Sidepodcast

Daily: 19th March 2010

It is Friday at last, and we have reached the end of another week - almost ready to go headlong into the weekend. There's no racing this time round, but I'm sure we can find plenty to keep us amused. To get us off to a good start, here are some of the things we're talking about:

• Lukeh pointed out the first in the latest series from F1.com, in which Vettel answers some probing questions. We're curious what happened in testing to get Seb so worked up, but it doesn't look like he'll be telling us any time soon.
• Jim wrote us an excellent guest post discussing his first lap around the Hockenheimring. It's a good insight into how it feels to drive where the professionals have been before and still return to today.
• Manipe has asked the question: how much overtaking do you want in F1? It's a topic we've touched upon many times, and particularly when there are dull races in our recent memories. There were some moves in Bahrain, but was it enough? And how far to the other extreme could we go? Don't make me mention Mr C watching NASCAR again.
• Also a quick note, as spotted by RG, the future of the Italian GP seems to be on a much more secure footing than we've seen in a long while. Monza should be on the calendar until 2016!

That'll do it for now, I reckon. Just time for a quick happy birthday to Pat, who I think is off in sunny Spain at the moment. Happy birthday! Let us know what you have planned today and this weekend, and as ever, I'll see you in the comments.

Daily: 18th March 2010

Hello and welcome to Thursday. It's usually a horrid day but I'm sure today will be completely different because it is a certain Timo Glock's birthday! Happy Birthday Mr Glock. I hope that RG has bought his favourite driver a present, it seems only fair. Now you have wished Glock a happy birthday, your day is complete, but I would just like to share some of the other things we're talking about first:

• Ollie has been blogging like a demon recently, and posted an interesting article about the possibility of the record books being changed this year. I hadn't really given it any thought but we have seen youngest drivers and 100th GP winners over the last few years, so I wonder what we'll find in 2010.
• Over on VivaF1, Maverick has a post discussing the potential introduction of the 107% rule - how it would work and whether it would be a useful thing or not. I have never seen such a rule in practice, so I'm not sure about it, but head on over and leave your thoughts.
• Finally, Lukeh has been keeping his eye on all sorts of news outlets to get information about the new F1 game, and he has collated it all here with his initial impressions. Some of the career aspects do look very interesting, but from a personal point of view, I just wish you didn't have to actually get a car round a track. It's quite impossible.

That should do it for now. I hope everyone is having an okay week so far, and as ever, I will see you in the comments.

F1 Digest 2010 Season Preview - The Rules

• Length: 8:03 
• Size: 7.4 MB 
• File: digest148.mp3 
• Transcript: digest148.pdf 
• Torrent: digest148.torrent 

Our final Digest Season Preview show takes a closer look at the rules for 2010 - from the enormous changes, like a ban on refuelling, to the smaller things, like allowances for new driver testing. It's all in here, and combined with the other three shows, your perfect guide to the season about to start.

The Rules

Starting with the technical regulation changes, we discuss things such as the ban on refuelling, KERS and the engine and wing technical specs. Then we move on to more sporting aspects of the race, including the engine freeze, qualifying format and much, much more.

Nikolas Tombazis Video Interview

I'm really enjoying some up the videos Ferrari have been putting up onto YouTube recently. While lacking in the production values of say Honda Racing TV, they do offer a unique perspective on the team. The latest video is an interview with chief designer Nikolas Tombazis.

Somehow the producers have achieved a retro vibe that's so convincing I had to double check it hadn't actually been filmed in the 70's, but it's definitely modern.

Mr. T (as only I call him) reveals some insightful information about the difficulties the team faced getting their new hollow nose through the mandatory crash test, as well as how the team are preparing for the 2009 regulations.

If you haven't seen it already, it's worth five minutes of your time, if only because I'm interested to hear if you think he's drunk on duty or not?

A case of old habits die hard? Is the absence of Todt beginning to tell already?

Anyhow, if you're interested, more video's are available for your viewing pleasure on the Ferrari World Channel.

Square Balls and Round Pitches

If the FIA ran football, so the saying goes, we'd have square balls and round pitches.

Yesterday's announcement regarding the FIA's revised plans for Formula One race stewards didn't come as much of a surprise, given that grandprix.com highlighted the expected change over a week ago.

The new plan is to bring three random stewards to each race, plus Max's right hand man, Alan Donnelly. Last year's permanent steward Tony Scott Andrews has stepped down from his role, so the consistency that a regular face brought to the table has now been nullified.

Strangely this new structure is supposed to speed up the decision making process, although one fails to see how it could? A cynic might suggest that the introduction of Donnelly is just another way for Max to exert yet more control over the sport.

As grandprix.com points out, Donnelly isn't exactly a model of impartiality either. His company Sovereign Strategy currently list Formula One Management Ltd as a client. It's not hard to imagine the sport's commercial interests being taken into consideration when looking at future rule infringements. Would last year's embarrassing 'cool fuel' episode have gone as far as it did if Donnelly had any say in the matter?

Of further interest a quick perusal through the Internet Archive, sees Sovereign Strategy at one time listing Ferrari as a previous client:

It's not clear when the Italian manufacturer was removed from the client list (the archive displays the page as recently as June 2007), but one could speculate it was probably very recently. One also wonders whether the Scuderia have completely severed ties with Sovereign, and what bearing that may have on future 'difficult' decisions?

Ollie rightly wonders how any of this speeds up the process? The fact is, a problem any F1 steward faces, is that Formula 1 rules are not properly documented and are therefore open to all manner of interpretation by all manner of individuals.

Until that situation is rectified, everything else will just be a band aid over an ever expanding wound.

Square balls indeed.

Biological Fuel

The veritable lack of Formula 1 action at the moment has allowed me to catch up with a bunch of magazines that have been lying around unread. Today I've been working my way through last months issue of Race Engine Technology. Don't laugh.

Available from all good newsagents, but not to be confused with Racecar Engineering magazine mentioned recently, the November edition of Race Engine Technology has, amongst other things, some wonderful insight into the future of F1 energy recovery solutions.

I'll have to save that for later discussion though, because today I'm mostly interested in their interview with Renault's head engine boffin, Rob White.

The interview was conducted during the course of the British Grand Prix weekend, so even without my palpable attempts at time management, it's still a little out of date. The detail I'm most interested in is the discussion relating to next years fuel regulations.

It came of something of a surprise to learn that next year the FIA technical regulations state that 5.75% of an F1 cars fuel must be derived from biological sources. Actually that's oversimplifying it a little. Here's what the 2008 Technical Regulations state:

19.4.5 A minimum of 5.75% (m/m) of the fuel must comprise oxygenates derived from biological sources. The percentage that each component is considered to originate from a biological source is calculated from the relative proportion of the molecular weight contributed by the biological starting material.

19.4.6 Synthetic hydrocarbons or mixtures of synthetic hydrocarbons, which have been produced from biomass, will be considered for future inclusion into Formula One fuel, provided that a suitable analytical procedure is available to verify their biological origin.

According to Rob, the changes specified won't require any major work, beyond simple engine remapping.

I did a little research and discovered that Auto Industry recently reported Williams were the first team to run their car using bioethanol elements and the fuel was manufactured using sources such as crop waste. Auto Industry also report that:

The new rules are consistent with one of the latest EU directives which will require all road cars to use the same bio-content blend of fuel by 2010.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I recall this idea being introduced by the FIA back in 2005, but had assumed it was pushed back along with other energy saving rules.

I'm surprised Max and the teams aren't making a bigger fuss about this already, maybe PR will ramp up before the start of the '08 season?