they are two new regulations that didn't work this year.

A rip roaring success all round then.

The salient points from the 2009 technical regulations define movable flap as:

3.18 Driver adjustable bodywork
...
is allowed to change incidence while the vehicle is in motion within a maximum range of 6°, provided any such change maintains compliance with all of the bodywork dimensional regulations.
...
a maximum of two adjustments may be made within any single lap of a circuit.

Therein lies the likely culprit for problems with this devices implementation. As seen in the above video, six degrees is a tiny amount of adjustment, how could it ever hope to make a significant difference to passing? Similarly, why mandate such a restriction as two adjustments per lap? In the above video Rubens was seen making and down and then an up selection. He used it at the first corner, and again at the last corner, during the rest of the lap it remained static. Additionally, there was no way of communicating the position of said flap to TV viewers or those in the grandstands.

What a complete waste of time.

All of a Flap

At best the motor mechanism enabling movement added some much needed weight to the front of the car, but this in turn raised further questions about the sense in situating tiny moving parts directly in front of a driver. Is that a wise thing to do given the likelihood of a head-on accident occurring at some point.

As Christine pointed out back in August, the Overtaking Working Group haven't been forthcoming with an apology for mistakes made in defining this years regulations. Taken at face value, and lacking any form of defence from teams, drivers, fans or the FIA, the adjustable front flap must be up there with the most pointless aerodynamic devices of all time.

Changes might be considered, improvements made, and in future we may think about the idea differently, however article 3.18 is still present and unchanged in the most up-to-date technical regulations available on the FIA website.

For me, adjustable bodywork was a waste of time, space and money this year. What do you think?

Keeping in Touch

Back in 2007, Christine and I attended our first ever Grand Prix. We went to the British GP at Silverstone, and it's fair to say we weren't very prepared. We stayed on site for the full three days, courtesy of Honda, but had no internet connectivity for the duration.

Although Sidepodcast had only been going for a couple of months, it meant we couldn't keep the site up-to-date in our absence, and we couldn't track any breaking news stories either. Predictably, because it's Silverstone, a major story broke on the Friday (on this occasion it was news of Nick Fry's meeting with Stepney / Coughlan), and having no other means of finding out what the heck was going on, we resorting to quizzing Maurice Hamilton for info instead.

_{2007 Honda Scooters}

Twice as Nice

In 2008, we again visited the British Grand Prix, this time having had chance to try out some form of 3G connectivity at the preceding Silverstone F1 test.

Armed with a fairly clunky mobile phone and what felt like a military spec laptop, we set about keeping the site up-to-date, and passing comments about our weekend back to anyone following at home. It wasn't a massive success though, given the laptop lasted barely an hour between charges and the phone struggled once more than 500 comments had been posted.

On returning home, we were faced with what seemed like an endless list of improvements to be made before coming back.

Third Time Lucky

We've already covered in depth changes made this year to our hardware setup. Whilst in the background, Sidepodcast commenting functionality has quietly been improving to the point that it's now perfectly suited to following discussions from the grandstand at Copse - as we discovered when we settled in Friday morning at Silverstone.

During Free Practice one, we found ourselves relaxing with a Kangaroo TV in one hand, live comments in the other, 5Live commentary in our ears and race cars screaming past in front of us. We must've been the most informed people at the circuit. The folks in the media center may have had all the live timing screens in the world, but did they have a group of people watching, contributing and offering insight too?

Better yet, commenting has improved such that it's not just possible to follow, but posting and interacting was a breeze too. I fired off a quick question relating to 5Live's third presenter, and 20 seconds later received three replies that DJ Johnny Walker was in the commentary booth too.

On returning home this year, we came back without any kind of to do list.

_{Sutil Tackles Copse in 2009}

Live commenting just works. It's a fantastic thing to have with you trackside and joining in the fun is free (connectivity costs aside). Should you be interested, there are multiple ways you can contribute to the conversation:

• Live Commenting, Live... Thing - The ideal solution if you're travelling to a race with your laptop (and we spotted a few who do).
• Real-time Doohickey - Perfect for following and commenting if you have a modern hand held device (iPhone, G1, Blackberry etc).
• Real-time Mobile - A page for everyone else (especially anyone with older mobile phones).

There are plenty of races remaining this season, and if you're going to any of them, please don't forget to bookmark those links and comment to us from track. These days we live in a remarkably small world and there's no reason for anyone to feel as disconnected as we did back in 2007.

Keep in touch won't you?

Turkey 2009 - Schedule

With a new live commenting system to test out, I've been looking forward to the next race. This time we're all tuning in to Turkey as the teams and drivers try and do their best in Istanbul.

As ever, there are two schedules to be aware of. Our first table looks closely at the BBC coverage, as most of the live posts will pop up about half an hour before that begins. The second table is our 'not-to-be-trusted' podcast schedule, which gives you an idea of what shows to expect this weekend. All times are BST.

TV Schedule

Although I call this the TV schedule, we tend to watch via the medium of broadband, so perhaps I should rename this section to something else.

Podcast Schedule

We're hoping to be able to chat with Joe at the first time of asking, but these things can be unexpected, and that's why the Joe Show doesn't make it into the schedule.

Join us for live commenting each and every session if you can, and above all else, have a great weekend.

Now About Those Movable Boxes

Sometime back in the summer of 2008 we introduced a live commenting system, which was designed to help follow comment conversations without requiring incessant browser refreshing. We haven't done a lot of development to the software since its introduction, but we're redressing the balance today.

The Live Commenting, Live... Thing has been rebuilt to be bigger and better than ever before. It has a new home, features a customisable layout and should help make contributing to Sidepodcast a more enjoyable experience.

The text is bigger, the layout more intuitive and the whole backend has been overhauled. Take a look yourselves.

Sidepodcast : Live Commenting

The Exciting New Stuff

We're suckers for new things to play with, though, so here's a quick run down of the best bits to look out for:

• A long requested feature of the original Live Commenting system was the ability to cutomise screen layout and that's now possible because individual panels can be moved around the page (by grabbing and dragging the relevant title bar). A placeholder will appear allowing panels to be dropped in either the left or the right columns and in any order you choose.
• All panels can be minimised/maximised using the arrow on each title bar.
• The comments pane has always been resizeable, but now the post content is too. Long page layouts are now possible for anyone with a Tablet PC or a screen that rotates into portrait mode.
• The Factbyte Factbox is a new feature for Sidepodcast that we're really excited about. Designed to take live shows and live racing to the next level, the FBFB will provide a secondary stream of information, highlighting any relevant data depending on circumstance. For example, offering up-to-date scoring during a panel show, or listing the closest battles during a race.
• The comment box now mirrors the same functionality that Real-time Doohickey has been offering for a while. You can quote previous comments, upload images, format text and preview your submission before posting.

The Less Exciting Still To Do Stuff

Of note, because this is a rebuild we're talking about, we've gone backwards from being in beta mode, to now being in alpha while we sort out any of the niggles that occur. The ones that we know about, and are working on, include:

• A three column layout would be nice, for anyone with widescreen monitors or televisions.
• The ability to resize panels in two directions would also be handy for ultimate customisation.
• At present, the LCLT cannot remember your layout when you navigate away.
• Posts with lots of comments take a while to load. The more comments, the longer it takes.
• If you line up all the boxes into a single column, it's not always possible to revert to a two-column layout afterwards.

Please do check out the new page here, and let us know what you think. Is there anything missing, is anything broken and where should we go with this next?

Live: Spain - Qualifying

Ferrari sprang a minor surprise during Free Practice 3, by locking out the first two places after quick runs from both drivers in the closing minutes. Will they be able to carry that pace into qualifying though?

Weather Update

Very little to report on the weather front at the moment. Track temperature was 33 degrees at the end of FP3 and that had climbed up from 27 degrees an hour earlier. The current conditions in Barcelona look set to offer some fast qualifying times.

One to Watch

Heidfeld suffered the only major 'off' during practice and sustained enough damage to give his mechanics a headache. The question is, will they have enough time to ready his car for the start of Q1 and even if they do, what hope does he have of progressing farther?

Predictions Please

Plenty to get your teeth into this weekend, with new parts all around the pitlane. How light will Renault go with Alonso to secure a headline grabbing starting position? Have Brawn got a grasp on yesterday's handling problems, and can Button hold off the ever charging Vettel? Finally, what are your predictions for the finishing order in Spain this afternoon?

Live: Spain - Free Practice 2

The weekend has got off to a good start, as although there was a brief respite in the action this morning, there was plenty to look out for as well.

Weather Update

The weather for today looks as though it will remain sunny, although there may the odd cloud getting in the way. The humidity is a little over 50%, and the wind is perhaps stronger than teams were expecting but not obstructive as yet.

One to Watch

The BMW boys are navigating the circuit with a seriously disturbing looking car, but so far it seems to be working. Free Practice times, and BMWs in particular, are not to be believed, but have they found any of the pace they were looking for?

Predictions Please

Button topped the timesheets in FP1, so will he be able to continue the Brawn domination? The McLaren's were somewhere near the back, but are they just dragging their heels before the action really gets going?