From the Front Line
We’ve fallen slightly behind over the last couple of days, and we’re in catch-up mode at the moment, but I just wanted to put this picture up as I think it perfectly encapsulates our entire weekend.
On Friday evening ahead of the British GP, Radio 5 Live presented an hour long Formula 1 special featuring usual suspects David Croft, Maurice Hamilton and Holly Samos along with Arlo White (nope never heard of him either, but he was hilarious) and Anthony Davidson.
We were privileged to witness the recording, but while I was bouncing around in the background, pleased as punch to see real live radio up close, a certain someone had work to do and a podcast to produce. Christine was readily working away at a free table, nonplussed as those around her went about their business.
Apparently we’ve come along way in a year… well one of us has anyhow.
July 7th, 2008 at 2:01 amMattw said:
Soo - You were just larking around while Christine did all the hard work?
Nice one!
I do like the way you get her interested in F1, then leave her doing the work while you hob nob with famous poeple.
July 7th, 2008 at 2:02 amScott Woodwiss said:
Aww, christine works hard so you can play hard!
you must really appreciate all she does
July 7th, 2008 at 7:22 amJourneyer said:
Hahaha! I second the comments above me. But then again, let’s remember - it’s Christine who gets much of the publicity around here.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:39 amshaun said:
Hi sidepodcast,
Great to finally see you two on Sunday at the GP…well it was was good to actually see Christine, and hear ‘me’ - just couldn’t quite make out what ‘me’ looked like though?.He seemed to be hiding in the shadows, possibly waring a cloak…well there was some kind of Stig thing going on there with him…
Anyway, just like to say thanks for the interview and look forward to hearing your latest GP chat about the race, which i assume i might hear my self speaking on too; which will be funny
In my text i think i told you that Massa hit a dog when he had one of his spins.I have watched the GP back and noticed it was in fact one of the many hares that reside at the circuit, doh!.
I’ve got a lot of things to do now but none of them involve work, which is great…so, enjoy putting your Silverstone special together today,
Shaun
Ps, the traffic was murder getting out of the circuit.Got sent through Silverstone village; in a que for an hour before the liberation of the back roads, lol!.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:45 amme said:
that really does sum up sidepodcast!
that’s the plan sir. and again, thank you so much for your time
not sure when the show will go up, but before friday is the plan.
July 7th, 2008 at 12:00 pmStuart Codling said:
Morning all,
Kimi gives Paul-Henri Cahier a shove…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI3sqgdsm5U&feature=related
July 7th, 2008 at 12:02 pmshaun said:
Cheers - no problem, it was a pleasure.Looking forward to hearing it!.
S.
July 7th, 2008 at 12:03 pmme said:
i literally just saw this as i was looking back through the drop.io archive for the weekend too.
what’s the story there then? seemed a bit over the top, or was kimi just messing around?
July 7th, 2008 at 12:16 pmStuart Codling said:
Unknown… It was caught by Finnish TV and they did an interview afterwards, but they’ve been swinging the copyright handbag at YouTube.
July 7th, 2008 at 12:31 pmme said:
the only thing i can see is that phc was pretty close to kimi’s bag. maybe he stood on something important?
classic comedy fall there though.
July 7th, 2008 at 12:38 pmMattw said:
He saw the camera bag behind the photographer, and it was too tempting to resist?
Kimi needs to be carefull, the officals don’t like violence (like they dont like drivers missing red lights).
Do that at a kart race, and you will be automatically excluded, license endorsed, sent home etc.
July 7th, 2008 at 4:46 pmlou said:
nice photo.
What a difference a year makes 
did you get many funny looks while recording the podcast?
July 7th, 2008 at 4:49 pmlou said:
could be cause the photographer was pretty close to him, and used the flash? I don’t think i would be too happy if i was concentrating on the race i was just about to do and suddenly i was blinded by the flash of a camera…
July 7th, 2008 at 5:05 pmDom said:
Do let us know when you start putting the pictures up on Flickr. Can’t wait to see them!
July 7th, 2008 at 7:54 pmLe BOL said:
Yeah, true. There’s a mad Kimi pic on grandprix.com I think PH blinded him with the flash.
What’s going on with Jenson and Honda? Ross B. favouring fat old Rubens? The repeat of Richards / Villeneuve saga but now with Ross and JB as main characters? Is it about his salary? JB is British and yet on TV all I saw was Lewis banners. Must be hard to swallow for Jens. Put him in a decent car and he’ll kick LH’s bottom (I didn’t want to use the a-word).
http://www.grandprix.com/jpeg/phc/pbri08/sun/raikkonen1-lg.jpg
Personally, I hope Alonso quits Renault at the end of 2008 with Jenson replacing him, I kinda like Piquet now - crazy bloke.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:01 pmLe BOL said:
Stuart, what’s the latest rumour from the paddock? Anything worthy of notice? Please… Maybe another funny behinf-the-scenes story?
Vettel to RBR but what’s with STR drivers? Liuzzi to replace Sutil? Fisichella to Ferrari?
Ferrari & CO car ballet was better than Cirque du Soleil!
July 7th, 2008 at 8:03 pmme said:
yeah, you’re spot on there:
http://www.grandprix.com/jpeg/phc/pbri08/sun/raikkonen1-lg.jpg
looks like the guy was favouring the flash, due to the seriously overcast skies. the pic of fernando is similar:
http://www.grandprix.com/jpeg/phc/pbri08/sun/alonso1-lg.jpg
good question. he says he’s great in the wet, but everytime it rains he’s off the track.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:39 pmlou said:
that’s not fair, even the Great Lewis Hamilton has experienced aquaplaning…
Jenson won’t move from Honda if he can help it… He was talking about it in f1racing afew months back. He is there for the long term, :/
When ITV dropped him so did some of his fans…
Not sure Ross is favouring him… I don’t think even Ross can control if Jenson is hit/ hits anyone in a race… and he certainly doesn’t control the weather… It could be Jenson is needing to adapt to Ross… or just that he is having real problems with set up. Anyway that’s what i think… of course it could be just pure bad luck.
have a look at the lastest video over on Jenson’s site for his reaction to his bad weekend…
July 7th, 2008 at 8:51 pmme said:
true, all drivers have.
but everytime it rains the guy has a reasonable chance of scoring some points, in a car that normally has no chance. and everytime it rains he seems to struggle.
now there may be a multitude of reasons why that is the case, but the fact is in the current honda, he simply has to shine when the rain falls, yet he never seems too.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:17 pmMattw said:
I have been thinking the same thing recently. Ever since that win in Hungrary, he has failed to shine in any of the wet races we have had.
It must be difficult in the middle of the pack - with all the sprey - accidents and aquaplaning do catch even the best out on occasion, but we have had a lot of wet races recently, and where has he been?
July 7th, 2008 at 9:46 pmlou said:
To be fair he was doing very well (p4) in Germany last year until he aquaplaned off at turn 1 on lap 3….
yeah he has to shine. He is not outperforming the car as he did last year. But he is still getting about the same out of the car as Rubens. Half the season gone, so half the season to pick himself up again.
I still have faith in him
hitting people/ being hit/ sliding off the road…
July 7th, 2008 at 11:13 pmme said:
that’s good. and i’m sure he’s just hindered by two bad years of machinery
July 8th, 2008 at 7:41 amStuart Codling said:
I wasn’t at Silverstone this weekend, Bol (apart from our Saturday night quiz for F1R subscribers at Whittlebury Park) but normal service will be resumed at the Hungaroring.
My spies tell me that on Sunday morning Damon Hill was hanging around outside the ‘Bernie bus’ in the paddock, no doubt waiting for an audience with Mr E. He was there for some time before – unnoticed by him – Bernie came out of the FIA bus.
Having sneaked up behind him (Damon looked quite startled when he saw who it was) Bernie made a gun shape with his hand - like a kid playing cowboys and indians – pointed it in Damon’s face and pretended to fire. Then he giggled and walked off.
July 8th, 2008 at 10:55 amme said:
he’s a big meanie, but i appreciate his sense of humour.
if i was damon, i’d have turned up with a deck chair and a kangaroo tv to pass the time. made a day of it
July 8th, 2008 at 11:04 amLe BOL said:
A blue meanie! I see people in the paddock are having fun big time and pose for the cameras as very serious corporate bigwigs. Kids, aye? Wonderful story, thanks a lot!
Anyway, DC now says on Bernard’s website that he wants to see Vettel in his car next year. Let it be.
July 8th, 2008 at 12:14 pmAlianora La Canta said:
Kimi gives Paul-Henri Cahier a shove… {Stuart Codling - 20 comments ago}
[url=http://homeofsport.com/f1/news/item.aspx?id=22472]Apparently Paul-Henri stepped on some of Kimi’s equipment[/url] to take the photo. I imagine that it was an accident, but it’s not surprising that Kimi was less than pleased.
if i was damon, i’d have turned up with a deck chair and a kangaroo tv to pass the time. made a day of it {me - 2 comments ago}
Me too! Good thing Bernie didn’t try sneaking up on me though - I’d probably have given him accidental earache in fright…
Anyway, DC now says on Bernard’s website that he wants to see Vettel in his car next year. Let it be. {Le BOL - previous comment}
Nice to see that DC gets to appoint his own successor.
July 8th, 2008 at 12:54 pmStuart Codling said:
P-HC declares war!
https://www.f1-photo.com/index.cgi?Lang=en&NamePage=index
July 8th, 2008 at 1:06 pmStuart Codling said:
Funnily enough, Bol, Silverstone is a hotspot for that brand of goon who loves to hang around in the background of TV shots – usually pretending to be on the phone. Why do they do it? Who are they, anyway?
July 8th, 2008 at 1:09 pmLe BOL said:
Indeed!
July 8th, 2008 at 1:23 pmme said:
hmmm. denies touching man, denies touching equipment, but no mention of the flash?
btw, the man has a blog? cool.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:30 amRich said:
Although a lot of people have said the photographer was at fault e.g. he stepped on Kimi’s stuff and they touched - the video does not confirm any of these - at most the “official” photographer might have stepped on an umbrella. Here is the exact press release.
While too a point it is understandable given pre-race tensions it remains boorish and unprofessional behaviour. What I do not accept is Kimi’s manager’s attempt to justify his actions, in fact even if there were fault on the photographer his team should have apologised - you do not push people over who’s profession it is to be there. The fact that such statement has been made is rather damaging. This is also the not the first time, there is also video footage of Kimi pushing a marshal away after a race incident elsewhere. I cannot image Rubens, or Nick or to be truthful Michael Schumacher doing this - a poor show by the reigning world champion.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:32 amStuart Codling said:
Interesting perspective on this story from Darren Heath (in his post-GP blog) this week…
July 9th, 2008 at 10:47 amme said:
i’m liking all these photographers with an opinion (and the means to voice it)
out of interest, any idea what this:
“working closely with Ferrari for their stunning new magazine”
means?
did i miss an announcement or something?
July 9th, 2008 at 12:05 pmRich said:
I must be dumb I cannot find a link to Darren’s perspective. Publicity and photographs/interviews are not necessarily bad - it is part of the economy that rewards drivers with capacity for earning high salaries.
Being a public figure does mean you need to “manage” issues and mistakes (mis-communications) in the heat of the moment are inevitable. I am critical of what followed e.g. Kimi’s team for their immediate attribution of blame to the other party. Had Kimi apologised while providing his own explanation I would been impressed.
Similarly Lewis’ sulk with the press following the French GP - not actually acceptable.
Having said all of this Lewis was in class of his own at the British GP, it is good for Silverstone that a British Team/Driver won - the championship remains extremely close at the top. Although Kimi has stated “they” lost the race through a mistake - I frankly do not believe this, neither Ferrari not Kimi looked hooked up the way Lewis and Macca were. Delusional talk.
I have more respect for drivers who accept blame - little Felipe had a terrible day but did not blame everyone else, Nick on being congratulated on the fine overtaking - modestly ascribed it to his tyres being in better condition.
While Lewis has much to learn (he is young and only in his second season), but Kimi should now have the experience to handle these situations and his press comments rather better.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:08 pmStuart Codling said:
I don’t think it’s a news-stand mag. It’s a fantastically posh thing, probably mailed out to owners.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:13 pmStuart Codling said:
Try this, Rich:
http://www.darrenheath.com/blogs.htm?big=69
It’s the last couple of paragraphs.
July 9th, 2008 at 3:11 pmRich said:
Thanks Stuart
Darren expresses the situation very well - I really like his photos - especially from the point of composition.