Ferrari had the best possible start to their championship campaign, whilst Red Bull could have got a lot, lot more. Both McLaren and Mercedes finished ahead of them.
In this second preview edition of F1 Digest we take a look through the entry list, focusing on the teams and their new cars. How have they performed in testing? What features are on the new machines? Who has a strong lineup? All that and more will get you ready for the season to come.
The Teams
From the non-existant teams such as US F1 and Campos to those who are determined to challenge for another championship - Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes. In some teams, the drivers overshadow the cars, but we spend plenty of time discussing front wings, sidepods and shark fin engine covers.
There are new liveries to discuss, and how the teams managed their launches, plus the relationship between teammates - those who have new faces to get to know, and those who are continuing with their fellow driver from 2009.
We also take a quick look at the battle between Virgin Racing and Lotus, from testing, reliability issues, air stewardess outfits and launches. Everything is going to be different this year, and it's going to be great.
For this week's Thursday Thoughts, Adie of F1 Tailpipe has offered us a fabulous question:
What can F1 do to enhance the experience of fans in attendance at the circuit? Does the ‘exclusivity’ of the sport add to the mystique of F1 in general, or has F1 set itself too far apart from your Average Joe?
For me, the question falls into two distinct parts. I don't mind if F1 is exclusive, and some of the real contact with teams and drivers is reserved for corporate parties and the very rich. However, this can only be the case, if the money generated from such things makes the experience cheaper for everyone else. Feel free to keep drivers on the inside of the circuit, and close off the bridge, but only if I get cheaper ticket prices.
If the money from such corporate exclusivity is simply going into Bernie's pocket, then I'm not interested.
Credit: sidepodcast.com
Keeping Formula 1 apart from the fans who love it
Of course, I also argue that drivers should do the mandatory signing sessions and it's excellent when they make appearances at their team merchandise stands. However, the lack of direct contact is part of what makes F1 so appealing. Even catching a tiny glimpse of your favourite driver is ten times more exciting if you know you're not going to bump into him round every single corner.
This leads nicely onto the second part of my answer. There's something about the elite nature of Formula 1 that keeps it so interesting. If I wanted to see cars up close on a regular basis on a cheap ticket, I could just visit my local circuit and watch some club racing. That's not the point. The point is these machines are special, these drivers are the best (well, some of them), and it is, in a way, a fantasy.
I want events like the Goodwood Festival of Speed to remain something very special. Our overriding impression when we went for the first time was that being so close to the cars in the paddock area was an amazing experience and something we would remember forever. To reduce the barriers at a race would reduce that feeling to a simple 'oh, there are those cars again.'
That's not to say that F1 does everything right, not by a long shot, but I do believe that the exclusivity of F1 is what keeps us all wanting more.
Although it is technically not Thursday anymore, we like to stretch the limits in our very own Sidepodtime timezone. Thus, here is a guest post from Lorenzo, answering Journeyer's initial question, with his ideal team line up.
My ideal team? When considering this question, I have opted to look at drivers that are alive and active, but maybe haven’t sat in an F1 car for many years. For the purpose of the exercise I will assume that the drivers would be at the same level as the day they left F1 (which is highly unlikely), but I suppose it is my team and before the season starts I am able to take such liberties with my decisions.
Ok, so my first choice would be the French Sicilian with the fiery temperament, who on his day gave both Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost more than a few headaches. I will always remember Jean Alesi's heroic efforts in the Tyrrell in 1990 passing, being passed and re-passing Senna many times on the notoriously difficult to overtake Phoenix Street Circuit. In fact he was a major reason as to why I fell in love with F1 in the first place, his talent was never questioned but his passion more than often led him to make the wrong decisions. Probably the move that effectively prevented him from becoming more than just a mere footnote, was inspired by his passion for Ferrari, when with his infinite wisdom he managed to wrangle himself out of an already signed contract with Williams for 1991 and ended up in his dream drive for Ferrari, alongside Alain Prost instead. Now we all know how that ended up, the Patrick Head/Adrian Newey Williams was the dominant force of the 90’s whilst Ferrari’s glory and form faded season upon season, until 1997 effectively. Still, Frank Williams was “donated” a Ferrari F1 car for his kindness in letting Alesi out of his signed multi-year contract and to this day I believe he still has the car in his Museum, but Alesi remains only a single time winner in the record books. What if, hey?
Number 2? Jacques Villeneuve. Who could ever forget his debut in the Williams in 1996, not I! Standing trackside you could see his unwavering commitment shining through in the body language of the FW18. Leading most of the race until he ran a little wide onto the grass outside of the first corner at Albert Park, shaking loose an oil line in the car, which resulted in the teams instructing him to pull over and let his more experienced team mate Damon Hill past for the win. Still his intentions were clear and Damon was served early notice. Also his relentless stalking and chase of Michael Schumacher in the Championship decider of Jerez 1997, followed by his scything pass down the inside from so far back that the German had no idea he was even coming. The audacity of Villeneuve in only his second season in F1, who in this one moment exposed what was both brilliant and flawed about Schumacher...his inability to accept defeat at almost any cost. My heart sank when in one fell swoop Villeneuve had confirmed for the world that Adelaide 1994 was no accident.
Test/Reserve? Kimi Raikkonen. His talent cannot be questioned, although we are all aware of his commitment issues and dare I say laziness over a season? I have a feeling that he would be horrible at developing the car for me and he would definitely hate the thought of me plonking him in the simulator for hour after endless hour, but I think I could tell when he has that glint in his eye and needs to be in the car. I might even arrange a special sponsor outing where we send Jean Alesi motocross riding on the weekend before Spa (no harm intended of course!) just so that I could slot Kimi in for his customary Belgium win, and then let him party for the rest of the year.
A final thought, sure Alesi, Villeneuve & Raikkonen mightn’t be a conventional choice for an ideal team but I have a secondary element to my choices. Jean owns a winery, Kimi loves a tipple and Jacques can sort of hold a tune. So when/if team Lorenzo F1 fail dismally, the year end Christmas party will be one to savour. Jean will supply the wine for Kimi to drink whilst Jacques provides the entertainment. I can’t lose!
Friday is here at last and we can start talking about the upcoming weekend. It's been a hectic week, and testing gets underway again next week, so we need a chance to rest! But, there's still Friday to get through, and to help us along, here are some of the things we're talking about:
We've been talking about our calendar a lot recently, and although we've made it as easy as possible to subscribe to it, we're still uncovering all the options. Kathi spent some time working out how to get the calendar working with Mozilla Thunderbird/Sunbird, and wrote an excellent wiki page of instructions. If you have any other tips to add, please get them in there, or else follow Kathi's great words.
Journeyer's Thursday Thoughts question created a great response in the comments, and we had a guest post from Nathan running quite objectively through the options. My team was a bit less conventional, but that probably goes without saying.
We have finally found out what Nick Heidfeld has planned for the upcoming season, and although being a test driver for the Schumacher team can't be what he was hoping for, it's good that he's still on the grid in some capacity. Have your say over on the breakout thread.
That'll do for now. Let us know what you're up to today and over the next couple of days as well, and I will see you in the comments.
Journeyer asked the question this week, and it's fallen to me to answer it on behalf of Sidepodcast. The question revolves around a dream F1 team, which drivers would be the ideal choice to make the best team, assuming money is unlimited, and everyone is available.
Well.
Hands up who thinks I'm going to say Franck?
Actually, I've been giving it some serious thought, and although a good looking, rather speedy French driver would be an asset to the team, I'm not going to go with Mr Montagny. He has unfinished work to do in Le Mans, and I'd rather he concentrated on that for now.
My wish list is actually quite a simple one - I only want drivers in my team who are on Twitter, and use it a lot. The added communication, the contact with the fans, the feeling of inclusion in events is something that is extremely valuable to a team. Just ask Mr C how he feels about Claire Williams after watching her Twitter feed all week.
So, drivers that tweet on a regular basis are few and far between at the moment, although it seems to be a growing trend, which is good. I've had a good look through our new Twitter page and decided that the drivers who have tweeted the most get my spare race seats.
Barrichello has been microblogging an awful lot and racked up a whopping 18,000 tweets, which is more than I can even comprehend. I'm slightly concerned that he'll be so busy on his mobile phone that he won't actually get any work done, but if it works for Williams, it works for me. Next up is Lucas di Grassi, which means I do get a delicious driver in my team, even if it's not Franck. He has just broken the 1,000 tweet mark which means he has a way to go to match Rubens but is still ahead of the rest.
Oddly, the next most prolific driver is Jenson Button, which lands him directly in my test seat. That means the defending World Champion can't actually keep his hands on his title, unless something happens to either of my main drivers. That's entirely possible, of course, they might get repetitive strain injury in their thumbs, so perhaps Button would get the call up sooner than he might think.
That's my team - three excellent drivers, with three fabulous Twitter accounts. We'll be called Team140, and due to cost-cutting measures, we have to restrict the number of employees to 140. Everyone else in the team will have to tweet too, and together, we could take over the micro-blogging world.
Following on from Journeyer's Thursday Thoughts question this morning, Nathan has already examined the potential candidates in great detail, and come up with his ideal team, which we will share with you now.
Intriguing. I'm trying - very hard - to keep personal bias out of this, and I think I can.
It's almost too difficult in some ways, the idea of having an unlimited budget can warp things somewhat, like football "dream teams", the most successful teams don't necessarily have a star-studded lineup.
My immediate answer to the question was quite simple - the two best drivers in F1 right now, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. However, anyone who had the privilege of seeing the 2007 season will know this didn't play out too well, despite the obvious talents of both. The rivalry was complicated by the political wrangling between the FIA president at the time, Max Mosley, and the McLaren/Ferrari teams, concerning the leaked Ferrari papers which found their way into the McLaren team. It's often difficult to decipher who was to blame and why, and relationships between Alonso and Hamilton fans are still fractious, if slightly more amiable, given that both drivers seem to acknowledge and respect each other's abilities.
Yet the idea of pairing these two behemoths of F1 together is still extremely tempting - Hamilton's raw pace and ballsy attitude combined with his considerable marketability makes him an exciting prospect for every team and fan alike. Meanwhile Alonso's consistent brilliance and ferocity often makes him a force of nature during races, being able to come up with the right strategy calls or delivering a series of perfect laps makes him a very desirable driver to have in any garage, and you get the feeling every team owner on the grid would give their right arm to have him.
So who are the other contenders, realistically? I'll say this now - Schumacher would not be my choice, if I was a team principal. He brings too much baggage with him in terms of his past, and although he would bring considerable experience and a fantastic attitude, he's not one for the future, either.
How about the others then? Massa has proven himself capable of incredible pace at the right times, yet you get the overhanging feeling there are still mistakes within his driving that are liable to surface at any point. For this reason I'm leaving him out, but he would still be a great choice overall. Jenson Button, perhaps? Well, despite being last year's WDC (and yes, he did deserve it), personally I feel a lack of total conviction, perhaps this is just the way he presents himself, but I don't feel the same raw, instinctive desire to win that I do from Schumacher, Alonso, Hamilton or even Vettel.
I think there are only two choices left. Of course, it would be nice to have Kimi Raikkonen back in the fold, as a motivated KR of 2005 would no doubt be a contender for a seat. So here we have Vettel and Robert Kubica. Kubica may surprise many, and given that he has only won the single race - somewhat fortunately - he is perhaps the weakest of all the contenders so far. Yet I have a feeling about Kubica. A very special feeling, the same that I feel and see in Alonso, in Hamilton, and in Schumacher. He has the talent, and the pace, no doubt about it, but one questions his ability to drive "around" a bad car, as he struggled considerably in 2009, until he put a fantastic drive in at Interlagos, which impressed many. I don't feel he would be ready in my "dream team" lineup, and he's unlikely to accept a 3rd driver role! But I would definitely be keeping an eye on him for the long term.
So - one person left to look at, Sebastian Vettel. Perhaps along with Hamilton, Massa and Raikkonen, one of the quickest drivers around in terms of raw pace. And he's still incredibly young, he's shown great maturity over the past couple of seasons. Yet he makes mistakes, and that cost him his WDC last year. I also question his ability to "make things happen", take a look at 2009 in Turkey, when he had to overtake Button to make his strategy work, his inability to make it happen cost him badly. Of course, it is difficult to overtake in F1, but you get the sense that one of MSC, LH and FA would have made it happen, no matter what. In fact, the previous year, when Hamilton had to do the same, he managed to overtake Felipe Massa to make his strategy work.
So, after what seems like an eternity pondering these things, I feel I've come full circle. Who are really the best drivers in F1 now? Well, of course people have different opinions, but I genuinely believe that Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton occupy the top 2 seats of the table, and if I was a team principal, I would be doing everything within my power to get them. I don't think there would be particular problems between them, provided they solved any on the track. Consistent, fast and marketable. What more can a team owner wish for?
As for my reserve driver, my knowledge of the young drivers in the lower formulae is not great, so I'm going to have to plump for a current F1 driver, and for this task, it's between Rubens Barrichello and Jaime Alguesuari. Barrichello has shown he has pace, the ability to set a car up, and the most experience of any F1 driver ever. Yet he showed in 2009 he still makes mistakes, some of which are reckless and can prove costly.
You may do a double-take at the mention of Jaime. So why have I mentioned him? Hmm. Well, last year, at the age of 19, he showed a lot of promise, in my opinion. Yes, he crashed the car an awful lot. Yes, he did not make full use of the car he was given. But still, during the practice sessions on the radio, we could clearly hear him talking eloquently and articulately to his engineers, explaining calmly and maturely. He took his first "year" easily, just making sure he got used to the car and the team. Consider also that he had absolutely no F1 testing, a ludicrous situation when you think about it, and had only just been in his first season of the World Series by Renault. With some clarity and and objectivity, you can make a case for him to be a very solid long term prospect, and I consider him so. In my team, I would be willing to give him several years worth of development in other series', and hope that testing regulations are loosened slightly to allow him access to more experience. This is the only way his career will work out in the real world, if STR stick with him for several years, to let him blossom.
We've covered an enormous amount of topics in our Thursday Thoughts series, and we've got more to come before the season ends. If you want to pose a question, please sign up on the wiki, but for now, I'll hand over to our lead blogger, Journeyer.
Although I don't have my own personal blog, I've loved the concept of Thursday Thoughts. And I'm honored to ask the question for this week.
We've talked a lot in the comments about who deserves a drive in Formula One, and who doesn't. With so many new seats and new drivers flying around, perhaps it's time we put ourselves in the team owners' shoes.
So my question for all of you is:
If you were a team boss with 3 vacant seats (2 race seats and 1 test seat), who would you hire?
To make it a bit easier, let's make a few assumptions. Assume that there are no financial restrictions and that all the drivers are free agents. In other words, you have an unlimited budget and can hire anyone of your choice.
However, while there may be no formal restrictions, you may want to ask yourselves some of these questions: Will they get along? Do they have compatible driving styles? Are they both quick enough to win races? Do they have sufficient experience and/or potential?
The possibilities are endless. And just to get things started, here's mine:
Race Seats:
Michael Schumacher - Really, was there any doubt? Based on the tests this week, he's still got the speed and the motivation. And his skills in technical feedback wouldn't go amiss, either. The tricky bit here is looking for a driver who would get along well with Michael, but be competitive enough as well.
Sebastian Vettel - It was a coinflip for me between him and Felipe Massa, but I think Vettel is the better long-term choice. Michael won't be around forever, and I'd need someone who can lead the team even after he's retired. He has potential by the bucketload, and he's come a very long way in just over 2 years.
Test Seat: Marcus Ericsson - This young Swede is about to enter his first full season of GP2 after a good run in F3, but in his GP2 Asia debut last year, he did pretty well. He also held his own when he did the Young Drivers Test late last year alongside Mike Conway at Mercedes GP. I'm giving him the test seat because I think he has the potential to perform well at the highest level - and because no one else has given him an F1 seat (Not to mention I wanted to make an unorthodox pick). If he's good enough and I stay loyal to him and give him a good enough car, I'm hoping he stays loyal to me too.
So there's my personal line-up. I'd love to hear your line-up! Blog about it and plug it here. No blog? No problem - post your thoughts in the comments, or even better, send a guest post to Christine. Speak out and make yourself heard.
Fantasy Racers was a mixed experience in 2009. The rule changes were of a similar magnitude to those in Formula 1 itself, and some of us adapted well, whilst others of us did not. Kathi led the way almost from the very start, and put on a really impressive show to make the Sidepodcast League the top scoring league of the competition for the second year in a row. She also completely outclassed the rest of us in the field, meaning we simply have to try harder in 2010.
Preparing to defend our Fantasy Racing title again. Click to join.
There are a couple of changes to the Fantasy Racers rules again this year, and we're also tweaking the way we play as well. Starting with the competition, though, you can now choose between two strategies, as detailed on the site:
Strategy 1 allows you to make unlimited changes during the course of the year, with a 40.0m starting budget.
Strategy 2 does not allow you to change your drivers, but has a starting budget of 45.0m. You may only remove a driver that is sacked / injured / unable to compete.
As a particularly lazy person, I have selected Strategy 2, although I have yet to choose my drivers. You are welcome to choose either option, and the selection you make will show up against your team in the league.
With the added complexity this gives the competition, we've realised it's going to be almost impossible to cover it in a sensible amount of time on the podcasts, so generally speaking, Fantasy Racing is now a blog-only thing. That doesn't mean we're not encouraging you to sign up and join in though, because we want you all to go ahead and do that now.
Sign up is free, just head on over to FantasyRacers.com, pick a team name, your strategy and your drivers - if you're thinking that far ahead already. I believe at the moment you can change your mind on the strategy front, but that will most likely be locked down at some point before the season begins.
We've created a league for everyone to join, although we want it to be less Sidepod-centric this year. Thus, we have named it Panda Racing 2010. To join the league you can simply click here, or search for Panda Racing. There's no password this year, so you can just sign right up and get choosing. Once you've done that, come back and let us know your team name and what your strategy is.
It's the end of the week once more, and we've enjoyed five days of discussing brand new cars. Well, a new car and a livery anyway. With all the teams turning to online streaming to give fans an insight into the launches of their new machinery, we've suddenly realised just how stuffy the events can be. Suits and cameras, interviews and PR speak, aside from looking at the new paint job, the launches do leave a lot to be desired.
So, the big question this week for our Friday Fun game is:
How would you make F1 launches better?
We're talking from the smallest little details, to the very big things such as location. In fact, here's a list of things that you could decide upon, although tell us anything you've got in mind.
Location and timing
Who would host the event?
Would you have any special guests?
Background music, or invited bands?
What would you get the drivers to do?
My first thought is that I'd get the media onside by handing out sweets, and I would get the drivers to answer the questions whilst also having a go on a bouncy castle. I think that would spice things up a bit. I'm going to have to give it some more thought though, and while I do, please leave your launch ideas in the comments.
