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The fourth installment of Sidepodpanel sees guest host and birthday boy Scott Woodwiss take the helm and guide us safely through such topics as Force India and those 2009 wings.

Joining us on tonight's panel:

• Dan
• Gavin
• Dom
• Mr C
• Doctor Vee
• Steven
• Andy

Yet more new panellers today, with Dom and Doctor Vee taking part for the first time. Unfortunately some technical issues meant the other half of Sidepodcast took over a couple of questions, but not before Dom had scored plenty of points for his team. For more information on this panel, and to sign up to have a go yourself, check out the wiki.

Additional information

• Remembered as: The one with all the technical problems with Skype
• Host: Scott Woodwiss
• Team Yuji Ide: Dan, Gavin, Dom (Q1-Q4), Mr C (Q5-Q6)
• Team Sakon Yamamoto: doctorvee, Steven, Andy

Questions

• Is the deal between Force India and McLaren a good thing or a bad thing for the teams, and also the sport?
• Do you think apart from the cost difference, there were other factors to Mallya choosing McLaren and Mercedes over Ferrari? Could the incidents within the factory team this season have been one of them?
• Martin Whitmarsh said that he is adament Force India will not be a McLaren ‘B’ team. Do you think both teams will stick to that agreement, or will we see in the future a Force India with McLaren aerodynamics on it?
• Vijay Mallya has stated that his ambitions for the team are to challenge for wins in 2010 and have at least one car on the podium at the inaugural Indian GP in 2011. Is Mallya being over-ambitious or are his future prospects realistic?
• Before the deal was confirmed, news came in that a management reshuffle within the team, Mike Gascoyne and Colin Kolles would be leaving. Do you think this was a bad or harsh decision or was it the right thing to do in order for the team to be able to move forward?
• Martin Whitmarsh has also pointed out that McLaren would advise for Force India on driver selection but not be directly involved with it. If you were Mallya, which two drivers would you choose and why?
• What is your personal opinion on the 2009 wings, whether they will work or not, and if the FIA will be prepared to take full responsibility if they didn’t?
• How crucial will this off season be in terms of getting to grips with the new regulations?
• Teams like Honda and BMW have been working on their car for next year most of the season, if not all season. How much of an advantage, if any at all, will that give over the teams who have been otherwise occupied in 2008, such as McLaren and Ferrari with their championship battle?
• Toro Rosso are holding their driving assessment at Jerez for the next three days, with Sebastiens’ Bourdais and Buemi facing off with Takuma Sato. Who do you want to take the two race seats, and who do you think will get them?
• Honda are the only other team still looking for drivers and on announcing their programme of drivers for the offiial test, Rubens Barrichello was left out of it. Could this be an omen for his unfortunate and possibly impending departure from F1, or could Honda just be giving him and extended holiday before returning to driving duties?
• With past experience in a Renault, what kind of form do you think Loeb will show, and despite his age, could he even be in the line for some kind of driving role in F1 in the future?
• Which team are you going to be looking out for or expecting the most from this winter and why?
• If you could put any feature into an F1 video game, what would that be?
• It was announced this week that the Shanghai circuit could quite possibly be in danger due to its contract running out in 2010. What are your opinions on this and if Shanghai were to lose the GP, where else could it be held, or could the race be axed from the calendar altogether?
• Think of an F1 personality… do an impression of them and what they would say if they’d had a bit too much to drink.