F1 Digest - Bahrain Free Practice
- Length: 9:00
- Size: 8.3 MB
- File: digest10.mp3
- Transcript: digest10.pdf
- Torrent: digest10.torrent
The Bahrain weekend kicks off in style, with two Free Practice sessions that looked as though they were going to be dull, until Lewis Hamilton punted his McLaren into the wall. Hear all about it in this F1 Digest.
Free Practice 1
A relatively straightforward session with some struggling with their tyres, some punching above their weight, and some barely making it out of their garages. Plus, a voicemail!
Free Practice 2
What could have been a mundane session was livened up by Hamilton, but there were plenty of other things to note as well. Plus, a voicemail!
Conclusions
McLaren are upbeat, despite the work ahead of them. Bourdais has played down his performance, while Alonso admits he is struggling.
April 4th, 2008 at 8:40 pmScott Woodwiss said:
I thought my voice would sound worse than that!
Anyway, great review of practice, looking forward to sharing Saturday practice and qualifying with you guys tomorrow.
April 4th, 2008 at 9:07 pmDan Brunell said:
Christine… thanks for these. I am willing to get up at 4:00 AM for a race and qualifying. Yet with work, there is no way I can catch Friday practice.
After watching Hamilton’s crash, I have to say… paved or hardened run-off areas really need to go. The compacted sand didn’t slow him down at all.
I think this is the thrid or fourth crash that has really made me chringe in the last few years that had a compacted or paved run off area. I know drivers don’t like the deep sand or gravel, but it is a lot more effective at slowing the cars down then flat pavement. Besides, if you make a mistake on the track, you should be punished for it.
On that front, I am suprised that Formula One has not mandated anything better than tires in more accident prone areas of track(s). One thing that NASCAR has put a lot of funding into is SAFER walls tecnology and other energy absobtion techniques and technologies. For places like Canada, Monaco, and other tight or street curcuits, it might be a very wise investment. Kubica’ crash last year would of been a little less dramatic and dangerous.
April 4th, 2008 at 9:28 pmChristine said:
This is true. A lot of the drivers were suffering today, whether it was from the tyres or the dust or whatever, but Hamilton was the only one who had the major incident. I think there would have been a lot more stopping out on track if the run off didn’t just make the track ten times wider.
April 4th, 2008 at 9:49 pmbrendanstallard said:
“I know drivers don’t like the deep sand or gravel, but it is a lot more effective at slowing the cars down then flat pavement.”
Dan,
I really don’t think that is true, the kitty litter was a disaster. The flat areas are actually pretty decent although Hamiltons lack of braking was a bit scary: he sure thumped that wall.
I did enjoy this rather lengthy article on Mosley.
http://www.sportspromedia.com/mosley.htm
brendan
April 4th, 2008 at 9:56 pmClive said:
Pinch of salt required, Brendan - the Mosley article is a Tom Rubython production.
Very entertaining, however.
April 4th, 2008 at 10:07 pmbrendanstallard said:
“Pinch of salt required, Brendan”
Clive,
Kinda why I put it out: if the financial stuff has any credibility to it: one can see why Ron and some of the others would seek to look to break Max’s legs.
I don’t know of Tom Rubython: enlighten please?
brendan
April 4th, 2008 at 10:27 pmClive said:
Tom Rubython was the editor of Business F1 magazine and made himself extremely unpopular with many F1 team owners and higher-ups by writing articles that purported to lift the cover off all sorts of shady dealing in the F1 world - the Mosley article is an example. He was sued for libel several times, most recently by Tony Purnell over something Tom wrote about his time with Jaguar Racing. Purnell won and the damages awarded were so high that Business F1 went bankrupt. My take on the matter can be read here.
Tom’s work is very entertaining, as I said, and may well contain a lot of truth. The trouble is, we cannot tell how much is true and how much fabrication - his trail of lost lawsuits indicates that it would be unwise to put too much trust in what he says. Which is a pity as he served a useful function in introducing fans to a world underneath the glitter of F1 that they may not have known existed. He certainly kept the bosses on their toes too - hence his unpopularity!
April 4th, 2008 at 10:29 pmDan Brunell said:
Video of Hamilton’s crash today/yestday
It seems like he was skidding across the sand area. At the next meeting of the GPDA he should really bring that up… oh wait, that right… he is too busy for that.
Brenden,
I just get the feeling that the sand and gravel would take a lot more energy out of the car than the flat harden surface alone. With a flat hard surface, it is almost up to the car to stop by either braking or skidding. At least with gravel and sand, it throws some of the energy off the car before it hits the wall.
Personally, one thing that might work on high risk areas and corners is some sort of soft, non-anchored, weighted foam ad placements that a would cars to hit on the way to the wall in order to take as much energy off as possible before it hits the wall. You can weigh it right so that if a car is coming at full speed, the block would bounce off or break apart but take a substantial amount of energy away from the car making an impact to the wall less severe. Plus it gives Bernie a new place to extort money from advertisers.
See, I should be running the FOM and/or FIA… actually; you know what… I would like to take this opportunity to announce my candidacy to replace Max as FIA president. Bernie and company, I await your phone call…
April 4th, 2008 at 11:49 pmSteveintheUK said:
There used to use those foam blocks for advertising years ago, the problem with them is, that once a car has hit them they break on to thousands of small bits, which the marshals can not pick up easily with out a huge vacuum machine. This small part get blown around by not only the wind, but by the turbulence behind the race cars, pulling the parts onto the track, which then get stuck on the radiators causing overheating.
I think the best compromise would be to split the run off areas in to 2, having tarmac on the inner part next to the track to allow drivers going wide to continue in the race, then have gravel for the outer half to slow down/stop any drivers who have really messed up.
They used to have run off areas like that at Silverstone, before the FIA made them replace them with all gravel traps. I think Brands Hatch still has some. but then I may be wrong.
I think we should nominate Christine to replace Max, that way Christine could keep changing the rules until only drivers called Jenson Button where allowed to win, probable be the only way he would ever win a championship.
April 5th, 2008 at 12:01 amJordan said:
True: But as “me” pointed out with my idea of having Christine wave a blue flag at each driver that was in front of Button, there is still the certainty of Button’s car breaking down two laps from the end of the race that needs to be addressed….
I wish I could say I would be unbiased as a F1 President, but I am sure that Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head would also want me as F1 President as most of my decesions would benefit them the most, unless either Jordan or Wolf came back into F1.
(Bitten & Hisses) Jordan (F1).
April 5th, 2008 at 12:20 ambrendanstallard said:
“True: But as “me””
Jordan,
Claude………Claude…….
brendan
April 5th, 2008 at 12:26 amme said:
claude?
April 5th, 2008 at 12:34 amJordan said:
Brendan:
We have not even placed “me’s” name change on the floor as a motion yet. Anyone which to second the impending name of the “Geeky Tech Guy with No Name”, aka “Me” to be hereforward known as “Claud”? All in flavour?
Jordan.
April 5th, 2008 at 12:36 amDan Brunell said:
Ahh, I remember those. I forgot but someone went through one of those at Silverstone a few years back. I was thinking in terms of what NASCAR used to coat the walls of their oval tracks with. It is a hard, enforced foam that compresses and doesn’t break apart easily. The parts that do break off are heavy enough not to go everywhere.
Something has to be done, the amount of run-off area at some of these tracks is getting ridiculous. I’m for safety and all but if fans attends a race; it would be nice if they could see the cars from the stands.
No, no, no… she would just dock a 100 points from any driver that doesn’t have a French accent.
April 5th, 2008 at 12:40 amme said:
NO!
not a problem in bahrain, i’ve yet to see a single fan in attendance.
April 5th, 2008 at 12:46 amJordan said:
And so much for the Britsh Democratic season.
brendan, looks like you’re going to have to overthrown the powers that be in the Sidepodcast Towers….
So much for us poor masses wanting change!
“Help! Help I’m being surppressed!”
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
April 5th, 2008 at 12:51 amme said:
while i appreciate the gesture, i like the name as it is. for starters you haven’t a hope in hell of finding it through google.
claude stands out a bit, wouldn’t you say?
April 5th, 2008 at 12:58 amDan Brunell said:
I laughed till I realized that this is same problem in Malaysia, China, and probably Abu Dubai next year.
That’s it… I am going to write up a platform for my campaign for FIA president this weekend and launch my (hopeless, futile, why am I wasting my time with this, hopefully… fun) campaign next week.
I am willing to take suggestion to the platform, you can E-mail me suggestions.
April 5th, 2008 at 1:26 amJordan said:
Me:
Hey if I was not for me, your name would now be “Claude” via Brenden’s “coup de main”, I just though that your pending name change should be a little democratic.
I guess I forgot you might be able to veto the process. As I really wanted to see were would the “The Techy Guy With No Name” end up with respect to “Claude” in the proper vote….
And thus ends one of the Biggests “What Ifs” in F1 history…
(Bitten & Hisses) Jordan (F1)
April 5th, 2008 at 2:39 amAlenyaa said:
Thanks a lot for the updates on FP. Difficult to get any of the action while at work, this always sums up everything perfectly for me.
Recently my dad asked me how come I’m so much more up to date with what’s been happening in F1 lately. I was proud to answer it’s thanks to you guys!
April 5th, 2008 at 5:42 amDan Brunell said:
On 5-Live’s Bahrain preview, Massa said that running into a curb doesn’t constitute driver error.
April 5th, 2008 at 1:41 pmJordan said:
That would depend on whether or not the curb is on the Racing line. I think Massa correct in staying this, with Imola as a case in his point for his defense.
That particular curb was nowhere near the racing line.
Jordan.