Sidepodcast

Who Are They, Anyway - Toro Rosso Young Drivers

We've been looking forward to the young driver event next week because it's been a long time since we saw anything in the way of testing (thanks FIA). Jerez will play host to three days of testing from the 1st to 3rd of December, but we haven't heard of many of the drivers before.

Mr C and I have our heads in the F1 cloud, so these new drivers working their way through lower formulae rarely appear on our radar. In order to get ourselves up to speed, we wanted to run through who's driving, for which team, and the reasons we should keep an eye on them.

We're starting with Toro Rosso, who are naturally picking up their drivers from the Red Bull stable of talent.

Brendon Hartley

• Age: 20
• Nationality: New Zealander
• F1 Experience: Demo driver through to official test driver for both Red Bull and Toro Rosso.
• Notable Achievements: 1st in Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 2007, 3rd in British F3 Championship 2008

Hartley has been in our peripheral vision for a while now, as an occasional tester for the Red Bull suite of teams. He was signed up as the official reserve driver for 2009 but couldn't get his superlicence in time and had to hand the role to retired DC. He was ready to go by the time the Spanish GP rolled around, but was strangely overlooked when Alguersuari was given the Toro Rosso drive as Bourdais' replacement while Hartley returned to the lower formulae once more.

Clearly he's not upset at Red Bull, or they him, as he'll be having another go behind the wheel. Brendon is currently scheduled to test on the first day in Spain.

Mirko Bortolotti

• Age: 19
• Nationality: Italian
• F1 Experience: Tested for Ferrari in 2008 as a performance reward - was the fastest of the three young drivers
• Notable Achievements: 1st in Italian F3 2008, 4th in Formula Two 2009

It seems as though the Red Bull stable of drivers have turned away from picking out only those named Sebastian and instead are focusing on drivers who look exactly the same. Good luck telling these two apart!

I haven't heard of Bortolotti but a test drive in a Ferrari means he has some contacts within the paddock. His previous results would indicate spending more time on Italian series' and just now switching to the more notable brands such as GP2, so Mirko may be one to watch for the future.

Mirko is currently scheduled to test on days two and three in Spain.

Daily: 7th December 2008

We've not been around much today, and have only managed to keep an occasional eye on the comments. We'll tell you more about what we've been up to in this week's emergency show. Apparently, Honda didn't like the idea of us having a holiday. Having missed out on some of the conversations, I can only really guess at the topics fresh on everyone's mind:

• Probably still Honda, and perhaps even Jenson Button's reaction to the news. I didn't realise he would be such a trooper, trying to rally everyone's spirits.
• The standard engines are still weighing on my mind. I'm not sure I completely understand why and how it's all going to come about, but every bit of news we get seems to be making at least a tiny bit more acceptable.
• The upcoming Jerez test next week. What are we expecting to see? More fugly BMW-style wings, or maybe an evolution of these that is more pleasing to the eye? Will the Red Bull foursome have made any revisions to the 2008 car or will they still be concentrating on testing out the drivers?

If I've missed the pressing news of the day, feel free to continue the conversation here. As ever, any thoughts and ideas you have are welcome, even if they don't fall under any of the categories mentioned above. We'll try and be in the comments more tomorrow, and check the upcoming schedule for details on the show.

Sidepodquiz 1 - Ollie from BlogF1

This week sees the debut of Sidepodquiz - a test of Formula 1 knowledge past and present. This pilot show sees Ollie from BlogF1 answer our fiendishly tricky questions, and get a very respectable score.

If you want to hear Ollie take the quiz, it's available via this audio player, otherwise have a go at the quiz yourself - the questions are below. We'd love to hear how you got on, so please let us know your score in the comments.

The Rookie Round

10 questions, 1 point per question

1. Which high-speed circuit in the Austrian mountains made its debut in 1970? Osterreichring or A1-Ring
2. In the 2007 season, two drivers participated in only one race. Winkelhock was one, who was the other? Nakajima
3. Which engine did Sauber debut with in 1993? Ilmor or Mercedes or Sauber
4. What does the black flag with an orange circle in the centre represent to drivers? Mechanical problem with car, driver must return to pit
5. Which year did the points system change to its current format? 2003
6. Which year did the Australian Grand Prix move from Adelaide to Melbourne? 1996
7. Niki Lauda famously won the world driver's championship by the smallest margin ever when he finished half a point ahead of his nearest rival. What year was this? 1984
8. Which team had to change its livery prior to the start of the 1999 season? BAR
9. Which current TV presenter and wannabe Formula 1 star drove an Ensign in the 1980 Belgian Grand Prix? Tiff Needell
10. What was the relationship between Ian Scheckter and Jody Scheckter? Brothers

Bonus Question

Chosen driver: Sebastian Vettel, 2 points

1. How many times has Vettel retired so far this year? 6

The Three Stopping Round

Multiple Choice, 2 points per question

1. How long in kilometres to the nearest decimal place is a lap of the Valencian street cirucit? 4.9, 5.2, or 5.4? 5.4
2. March Engineering arrived in Formula 1 in 1970, but where did they finish in the constructors championship that year? 7th, 3rd, 5th? 3rd
3. In the 2000 season, how many races of the 17 on the calendar were won by Ferrari? 10, 12 or 14? 10
4. Which 1973 Grand Prix saw the introduction of the Safety Car for the first time in Formula 1? Germany, Italy, Canada? Canada
5. How many times as Michael Schumacher been disqualified from an F1 race in his career? Twice, three times or four? Twice

Bonus Question

Chosen driver: Sebastian Vettel, 2 points

1. What is Vettel's career points total so far? 29

Who Am I?

30 second time limit, points = time remaining after correct answer given

I was born on January 11th 1983 in Starnberg. My father came from Uruguay, but moved to Germany at the age of 28. I speak fluent German, English, Spanish , and a little Italian. I began karting at the age of 14, and progressed to Formula Ford 1800 in 2002. I won all ten rounds of the season from pole position. My first F1 role was as test driver for MF1 Racing, before I was given a race drive in 2007 by Spyker. I am now a Force India driver and race alongside Giancarlo Fisichella.

Adrian Sutil

Ten Second Trivia

Guess four on a certain subject - ten points for all four, otherwise 1 point each

1. Jean Alesi drove for six teams during his Formula 1 career. Name four of them. Tyrrell, Ferrari, Benetton, Sauber, Prost, Jordan

Ollie scored 35 out of 64 points and is first on our brand new Sidepodquiz Leaderboard.

Let us know how you get on, what you think of the quiz, and whether you'd be up for taking part. We'll give further details about signing up closer to the time of the next round.

There Are Cars Out There Too?

The pictures we've been posting over the three days of testing are all very well and good, but we've missed out two of the most important.

Bourdais

He was emerging from the Toro Rosso garage and heading towards the motorhome. I know I said I wasn't bothered about him anymore, but he seemed to be the nicest man ever.

A crowd gathered around him and blocked his path across the paddock. He stopped, he signed and signed, kept on giving out those autographs and muttering greetings to the surrounding fans, and didn't stop until everyone had gone. When his way was finally clear, someone approached him with a microphone and asked him if he could spare a couple of seconds. He nodded, but said they had to walk and talk, and he indicated for the person to join him in the motor home.

Why didn't we think of that?

We didn't get a signature, because we prefer pictures to autographs, but an entire school trip managed to get something from the Frenchman, and I was impressed with his patience.

Di Grassi

I don't really have much to say about this guy, other than he is completely delicious.

It's fair to say that neither of us would have recognised him if he'd walked past us in the street, and it was only because he was posing for photos that this picture was even taken.

I have confirmed this with several other female F1 fans, and it is an actual fact: Di Grassi is delicious. So there.

Day 1 - A Couple More Images

I hope a picture paints a thousand words, because I have much to say but I'm just too tired. Here's a few more shots from the first day of Silverstone testing.

Nelson Piquet

Up close and personal with Nelshino. The guy was in a surprisingly good mood until his engine went 'pop' on the main straight around 3 o'clock and that was after he had a slow start to the morning session.

When sitting in the pits the helmet visor can be used much like a pair of sunglasses, obscuring the drivers eyes as he waits patiently for the mechanics to go about their business. It was nice of him to open the lid for a brief moment before he set off for another run.

Jenson Button

The Honda engine sounded absolutely awful as Jenson made his way down the pitlane. Rumours were abound that the team were testing an early version of next years KERS device, or possibly a new mixture of bio-fuel.

It was nice seeing this years Earth livery in person. I didn't like the 2007 skin either from a distance or up close, but this one looks lovely and the orange camera mount stands out a mile.

Renault's Lollipop

Renault use a traffic light system on their pit lollipop to indicate when a driver should engage first gear, instead of flipping the paddle over. This presumably prevents a driver reacting prematurely and heading off too early.

There appears to be an inherent problem that if the lights aren't pointing directly at the driver, he may struggle to see their status, hence the extended funnels protruding far from the disc.

Wheel

A detailed look at Kubica's front left wheel shows the slightly different approach the team have taken creating front wheel bins to cover the rims. You can see how the disc protrudes slightly above body of the wheel giving it all-round clearance.

Silverstone is notoriously heavy on the right hand tyres, the rears suffer more, but even though Kubica was running relatively short stints you can see the rubber has already taken considerable punishment.

Live from Silverstone, Sort Of

He went without me!? Well, he's lucky I'm in a good mood and don't mind updating you on his progress.

The laptop used to post the previous pictures died, but not before capturing some live video. Check it out:

I can also tell you that it is nigh on impossible to hold a sensible telephone conversation with someone standing near the track of an F1 test. However, we shall do our best to remain in touch, and keep you in the loop as well. Stay tuned.

Update: 1:30pm - All quiet as the teams go to lunch. Well, that's not true. The pit lane is accessible for an hour over lunch, and all but Force India have put up screens to shield their work. This means Force India are now our favourite team, ever.

Elsewhere, Vettel is struggling with a gearbox problem, and is really frustrated because he wanted to spend the time learning the track. Apparently he's not impressed with the lack of marker boards around the circuit, he wants more time to practice, but has so far only done 10 laps.

Update: 3:15pm - Nelson Piquet has broken down on the pit straight. His [direct quote from my man on the ground] "engine made an odd noise." The session has been stopped as a result.

Also, he has bumped into Fraggle and AMC (not sure of the correct placement of capitals here, apologies if it's wrong) from the Renault blog, and they were just off to chase after Nico Rosberg for a picture.

Final Update: 5:45pm - He's on his way home now, and has very little news of testing because he spent the afternoon in the Renault garage! I have no further information on that, so I look forward to finding out what he got up to.

What he did say about the on-track action was that Ferrari stopped out on track (fuel?) and caused a red flag. Renault were apparently laughing at that, but then, they laugh at anything, don't they? Also, the Honda engine sounds, shall we say, different to the others, and not in a good way.

That's all I can tell you for now, but I'm sure we will have pictures and more information as soon as we can.