Sidepodcast

Daily: 26th February 2009

Uh-oh, it's the dreaded Thursday. Last week I had to stare at pictures of baby panda's all day to make it bearable. If only I had a baby panda, that wouldn't be necessary. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, F1 discussions:

• Williams have lost yet another sponsor from the end of 2010, in the form of RBS. There's plenty of time for them to find a replacement, so it's not panic stations yet. Frank himself is confident the team will get through these difficult times.
• Force India turned up at Silverstone today, apparently, to run a super-secret, hush-hush shakedown. No news on who was driving, or how they feel the car went, but at least it is something from the team who haven't been seen since Brazil.
• If you haven't read it yet, check out Stuart's guest post on the subject of moaning about F1. It's an interesting topic, and one very relevant to us here at Sidepodcast. I still maintain the rear wings are fugly though!

That'll do for now. Hopefully we will hear more about the Sidepodtrip to the KERS lecture in London throughout the day. Either way, I'll see you in the comments.

Sidepodtour Heads North to Grove

We've been out and about again. This afternoon, thanks to the lovely people at Williams Grand Prix Engineering, we got to spend some time in Grove, Oxfordshire poking our noses around the gorgeous RBS Conference Centre.

As mentioned a couple of shows back the team's fan club is on a temporary hiatus while they develop it into something more modern. As a final farewell they invited a bunch of us for a tour of the F1 Grand Prix Collection.

Learning from previous mistakes, Christine managed to squeeze this visit into her hectic schedule, and she was mighty glad she did when Sir Frank Williams arrived for a surprise Q&A session.

As to be expected from a team that's been in Formula One for 31 years, the collection was a sight to behold. We were treated to a lesson in ground effects, saw the six-wheeled FW08B up close and decided that the more modern BMW powered machines were by far the best looking of the lot.

In addition we got to chat with Claire, the host of the AT&T Williams Podcast. She was very lovely, despite not having much of a clue who we were, and I found myself more star struck after meeting her than I was Frank.

As ever, we'll talk more about our adventures on this weekend's show.

Inside Track - Singapore

• Length: 06:29 
• Size: 74.7 MB 
• File: track15.m4v 
• Transcript: track15.pdf 
• Torrent: track15.torrent 

Although it hasn't been widely reported, and while certain factions of the racing community are keen to keep it hush hush, Formula One may be about to happen upon its very first night race.

It's difficult to escape the fact that the upcoming Grand Prix is an evening affair, and Inside Track is no exception. In this edition we hear from current drivers, ex-drivers, and the men behind the men, about what might lie in store this coming weekend.

Don't forget the obligatory lap of the circuit too. This one's a proper street circuit, so there's plenty to take in and who better to guide you around the twists and turns than Sidepodcast's one and only commentator, Christine. You wouldn't have it any other way, right?

Special thanks go out to Allianz SE, Toyota Motorsports GmbH, AT&T Williams, Royal Bank of Scotland and RTV GmbH for the use of their video footage.