Ah, Monday again, but there's no chance to be miserable this week as it's the return of F1 and that can only be a good thing! Yesterday, Mr C got caught up watching Montoya doing some NASCAR thing, and threatened to watch more during the year. Thank goodness F1 is coming back. Here are some of the things we're talking about:
As ever, don't forget to check out Jackie's fabulous Something For the Weekend series. Although it's not technically the weekend anymore, it's always worth browsing through the links on there, as they always select the best stuff over on Viva F1. I should also do a quick shout out for the quiz-formerly-known-as Pitlane Fanatic. It's returning in a new VivaF1 shape, so stay tuned to Viva F1.
I'm offering up a quick shout out on behalf of Mr C to Vanquish's blog. There are some fabulous stories on there, with the last one being all about Sir Stirling Moss. The entries are quite long, so you need to grab a cup of tea and a biscuit, settle down and get reading.
On a self-promoting tangent, I posted an unusual item on Media Future Change yesterday. Mr C and I had been having a conversation, but he was too busy to turn it into a blog post so instead I recorded his words and turned them into a transcript. At some point he will be appearing on the podcast with me, but for now, it's a great way to be a fly on the wall as we discuss media future changey type things. I like the way it's turned out, let me know what you think!
That should do it for now. With the weekend over, it's time to focus fully on the countdown to Free Practice on Friday. Let me know how you're passing the time, and I will see you in the comments.
Alex Andronov guides us through his experience at a rather swanky event in London, where two veterans of motorsport were about to meet and share their memories with a select few.
After Sidepodcast announced the once in a lifetime chance to hear Murray Walker interview Sir Stirling Moss, I girded my bank account into action and booked my ticket.
The venue was to be the RAC - a members only club - in central London. A very swanky part of London. The dress code required a tie and so I got dressed up and headed to the venue. The RAC is a pretty swanky venue steeped in car history. They even have old cars just sitting in the lobby. I would like to tell you that I made copious notes about what this car was but sadly I got distracted by something else.
As I delicately supped at my glass of Champagne, I discreetly made a few comments on Sidepodcast just to let everyone know what was going on. After a while I decided to check if I could actually see Murray or Stirling. So I had to look away from my iPhone (other mobile doohickey devices are available) and look around the room.
Suddenly there they were. People were all being very polite and not approaching, they looked like they were in conversation with friends. But of course, let's face it, they were probably just in conversation with people who were more pushy than me. I tried to very subtly snap some pictures. It would appear that clandestine reconnaissance is not in my immediate future. For me subtle = shaky!
Slowly the room started filling up and I got chatting to a number of Formula 1 fans. I recommended that they all immediately check out the website of the greatest Formula 1 podcast in the world. The general consensus was that now they were here they would check out the talk, but they would check out the site afterwards.
While I had been chatting to these people the crowd had increased in size and a line had appeared for photos with Murray.
I passed my iPhone to a young guy who looked like he could deal with the modern technology.
There we had it. The key shot, bit blurry perhaps but it was proof nevertheless. I didn't get a chance to talk to the man himself because he was being distracted by the lady in the previous shot who had switched over to his other side. It didn't matter, I was happy!
I wondered about taking a few more photos (and even some video) while I waited for dinner.
Suddenly, we were whisked into a large dining room with lots of enormous round tables and plenty more new people to meet. I was sitting between a guy who didn't like Formula 1 anymore and a guy who was one of the James Bond stunt drivers. They were both very interesting to talk to. Dinner arrived.
I wasn't sure what was going to happen next. It seemed that there was some kind of rostrum ready for them to speak on. In all of the excitement I managed to spill gravy on my tie. The main attraction of the evening began with a short film talking about Sir Stirling's career, and after that Murray and Stirling took to the stage.
They started going when the microphones weren't working properly and so it was hard to work out exactly what was being said. Murray asked him how he got started in racing and he talked about his dad. Murray asked if Stirling had been pushed by his father and Stirling said that his dad was hard but fair. Put it this way, he said, if he had done something wrong he would get his mother to talk to his dad for him.
Then, thank goodness, they fixed the microphone and I managed to record the rest of the session. There were some absolute gems in the recording, and although the quality wasn't great, it was worth it.
With that, the mingling really got going. It was a great evening so thanks to Sidepodcast for the tip off and for all of the comments through the evening.
The two men are legends, and when you get a chance to listen to legends it isn't expensive, it's priceless.
Alex has very kindly passed the audio recording to us, and we will be releasing it as special podcast all of its own very soon.
Welcome to the last in the current series of Forgotten F1 Teams, brought to you by Sidepodcast. We’ve been travelling through time and looking at teams from across the decades, examining their history and why they are no longer around. Our last team is Vanwall.
Tony Vandervell was a businessman, creator of the Thinwall bearings, and he was originally one of the sponsors of British Racing Motors, otherwise known as BRM, in the 1940s. He didn’t like the way the team was run, with so many decision makers, and decided to form his own team. A decade later, he was ready to enter in the new Formula 1 championship, with the cars known as Vanwall Specials. The name Vanwall was a mixture of his own surname Vandervell and the Thinwall bearings he created. Designed by Owen Maddock, built by Cooper Cars, and with their own in-house engine, they made their first appearance in the 1954 season, at three races with Peter Collins behind the wheel. He only finished one with a seventh place.
In 1955, Vanwall Specials ran with Mike Hawthorn, Ken Wharton and Harry Schell, not all at once. They scored three ninth places out of eight starts, the rest were retirements. By the end of the year, it seemed clear that the engine was good but the chassis was holding them back. Vandervell decided to hire a designer to work some magic and it was none other than Colin Chapman.
Chapman teamed up with aerodynamicist Frank Costin, and engine designer Harry Weslake, and they prepared a new car for the 1956 season. Stirling Moss was brought in to race in a non-championship event, which he won. He was still contracted to drive for Maserati, but he was convinced to join Vanwall in 1957.
Tony Brooks and Stuart Lewis-Evans were also signed up, and that pre-empted a record breaking moment. At the British Grand Prix that year, Brooks and Moss shared the drive. They qualified third on the grid at Aintree, and successfully brought the Vanwall home in first place. It was Vanwall’s first win, Brooks’ first win, but also the first victory for a British driver (or two in this case) at the British Grand Prix with a British car. Brooks completed 26 laps and Moss 64, and they shared the eight championship points between them.
Moss went on to win the Italy and Pescara GP and finished second in the driver’s championship.
Ahead of the 1958 season, alcohol fuels were banned, which caused Vanwall some serious engine cooling issues. They had to redesign their engine, gearbox and brakes to sort this out, but they were successful. All three drivers had stayed with the team, and Moss and Brooks each won three championship races. Vanwall became the first ever Constructor’s Champions as the title was introduced that year. The driver’s title was a much closer battle, with Stirling Moss taking on Mike Hawthorn in the Ferrari. At the season closing race, Moss took the victory, one of his three wins that year, with Hawthorn a close second but Hawthorn won the championship by just one point. There was more bad news to come though, as Stuart Lewis-Evans was in a terrible accident. His car suffered an engine failure that saw him crash into the barriers and his car burst into flames. He was airlifted from Morocco back to the UK for treatment, but died six days later from burn injuries. Their constructors victory was overshadowed, and Vandervall was devastated.
He was also not in the best of health, with doctor’s advising him to rest more. In January 1959, he decided to quit the team. Vanwall tried to continue, appearing at a few championship and non-championship races, but the results weren’t good, and the enthusiasm seemed to have been lost. In 1961, Lotus tested out a Vanwall engine but aside from that, the name was gone from Formula 1.
John Surtees drove a Vanwall in the Intercontinental Formula series that year, but it was not a successful entry, and that soon folded as well. Tony Vandervell kept out of the public eye after leaving the team, and he died in March 1967.
That’s all for this final episode of Forgotten F1 Teams. We’ve profiled seven teams, but if you’ve got suggestions for any future episodes, please let me know on the site sidepodcast.com or email me Christine at sidepodcast dot com. Thanks for listening.
I was browsing the Wikipedia entry for May 14th for some kind of interesting fact, and found that Stirling Moss won the Monaco GP on this day in 1961. The people's encyclopedia also says that Moss removed the side panels of his Lotus to help keep him cool. Crikey! Anyway, on to more modern subjects:
BMW have said that whilst their KERS device is skipping a race at Monaco, they'll be bringing it back bigger and better for Turkey. The team really need something to work in their favour as the results haven't been coming in as they would have hoped yet.
Ferrari have said they could take their passion for Formula 1 and integrate it into a new motorsports category. What would that be, I wonder? Rallying? Touring Cars? NASCAR??
Lots of people have been having fun over on the Wiki recently. I recommend going over to check it out. We've got updated stats for the completed second series of Sidepodpanel. RG has created a list of the Sidepodcommunity Twitter accounts, and there's info about who is turning up to what motorsport events this year.
That'll do it for now. We're also keeping a close eye on the goings up in space, in our ongoing Sidepodspace feature. If you spot anything, let us know, and I'll see you in the comments.
Just recently, the pair of us have been feeling under the weather and watching more TV than we usually would. This happily coincided with the debut of Roary the Racing Car in the iTunes Store. A couple of downloads later and we were ready to indulge in some mindless, colourful, children's fare.
Personally, I really liked the episodes, and we managed to watch all of the available output from Apple in one sitting. It's bright and lively, with larger than life characters, and plenty of giggles to attract children to the world of racing. It's obvious that kids will begin to pick up information about motorsports that they might never have known otherwise. The merchandising and toys bring the characters and cars right into their homes, and I imagine there are lots of pretend races going on as each episode is played out.
However, the pedigree behind Roary the Racing Car means that there are a lot of subtleties that the, eh-hem, older viewers can get a lot from as well.
Keith Chapman is the brains behind the outfit, drawing on his experience from Bob the Builder, and he teamed up with David Jenkins, who worked in management at Brands Hatch for a good few years. The latter had spent much of his young child's early years telling engaging stories about racing cars, to try and explain what was happening "where Daddy worked". For Chapman and his new entertainment company, it seemed like a natural progression from the world of building materials to the world of circuits.
The show was first aired in 2005, and the target demographic is two to six year olds. This seems about right, because when I posted a Twitter message about our viewing choice for the evening, I had a lot of messages saying: "My young son loves that show!" A new generation of motorsport fans are being cultivated, even if they don't know it yet.
As I mentioned, some of the names and characters within the show are a wink and a nudge for current fans, and perhaps a helping hand for kids to make the transition easier. The voiceover at the beginning and end of each episode is Sir Stirling Moss in the UK. The circuit is called Silver Hatch - a mashup of Silverstone and Brands Hatch. The owner of the track is a flamboyant, grey-haired Italian. Another mole-shaped animal character is called Molecom, perhaps named after the Goodwood corner - Molecombe?
My particular favourite in the show is Marsha the Marshal. Firstly, she and Big Chris single-handedly run the day to day goings on at the track, and in fact, Marsha is usually the one that gets things done, reinforcing that marshals are pretty important. Secondly, she is the main female character in the show (well, the one who's not a car, anyway), and she's not afraid to put the hours in, get muddy, or run around the track. More females in motorsport, please.
Each episode has a moral, as most good children's shows should, and that may not translate particularly well with how the Formula 1 world is behaving at the moment. However, we've started to see Big Chris and others appearing at various motorsport events, so it won't be long before we're faced with a whole new generation of racing drivers, and keen fans, ready to prove they've got what it takes.
Frequent commentator on Sidepodcast, Stuart Codling is most likely a name that needs no introduction. Perhaps this is another target for our 'please get a blog' campaign, but for now, we are honoured to feature his thoughts here.
Like it used to be?
"There is a cult today that it is fashionable to be 'bored by it all' and in that cult you are not permitted to show any enthusiasm for anything, unless it is enthusiasm for being bored..." - Denis Jenkinson
I love motor racing and consider myself fortunate to have been employed at various times to write about it. Having this kind of mentality enables one to (for instance) get off a 24-hour flight to Australia with a spring in one's step and a cheery demeanour which even the dreary officiousness of that nation's Customs & Excise officers cannot despoil.
But there are others who purport to enjoy motor racing, and F1 in particular, yet can see nothing good in it. Chiefly these people inhabit internet forums and greet any new development with a tiresome blast of cynicism and negativity, issued more often than not from a very shaky high ground of assumed knowledge. Formula 1, they say, isn't as good as it used to be. And of course it's Max Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone 'what done it.'
The LAT archive is a marvellous place. In a recent moment of serendipity while researching the project codenamed 'my booky wook', I came across a piece by the patron saint of motor racing scribes, Denis Jenkinson (for anyone new-ish to F1, 'Jenks' co-drove Stirling Moss in the 1955 Mille Miglia, reported from grands prix in the days long before live timing and 24-hour internet news – and lived in a shed with just a Honda generator for power). 36 years ago he was getting every bit as wound up by these tediously predictable naysayers as I am today, and over two and a half pages in the March 1973 edition of Motor Sport magazine he outlined why. The story was called "When did you lose interest?" and I’ve abridged it for reasons of brevity and copyright:-
I can almost guarantee that as I cross the paddock at Brands Hatch, during the Race of Champions, to look at the new UOP Shadow I will meet someone who will say, "Grand Prix cars are not what they used to be, are they?" hoping to draw me into their pet aversion. This sort of thing seems to happen at any motor-racing gathering that I go to and I have to refrain from the obvious reply, which would be, "No they are not. If they were, they wouldn’t win races or break lap records..."
I find the ones I meet at gatherings other than Grand Prix events are the most vehement, so I ask the question, "When did you lose interest?" to which I get evasive answers and a lot of chat about "I don’t go to Formula 1 races any more, can’t stand those wide tyres and those wing things; more like aeroplanes than racing cars." The objections cover a wide range of things, like "they all look alike", "can’t see the driver working", "all those fancy sponsors' colours they paint them nowadays", "can't see the driver's face with those space helmets", and "they've all got Cosworth engines". While listening to these moans I can't help feeling that for people who have "lost interest" they have a remarkable knowledge of the current scene!
Occasionally I can track down an actual point in history, like "when Alfa Romeo withdrew the 158s" or "when Hawthorn and Collins died" or even "when Jim Clark died" but these are rare. Most of the moaners cannot say exactly when they lost interest but they know full well that they don't like "Stewart and his lot" or "their black and gold Lotuses" or "the little roller-skate wheels" or "the advertising and funny colours", in fact, they don't like anything that is on the current scene. To tell the truth they are professional moaners who keep in touch with all the latest trends just so that they can complain.
It amused me to read that a period considered by a substantial number of bulletin board windbags to be the golden era of motor racing was viewed with such disdain at the time. The whingers of the early 1970s no doubt had the 1950s in mind as their own golden era; but how insipid the Coopers and Vanwalls must have seemed to those who were fortunate enough to have seen the pre-war Auto Unions at play. Ah, those were real cars! Stirling Moss? Who he? You are nothing if you haven't seen Nuvolari in his pomp!
To anyone who has already decided that KERS is a waste of time; that Michael Schumacher ruined F1; that F1 was better in the 80s/70s/60s/50s (delete as appropriate); that the 2009 cars are hideously and irredeemably ugly; that things haven't been the same since turbos were banned; that a single-engine rule would kill the sport; that you wouldn’t watch another F1 race after Lewis Hamilton’s penalty in Belgium; that any manner of change is axiomatically bad: a last word from DSJ:-
We all have high points and low points in our interest, usually tied up with a particular happening. I enjoyed the Monoposto Alfa Romeo as it was the first Grand Prix car of which I became aware. I loved the sheer dominance of the Mercedes and Auto-Union, but I prayed that the 1938/39 Maserati would one day beat them. The post-war 158 Alfa Romeo 158s were marvellous, but the 4.5-litre Ferraris that beat them were even better, and Fangio’s reign was terrific, but what a high point it was when Vanwall conquered everyone. The Cooper/Brabham era was a bore, but the rise of Jim Clark and Lotus was refreshing while the return to 3-litre power put things back into perspective.
Ferraris have always sounded wonderful, but the Lotus 72 was really exciting and the Lotus gas-turbine, in spite of its failure, had me on tip-toe with excitement. The abortive 4-wheel-drive season depressed me, but the G-forces developed in 1972 were staggering, as were the lap records. The almost total disappearance of British drivers from the leading group in Grand Prix today is depressing at the moment, but the end is not here by any means.
I don’t think it is possible to "lose interest" in Grand Prix racing, once you have discovered it. Moments of disenchantment may appear, but loss of interest is unlikely. I may be wrong.
This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.
Having successfully won the 2008 Driver's Title at only the second time of asking, Lewis Hamilton is being congratulated by the Queen in her New Year's Honours List. The 23 year old will be picking up an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) and joins many other racing drivers who have been awarded with similar honours.
The medals can be quite confusing, with several different options, and the differentation can be tough. However, from the official website of the UK Honours System, the medals are introduced as:
The 2009 New Year Honours List has been published, the list recognises the outstanding achievement and service across the whole of the community.
The MBE is "awarded for achievement or service in and to the community of a responsible kind which is outstanding in its field."
An MBE is the lowest available medal, but means Hamilton joins the list of Olympic stars for services to sport. They are amongst the other Britons who are receiving awards for services to education, medicine, the environment, and a wide variety of other areas.
Hamilton admits he feels very honoured and priviliged to have been named in the New Year's list, and that this medal will just round out what has been a really good 2008.
The Queen had already sent Hamilton a message after he won the Championship with the official letter stating:
"To Lewis Hamilton Esquire,
I'm delighted that you succeeded in winning the Formula One world championship to become the youngest-ever champion," the Queen wrote. "I send you my warmest congratulations on your remarkable and historic achievement.
Elizabeth R."
As mentioned, Hamilton is not the first racing driver to be given an award by the Queen, with Sir Jackie Stewart and Sir Stirling Moss both being given the higher honour of a knighthood. Team owner Sir Frank Williams also received the same honour.
Other notable awards are Nigel Mansell and Jim Clark, who both were given OBEs, and Colin Chapman was given a CBE.
Welcome to the second series of F1 People, seven short shows brought to you by Sidepodcast, chronicling the lives of important people in the world of F1. Last time round we looked at Michael Schumacher, Enzo Ferrari, Frank Williams and others. Obviously there are more than seven VIPs in F1, and we had several comments last time round suggesting people we may have missed. Thus, F1 People, series 2, is here to expand on our list, starting with Colin Chapman.
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman was born on the 19th May 1928, in London, where he grew up and went to University to study mechanical engineering. While he was a student, he learnt to fly and joined the Royal Air Force when he was 20. He wasn’t there for long, although the experience gave him a taste for aeronautical engineering that transferred to his love of cars. After leaving the RAF, Chapman became a member of the 750 Motor Club, a UK based racing club that specialises in Austin’s.
The first car that Chapman built was based around a 1930 Austin Seven and he named it Lotus. The car was entered into some minor races and was so successful that more versions were built. At this point, Chapman was working at the British Aluminium Company, but his girlfriend lent him the money to start up the Lotus Engineering Company. He partnered with Michael Allen and in 1953, Frank Costin joined the company to help create the Lotus Mk 8. The success of this car allowed Chapman to leave his job and work for Lotus full time. Whilst building and producing road and race cars, Chapman’s expertise was sought by Vanwall and BRM who both used him as a consultant to their racing teams.
In 1956, Chapman combined his experience with building cars, and working with the teams, to build his first single-seater, and two years later, he entered the car in its first Grand Prix at Monaco. Graham Hill and Cliff Allison were the first to drive the Lotus 12s in F1. A couple of iterations later, Chapman switched the engine from the front of the car to the rear, and in 1960, the Lotus 18 won its first race with Stirling Moss at the wheel. Team Lotus, however, didn’t win until the next year, at the US GP.
The 1960s were a dominant period for Lotus. Jim Clark won seven races in 1963 with the Lotus 25 – the first chassis to feature a monocoque. This came from Chapman’s aeronautical engineering background, and helped make the cars lighter and stronger. They were also much better for the driver in the event of a crash. Graham Hill was world champion in 1968 with the Lotus 49 – the first car to feature commercial sponsorship. Chapman’s desire to have commercial backing was a key factor in building the big-business sport that F1 is today.
Also in 1968 came the death of Jim Clark. He and Colin Chapman had become close friends through their many races and wins together. Clark died after his Lotus veered off the road and crashed into some trees. Chapman was very publically devastated, saying he had lost his best friend. He ordered the green and yellow Lotus badge to be replaced on all Lotus cars to a black badge for a month after Clark’s death.
The world championship wins continued into the 70s, and as the successes rolled in, the company began to grow, moving to Norfolk, and building up its sports car infrastructure. In the middle of the 1970s, Lotus began to look at ground-effects, successfully harnessing the innovative technology to help the Lotus 79 win the world championship with Mario Andretti at the wheel. Whilst ground effects were a major advancement in terms of the technology, they were also surrounded by controversy, and eventually banned in the 1980s.
In 1982, Chapman began work on active-suspension technologies, but this was never completed. He died of a heart attack in December that year, aged just 54 years.
After his death, a scandal emerged involving the DeLorean Motor Company. In 1992, Fred Bushell, a close colleague of Chapman’s pleaded guilty to “conspiring with the late Colin Chapman and others to defraud the DeLorean Motor Company.” He went to prison for four years, and it’s assumed that had Chapman been alive, he also would have received sentencing.
None of that takes the edge off the fact that he was one of the great innovators of Formula 1. Without Chapman, and his Lotus team, several of the major stepping stones in F1 technology may never have been made. He remains the engineering mind that all others look up to.
Thanks for listening to this first episode of F1 People (series 2). Don’t forget you can leave your thoughts on Colin Chapman on the blog, you can leave a voicemail on 0121 28 87225, or you can email me on christine @ sidepodcast.com. Join me tomorrow when we’ll take a look at another important name in F1.
Welcome to Sidepodcast’s History of F1. On the last episode, we looked at the years leading up to the beginning of the Formula 1 World Championship, including French road races, and participation in the Indy 500. Now we can move on to the 1950s, when the official Championship began and records started to be kept, and broken.
After the Second World War, the FIA initiated the World Championship. The new sport was called Formula A, but would change to Formula 1 pretty soon afterwards. The minimum race distance was changed, having been 500km originally, but reduced to 300km. This meant that more tracks were eligible to host GP events and in 1950, the first championship race took place at Silverstone. The first race of the new F1 World Championship was the British Grand Prix and was won by Giuseppe Farina. He went on to add Belgian, Italian and Swiss races to his list and beat Juan Manuel Fangio to take the World Championship title.
The driving style of most championship contenders was to be hunched up behind the while, ultimately uncomfortable, and struggling to keep control of the car. The new Champion Farina brought about a new style, with outstretched arms, so that he looked very cool and relaxed as he took his crown. This driving position took off and soon everyone had relaxed their driving style to match Farina's.
Although Juan Manuel Fangio lost out on his first attempt at the World Championship, he didn't give up and soon became the most successful driver of the 50s. He won five titles with five different manufacturers, which is a mighty achievement. One of his moves came after a horrific accident at Le Mans. The 24 hour race, that continues to be popular to this day, took place in 1955 as it always did. But it ended with an awful crash that left upwards of 80 people dead. Fangio was lucky to escape, and his team thought it best to call it a day. That team was Mercedes, and they obviously changed their minds at some point through the years.
One of Fangio's biggest rival was Sir Stirling Moss, a driver who always seemed to finish behind his nemesis. In fact, Moss is renowned as the best driver who never managed to win a championship. He is also loved for being a British driver in a British car, especially when he won the British Grand Prix in 1955. Accidents plagued his career though, and the early 60s saw him break both his legs. Moss retired after a few more years of struggling, and no championship title.
Moss was held off the title in 1958 by another British driver Mike Hawthorn. Driving a Ferrari, Hawthorn managed to beat his fellow countryman who was struggling in his Vanwall. The politics within Formula 1 and within Ferrari itself made Hawthorn very uncomfortable though, and he was upset enough to retire at the end of the year. Tragically, only a few months after his departure from the racetrack, Hawthorn was killed in a road accident.
Britain really was seen as the home of motorsport, despite the early origins in mid Europe . More and more British drivers entered the races, with more and more British engineers helping them along the way. By the 1960s, British Racing Green, was soon “adopted” as the Official colour of Formula 1, due to the number of teams racing under the dark green colour.
That’s all for the second episode of Sidepodcast’s History of F1. On the next show we’ll zip forward to the 1960s, where drivers competitiveness really began to take hold.
