F1 Digest – France GP
- Length: 10:05
- Size: 9.3 MB
- File: digest32.mp3
- Transcript: digest32.pdf
- Torrent: digest32.torrent
It’s been a while since the French GP has been eagerly anticipated, but with such a mixed up grid, today was one of those days. Tune in to F1 Digest for a recap of all the action, plus driver reactions.
The Race
A race of some serious fighting, Raikkonen battling his machinery, Hamilton trying to get through the traffic, Trulli holding off Kovalainen.
Conclusions
Whilst Honda and Force India seem to be feeling pretty low right now, Toyota and Toro Rosso are flying high. The others fall into various moods in between.
your silence made me wonder a little 
June 22nd, 2008 at 22:12 #1 - Rich said:
Thanks Christine for a good summary with this and the comments I got over the disappointment of not being able to watch the race or get the live comments. I am so pleased that another team got onto the podium and that team was Toyota. It was also good to see Kovy and PK getting points.
June 22nd, 2008 at 22:16 #2 - Scott Woodwiss said:
who’d have thought piquet managed 7th. even i didn’t see that coming. although he was quite impressive in practice, so that might have had something to do with it. Still, he beat Alonso, and I bet Fernie feels quite embarrassed. I know I would!
Anyway, thank you for a refresh of the main points in the race. Now I know what happened, which is always a good thing
June 22nd, 2008 at 22:28 #3 - LadySnowcat said:
A good track for Junior as he had been here in GP2 etc more than once I believe….
June 22nd, 2008 at 22:40 #4 - LadySnowcat said:
Are you guys going to the testing at Silverstone? and when you go to the race will you still do all the blogs?….
June 22nd, 2008 at 22:44 #5 - Steven Roy said:
Great show Christine.
I am curious about Massa singling Shell out for a special mention. I guess either they have made a significant improvement or their contract is due for renewal.
June 22nd, 2008 at 22:47 #6 - lou said:
Great summary Christine
June 22nd, 2008 at 23:28 #7 - my FA fantasy aka BOL said:
Hmm, yeah. I was not able to comment today – was busy painting the walls in my appartment.
I’m a bit disappointed since I was hoping for Kimster win. Another lucky win, 3rd in a row – 1st HAM, then KUB and now MAS.
What if Kimster’s exhaust pipe hit a driver behind or a spectator? Not sure if you guys discussed it. Pretty dangerous it was.
Alonso is suffering from Villeneuve syndrome: blame somebody else.
I can’t stop thinking about Stuart’s stunt of throwing my comment from yesterday at poor Joe Saward, if he wasn’t pulling my leg Joe probably thought I was a nasty rude punk while I respect his work.
June 23rd, 2008 at 00:27 #8 - me said:
aww, that made my day though.
i’m sure stuart did do it, and i’m also sure joe took it in the spirit with which it was intended. it probably made him happy to receive such a rapid response too.
you made some valid points and put them across well.
June 23rd, 2008 at 00:35 #9 - my FA fantasy aka BOL said:
I hope so, let’s see what tomorrow’s race report on grandprix.com brings in terms of Hamilton coverage. Maybe the word “mistake” will make its final appearance.
June 23rd, 2008 at 00:47 #10 - my FA fantasy aka BOL said:
Piquet, by the way, drove a pretty good race, he surprised me. But Kova is my driver of the day. He blew HAM away today by applying some smart driving against “pizzonia” moves of LH who nearly smashed into Kova and Vettel (I think HAM even blamed the guy for it) on the 1st lap.
HAM said something like this: “I felt I’d got past Vettel fairly and was ahead going into the corner. But I was on the outside and couldn’t turn-in in case we both crashed.”
Spoken like a true prodigy – it’s obvious even for a toddler that two cars can’t enter that corner together.
Why can’t Alonso get a decent start this year while Piquet comfortably overtakes people in front of him at the start? Life without TC is tough for FA?
June 23rd, 2008 at 00:50 #11 - me said:
we discussed that in the show you haven’t heard yet. i think piquet put one over on alonso today, which is a hell of a turn around. alonso couldn’t pass trulli even though his car was lighter / faster.
very odd, considering he was flying through fp & qually. am wondering what alonso is thinking about the bash from lewis? and how come those two keep ending up on the same stretch of tarmac, when they should be miles apart?
June 23rd, 2008 at 01:08 #12 - my FA fantasy aka BOL said:
Yep. I guess so. Painting the walls is not helpful when you’re trying to follow F1 live, so to speak.
ALO said he couldn’t find the speed from Friday and Saturday or something like that.
Sometimes it makes me wonder what’s going on at Renault and who’s pulling the strings, it’s gotta be Flav while the drivers are nothing more than a couple of artful dodgers in his show. I mean even in Canada Piquet was looking pale and suddenly he comes from 9th and overtakes ALO who started from the 2nd row. Weird.
June 23rd, 2008 at 03:27 #13 - Pink Peril said:
I wonder why Renault swapped Alonso from a three stopper to a two? Seems to me, it would’ve made more sense for them to stick with their original plan.
Anyone got any furthers/betters on that?
June 23rd, 2008 at 09:37 #14 - No flag to Raikkonen no penalty to Trulli - Was that right ? | F1 Wolf said:
[...] race control did not take any action to make sure his car poses no danger. After listening to the French GP digest at Sidepodcast I see that I am not alone [...]
June 23rd, 2008 at 17:34 #15 - Stuart Codling said:
Afternoon all,
Fear not! JS and DT are usually the ones who initiate the scrunched-up-press-release-throwing. They give as good as they get. And no names were mentioned.
It was some sort of anniversary of Shell being a Ferrari sponsor, I think.
You’ll have to file from a wifi-equipped pub, or something, if you do – Silverstone have sold every inch of space for corporate hospitality, including the press room. We’re having to do our cover shoot with Robert K in an admin office.
I won’t be covering Silverstone but I will be up at Whittlebury Park on Saturday for our subscribers’ quiz night. It’ll be easier this year, I promise!
June 23rd, 2008 at 18:22 #16 - me said:
technically speaking we have a 3g modem. but it’ll never work in the middle of a field and it’ll never work with so many people stuffed into one location.
a weefee pub sounds like a damn fine plan, they have power too.
excuse i for being nosey, but do i take it that front covers with drivers on them, sell better than those with a car?
just curious why you haven’t chosen to shoot robert in the garages or similar?
June 23rd, 2008 at 19:25 #17 - Stuart Codling said:
Depends on the car, really, but it would have to be a front-runner.
A garage would be too cluttered a background for a cover, and the team would feel we were getting in the way.
June 23rd, 2008 at 19:37 #18 - me said:
i see. hadn’t thought of that. i’ll pay more attention next time i’m in whsmiths.
June 23rd, 2008 at 19:49 #19 - my FA fantasy said:
I’m glad you clarified that. Since I’ve been following his website for quite some time and read a lot of his stuff I couldn’t help but notice the noticeable change in his style since LH arrived on the scene. I mean he certainly has a nice sense of humour. His 2004 race reports are classic.
I have to confess I never read F1Racing – is it good? Is it available in Portugal? Will you say “hi!” to Bradley Lord from the Blue Orange Lion, please?
June 24th, 2008 at 07:42 #20 - Stuart Codling said:
Indeed. JS and DT are fearless and well-connected news-breakers but also excellent company and very funny.
Although the style may be a little cynical at times, that’s just a British thing. All the contributors to GP.com are passionate about racing.
June 24th, 2008 at 17:19 #21 - Steven Roy said:
I have just finished Jo Saward’s book ‘Grand Prix Saboteurs’. What a fabulous book and what stories. He must have done an incredible amount of research for it. I would recommend it to anyone. It helps if you have heard of a few of thedrivers of the period if only to help you keep track of who is who but even if you had no interest in racing the people involved and their stories are totally gripping.
It will also make you glad you were not born a few decades earlier.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:43 #22 - Stuart Codling said:
That book took about 20 years of research so it was a real labour of love. JS will be pleased to know that people are enjoying it.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:03 #23 - my FA fantasy aka BOL said:
That’s exactly what I like.
June 26th, 2008 at 08:42 #24 - Steven Prussia said:
Hi,
Got back from Magny Cours Monday, having camped at the circuit from Thursday. Great atmosphere, terrific fun the facilities were a bit rough and ready but right next to the track.
Shame about the decisions from the stewards but that’s F1 two rule books one for Ferrari and one for the rest. However for all the criticism that Hamilton received in the press here post race for being aggressive and impetuous. It certainly wasn’t felt in the crowd where I was in fact every overtaking manoeuvre was heartfully cheered by the spectators in Tribune L.
After all it is supposed to be a race and therefore one should expect overtaking and some muscular driving.
Love the coverage and comments,
Steve.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:10 #25 - Steven Roy said:
I came very close to starting the book over again as soon as I reached the end. It is bound to read differently when you know who survived, who died in concentration camps and who betrayed who but after reading the dedications etc at the front I decided I would give myself time to let it all sink in and then go back to it in a few months.
I had always been facinated by ‘Williams’ but didn’t really know much beyond the basics about his racing career. I don’t know if it was the pseudonym or the multiple versions of who he really may have been but something about the guy always struck me as facinating. I had no idea what he did during the war or even that he had survived that long. He is one of those characters like Bernd Rosemeyer that seem to catch the attention as soon as you atart to read about them. There is something strange about being facinated by a driver when I had never even seen a film clip of him driving.
I would love to know what JS is going to do for a follow up.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:28 #26 - me said:
good to hear steven. are you planning to go again next year?