Today is Pedro de la Rosa's birthday, and the Spaniard is turning 39. Hopefully he won't be celebrating too hard and will instead be preparing for the upcoming test in Barcelona. It kicks off on Thursday, so he has a couple of days to eat cake, I suppose. Meanwhile, here are a couple of the things we're talking about:
Ahead of Joe's meetup in London on Friday, we've got a competition for you! We're giving away a signed copy of The Grand Prix Saboteurs, and there's just a simple question (and a little luck) standing between you and it. You've got a couple of weeks to enter as well, but do it now before you forget!
F1 Big Picture was updated yesterday with a couple of great photos. I am particularly partial to this one, as I do like the shadows, plus it's good to see Alonso and Webber side by side. Let's hope we can get some overtaking action in the races as well as in testing.
Kubica has been talking about the Renault and it looks like he's hoping they have some upgrades before the racing gets underway in Bahrain. He's also keen to point out that there won't be a number on in his team, which I find odd because a) who cares? and b) he then goes on to admit that Petrov hasn't driven in F1 so he would still be learning. Bless teams and drivers always keen to show there's no favouritism.
That should do it for now. Let us know how your week is going, and I will see you in the comments.
Thursday sees the second day of testing in Jerez get underway. Teams, drivers and fans alike will almost certainly be hoping for better weather than day one produced. There's very little change on the driver front to look out for, with only Michael Schumacher and Robert Kubica the new faces in the crowd.
Yesterday saw the surprise introduction of the Williams live timing system. First day gremlins saw the site struggle to keep up with demand, but when it works it is rather fantastic. Williams weren't the only ones experiencing first days blues either, Virgin Racing managed just 5 laps on their F1 testing debut. Fingers crossed for a better run today.
Petrov had been scheduled to drive the Renault today, but good weather prompted the team to run the more experienced Kubica instead.
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
It's Franck's birthday! Woooohoo. Happy Birthday to everybody's favourite Frenchman. I hope he is having lots of lovely cake and celebrating as is appropriate for one's 32nd birthday. Meanwhile, I need to return my attention to more Formula 1 shaped things, so here's what's catching our eye at the moment:
As Pat pointed out yesterday, we seem to be on a bit of a redesign tip at the moment, so it's only fair to point out the brand new Viva F1 site, that is actually the new destination for Pitlane Fanatic fans. It's a fresh year and a fresh start for the blog and forum, and they kick off with a great post about G forces, and a book review as well.
Good news for Kubica fans as it looks like he will remain at Renault after concerns emerged at the end of last year regarding the investment by Genii Capital. His manager said there weren't any real doubts but they just had questions that needed answering, and it absolutely wasn't about money. Whatever it was about, it looks to be sorted now.
I also wrote a post yesterday about the complaints from Peter Windsor over the summer shutdown. He has some interesting points but it doesn't look like he has much support, so I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the topic.
That'll do it for now. Don't forget to put yourself on the listener map if you haven't already, and I will see you in the comments.
It is Thursday and whilst that is usually a bad day around Sidepodcast Towers, it has been tempered during this off season with the ever-excellent Thursday Thoughts. Today it is Gavin's turn to host the question, so keep an eye on his blog for your prompt this week. Now onto some F1 things we're talking about:
Massa returned to the track this week, getting behind the wheel of the F2007 again, to continue his training for 2010. He completed just under 100 laps over two days, and afterwards said that although it was a different car, he felt comfortable in there, his driving style hadn't changed and he was still pretty quick.
Scott has the opportunity of a lifetime, working at the fabled Classic Team Lotus on a voluntary basis at the moment. Some excellent work experience, some great sights to be seen, and famous faces to be met! He's blogged about his first few days on the job and it sounds like an amazing time already.
Of course the big news of yesterday was Renault's announcement, but I was very intrigued to read about Kubica and his manager's concerns over the changes. It makes perfect sense that he signed up for one thing and now it's different he has questions. I am interested in how this one works out.
That'll do it for now, assuming we all get through Thursday together, then Friday is just around the corner and that's always good times. I'll see you in the comments.
This is the F1 Advent Calendar 2009, brought to you by Sidepodcast. We are working our way through the 2009 season by means of peeking through a door for each day of advent, and recounting a key moment from the year. Yesterday we were looking at politics, and it's not quite time to get back to the racing yet. Here's Day Sixteen - Goodbye From Us.
At the end of July, BMW quit Formula 1. It was eerily similar to the way Honda had quit, in that rumours began a couple of days beforehand, and then it was confirmed by the team and the parent manufacturer. The BMW board held a press conference, with Mario Theissen present, and Dr. Norbert Reithofer used a lot of long words: "Premium will increasingly be defined in terms of sustainability and environmental compatibility. This is an area in which we want to remain in the lead. In line with our Strategy Number ONE, we are continually reviewing all projects and initiatives to check them for future viability and sustainability. Our Formula 1 campaign is thus less a key promoter for us."
Or... we haven't really been getting the results we want. BMW, the team, always had a plan, and had been sticking to it pretty well. They wanted to get points, then the next year they wanted to get a win, then the next year they wanted to win a championship. Ah. When things didn't go to plan, they weren't amused. Kubica has frequently admitted how impatient he got with the team when following their one win, they were happy to check that to-do off their list, and focus on the next year. Never mind the job in hand.
Anyway, having confirmed their intention to leave at the end of the year, BMW continued to race the rest of the season. Heidfeld kept on racking up the points, and Kubica kept on complaining about the car. Mario Theissen said they were looking at offers from interested buyers for the team, and in September, they announced they had been bought by the mysterious Qadbak Investments. To look into detail at the strange and unreliable nature of these investors would be a whole other mini series in itself, but suffice it to say, no one, bar Theissen, was really convinced.
Mario was confident they would be on the grid in 2010, despite the fact the team had declined to sign the Concorde Agreement in the summer, and that all the grid slots were filled, including the three new ones. He signed up Ferrari to supply them with engines. Kubica, though, was ready to move on, confirming his move to Renault for next year before the season was over. Nevertheless, the team wound up the rest of the season in continued unspectacular fashion.
In the middle of November, it became clear that the Qadbak deal was not going to happen. There were a few days of concern, but on November 27th there was good news. Original owner Peter Sauber was prepared to buy back the team from BMW, on the condition that they had a grid slot for 2010. It was clear that the announcement was a big relief for Sauber, who had been concerned about the future of the team, and had tried to come to a deal with BMW beforehand. With the team back under his control, he said: "Our staff here are highly competent and motivated, and I look forward to taking on this new challenge together with them. I would like to thank BMW for four shared years that have in the main been very successful."
With the post-season news that Toyota were leaving the sport, Sauber were granted that oh-so-important 13th grid slot, meaning they will still be around next year.
That's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to our F1 Advent Calendar 2009, and I hope you'll join me tomorrow to look through the door of Day Seventeen.
Monday has arrived, and with it brings Robert Kubica's birthday. The Polish driver turns 25 years old today, and I hope he's throwing a big party to celebrate his drive at Renault. Oh wait, that might not be secure as he hopes. Hmm. We might be finding more out about that today, watch for breakout threads.
We seem to be only producing F1 Debrief episodes fortnightly at the moment, but it's working very well. Yesterday's was a bit of a cracker, if we do say so ourselves. You can wait for the edited version which should be along later today, but I do recommend checking out the replay of the live show.
We have finally drawn a line under our Sidepodscience Shell V-Power Challenge, after many months. Back then, we tested out the premium fuel in our cars and tried to talk about the science behind it, but now we have the answers from an actual Shell expert. If you haven't already, head on over to our interview with David Wood from Shell for some real science.
My final piece of self promotion will be for Mr C's Jerez testing round-up. We tried a bit of an experiment this time round, opening up a thread for each day of the test, and Mr C concludes how this went, plus has a quick sum up of what the drivers got up to.
That should do it for now. Don't forget it is Must Comment Monday this week - although I can't talk as I have yet to find time to sit down and do it proper. I do try and comment as I go, though, and you should try it too. I'll see you in the comments.
Welcome to the second edition of this extended mini-series - the F1 Advent Calendar 2009. We’re counting down to Christmas with our own bite-size recap of the 2009 season, and we began yesterday with a look at how the Brawn dominated proceedings from the very start of the year. Now we must move on to Day Two - A Key Admission.
The first race of the year was the Australian Grand Prix and at the end of March, all the teams and drivers turned up to welcome the new season in, in style, at Melbourne. The style was perhaps not what the FIA would have liked, as there was already a contentious issue regarding the double diffusers on the backburner. Although the first Grand Prix of the year would continue unharmed, the results were under a black cloud until after the Malaysian race.
Nevertheless, it was action all the way, and at a later than normal starting time, Button and Barrichello lined up on the first row of the grid. Vettel and Kubica were on row two. The race began and Button retained his lead easily and Barrichello kept in touch to celebrate an epic and well-deserved Brawn 1-2 maiden victory. It was a glorious moment for them, but it was just a few laps earlier that a key moment took place.
Vettel and Kubica were fighting for position, Vettel made a mistake and screwed up his braking. Kubica made a move round the outside, but Vettel was pointing away from the corner and ran into the side of the BMW. This spun Kubica who righted himself, almost pushing Vettel into the wall as he did so. The Red Bull had no front wing, and Kubica was also sporting some damage.
The BMW ended up in the wall just a couple of corners later, whilst Vettel continued on for a lap but had to admit defeat and came to a halt. The pair of them were out of the race, and the Grand Prix ended under Safety Car conditions.
Afterwards, both Vettel and Kubica were invited to see the stewards and explain the incident. Perhaps a combination of youth and inexperience led Vettel to hold his hands up and admit fault. He was fined, his team were also fined, but more crucially Vettel received a ten place grid penalty for the next race in Malaysia.
Although this was only the first race of the season, and there was an enormous amount of ups and downs still to come, this was a key moment for Vettel. The initial accident robbed himself of vital points, and his eagerness to accept responsibility ruined his chances of a good result in Malaysia as well.
You can go mad with what if situations in Formula 1, and Vettel managed to spin out of the Malaysia Grand Prix of his own accord, but the grid drop only made his life harder. That, coupled with the points lost in the opening round, could have made the difference in his position at the end of the year. The Red Bull was clearly feisty from the start but this early season glitch meant Vettel took too long to get going.
That’s all for our second day of Advent. So far we’ve had both highs and lows at the very start of the year. I wonder what tomorrow’s window will reveal.
We are coming to the end of the season now, but are still very keen to hear your stories if you've been to a Grand Prix this year. Here, Lorenzo Maimone from Melbourne guides us through his experience at Singapore, where he picked up some hints about Kubica's future before it was announced.
The Lion City was amazing as an overall experience. The culture is an interesting one on many levels but I suppose to sum it up, it would be like this: Food = amazing. The sights are decent. Shopping – well, literally when you aren’t eating, you are shopping and after you have finished shopping it’s time to eat. The credit card got a real battering whilst I was there, but it was worth it!!
On the F1 front a few things had me pleasantly surprised. The city truly embraces the race, as there were banners, boards, hoardings and other forms of advertising on the streets, merchandise stands all over town, signage about and how to get to different gates of the track, TV advertisements, old F1 cars for people to pose in front of and people generally talking about the race, so in that way it was interesting for me. In Melbourne for instance, we hardly even acknowledge that the race is here, whereas Singapore was all about it. Perhaps it was youthful exuberance, as it is only their second ever race. Maybe we Melburnians are old hats at hosting F1 races now, so we don’t get so excited anymore?
Anyway, on the Thursday before the race, we headed to the track in the early afternoon to see if we could get near/on it and basically we were able to walk on the tarmac from turn 3 all the way around to turn 22 (2nd last corner). The circuit itself was filthy. Dusty, dirty with debris everywhere and surprisingly to me the surface varies significantly from section to section, even some of the joining sections between different surfaces were pretty ordinary, (Melbourne has a much higher quality surface).
We couldn’t get into the Pit straight area, but ended up finding ourselves stationed just outside where the drivers were heading into the paddock complex, all in their various guises - some in full team garb, others in their civvies, but it was a welcome surprise nonetheless. The drivers marched into work from 3:30pm onwards - we got to see and exchange a brief "g’day and good luck" chat with, Seb Buemi, Tonio Liuzzi, Adrian Sutil, Seb Vettel, Mark Webber (yay!!), Jarno Trulli, Nico Rosberg, Kazuki Nakajima, Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeld. DC and Jackie Stewart even made appearances too which was good to see!!
Apparently we had just missed Lewis and Heikki, as they arrived before us, but we did manage to catch a glimpse of Kimi being driven right up to the gate in a gorgeous Maserati Quattroporte. They had found him a sneaky back way into the circuit, bypassing his heartbroken fans - seven female Singapore teenagers in full Kimi apparel, chanting “we love Kimi...we love Kimi”. They were so upset when I pointed out that Kimi had circumvented them, that they cried off nearly all of their Ferrari facepaint. Poor things.
The lights? Way brighter than I had imagined. I know they say 4x brighter than your average football game and that's so bright the track is effectively better lit at night, than with the natural daylight at mid-afternoon. We had seats at Piquet corner, where we watched Grosjean spin in FP1 right in front of us, and for a moment I had thought the humidity had finally gotten to me when I saw him hit the wall, that I had to double take... priceless.
The race, well the only insight I may be able to provide from being trackside is how the drivers don’t really seem to be pushing the limits as you would expect. They were all very cautious on corner entry and leaving plenty of margin to the point where it was all a bit tame and even pedestrian sometimes. I watched from 4 different corners over the weekend, to see how the guys were tackling the track and probably due to the dirty track and lack of overall grip, they were really very cautious. Maybe the onboards show a different story, but my feeling was that they were so focussed on not making errors (the walls are close and unforgiving after all), that they left decent margin in many places.
Finally, I have a cracking photo of Nico staring right down the barrel of my camera, open chested Williams shirt on, smirk and goldilocks in tow, as we wished him well for the race. Probably more insightful I did manage to get a wry smile out of Daniele Morelli (Kubica’s manager) when I said to him in Italian, “has Robert been practicing his French for next year??” I know Robert understands Italian too, but he didn’t flinch!! ICE running through their veins those F1 boys, I tells ya!!
It's turning out to be quite a difficult week at Sidepodcast HQ, as we stumble from one disaster to the next. That being the case, I would like all comments today to be happy and fluffy. Don't make me start going on about rolling meadows and whiskers on kittens and stuff like that. So, here are some of the things on our minds:
Thank goodness for Alonso's move to Ferrari being confirmed already, as the driver market has finally opened up. Renault confirmed their new signing of Robert Kubica for 2010 yesterday, and I have a feeling it won't be long before we're looking at the next announcement as well. Is Kubica a good fit for Renault? Discuss on the breakout thread.
Lukeh has written us a guest post with a great background into how and why he made the Ari Vatanen support video. You can read more about it there, and join in the calls for Lukeh to write some more. Particularly if it's about changing Formula 1 for the better!
In the last little bit of self-promotion for today, I released the first of a new series of Forgotten F1 Teams yesterday. It's about time we had another mini series, and it seemed right to look back at some of the teams we have lost, as we are currently fighting off more teams than you can shake a stick at. Enjoy yesterday's show and stay tuned for today's.
That'll do it for now. It's Thursday which means we are almost at the end of the week, and that can only be a good thing. I'll see you in the comments.
We're all feeling the after effects of staying up/getting up to watch what was essentially a non-existant Free Practice session. Well, I say "we" but I slept through all bar one installation lap from Alguersuari. Anyway, we're hoping for more action today, no doubt. Here are some of the things we're talking about in lieu of any on track stuff:
Glock was unwell yesterday, but the team are pretty sure he'll be okay to get back in the car today. Kobayashi took a turn behind the wheel but it was hardly an exciting debut at his home circuit. At least it gave the fans another driver to look out for though, while they waited.
Whilst we're on the subject of Toyota, Trulli reckons he'll have a seat in F1 next year, although whether it is with Toyota or not remains to be seen. The team are supposed to be chasing heavily after Robert Kubica, who is weighing up the options. Will Renault be attractive to the Pole though?
Vettel is still mad about his drive through penalty from last weekend, suggesting that he cut the corner of the timing beam and that's why the sensors thought he was speeding. He says there should be a speed penalty not a distance penalty. Perhaps he's right?
That'll do it for now. We'll be along with plenty more in the way of threads, results and podcasts throughout the day, so stay tuned and as ever, I'll see you in the comments.
