F1 Digest - France Qualifying
- Length: 10:36
- Size: 9.8 MB
- File: digest31.mp3
- Transcript: digest31.pdf
- Torrent: digest31.torrent
When qualifying is preceded by a Free Practice with Piquet on top, you know you’re in for a fascinating day. Listen to today’s F1 Digest for details of the highs, the lows, and the many, many penalties.
Free Practice 3
Piquet led the way today, in a session where none of the regular’s made an appearance in the top four, and there was no apparent reason for it.
Qualifying
Knowledge of prior penalties, plus one handed out after the event spiced up the results today, and keep us all guessing over strategies.
Conclusions
The usual mix of optimism and disappointment. Hamilton is apologising, Bourdais is worried that it’s just too competitive and Raikkonen is honoured to help Ferrari hit 200.
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:15 amlou said:
Great podcast as usual Christine
I’m looking forward to the GP tomorrow, it will be good to see how far up the field the Mclarens can get, and how Lewis will cope in the midfield…I’m also keen on seeing how far Rosberg can get, and whether Alonso can get that podium he desires so much. Looks set to be a more exciting French gp than usual 
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:32 amRich said:
I saw free practice video but not the qualifying (TVlizer decided to show Tennis instead) so this podcast was all the more useful thanks for it. Have no idea whether I will see the race or not - if I am quiet it meant I did not see it! I am hoping Toyota will do well to honour Ove Anderson and that Renault on their home circuit will also do well, especially as there is some threat of no French GP next year. If Alonso won, then surely they could not cancel it for next year! Again Heikki seems to have annoyed the spirits, interesting Mark Webber did not comment on it - just Jarno spinning in front of him. While I might have my wishes that Toyota, BMW Sauber, Renault or Red Bull wins, I think tomorrow will be a Kimi day with Felipe in close attendance. Third place is probably booked for Alonso followed by Kubica and I think Hamilton might get up to fifth. Trulli sixth, Webber seventh and Heidfeld eighth.
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:49 amSteveintheUK said:
Thanks for helping to keep me, and other, upto date with all that is going on in F1, but could you please sack Heidfeld and Glock from your FantasyRacers team, out of the 5 drivers I have these are the only two that I now share with you, and what a surprise they are the worth to placed. I did really well in the Canadian race as we didn’t share any drivers then, but you’ve changed drivers AGAIN, and now may hopes of a top 50 placing in your league look to have gone.
I hear DC is back on track again so maybe you could pick him for your team and end his F1 career once and for all.
I know Webber is ahead of Hamilton but have a feeling that if Hamilton can last to the end of the 2nd lap that Webber won’t be ahead of him at the end.
It will be interesting to see how far Alonso goes before pitting, I think he may have trouble staying in the top 8 by the finish, that’s if he’s engine doesn’t blow up again.
PS, Sorry for the mean’ish comment, but we are having a massive thunderstorm here in Northampton, I love lightning, but hate Thunder, it makes me nervous, which makes me mean so sorry, oh, will you please think about changing your drivers again for the next race? Pretty Please?
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:54 amSteveintheUK said:
hasn’t the race schedule for 2009 already be fixed? or is Bernie still messing everybody around? He should just stick 18 races up on eBay and let all the tracks bid for them, with the highest bidder getting first pick of what date they want.
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:56 amme said:
hehe, except then we’d just be racing around bahrain, abu dhabi, turkey… oh wait.
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:06 amSteveintheUK said:
If that was how it turned out for the first year then maybe some of the UK based F1 teams would put a little bit of their budgets into get Silverstone up to modern standards and then put up some money to get the race here.
Oh by the way ‘me’, when I have be refreshing your site tonight it keeps hanging for 20-30 secs waiting for engine7.woopra.com to finish transferring, was just wondering what Wordpress plugin that was?
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:10 amSteveintheUK said:
@me, Sorry to be a sad stats man, but had you noticed that your top 5 commentor’s had posted over 4,000 comments between them in the last 30 days?
Glad to see that ‘mt’ has been able to cope.
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:27 amRich said:
@SteveintheUK
This is the full article on the French GP next year…
Source: http://formula-1.updatesport.com/news/article/1213791589/formula_one/F1headlines/F1-Frenchmen-fear-for-French-GP-future/view.html
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:36 amRich said:
I get that when a lot of people are commenting or when the Internet is slow and I just want to refresh to see the latests comments.
@ME - when your site loads I get the green background loading first, then the text which you cannot read on the dark background and then eventually the white background appears last. In some blog pages I developed a little while I go I had the same sort of sequence, so for the background (your green areas) I used an image which now seems to load last and means you can start reading while the download is taking place. This is really only an issue when the Internet is slow or lots or commenting coming through like 600 - this is also when I see the engine7.woopra.com trying to load.
June 22nd, 2008 at 2:06 amSteveintheUK said:
Bernie has been telling everybody for years that that years GP will be the last one at Silverstone, it has similar problems as Magny-Cours, being stuck out in the middle of nowhere, the local council spent millions putting in a dual carriage way one year to shut Bernie up only for it to rain the whole week before the race resulting in thousands of cars getting stuck in the fields used only 2 or 3 times a year of parking. So the next year the parking was sorted out, only for Bernie to moan about the pits being to small for modern F1 teams. No matter what a track or country does to try and make Bernie happy he will always find something to moan about, and say he wants all these changes done before he will sign to race there the following year but it’s just business. If Bernie said he was happy with everything he would never be able to get the tracks to spend any more money on improvements or to get the race for the following year.
The quicker the teams and track owners get together and kick Bernie out the better, and Bernie can take his over sized puppet Max with him. The team and Track owners know how to promote themselves, plus keep sponsors happy or they wouldn’t still be in business, so the only new thing they would have to learn would be to sort out the TV rights and how to fairly share that income and yet still support the back runners, plus build up the grid to 30 cars. If Nascar can run 40+ cars on a half mile oval then F1 should be able to run 30 cars on it’s tracks.
June 22nd, 2008 at 4:28 amF1Wolf said:
is it just this race that everything goes wrong for McLaren ? when looking at their and especially Heikki’s point tally it looks to me that it is rather normal weekend for the silver cars
now to Williams - what the heck were they thinking yesterday with Rosberg ? Rosberg simply took the Q2 away from Nakajima while knowing that best he could have hoped for was P20 … I thought that Williams knew better …
not sure what happened there with Vettel - clearly top 10 material in P1(almost), P2, P3, Q1 but then when comes the time to deliver it did not happen …
Alonso has his route to the podium wide open with the chance of Trulli train forming right behind him.
and was not it a beautiful doughnut dance performance from Trulli yesterday ?
June 22nd, 2008 at 6:02 amJordan Allen said:
Christine:
I am very disappointed in you that you have scooped up two of my current drivers in my FantasyRacers team, Heidfeld, and Glock, especially since I have been using the a modified racing strategy that was named in your honour for the past two races Monaco, and Montreal.
The basic fundamentals of the “Christine” Strategy are:
1) Whoever Christine will pick, will crash. (Worked beautifully in Montreal, I might add, but I guess I can also claim “local” knowledge of the track)
2) Check Christine’s team before choosing drivers.
3) Pick drivers based on Constructor’s standings.
Since I have followed my three step program for this race and felt no need to change my team I can only figure you are trying to destroy my chances of improving my overall score.
I would like to switch over to my optional strategy, but Ron’s boys are not doing so well this week are they?
Jordan F1’s (”Christine” Strategy) drivers are:
Both BMW’s
Both Toyotas
and Barrichello.
Pinning my hopes on Barrichello,
Jordan (Allen) F1.
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:37 amRich said:
Sorry Jordan - those two are also in my Fantasy Team. Usually when I select a driver they crash e.g. I have only selected Kimi and Lewis once and both times they crashed (Monaco and Canada respectively). As I have selected Felipe today he is the one to crash - probably right at the start. I have selected Heidfeld only twice - the two occasions when he scored no points. Glock is a first time choice for me. So it might be me who has jinxed the drivers and not Christine.
The Rich strategy is
a) Select either Kimi, Felipe or Lewis
b) Always select Robert
c) Then select TWO other drivers you can afford (Mark and Jarno are solid choices)
That looks a good team choice Jordan good luck!
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:40 amRich said:
Agreed as long as he never gets behind it. My Predictions Kimi, Felipe, Fernando in that order.
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:15 amme said:
damnit. that’s just a stats plugin. if it keeps happening we can switch it off… (update: have removed it)
f1 fans are the best aren’t they?
yup, i get that too. it’s on my list of things to fix. post-goodwood i’m guessing.
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:45 amRich said:
It seems to me that your webpage is loading much much faster. Obviously there could be other reasons - but at the moment it is near instantaneous!
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:46 amme said:
thanks rich. any more problems, just let us know.
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:47 amStuart Codling said:
In other news – Darren has brought the right trousers, Grommit…
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:52 amRich said:
Agreed - I heard an interview when he was commentating on poor Super Aguri when they collapsed - it was so unsympathetic and basically he was just plain unpleasant and rude. I almost think he is worse than Max, no, not really, possibly they are equally “nasty” in my book. Imagine if Jackie Stewart was head of FIA - I think that would be positive!
June 22nd, 2008 at 10:54 amme said:
hehe. out of interest, does he do that often? is he forever indebted to all and sundry for borrowed tabbards?
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:01 amStuart Codling said:
I sincerely hope not…
Just had an email from the Bish with info about that book:-
‘McLaren - The Cars 1964-2008′ can be purchased from the following websites: http://www.mclarenshop.com and http://www.coteriepress.com
It will also be available via the Team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes merchandise areas at the British Grand Prix and the Goodwood Festival of Speed
ISBN: 978 1 902351 32 2 Standard Edition (£39.95 on http://www.mclarenshop.com)
ISBN: 978 1 902351 33 9 Limited Edition (£69.95 on http://www.mclarenshop.com)
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:05 amLadySnowcat said:
I’d be interested in a copy in one circumstance…
Kimi’s signature please?…
Any chance?…
PS I do realise “Hell” and “Freeze over” are probably coming to mind here…
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:08 amme said:
£40 isn’t bad for 304 pages. i think the limited edition is a little excessive mind you.
carrying it around goodwood might be a hassle, so mail order it’ll be.
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 amme said:
ladysnowcat, you could buy it and get kimi to sign it (by hanging around the silverstone carpark in a couple of weeks time).
that way you know it’s him and not his pa doing the signature.
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:18 amLadySnowcat said:
I was just joshing “me”… about the sig…
Just thinking about the terrific but fragile 2005 car that will be pictured…