There's another launch today, as McLaren get ready to unveil their 2010 car. They're streaming at a much more reasonable hour of 11am UK time, so keep an eye for a breakout thread later in the morning. Meanwhile, in much more important news, it's Jackie's birthday today, so many happy returns for the day! Hope it's a good one. Here are some of the things we're talking about:
Apparently, the organisers of the Singapore GP are considering making some changes to their circuit for the 2011 season, particularly the area where a certain Mr Piquet crashed a certain Renault. I don't mind if the track changes too much but I can't believe Singapore are considering it, whilst Abu Dhabi believe their circuit is just fine and dandy.
Yesterday was Thursday, and with such a day comes some real thinking. Dylan from Triple League Racing gave us the question and it was a good one. Read all about how I would change the calendar, and yes, I know it's not a particularly popular idea. Mr C and I are weird like that.
Some pictures of the work going on at Silverstone emerged recently, and it already looks a million times more productive than Donington ever did. It's always worrying to see a track with diggers and earth littered everywhere, but I get the feeling Silverstone will come through this one unscathed. There are some pictures to be seen over on Autosport.
That'll do it for now, I have a feeling it's going to be a busy day, but even so, let us know what you're up to and what you've got planned for the weekend. I'll see you in the comments.
Before I get going on this, I want to encourage volunteers for the lead blogger over the coming weeks. We have five more Thursday Thoughts to come before the season gets underway, so if you fancy having a go at posing the question, then please sign up to the wiki. If you don't have a blog of your own, we'd be more than happy to host the guest post here. If you've already had a go at asking the question, you can sign up again, there's no limit to the number of attempts you can have.
What track or tracks not on the current F1 season calender do you want added? Also, what current tracks need to go? And finally, if this isn’t enough, how many Grands Prix should F1 have?
This is a fabulous question but I am going to have to skip the first bit. Mr C and myself have long since said there are too many races. For mostly selfish reasons, the more races are on a calendar, the more we moan. We relish the off season almost as much as, or even more than, when the action is underway. Therefore, I don't really want to add any tracks to the calendar, but when it comes to taking some off, now we're on to something.
I feel a bit harsh singling out Abu Dhabi to be chopped before it even gets a second chance to host a race, but that first Grand Prix was so dire, I can't bear to think of it on the calendar in the future. It's an obvious selection, along with Valencia - two brand new circuits that promised a lot but left little to remember. Valencia, in particular, is so dull and grey that the only thing I would miss if it was dropped is the lime green building that lines the circuit.
Whilst we're throwing tracks away, we might as well get rid of China. The Shanghai International Circuit is nowhere near as bad as some of the two already mentioned, but it does have two very long straights that are quite dull, and there seems to be no atmosphere at the circuit at all. There's also too much will they/won't they news floating around about the track, and we have enough of Bernie's decisions with circuits that are actually good.
I'm tempted to knock Singapore right off there, too, but I think if the organisation was a bit better, it does have potential. The first night racing circuit is still a good title to hold, even if the novelty has worn off a bit now. Plus, it wouldn't be fair for Renault to forget their Singapore mishaps too soon, would it?
Another circuit that used to come under fire is Hungary, and I can see why. Initially I wanted to give Hungary a reprise, because there are other tracks that are much worse. Giving it a little more thought, though, I'm not at all impressed with how the circuit treats Felipe Baby. In 2009, he suffered the terrifying accident that saw him out of the car for the rest of the year. The previous season, his engine gave up heartbreakingly close to the end of the race, after such a fight from him that deserved the win. Instead, Kovalainen became the 100th different winner, and got his name in the record books. So, no, Hungary has to go too.
That's three circuits I want to get rid of, which is starting to get the calendar down to a sensible size. It would be impossible to judge the new South Korea track without seeing it, but I'd be just as happy if it wasn't ready in time. I also think I would get rid of Malaysia because they only gave me half a race in 2009. It wasn't necessarily their fault, but I had to mess about with half points for the rest of the season, and I do hold a grudge. So, what does my new and improved calendar look like?
It's shorter, obviously. I've taken the liberty of removing any back-to-back nonsense, because fortnightly racing is a sensible way to go about things. I've also chopped out the summer break, because we want to keep Peter Windsor happy, and Mr C and I rarely holiday anyway. Finally, I have re-ordered the races by number of laps.
Date
Race
Laps
29th May
Bahrain
TBC
5th Jun
Belgium
44
19th Jun
Italy
53
3rd Jul
Japan
53
17th Jul
Australia
58
31st Jul
Turkey
58
14th Aug
Britain
60
28th Aug
Singapore
61
11th Sep
Spain
66
25th Sep
Germany
67
9th Oct
Canada
70
23rd Oct
Brazil
71
6th Nov
Monaco
78
That's the Sidepodcast Calendar. Short, and in an orderly fashion.
Hi there, you've tuned in to the F1 Advent Calendar 2009 - brought to you by Sidepodcast. We are peering behind a new door for each day of advent, revealing a key moment from the 2009 season. It's time for today's story from Day Twenty-One - Crossing the Line.
Thankfully, by the time this year's Singapore Grand Prix rolled around, the trouble surrounding last year's race had been dealt with. There were still reverberations around the paddock, and Renault were busy unpicking the stickers of their rapidly departing sponsors, but it was a chance to get back to the racing.
The Brawn boys were back on form, topping the timesheets in Free Practice 1. Everyone held a collective breath when Romain Grosjean spun his Renault in exactly the same way as Piquet did in exactly the same place as Piquet did. Silence on the Renault radio. It seemed to break a little bit of the tension though, and things were a little more relaxed after the irony had died down.
On Saturday morning, Hamilton was fastest, with Vettel and Rosberg in second and third respectively, and then it was on to qualifying. Rosberg resumed his pace, posting the fastest time in Q1. Q2 was a similar story, with Rosberg up top, whilst Button struggled and couldn't make it through. Barrichello, Webber and Vettel all proceeded to Q3. Hamilton was the fastest man taking the vital pole position, with Vettel lining up beside him on the grid. Rosberg qualified third and Webber fourth.
This was Williams’ best chance for a good finishing position. The car may have had pace early in the year, and Rosberg topped many a Friday practice session but he could never seem to convert it into a podium finish.
On to the night race, and Rosberg made an excellent start. He was on the clean side of the grid and overtook Vettel to slot in behind leader Hamilton. Sadly, during the first round of pit stops, Rosberg made a crucial error as he exited the revised Singapore pitlane. He may have been going too fast, or couldn't turn in time on the dusty surface, but the German flew across the painted pitlane exit line on his way out. He caught the car and straightened up but by then it was too late.
It wasn't just a stray wheel over either, it was as if the line didn't even exist. It appeared to be a silly mistake, and Rosberg was duly punished with a drive through penalty, one that effectively ruined what had been his best performance of the season.
Later, Sutil tried a move on Alguersuari, but spun and ended up facing the wrong way. In trying to correct himself, he lunged the Force India forward, into Heidfeld, ending the BMW drivers reign of consecutive finishes. Sutil's behaviour was considered dangerous and he was later fined $20,000. This wasn't the last time he'd be in the middle of a controversial accident, either.
The subsquent Safety Car delayed Rosberg's drive through penalty, but once he had taken it, he found himself out of the points, down in 11th place. Hamilton secured his second win of the year, joined on the podium by Glock and Alonso - perhaps going some way to mend the damage the Piquet drama had done to Renault's reputation.
Rosberg’s pit exit mishap meant he missed out on a golden opportunity to show his team what he could do, although that pretty much sums up his whoel year. There were many points finishes for Nico, and only one retirement but the best he could manage was two fourth places. Despite the lack of standout results, Rosberg has been picked up by the former Brawn team Mercedes GP for the 2010 season, and no matter who his teammate is, he’s really going to have to do better than he did in 2009.
That's all for this episode, thank you for listening, and I hope you will join me tomorrow when we open the door for Day Twenty-Two.
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of an extended mini series from Sidepodcast. This is our F1 Advent Calendar 2009 - 25 short shows recapping the season just gone. It's time to open yet another door in our advent calendar, so let's get started with Day Seventeen - Spin Me Round.
Whilst Renault were waiting for their appeal hearing regarding the one-race ban dished out after Hungary, they found themselves in another bit of bother. Their driver of 18 months Nelson Piquet Jr, published a note on his website saying he had been let go from the team. It was a bitter letter, and although the news wasn't exactly unexpected for anyone who had seen him drive, it's delivery was slightly unusual. Piquet criticised his former team, particularly Flavio Briatore, suggesting that his boss had been demanding, uncompromising, even threatening.
Just a few days later, the rumblings of a huge scandal began. Rumour had it that Piquet Jr had been asked by his team to crash at the Singapore Grand Prix in 2008, to bring out the Safety Car that aided Alonso to win the race. It's something that had been mentioned in jest many times, but no one thought it could be true.
The FIA duly investigated, and on the 4th September, a statement was issued saying Renault would have to answer to the charges. A World Motorsport Council meeting was scheduled for later in the month, in fact just before the Singapore Grand Prix for this season.
Above anything else, I think this case will be known as the one where everything was leaked. We had letters to and from the FIA, statements from Piquet Jr and his father, documents regarding Briatore, and much more. Anything that was written down seemed to make it out into the wider world, and gave us and the media a lot to talk about. Piquet claimed that Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds had asked him to crash the car, and he had felt pressured into doing so. Both he and Alonso were given immunity from any penalties regarding the case.
Initially, the team denied the charges. They even said they would begin legal proceedings against the Piquets, suggesting that it constituted blackmail, and the allegations were false.
About a week before the trial, Pat Symonds was offered immunity by the FIA if he would answer their questions, but he did not take it. At this point the story suggested conversations about the crash had taken place prior to the race, but that it was all Piquet's idea. The truth is yet to be known.
On 16 September, both Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds left the team, and Renault F1 confirmed they would not contest the charges against them - essentially pleading guilty. The World Motorsport Council still met, and a mysterious Witness X - reportedly from the Renault team - gave evidence. With no defence to be heard, though, it was simply a matter of doling out the punishment. The result? A two year ban, suspended, for the team, plus bans of varying lengths for Symonds and Briatore.
Whether this was an acceptable punishment is really a matter of opinion. However, the team lost two key members of staff, several sponsors withdrew after the hearing, and worse than all of that - they had to watch Piquet's replacement, Romain Grosjean, spin at exactly the same corner during the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, just a few days later. Sometimes, you just have to laugh.
That's all for now. Thank you for listening to this F1 Advent Calendar 2009, and I hope you will join me again tomorrow, when we will see what's behind the door for Day Eighteen.
It's a brand new month, and we are looking at a brand new circuit for the final race of the year. Abu Dhabi has looked stunning but so far the action has left quite a lot to be desired. Meanwhile, there is plenty to talk about as the season draws to a close:
Yesterday, Mr C finally got round to writing his post about the recent site updates, which he was supposed to do when he released them mid-week. Still, it's worth having a quick read if you want to know what we're trying to achieve and why it has taken us so long to get round to it. Don't forget to leave your thoughts and feedback at any time, we are always open to ideas.
Campos META confirmed the speculation that they have signed up Bruno Senna for 2010. They seem very impressed with the young driver, who has risen through the motorsport ranks very quickly. I haven't watched him in any lower formulae but have heard concerns that he may not be ready. What do you guys think? There's a breakout thread waiting for your comments.
Another thread we opened up yesterday was to discuss the lighting situation in Abu Dhabi. It seems to work very well, but it is so vastly different to Singapore that it has made me pause for thought. In one of my digest shows, I also picked up that Heidfeld did say it was brighter in Singapore, but that here it hasn't been a problem so far.
That'll do it for now. Don't forget that there is an extra special super duper two hour Parade Lap season finale extravaganza starting at 10am Sidepodtime today. In fact, here's a trailer for it, as created by host Alex:
We'll be waiting for you and I will see you in the comments.
The debut Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend seems to be progressing nicely. Personally, I have found the sessions to be slightly on the dull side, although the track is very good looking and the facilities appear to be top notch. One thing I have found curious is the lighting situation.
Back when Singapore was announced as the first ever F1 night race, the topic of just how the organisers would light the event was a talking point for weeks. We wanted to know whether they had a backup, what would happen in case of a power cut, if the bulbs went out, if there was some epic disaster that ruined the weekend.
The FIA took the safety of the event very seriously, and monitored the plans at every opportunity. Mika Hakkinen took time out of his busy schedule to head to a short stretch of track weeks before the event, to test out the visibility and viability of the lights. Although it seemed as though everything was in hand, there were still concerns.
One member of each team was sent over to the track to have a look, and see if they could find any potential problems. The drivers spent plenty of time deciding on which visors they would be running with, and whether tinted or clear tear-off strips were the best. In short, there was plenty of fuss, it was the most exciting thing of the year, and we talked about it at great length in advance.
This year, F1 turned up in Abu Dhabi, it got a bit dark, and they switched the lights on. Where was the fuss?
It does make sense that Singapore did such a great job with the lighting, that Abu Dhabi would just be able to copy their setup and be ready to go, but I can't believe there were no worries or thoughts about the lighting before the event got underway.
The twilight aspect of the race has me slightly concerned, only because driving into the sunlight is quite possibly the worst thing I know about being behind the wheel, and I only drive at 70mph. If there was a contingent sent over to Abu Dhabi from each of the teams to investigate the situation, we didn't hear about it. If the track has the same sort of backup system as Singapore, I haven't seen any news reports about it.
To me, the lights don't look as bright, and they don't look quite as consistent as the system in Singapore. However, none of the drivers have complained, and they seem to be quite comfortable driving once it gets dark.
The whole thing strikes me as a bit odd, but perhaps Singapore was so good that all the lessons have been learned already?
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!!
We are midway through the week now, and apparently this is the 280th day of the year. That is quite a lot of the year gone already, huh? Still, here are some of the things we're talking about:
As we're looking at where we are in the year, it's interesting to look at what we were talking about this time last year. Over on F1 Minute, we were discussing BMWs decision to retain their drivers for this season, plus the Ferrari complaints about Singapore. BMW and Singapore are both topics on our minds in 2009, but for very different reasons.
Here on Sidepodcast, albeit on the 5th October last year, we adopted a panda, who is now a bit of a diva who likes to star on the live streams. We also spent that day listening to the excellent Tremayning work done by the community. We really need to do that again, I think.
Back to the present, sort of, Alex came up with a brilliant question yesterday: "I thought it might be nice to go for a bit of a positive vibe today. So I would love to hear who your #F1Hero is. These could be serious like Fangio, or comical like Montoya’s personal chef. But whatever they are the idea is to say who it is and why you think they are your #F1Hero." You may have answered already, but if not, let us know what you think, and perhaps we'll compile them on the wiki.
That'll do it for now, I reckon. Mr C is officially addicted to the doohickey, so if you see him around this evening, tell him to get on with the homepage. I'll see you in the comments.
A long distance call sees Joe join us from Singapore, tackling questions from the comments on the subject of street racing, a packed calendar and ghost commentating for the BBC.
Additionally, the 50th issue if GP+ magazine was released this week, so we find out what it means to Joe, how it all began, where it's going next and where it fits in the world of F1.
As ever, all of this and so much more in this episode of An Aside With Joe.
New York Times writer Brad Spurgeon penned an article for his column on Saturday, where he describes his visit to one of the "F1 Rocks" concerts taking place in Singapore during the course of the past F1 race weekend.
Brad points out that there wasn't an awful lot of synergy between the F1 action and the musical events. The two were situated a significant distance apart from each other, and at times managed to clash such that fans couldn't attend both simultaneously. This insight sparked a big debate in the comments as to the merit of such matters. Somewhere along the line though, I think the point of F1 Rocks seems to have got lost on everyone, Brad included, and from what I've seen and read it should be considered a resounding success on all counts.
Went From a Low to a Lot This Year
First a bit of background, as to what exactly F1 Rocks in Singapore entailed.
The event was put on as a joint venture between LG Electronics and Universal Music. Headline artists included Beyonce, No Doubt and Black Eyed Peas. 30,000+ fans attended three concerts all held at Fort Canning Park, which spanned Thursday to Saturday and which was all done and dusted prior to the F1 race on Sunday.
In addition to the concerts, the biggest of which saw 9,000 people watch the debut performance by Beyonce in Singapore, a television package of the event has been sold to nearly 200 broadcasters. The package includes two, one hour long shows, the first focusing on F1 racing and the second on musical performances.
In short, this event was huge.
I Stayed Grounded as the Amounts Roll In
One of the key things with big events, is that they cost a lot of money to put on. Primarily this is due to the amount of infrastructure, security, and local authority engagement required. Even if F1 Rocks has little or nothing to do with Formula One, staging both events simultaneously will offer organisers certain economies of scale, simply because the city is already being disrupted thanks to those pesky cars running up and down the city streets.
Furthermore, Formula One is gaining massive exposure into markets normally ignorant to it's existence. Audiences who likely have only heard the term F1 in association with a certain singer and her boyfriend, this weekend had the phrase "F1 Rocks" thrown down their throats repeatedly. The immediate association isn't in the slightest bit important, brand awareness is what this endeavor is all about, and I really believe it's working. For a long time we've argued racing needs to look beyond its core fanbase and spread the (now very high) rear wings to markets new. That is exactly what LG are trying to help Bernie/FOM/CVC do here.
In addition, LG has managed to position the F1 brand into online spaces less ventured, including but not limited to an official DailyMotion page (yes online video) and live tweeting from the event. The official homepage goes even deeper into social networking spaces, with Facebook and Spotify integration too.
F1 is winning in other ways too. As we reported on Saturday, the paddock was teeming with fresh faced celebrities. Again, offering exposure not only to the artists involved, but fans of the artists who may be curious to find out where the heck Will.i.am found those huge, huge rear tyres. Watch out for a set of green-striped Bridgestone's appearing in an episode of Pimp My Ride sometime soon.
Rockin' this Business
To a certain point, I do agree that things could have been slightly better. A night race was the ideal venue to debut this concept, but it did mean that in order to run qualifying and a night time concert, fans were denied the opportunity to enjoy both spectacles. I can see at a future Grand Prix this won't be such of a big problem and no doubt lessons have already been learned.
I truly believe that efforts put into organising such a tie up - which in my mind makes a great deal of sense - should be recognised. The sport has to expand, and it won't get everything right all the time.
I'd like to think Bernie gained something from this too. Even if if was only a fatter wallet for now, at least there will be more come.
