Revised Goodwood Plans, Silverstone GP Photos and Where’s the Podcast?
It may not have escaped your notice but things have been pretty lapse around here since the weekend. The truth is we had way to much fun at the old Northamptonshire airfield and now we’re suffering for our sins.
Anyone who’s caught F1 Minute will have already noticed Christine is anything but well at the moment (and believe me I tried to help, but I’m talentless when it comes to reading aloud) and that sort of makes recording long podcasts difficult.
Right about now we should be getting ready for the start of the Goodwood FoS that gets underway tomorrow morning, but we’re not. I’m about to watch ITV’s British GP coverage (a bit behind then) and I’m not letting Christine out in the rain until she’s feeling better.
We both have tomorrow off, so the revised plan is to record the audio show about last weekend during the day and then take some time out before tackling the hill climb on Saturday and Sunday. If you were planning to meet us on Friday, I can only apologise.
To keep things ticking over, here are a few of my favourite snaps from last weekend. Some are already up on Flickr, the rest will follow shortly.
Kazuki Nakajima
If it’s nice weather, Club corner is by far the best place to watch the cars out of the circuit and during Friday FP2 the weather was lovely.
Unfortunately a number of drivers were finding the conditions tricky, not least Kazuki who spent some considerable time on the grass, before going on to lose his nose just beyond the Abbey chicane.
Murray Walker
Muzza was hosting Honda’s annual pub quiz this year, and honestly I can’t think of a better man for the job.
It was the perfect weather for a garden party too.
Mark Blundell
Sunday brought some awful weather and everybody was looking for cover. We found Steve Ryder and Mark Blundell cowering in the doorway of the Toro Rosso motorhome filming some pieces to camera.
Mark has his eye on a TV monitor held by a member of the crew.
Robert Kubica
Rain during the race offered the chance to catch some unique shots of F1 cars.
Robert is on completely the wrong part of the race track here, and is about to go bouncing unceremoniously across the grass at Maggotts.
July 11th, 2008 at 1:15 amlou said:
I have been checking the weather forecasts for Goodwood and it’s looking mainly dry over Saturday and Sunday. A few of the sites are saying there could be showers in the afternoon on Saturday, but most are saying that it is likely to be cloudy. So at least it’s looking dry
The photos look great!! So do the ones on flickr
Can’t wait to hear about your experiences at the British GP.
and re the hill climb. you could always get the tractor
July 11th, 2008 at 5:32 amF1Wolf said:
what is the lense you are using again ? I remember you said something about Sigma … I am looking for something faster to replace my slow 300mm buddy
July 11th, 2008 at 7:12 amPaul Tate said:
Will miss you at Goodwood today, never mind, get better soon, off to pack the wellies and brollies.
Paul
July 11th, 2008 at 11:22 amme said:
this is the one:
http://www.sigma-imaging-uk.com/lense…PO.htm
sorry paul. will tell the girl she’s a pain in the bum.
i think inside track will be presenter-less this week too
we’re floundering like massa in the wet at the moment.
July 11th, 2008 at 11:29 amSteven Roy said:
I know you planned to spend three days at Goodwood and no doubt a couple of three day tickets costs plenty but the last thing Christine needs when she is ill is to go and tackle the hill.
I am sure we will cope without the odd podcast so have a rest and don’t worry about entertaining us for a few days. Or alternatively abandon Christine and go to Goodwood yourself.
July 11th, 2008 at 12:38 pmlou said:
don’t worry about it. Christine’s heath is much more important.
As Steven says we can cope with out the odd podcast. 
July 11th, 2008 at 12:52 pmme said:
hehe… shhhh. don’t tempt me.
July 11th, 2008 at 12:57 pmlou said:
yay! ok I now really want to go to the Race of Champions!
July 11th, 2008 at 1:25 pmSteven Roy said:
I want to know who decided there wasn’t going to ba a Scotland team. They should be put against a wall and shot then have their head chopped off and then it should be jumped on.
July 11th, 2008 at 1:35 pmAlianora La Canta said:
Sorry to hear that Christine’s unwell. Get well soon, and I hope you both enjoy yourselves at Goodwood.
July 11th, 2008 at 1:50 pmLynch said:
I want to know who decided there wasn’t going to ba a England team. They should be put against a wall and shot then have their head chopped off and then it should be jumped on.
…Hmmm.. they have been combined, doesn’t bother me too much?!
Sorry to hear yooz aren’t going to gwood today, hopefully you can make it sometime over the weekend (I need my coverage!)
July 11th, 2008 at 2:13 pmlou said:
There isn’t going to be a Scotland?! Why?
No DC then.
July 11th, 2008 at 2:38 pmSteven Roy said:
According to the link you posted there are going to be two British teams instead of a Scotland team and an England team so you will still probably get DC.
July 11th, 2008 at 3:02 pmSteven Roy said:
Peace in our sport
According to f1-live McLaren and Ferrari have buried the hatchet and surprisingly they did not bury it in the back of anyone’s head. Ferrari have accepted McLaren’s apology for all the spy stuff and McLaren will pay Ferrari’s legal costs incurred in that case and now they are all friends again.
I am very, very confused. Does this mean Ferrari have given up playing politics or do they have something bigger on McLaren and they intend to use this to show good faith which was rewarded with treachery. Ferrari not being political is like Bernie not thinking about money.
http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/080711123928.shtml
July 11th, 2008 at 3:16 pmJordan Allen said:
Ahhh, In all this silliness, what’s has ever become of that Melbourne-winning “Movable Floor” that was obviously a ground-effect device, and should have been band? Like what has become of that thing anyway?
July 11th, 2008 at 3:41 pmSteven Roy said:
Well Nigel Stepney who was responsible for the legality of the car told Ferrari management it was illegal because it was a mass damper. Ferrari management decided that even though it was obviously illegal they would run it anyway.
Stepney then contacted the FIA to ‘request clarification’ pointing out that it was a mass damper and undoubtedly illegal. The FIA didn’t respond so he contacted McLaren and told them Ferrari were running an illegal car and McLaren ‘requested clarification’. The FIA did not respond.
Despite all the advanced warning the car miraculously passed scrutineering and then won. Then after it won the FIA ‘clarified’ the situation by saying that in future it would ‘interpret’ the rules in such a way that the car would be illegal but it was OK for Melbourne and that in combination with its corrupt interpretation of the fuel temperature thing in Brazil meant that Lewis Hamilton was not world champion even though it is quite clear he won it fair and square. Oh and that will be $100 mill please.
The whole thing is like a script from the Maranello soap opera thing that was written a few years ago. Never read it? You should. It may be a few years out of data and some of the topical stuff won’t work but I guarantee it is still funny. Oh and start at the begining of season one or it won’t make any sense. I would love to know why she stopped writing it as there are so many story lines since that would have given her great material. You will find it at
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/maranello/
July 11th, 2008 at 3:47 pmme said:
oh lordy, you’re so very wrong sir.
lewis and his team ballsed up last years championship all on their lonesome. no-one to blame but themselves on that score.
fom’s weather sensor was proven to be entirely unreliable beyond all reasonable doubt. in fact it hadn’t been calibrated from about 7 years and could easily have been tampered with.
http://www.sidepodcast.com/2007/11/17/sams-view/
…won it fair and square my arse.
July 11th, 2008 at 4:00 pmAlianora La Canta said:
In other words, if the FIA people on the ground had actually done their jobs properly (and written the rules so that it was clear which measurement was to be taken - the latter having since been rectified), either there would never have been any doubt over the fuel temperatures or Williams and BMW would definitely have been excluded. So it is possible that Raikkonen won simply because the FIA didn’t do their jobs - but me has a point in that if McLaren hadn’t made such a pig’s ear of the last two races, the FIA incompetence wouldn’t have mattered.
July 11th, 2008 at 4:52 pmStuart Codling said:
You could say that having such a big disparity between where the temperature was supposed to be measured in principle (“on board” the car) and where it was measured in practice (in the fuel rig, before it went in the car) meant that this was a scenario waiting to happen. The further disparity between the FIA and FOM temperature readings then became a hand hold for the legal people.
What a lot of people don’t remember, incidentally, was that it was much hotter than the weather forecast said it would be. This was why BMW and Williams were on the cusp – or outside the rules, depending on what you like to believe. Typically they’d switch the ‘fridge’ off overnight, or in the morning, and let the chilled fuel come up to the right range. On that day the warmer ambient had shifted the goalposts, so to speak.
Apparently the matter of where the fuel ought to be measured had come up at a Technical Working Group meeting and they’d decided to carry on measuring in the rig. This was the line McLaren were pushing on the day at Interlagos. The opposing point of view – which won out in the end – was that a show of hands in a committee meeting can’t be legally binding, even if it’s in the minutes. Fair enough.
Still, it meant a late night for all concerned. At about 10pm Christel Picot from the FIA emerged from an office bearing a stack of papers. She immediately disappeared under an enormous heap of rampaging journalists who all assumed the papers were the stewards’ findings. It was carnage.
Sadly, the documents turned out to be the press conference transcripts.
July 11th, 2008 at 4:55 pmJordan Allen said:
Steven, I would hate to disappoint you, but If the FIA did the right thing and did DQ both Ferraris at Melbourne, and the all other things being equal, then the True Champion and rightful heir to Michael Schumacher becomes champion, FERNANDO ALONSO!!!!
Yes, you can call me an Alonso fan. I do not deny it. But I did the math. With a DQ at Melbourne, Kimi loses 10 points and slips to 3rd in the 2007 drivers standings. Alonso wins at Melbourne as he was 2nd before the DQ and Hamilton moves to 3rd place.
ALO and HAM still share top spot in the 2007 Drivers standings at 111 points. However, ALO 5 wins at Melbourne, Malaysia, Monaco, Europe and Italy beat Hamilton’s four wins at Canada, the US, Hungary, and Japan. Alonso wins due to Ferrari being DQ’ed at Australia.
See how critially important the first race of the season is? Championships are decided there…..
July 11th, 2008 at 5:27 pmLe BOL said:
Yeah, they decided to bury the hatchet.
“There are, nonetheless, questions which the settlement raises which ought to be addressed. Ferrari says that it will “put an end to all outstanding controversies between the two teams”, although under Italian law, that is not as easy as it might be in England, where cases can be withdrawn at any moment. Ferrari lodged an official complaint against McLaren with the Tribunale di Modena last summer. In Italy once a complaint is made it cannot be withdrawn and must legally be investigated. The local magistrates pride themselves on their independence and thus one must assume that Ferrari had no further influence on matters after the complaint was made. That being the case, the only way that the two teams could agree to end all hostilities is if the Italian magistrates have reached the conclusion of their investigation. As there is no legal action announced, and the two teams have made the statements mentioned, it is safe to conclude that the Italians did not find sufficient evidence to make a case against McLaren - as some in F1 thought would be the case.”
July 11th, 2008 at 5:32 pmRich said:
In reality any disqualification of two teams in order to give a win to another team or person on what amounts to a technicality that was poorly defined would represent a very hollow victory. Obviously there were elements at McLaren that actually wanted this outcome, but to give credit to Lewis he did not support this. Ferrari’s Melbourne victory was almost certainly secured with an illegal car and as Jordan has pointed out would have handed the Championship to Fernando. I actually agree that Fernando was the biggest loser of all the drivers to last year’s politics.
July 11th, 2008 at 5:37 pmLe BOL said:
Personally, I’m glad Kimi won last year, he had a few problems and made a few mistakes in the early part of 2007 (Monaco, Barcelona) but then came back strongly. It’s typical McLaren stuff to let other teams steal both championships when everything is going fine.
It’s hard to judge this whole affair with Stepney and this McLaren dude Coughlan because general public didn’t have access to all the information, although Joe published something on grandprix.com. Then there’s this Alonso factor, if you’re his fan you will conclude that Ron is a villain, if you’re McLaren fan then you’ll conclude that Fernando is not an innocent kid in this story. To make matters worse Hamilton was pushing Alonso like no other team-mate did before so I guess they all just started freaking out. And everything went black, so to speak.
July 11th, 2008 at 6:01 pmAlianora La Canta said:
At about 10pm Christel Picot from the FIA emerged from an office bearing a stack of papers. She immediately disappeared under an enormous heap of rampaging journalists who all assumed the papers were the stewards’ findings. It was carnage.
Sadly, the documents turned out to be the press conference transcripts. {Stuart Codling - 5 comments ago}
Sounds like the sort of anti-climax that would be absolutely hilarious unless you were actually there…
the only way that the two teams could agree to end all hostilities is if the Italian magistrates have reached the conclusion of their investigation. {Le BOL - 3 posts ago}
There’s a thought - have the Italian magistrates officially ended the investigation? If not, I’m worried this declaration of peace may merely be a temporary ceasefire.
July 11th, 2008 at 7:16 pmSteven Roy said:
Whether Alonso or Hamilton ultimately won the championship doesn’t matter. The fact is Raikkonen only won because his car was illegal and Ferrari, McLaren and the FIA all knew it was illegal.
I heard this argument at the time and I don’t understand it. Do you really believe no-one should be disqualified in the last race of the season ever or should not be disqualified from any race ever? If a car is illegal it should be disqualified. If Hamilton (or Alonso) wins the championship because an illegal car is disqualified that is the fair result. Sticking with the first result announced does not make any sense.
The problem comes when it becomes established practise not to disqualify anyone after the last race of the season then everyone has carte blanche to run illegal cars in the last race. Rules is rules and if a car is illegal it should be disqualified even if it takes two months to find out it is illegal.
July 11th, 2008 at 7:19 pmme said:
yeah, but if the “right range” happened to be taken from page 3 of the timing screens, and value that was suspect at best, what hope have the people operating the freezer got?
it’s only going to be a matter of time isn’t it? the situation probably suits both parties at the moment, especially given the somewhat confusing and volatile situation within the fia. but i can’t see this lasting long.
July 11th, 2008 at 7:25 pmme said:
yes it does, and i’ve long argued that f1 should follow nascar’s lead in this area.
fans need to know the race result, the moment they leave the track. and they need to be confident it won’t change by the time they get home.
if the sport cannot be policed to such a degree that you end up in a situation where no-one knows who won the championship until many weeks later, you have yourself a sport with a massive marketing problem.
by all means punish a team at the next race (or the next season if it’s the last one of the year), but the end of the 2007 season was an awful anti-climax. humiliating for all concerned.
July 11th, 2008 at 7:38 pmSteven Roy said:
My argument against the FIA’s decision is that with one excepption they have always taken the line that their measurement of anything regardless of how incompetent that measurement may be is sacrosanct and no-one else’s measurment is given equal weight. After Brazil they turned that on its head and said someone else’s measurement was equivalent to their own.
The only other time they have done anything close to this was the amazing morphing barge board incident. It was measured on the car at the circuit and was found to be illegal. Ferrari turned up in Paris a few days later with what they said was the same barge board on a jig and it was found to be legal.
Punishing a team at the next race doesn’t help someone who has lost a world championship for no reason other than fear of bad headlines. F1 is a technical sport and in any technical sport you cannot do all the checks before the event. You have to see what effect the event has had on the equipment. It would be very nice to be able to announce the results immediately but there are very few sports where the result at the time is anything other than provisional. We are a few days away from the Olmpics starting and in events with no technology the odds are some results will be overturned days later owing to someone having chmicals they should not have in their body.
July 11th, 2008 at 8:00 pmme said:
depends on how bad the headlines are i guess.
if the decision had gone against kimi, and they’d taken his crown away on a technicality, i wonder if i might not have gone off to follow another sport instead?
if nobody’s watching anymore, who cares whether the rules were followed to the letter or not?
the rulings are deliberately ambiguous in order to prevent something like that happening and thankfully, they worked out just fine and common sense prevailed.
if the reverse happens to macca this year, and someone tries to take the championship away from them post season, i’m sure they’ll have a lot of things to say on the matter.
in the end, you win some, you lose some and the gravel trap in china was what finished it for lewis.
July 11th, 2008 at 10:59 pmMattw said:
How many pennies do you have?
July 11th, 2008 at 11:11 pmMattw said:
Sorry to disagree, but you need to be fair within the rules, and if a car is found in post race examination to be outside the rules, then it should be excluded. And it has always been thus.
It’s never good when this happens - but if you will always push the penalty out to the next race, you will encrouage the teams to cheat in the last race (if there is a championship at stake).
What is bad is the long running appeals.
I’m not saying that in this case that Kimi should lose the 2007 championship - I’m just stating my principal
It has never been established what sort of penalty running cold fuel should entail. Is this a big crime, or a minor misdemeanour?
July 12th, 2008 at 12:03 amJordan Allen said:
hey Me!
The secert to braking is something called “Walls”. I seem to have managed a 5:14.661 at Monaco for a total of 185 339.