Sidepodcast

Chandhok Makes His Christine's Rankings Debut

It's been a busy week in Formula 1, with the demise of US F1 and the rise of HRT F1. Terrible name, interesting driver pairing. Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok were both present for the launch and some interesting tweeting occurred.

Elsewhere, there is movement upwards for Webber and Glock, whilst the McLaren boys finally get some points on the board - not all good though. I know plenty of people have been keen to see Hamilton and Button drop the 'N/A' status, and this is their week.

Notes:

1. If it's good enough for Senna, it's good enough for Timo: gaming and fitness collide.
2. A Lap of Bahrain with Mark Webber
3. It's not a great pic but I like it anyway: http://twitpic.com/16kpv1

This time next week we will have seen the first race of the season, so expect plenty of driver movements. If you spot anything I should include on the list then please let me know in the usual ways! I'm always open to suggestions.

Webber Reverses His Fortunes on Christine's Rankings

This week, I've been very impressed with Mark Webber, particularly after his debut onto the rankings last time around - with a minus score. The Australian not only updated his website, making full use of YouTube, but he also jumped headfirst into the Twitter-universe. Already he has used the word "arvo" and therefore I am awarding him plenty of plus points.

I also took several suggestions this week, as I hadn't managed to keep an eye on what everyone was up to. Hopefully I've credited everyone involved and there are links underneath the table to all the required supporting evidence.

Notes:

1. As pointed out to me by MrDavidCameron on Twitter here and here.
2. Lou let me know that Heikki has either had a haircut, or found a way to style his barnet better. Photo evidence here. The amusing conversation between Mike Gascoyne and Heikki Kovalainen, resulted in my favourite tweet of the week.
3. F1 Minute: Rosberg puts Mercedes on top, whilst Schumacher revises his opinion.

Testing is over now, so we might face a quiet week until the drivers start bigging up their chances for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Please keep your eyes peeled for fun and unusual things our boys might be up to. You can leave a comment, email me christine@sidepodcast.com or drop me a note on twitter: @mrschristine. See you next week!

Friday Fun - Where Would You Award Points?

With the possibility revealed this week that there could be an extra point awarded for qualifying on pole position, we began to wonder what else you could award points for. Nick had a couple of ideas:

If they are giving a point for fastest lap to the driver, then why not one to the team with the fastest pitstop?

Although i think the whole thing is very mickey mouse.

What next?
Point for the most dramatic gesture on the pit wall?
Point for the biggest tyre lock up?
Point for the most sideways moment?
Point for the biggest crash?
Point for the cleanest car at the end of the race?

These are some good ideas, but I reckon there are more out there. What do you think points should be awarded for?

Daily: 14th December 2009

Another week is beginning, then, and we are here at Monday. As I have been paying very little attention to Formula 1 over the weekend, I think it's time to take a glance around the blog world and see what everyone has been writing about. Let's take a look:

• Firstly, it's over to Pitlane Fanatic, where they already do a regular weekend run through blogs you need to be keeping an eye on. The talk of Schumacher's return is a popular one, with Journeyer writing up a guest post here on Sidepodcast, and also some thoughts from Adie over at F1 Tailpipe.
• Much to my despair, F1 Wolf has begun his countdown to the season, posting a news round up every ten days. We are onto 90 days now, and I can't believe the off-season is going so quickly. Another popular topic of the week was the points scoring system change, and Lukeh also had some interesting thoughts about that over on Gridwalk Talk.
• Dank has written up the first part of a countdown - his top 20 drivers for 2009, from all walks of motorsport life. There are a few F1 names on there, and equally plenty of names I haven't heard of, so a good opportunity to learn a thing or two. Will be interesting to see who is his number one driver when it is posted.

That'll do it for now, I hope you all had a good weekend, and are prepared for the week ahead. Let us know what you've got planned, and don't forget Must Comment Monday. I'll see you in the comments.

Daily: 11th December 2009

Hello to all! It was a busy day yesterday, wasn't it? All that Formula 1 news sneaking out as we were busy digesting the last lot! That is good for my daily post though, it means lots of lovely self promotion. Let's get on with that now:

• FOTA met in Monaco yesterday and brought up the idea of the single launch event again. We've talked about this before, and we ranted a bit about this yesterday, but then we launched a poll. Tell us what you think - is the single launch event a good idea? Do you even care?
• The FIA have proposed another potential change to the points system - no medals this time though, thankfully. This time the excuse is to account for the expanded grid, but it really seems like another attempt to make winning a more attractive option for drivers. Will they get away with it this time?
• Pat came up with the Thursday Thoughts question yesterday - a great one about how F1 can broaden itself and it's coverage. He has a list of the participants on there, and it's not to late to leave your comments, although it's not Thursday anymore. If you want to host a question, why not leave your name on the wiki.

That's all for now, thank goodness it's Friday. How has your week been, and what are you planning for the weekend? Let us know and I'll see you in the comments.

New Championship Deciding System Retracted

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

Early last week, the FIA announced some new regulations that would affect the 2009 season. It seemed very late to be changing things, particularly the points system. The World Motorsport Council met and decided that the driver with the most wins would secure the championship, regardless of how many points he had scored. Points would still be calculated in case of a tie, and for the constructor's championship.

There was a general outcry in the paddock, with many past, present and future champions suggesting that although the principal was good - to encourage drivers to fight for wins - this was not the way to go about it.

FOTA issued a press release over the weekend stating that the FIA's actions were actually illegal and they couldn't enforce this points system change on them. The Sporting Regulations do state that a change cannot be introduced so close to the start of the season without the teams unanimous agreement. They argued that they had not agreed to any such thing.

"The amendment to the sporting regulations proposed by the World Motorsport Council was not performed in accordance with the procedure provided for by Appendix 5 of the Sporting Regulations and, as per the provisions of the article 199 of the FIA International Sporting Code, it is too late for FIA to impose a change for the 2009 season that has not obtained the unanimous agreement of all the competitors properly entered into the 2009 Formula 1 Championship."

The FIA then retracted the decision, saying that if the teams weren't in agreement, then the system could be postponed until 2010. Their retaliation was that the WMSC was under the impression the teams were behind Bernie Ecclestone's medals idea, and this was essentially the same thing. FOTA admitted that they had talked to Bernie about the idea but that no firm decisions had been made, and they were definitely not behind the system that the FIA was proposing.

Either way, for now, things will remain as they were, with the winner scoring 10 points, down to the eighth place finisher scoring 1 point. Bernie Ecclestone is confident the "winner takes all" system will be in place for 2010, though, and that it will be in the regulations early enough that teams will know what they're getting into.

FIA Change Points System

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

The FIA's World Motor Sport Council met this week to discuss some regulation changes and once they were announced, they caused great surprise.

The biggest change is with the points system. Previously, Bernie Ecclestone has suggested that awarding medals rather than points to only the top three places would encourage drivers to fight for wins, instead of playing a more strategical game during a race. The FIA didn't seem keen for this to go ahead, and FOTA suggested simply raising the points scores, so the gap to first place was larger, and worth going for.

Neither of these options have been taken up, though, and we are presented with a mixture of both.

The driver's championship will now be solely based on wins, although points will still be counted for the constructors championship. So, for instance, Driver A has 7 wins, and Driver B has 6. Driver A wins the championship, regardless of how many points he has scored. If, at the end of the season, more than one driver has the same tally of wins, then it reverts to second place finishes.

There are a few concerns about this system, most of all that it could be confusing for new and existing fans to see a driver scoring points, but that not counting. It could also cause confusion if a driver has more points than his rival but still doesn't win the title.

There is also the problem that if one team is particularly dominant, and win the first 9 races in a row (it's unlikely, but still a possibility), then the season is over by July. It also rewards those who achieve a lucky win, and perhaps achieve nothing else, rather than those who consistantly finish in the points.

The changes have not been received well both in and out of the paddock. It doesn't seem fair that the FIA can change the regulations so close to the start of the season. Both Button and Alonso have registered their dissatisfaction in the changes, both mostly worried about the effect it will have on the fans. Former driver and BBC commentator Martin Brundle suggests that it probably won't have too much effect on the racing, either, as it's overtaking that is the problem and not motivation.

FOTA Submit Future Proposals

At a crowded press conference in Geneva today, FOTA presented their idea of the future for F1. There was a raft of possibilities, that will now go to the WMSC to be agreed on, or not as the case may be. Whilst there was nothing extraordinary, there were a couple of surprises.

Wind Tunnel

When Frank Williams first mentioned he was unhappy with some of the FOTA decisions regarding wind tunnel useage, we thought this was the first crack in what was going to be an inevitable break up of the teams. They just aren't capable of all agreeing on things. Except, they are. The association have obviously heard what Frank was saying, and paid attention. They've suggested a limit on wind tunnel and CFD testing, but to make it fair for those who have already invested, you can use either, as long as you don't exceed the maximum. This seems to be an acceptable compromise, but are the two methods comparable?

Points

Completely ignoring Bernie's medal idea, FOTA have proposed the points for the top three finishers is increased, to try and encourage overtaking. From 10-8-6, they suggest it be moved up to 12-9-7, with the rest working from 5 backwards as usual. Is this really enough to get a driver challenging for position? Is the points system really the place to make this happen? Either way, we should really just be grateful that they are numbers and not medals.

One of the most surprising ideas to come from the announcement is the idea of offering points for the fastest pit stop. A constructors point could be on offer for the team with the slickest mechanics. I can understand the idea behind this, but it seems like a bizarre offering. Considering the ban on refuelling seems to be discouraging pit stops, this would make them an integral part of the race weekend.

Accessibility

The teams are starting to realise that we want to know more about what is happening during the race, and get better access to the teams throughout the weekend. For a start, they suggest presenting their race fuel loads, tyre choices and pit stop data to the public as the race is going on. FOTA also want to engage with fans more, referencing tennis and cricket as good examples of informative coverage. They also propose mandatory driver autograph sessions, and a team spokesperson available for the media to contact during a race. We saw this at a couple of races last year, where the TV/radio stations had access to someone on the pit wall. It was definitely an addition to be encouraged.

Of course, these are simply proposals at the moment, and the full statement is available to read here. The FIA have final say on all the above, so who knows what will become fact. However, presenting a commitment to make the sport better for the fans and encourage overtaking, whilst still remaining unanimous and in agreement is a step in the right direction for FOTA.

Sidepodpanel - Absolutely Stunned

• Length: 41:17 
• Size: 37.9 MB 
• File: panel6.mp3 
• Transcript: Coming soon 
• Torrent: panel6.torrent 

The last panel for series one is hosted by regular guest Steven Roy, who guides us through diverse topics including potential biographies and female racers.

Joining us on tonight's panel:

• Scott
• Jordan
• Shaun
• Alex

That's all for this series of Sidepodpanel. We do intend to bring it back at some point in the future, no promises when, though. As ever, you can register your interest in appearing on the show in the Wiki, and more importantly, let us know what you think of the show, and how it can be improved for series two.

Live: After The Shuttle Lands, We Panel

Here it is, then, the final episode of Sidepodpanel for the first series. It's been an amazing run, so many good thoughts and subtle mentions of Franck. Our final show is ably hosted by Steven Roy who has become something of a regular on the panel, and should know how to handle us rowdy lot.

For a while it seemed as though we wouldn't have anybody on the panel to talk, but we may just be able to fill up this last show. Join us in the comments, if you're not on the show itself, as anyone can get points.