Day 2 - Mid-day Update (Wet)
Oh, poor Webber.
We’re taking shelter because of the weather, although it looks like it’s brightening up. Now that I’ve said that, it will start pouring again, and I will be lynched. However, it’s time for a quick sit down and recap over what we’ve seen so far.
We’re learning some new stuff about the camera, and ways to get better shots, but at the moment we don’t have time to evaluate them. That will come later.
We thought it would be really clever to film Inside Track here, what a great way to preview the Grand Prix than to be at the track itself. However, it’s dark and windy and it’s not going so well.
More to come soon… when it’s sunny again.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:06 pmlou said:
It’s raining
aww thats not fair… it’s really sunny here.
Hope the weather clears up 
Just out of interest….what lens/lenses do you use on your camera? feel free to answer when you get back and are less busy
June 25th, 2008 at 12:18 pmStuart Codling said:
News: FFSA have just announced that there will be a French GP at Magny-Cours in 2009. No date yet, though.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:20 pmlou said:
Thanks Stuart…. so Magny- Cours continues then, it’s never gonna be off the calender is it?
June 25th, 2008 at 12:23 pmlou said:
I forgot to ask… are Honda doing any better today? I have just listened to Jenson’s Audio blog/ diary for the French GP
He sounds pretty fed up and unhappy. Hopefully sidepodcast will bring him some luck at silverstone 
June 25th, 2008 at 12:31 pmScott said:
More news: The Race of Champions has been confirmed at Wembley for this year and there has been some major changes to ticketing arrangements.
Schumacher and Vettel will be in attendance. No mention about Loeb, though. I guess Fredrick Johnsson will have to work hard to get PSA Peugeot Citroen on-board.
Scott Dryden
June 25th, 2008 at 12:39 pmStuart Codling said:
You’ll hear no complaints from me…
June 25th, 2008 at 12:43 pmlou said:
BRILLIANT!
Sunday 14th December…. I now have time to persuade my Dad 
If I can’t go to a GP then I shall go to the ROC 
They wanted Lewis to do it this year didn’t they?…. bet that means Jenson wont get to be in it… It’s the only thing Jenson has a chance of winning this year….
June 25th, 2008 at 12:45 pmScott Woodwiss said:
hi guys
how’s it going over at silverstone?
June 25th, 2008 at 12:45 pmlou said:
actually to be fair the GP wasn’t bad. And you seemed to have a really good time too….I’m just annoyed because the last two years have been ‘the last year’ of Magny-Cours…no doubt next year will be ‘the last year’ too…
June 25th, 2008 at 12:48 pmScott Woodwiss said:
that’s if they confirm it’s going to be there
I still say Le Mans FTW!
June 25th, 2008 at 1:01 pmChristine said:
Fisichella spins at Becketts, into the barriers. He’s ok but the red flag leads into lunch. Webber still hasn’t set a lap time yet.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:32 pmChristine said:
Just seen Nico eating lunch. He had pasta. Also seen a pink limo, not sure who it belongs to. Sidepodcast - bringing you all the important news.:)
June 25th, 2008 at 1:38 pmLadySnowcat said:
That’ll be Lady Penelope…
Perhaps one of the Tracey boys is replacing Junior…
Well we know Flav likes pulling his drivers’strings…
On a serious note autosport.com have a provisional 2009 calender from the FIA…
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/68626
You’ll see Abu Dhabi is given maximum time and is set to be mid November!..
June 25th, 2008 at 1:48 pmChristine said:
Found Steve Ryder milling around the McLaren garage, think he might have the wrong day. Also, Sidepodcast has been recognised for the first time by a listener - a much nicer Steve. Think it might be starting to rain again.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:58 pmlou said:
aww he’s lost without Lewis
June 25th, 2008 at 2:05 pmStuart Codling said:
Provisional calendar just out:
29 March Australia
5 April Malaysia
19 April Bahrain
10 May Spain
24 May Monaco
7 June Canada
21 June Great Britain
28 June France
12 July Germany
26 July Hungary
9 August Turkey
23 August Europe (Valencia)
6 September Italy
13 September Belgium
27 September Singapore
11 October Japan
18 October China
1 November Brazil
15 November Abu Dhabi
June 25th, 2008 at 2:13 pmlou said:
British GP possibly on the 21st June? yay! It would not clash with founders day next year
I could actually go (in theory)!
June 25th, 2008 at 2:15 pmz-baumgartner said:
http://www.sutton-images.com/preview.asp?filename=dep0825ju51.jpg
Shark fin force india!!
June 25th, 2008 at 2:18 pmz-baumgartner said:
Times at lunchtime:
1 KOV 1:20.015 38
2 ROS 1:20.624 40
3 KUB 1:21.023 38
4 MAS 1:21.069 43
5 VET 1:21.447 57
6 PIQ 1:21.559 63
7 BUT 1:21.580 60
8 TRU 1:21.580 54
9 FIS 1:21.583 52
10 WEB N/A 4
June 25th, 2008 at 2:26 pmStuart Codling said:
Still only provisional until the World Council ratifies it in November/December, but quite a few points of interest – lots of GPs shuffling around and no three-week break…
June 25th, 2008 at 2:32 pmSoBizarre said:
19 April -> 10 May ?
June 25th, 2008 at 2:36 pmlou said:
I’m happy to live in hope till then
the British GP would be earlier than usual, normally the first weekend of July isen’t it? It starts abit later than this year too…
June 25th, 2008 at 2:45 pmChristine said:
In the pitlane, amazingly close to the cars. Decided the BMW is louder than the others whilst the Honda sounds a bit healthier.
June 25th, 2008 at 2:50 pmLadySnowcat said:
There were quite a few changes last year from the first iteration to the last. I recall that initially Oz was not going to be first for 2008…. Canada was provisional…etc etc…
June 25th, 2008 at 2:53 pmStuart Codling said:
The BMW makes a very unusual noise while it’s slowing (and downshifting), don’t you think?
True enough – looks like it’s moved (from August) too.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:00 pmlou said:
I am very jealous! Can’t wait to see the photos!
you know how to put a smile on my face
June 25th, 2008 at 3:46 pmChristine said:
Three red lights in a row, the last one was Piquet. just watched it be recovered. Grass on tyres, appears to be in one piece but it looks like Renault have called it a day.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:50 pmF1Wolf said:
just realized I probably typed my question for you under too old post … basically I wonder, why they use so weird cameras during the tests - obvious on the Force India picture above, often can see Hamilton with camera like that during tests …
June 25th, 2008 at 4:02 pmChristine said:
BMW have also called it a day, and Toyota sounded a bit rough. Elsewhere, have discovered di Grassis is delicious
June 25th, 2008 at 4:05 pmGaulty said:
They just don’t know what to do with the Turkish GP, August - May - August, it’ll be the opener in 2010 and the finale in 2011 at this rate.
Hows inside Track going
June 25th, 2008 at 5:12 pmAlianora La Canta said:
FFSA have just announced that there will be a French GP at Magny-Cours in 2009. No date yet, though. {Steve Codling - 2nd comment from top}
We appear to have official confirmation that Magny-Coeurs has left the space/time continuum.
Found Steve Ryder milling around the McLaren garage, think he might have the wrong day {Christine - 17 posts ago}
He must have wanted Ron Dennis’ opinion then…
I’d also like to say that it’ll feel odd to have F1 not start until three days after my birthday. Usually by then we’ve had race one and sometimes race two as well. No wonder there’s no three-week August break. That could be really draining on the race crew.
By the way, does anyone have the end-of-day times? I want to know if Fisi managed to beat Trulli in the end…
June 25th, 2008 at 7:21 pmSteveintheUK said:
from Wikipedia
—————-
The 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans will be the 77th Grand Prix of Endurance, taking place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France, and organised by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO). It will take place on 13–14 June 2009. The test day will be held on May 31st.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans
—————
So if the 2009 Le Mans will be on the weekend of June 13-14, that can’t be right? How can they have Le Mans on a weekend when there is no F1 race? That’s just not right….
Anyone know what the chances of these dates being changed are?
On a side note, I just got back from picking up my dinner at the Weston Favell branch of Tesco’s and theey now have the F1 merchandise on sale.
The £25 Rugby style top is now £12.50, and the £10 t-shirts and now £5 or £6.50 depended on what style design is on it.
And I really wish I could have got time off work on time to get some tickets as from the photo’s it looks like an interesting test, both of the F1 cars and me’s camera, great photo’s by the way me.
June 25th, 2008 at 7:40 pmAlianora La Canta said:
There’s a chance that some of the dates may change, though dropping races outright is more common. That said, if Bernie and Tony George agree a way for the US Grand Prix to return in 2009, don’t be surprised if some other races are nudged around a bit to make space.
In theory current F1 drivers could compete in next year’s Le Mans. In practice, I’d be surprised if any of them accepted the invitation.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:13 pmSteve Cannon said:
I was star-spotting in the pit-lane walkabout today and thought I was doing well having seen Steve Rider having a busman’s holiday when I picked up “me’s” dulcet tones and saw him and Christine walking alongside. I managed to blurt out Sidepodcast (think I said it correctly, don’t want a Maurice Hamilton job on me!) and had a good chat with our favourite pair about the day. Nice to have bumped into you and keep up the great work.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:23 pmSteveintheUK said:
Thanks, hope the F1 dates don’t end up clashing with Le Mans though
It would be great to see the current top F1 guy competing at Le Mans, and as Le Mans test day is May 31st they will be able to make that day to. For the F1 drivers to be available for for the main weekends of Le Mans is a little weird, it’s almost as if Bernie had actually been talking to somebody at Le Mans? Wonder what they are upto?
Oh, was searching Flickr for photos from the Silverstone testing and came across this set
http://flickr.com/photos/mathewwoodhall/sets/72157605815159979/
with some great shoots of the different weird style nose’s, those on the cars, not the drivers.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:21 pmSteven Roy said:
This contained in today’s press release from the FIA. I assume as with everything Max does that what he says and what he wants are two very different things. GP2 is more popular than F3000 ever was so why change it? My guess is this is aimed at Bernie either as a way of calling him to heel or screwing money out of him for one of Max’s pet projects.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:47 pmMattw said:
Well.. Christine and Me disappear off to Silverstone… and we suddenly have some interesting news stories. Firstly the provisional calendar. Then the announcement from the FIA that they are going to review their governance of F1 (Conclusion: Max is rubbish?) - and finally we have the announcement from the FIA that they are going to re-launch F2… and at first glance it rather looks like alot of the FIA edicts recently - i.e. not very well thought out at all really.
Firstly there is the matter of the existing GP2 series which is already providing the role of the feeder series to F1.How will F2 fit with GP2, will it be a rival series?
Then the FIA stated the F2 series will begin in 2009, and have invited chassis manufactures to tender proposals. Sorry, but if the FIA want a full grid in early 2009, it all sounds a bit late. The cars should be being bolted together right now, not tendering a proposal.
And finally, the FIA want the anual budget for the F2 series to cost about 200,000 euros. It sounds alot, but a year in British F3 costs about 3 times that.
Is it April 1st again?
June 25th, 2008 at 9:55 pmGaulty said:
Basically with the right equipment, Mr Average Joe could run a team.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:32 pmMattw said:
Does Mr Average Joe have a spare 200,000 euros? That is assuming the FIA can get anywhere near this target.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:47 pmRich said:
Well I guess there are whole lot of slightly (ab)used A1GP chassis available and I guess Lola would be interested given they lost the contract to produce the 2008/2009 A1GP racer to Ferrari.
I am joking a bit - but I agree it seems way to short to develop and build the F2 car for 2009.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:16 pmDan Brunell said:
The United States doesn’t get a Grand Prix and Bahrain, China, Malaysia, and Abu Dhabi do?
There is no god.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:51 pmlou said:
It’s not important news but just in case anyone was wondering the winner of the the Design a Helmet competition on Jenson’s website has been announced
June 26th, 2008 at 12:04 amme said:
i have a new entry for dan’s game…
you know you’re an f1 fan when you come home from a long day out at silverstone, fall asleep but remember to set an alarm that ensures you’ll be awake just in time to record a 60 second daily podcast before the clock strikes midnight… and then go straight back to sleep.
here it is, am sure you’ll hear more from her tomorrow:
http://www.f1minute.com/2008/06/25/2…silverstone-test-day-2/
June 26th, 2008 at 12:17 amme said:
steve you got it exactly right, and thankyou so much for saying hello. it’s fair to say it made our day.
glad to hear you were enjoying the f1 action. if you happen to have the time to write it down, please email christine any thoughts about your day. we’d love to hear your view on the afternoon’s running.
p.s. have amended your post slightly in order to protect my super-hero secret identity
June 26th, 2008 at 12:19 amme said:
oh jeez. too much news.
thanks for everyone’s comments today, keeping us in the loop.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:12 amStuart Codling said:
As Bradley pointed out, 200,000 euros would barely cover a GP2 team’s travel budget, so if this putative championship were to spring into existence it wouldn’t travel very far.
Also, cars/engines: where?
June 26th, 2008 at 9:39 amMattw said:
We don’t know if the ‘200,000 euros’ will include the travel costs or not.
If if can be done, then fantastic… the cheeper the better. But looking at the budgets of the other series, it just looks as though it has not been thought through - at all.
An invertation to tender has gone out to perspective manufactures. How they hope to have a grid full of cars ready for April/May I have no idea.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:00 amSteven Roy said:
This championship does not make the slightest bit of sense from any perspective.
24 cars @ 200,000 Euro gives a total of 4.8million. Out of that you need 24 cars, 24 engines, spares etc. Even if they were to follow the Formula Palmer Audi model and have all the cars run centrally you need at least one mechanic per car who needs a salary. You need transporters. If it is to be an international championship you need flights for drivers, mechanics, equipment etc and unlike F1 you are not going to end up with the vast majority of teams being from one country. I know Max’s concept of money has become warped recently but it is insane to try and run a second tier international championship on a fraction of a domestic F3 budget.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:35 amme said:
a sigma 70-300mm, which is pretty much the cheapest you can buy. does the job for us though.
http://tinyurl.com/ahjsg
June 26th, 2008 at 10:36 amme said:
less than £15 a ticket? wow, now we’re talking.
okay, who in the UK isn’t going to ROC this year?
June 26th, 2008 at 10:48 amme said:
interesting that the german gp is still listed even though ADC have suspended links with the fia. can we see it remaining at hockenheim?
what in the world is that gap about? the championship won’t have even got going by then. they tried a similar thing last year and it didn’t work at all.
hopefully there’s still time for negotiation. can’t think the manufactures are happy about this, it’s more arm twisting from max right?
June 26th, 2008 at 11:02 amme said:
so if the immediate feeling from everybody, is that this is unworkable, not thought through and just a stick with which to beat bernie, why do it in such a public way?
this is a waste of everybody’s time, and yet again shows this sport and it’s governing body in a bad light. i haven’t looked into the details yet, but this decision was taken by a vote presumably?
June 26th, 2008 at 11:04 amme said:
we managed to fins some sunshine gaulty, but won’t know until we have chance to look at it over the weekend. fingers crossed.
christine took the photos in this post steveintheuk.
June 26th, 2008 at 11:16 amMattw said:
This came on the same day that the FIA announced that they are to review of how they govern F1. I think we all know who that on is aimed at!
A few weeks back we were asking if the developing spat between Max and Bernie was genuine, or just their old ‘good cop/bad cop’ game. It is looking increasingly likely that war has been declared, and may have been going on for some time.
June 26th, 2008 at 11:20 amme said:
fair point. but there’s “saying” and then there’s “doing”…
great
i guess on the one hand, there won’t be any “no news weeks”, on the other… what about the racing?
June 26th, 2008 at 12:15 pmMattw said:
I’m only speculating
I’m probbly wrong.
Nice photos for a siggy 70-300 - you can’t get close to the cars at Silverstone even with a press pass. You have access to the pits?
By the way, when shooting from the public encloures, try to stand as close to the fence as possible. The shorter the distance between the fence and the lens, the more out of focus it will be, and less visible in the photos.
June 26th, 2008 at 1:44 pmAlianora La Canta said:
This came on the same day that the FIA announced that they are to review of how they govern F1. {Mattw - 3 comments ago}
Badly. Over-regulated, inconsistent and off-putting.
Hopefully this short summary will save the FIA the trouble and expense (we all know they’re worried about that).
As for the F2 series, they are charging roughly the price of running a two-driver team in a top karting series for a year. Possibly less. Unless F2 is meant to replace the top tier of karting (or they expect the supplier to give free chassis and engines to all teams), the numbers don’t add up.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:54 pmlou said:
ahh cool
For the past few weeks i have been searching ebay for some good deals on lenses, and think i have found some 
June 26th, 2008 at 7:03 pmDaniel said:
Kovi looked good, Kubica put in a lot of track time
small video I took of some of the morning laps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq_LTjd8F_4
June 26th, 2008 at 9:35 pmme said:
yeah, for three days thanks to all the nice people on the renault test team. also, a massive thanks to fraggle, amc, em7, rebecca and especially rf1pp. the nicest bunch of people you could ever hope to meet.
cheers daniel, nice camera work. did you have a good time?
June 26th, 2008 at 10:15 pmDan Brunell said:
I bet some sponsors and manufacturers made some rather strong phone calls to Bernie and Max asking WTF.
I don’t know who to blame… there are too many people with too many conflicting motives.
- Max for revenge for the no confidence vote. Germany and Japan… be fore warned.
- Bernie for being… well… Bernie.
- Or… Tony George. Since he won the open wheel war with the IRL, he doesn’t need the USGP anymore. The last Indy 500 was the best attendance in the last decade. Also because the Birckyard 400 (Nascar), and the MotoGP round will be at Indy next year; it’s not like the track will be hurting without the USGP. Why bother dealing with the heartache when you barely make a profit on the US Grand Prix? It’s not worth it. Especially after the way Max and Bernie were so unapologetic after 2002 and 2005.
If that’s the case, the US Grand Prix is done for. There is no track in the United States that is even close to being F1 ready other than Indy. Since the 4-5 major companies that own tracks have either 1) Sold their soul to NASCAR or 2) saw how Formula One treated Indy 3) Couldn’t even remotely think of affording Bernie’ fee. So to conclude… if its’ not Indy… American F1 fans are screwed.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:20 pmDan Brunell said:
Speaking of cameras, I just bought myself an early Christmas gift… Awesome…
June 26th, 2008 at 10:37 pmme said:
ahh, now that would be perfect for taking pictures of f1… cars… oh.
June 26th, 2008 at 11:53 pmMattw said:
Those X-Pans are lovely cameras. Real shame they no longer make them.
June 26th, 2008 at 11:58 pmDan Brunell said:
Actually one of the reasons why I bought it is because when we do our big auto show in August, I take a bunch of profile shots of car in tight spaces. The panoramic feature makes it very handy for this. I rented one a few years ago when I went to Vegas a couple of years ago, it was the best travel camera I ever used.
As for shooting photos a F1 car going 200ish MPH at 300 feet away, yeah it would be completely useless. Be glad for technology. In college, I had to shoot football games for our college paper with a manual 400mm f/4 with my old Nikon F3HP without a motor drive. I shot probably 20-30 rolls a game and probably 95% of the photos would turn out blurry or out of frame.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:24 amStuart Codling said:
Maybe not… When I was working on a sportscar title we took James Bareham to Le Mans one year and he took some lovely stuff with his Xpan. I’ve got a print of one on my wall: the Champion R8 coming down the hill from the Dunlop bridge.
June 27th, 2008 at 6:19 pmDay 2: Silverstone, Now With Added Christine | Sidepodcast : Your Weekly F1 Podcast said:
[...] tuned for further updates in the comments and also in the following post too. Written on June 25th, 2008 at 09:39 am by me. Posted in Blog Tags: F1, Formula 1, Pictures, [...]