Making history in 41 seconds

Electric cars shine at Goodwood Festival of Speed

05/07/2019 by Mr. C

Volkswagen smashed the Goodwood Festival of Speed course record today in their all-electric ID.R race car. After setting a blindingly fast time up the hill in 2018, the team returned this year with a plan to crush a long standing record Nick Heidfeld set in an F1 car way back in 1999.

There's no I-Pace to hide

Jaguar eTrophy championship sparks into life

11/12/2018 by Mr. C

At the start of this year we mentioned that we didn't have any specific plans to cover motorsport in 2018, but were open to enjoying any racing that inspired us. As it happened, very little managed to grab our attention these past twelve months. Repetitive storylines were played out on all too familiar stretches of asphalt, the results as predictable as ever.

Crunching some uncomfortable numbers

Looking deeper into F1's gender problem

04/04/2018 by Mr. C

With a selection of UK-based F1 teams and Formula One Management having reported their gender pay gap data for this year, we can look beyond the headline figures into some of the additional detail provided.

F1 teams report gender pay gap data

McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull first to release details

03/04/2018 by Mr. C

F1 teams including Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes have submitted their 2017 to 2018 gender pay gap information. Results show that median hourly pay amongst UK staff is between 17 and 27 percent lower for women working within these three teams.

The Motorsport Saga: Breaking dawn

Happy new racing year

31/12/2017 by Mr. C

It's fair to say Sidepodcast's 2017 finished a whole lot better than it started. For Formula 1 the opposite was arguably true. All the intrigue and promise of the opening races rapidly withered on the vine, culminating in what was by all accounts an unwatchable race. I won't pretend we even tried.

The new kids on the block

Formula E replace grid girls with racing stars of the future

03/08/2017 by Mr. C

The purpose of grid girls in modern motorsport has become a hot topic this year. Yet despite increased public outcry, and plenty of suggestions for suitable replacements, F1 has so far been content to continue on with the crude tradition.

Hamilton launches Hamoji

200+ stickers to brighten your conversation

17/07/2017 by Mr. C

Today marks the international celebration that is World Emoji Day. Fittingly, as a man with his finger on the pulse of the planet, Lewis Hamilton just launched his Hamoji sticker set. Designed to work with WhatsApp, iMessage, Snapchat and other popular social channels, this massive library of Hamilton expressions in sticker form are a must for any fan.

The importance of role models in motorsport

Making an impact at Indy with Mann, Adams and Fisher

30/05/2017 by Mr. C

If you managed to look past the wave of Fernando Alonso hype that dominated this year's Indianapolis 500, one of the more impressive stories was the strong finish from Pippa Mann, the only female racing in the 2017 oval event. Mann avoided all of the mayhem and engine drama to register a brilliant 17th place finish.

She'll be back!

F1 podcasting with artificial intelligence

29/05/2017 by Mr. C

One of the trickiest problems we have struggled to resolve at Sidepodcast is how to produce timely news podcasts when Mrs Christine is unwell. I lack the talent to step in to replace her and we've bounced around all manner of alternate ideas from leaning on the community to record shows for us, to cutting up old recordings to splice together new sentences. It turns out this girl is hard to replace.

Clip art

A weekend of video work

17/04/2017 by Mr. C

With a number of days free this week, we tried to make the most of our downtime. In addition to tidying up a few loose ends on this site, we managed to record a number of podcasts and experiment with some new mobile technology.

Sidelining an Aside

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

17/04/2017 by Mr. C

If you follow us on Twitter (and you should, frankly we're a lot of fun) you'll know the Aside with Joe series of podcasts have come to end. After 77 episodes and more than 66 hours of F1 discussion recorded since 2009, it is time to draw this particular chapter to a close. For the record Joe would like you to know that it was he who shot first, not Han.

What's all the rumpus?

@TooMuchRacing on the gravity of Alonso's IndyCar switch

13/04/2017 by Mr. C

Early Wednesday morning motorsport folks lost their collective minds at the news Fernando Alonso will be racing the Indy 500 this year. Initially I was quite excited at the idea of a current Formula 1 racing driver switching series mid-season, but as the day wore on it became clear I wasn't anywhere near as excited as everybody else was.

Lucky numbers

A winning solution to an F1 headache

06/04/2017 by Mr. C

Formula 1's ongoing employment of glamour girls to hold up grid position boards ahead of a Grand Prix created much debate during a recent Aside with Joe podcast. During the chat I argued that grid girls are an antiquated idea and pointless addition to the race, that could easily be dropped from a weekend without affecting the smooth running of a Grand Prix. This was met with pushback both during the show and afterwards on social media.

An Aside with Joe - It's just part of the scenery

Should we ban clichés too?

04/04/2017 by Mr. C

A new F1 season, with new drivers in new cars, painted with new colours and overseen by new owners, adds up to a whole lot of questions. Luckily we can put all of those to Joe, who's all too briefly back home between race weekends in Australia and China.

Williams and JCB on song

British engineering working in harmony

24/02/2017 by Mr. C

Williams Racing announced a new partnership with JCB today. The agreement will see JCB branding on the 2017 cars and team clothing. The announcement is a big win for Williams, despite opening the team to all manner of 'drives like a tractor' jokes.

No longer living a lie

Danny Watts on being a gay man in motorsport

20/02/2017 by Mr. C

If you haven't caught it already, there is a fabulous interview on Badger GP today with Danny Watts, a racing driver, who has come out publicly as gay. There is little for us to add, except to encourage people to head on over and read the piece in full. Then read it again for good measure.

VR curious?

Immersive experiences put fans behind the wheel

19/02/2017 by Mr. C

Despite being an outfit with one of the smallest budgets in Formula 1, the Sauber team provided fans with some truly innovative content last year. Although a number of constructors have previously dabbled with virtual reality in the past, the Swiss team put in a season long effort to bring their audience Formula 1 in 360 degrees.

Who rendered it better?

The look of revelations

17/02/2017 by Mr. C

Another season, another round of car launches and another sad realisation that F1 teams aren't very good at marketing their own machinery. Bless them they try their best, but where the motoring industry leads the field in photo-realistic CG car launches, the pinnacle of motorsport offers up anything but that.

Progress is for everyone

Audi change the game for Super Bowl 2017

03/02/2017 by Mr. C

Super Bowl commercials regularly run the full gamut from terrible to amazing, but Audi's 2017 offering is up there with the best. From the start line to the finish, it is a work of art: the two boys disregarding the real competition, the fantastic catch through water and the genius of the handbrake save.

Double trouble

Autosport's cut and paste journalism

05/01/2017 by Mr. C

If you ever peruse the internet in search of motorsport news you could be forgiven for thinking that every site just copies from the next. The team at Autosport seem to be out to prove the point today, posting content lifted directly from Motorsport.com.