Episode 72 - The Live Commenting Live… Thing
- Length: 1:01:58
- Size: 54.7 MB
- File: episode72.mp3
- Enhanced: episode72.m4a
- Transcript: Coming soon
- Torrent: episode72.torrent
On this week’s show we catch up with all the news from testing (even though it was ages ago), discuss the events of Hungary, and what’s coming up for the show.
Intro
The future is live, baby.
Good Week / Bad Week
Good week for Valencia because they can actually hold a race, but a bad week for Force India because they have to wait for their gearbox.
News and Views
KERS problems in testing, plus the shark fins are taking over, and we hear from Berger on Bourdais’ future.
Qualifying
We discuss what the Renaults were playing at by being quite so slow, Heidfeld vs Kubica in qualifying performance, and Glock doing a fantastic job.
The Race
It was really the start to end all starts, with Massa putting in the performance of his life. Of course we discuss the amazing start and the unsatisfying end, but also three race engines, punctures and fires.
Feedback
A couple of voicemails, one intelligible, the other, not so much. Some Facebook activity including: You Know You’re an F1 Fan When… and a couple of emails with some work for you guys to do.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:41 pmR.G (Formally known as Gaulty) said:
I am a football fan you know. I do say we.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:58 pmR.B. said:
On the panda ear matter:
One panda ear is in German: Panda Ohr.
Panda ears is in German: Panda Ohren.
It is pronounced as two syllables.
August 6th, 2008 at 6:18 pmJordan Allen said:
On the subject of proper German grammar, can one of you lassies, er, “look up” and tell if Vettel’s nickname should be “Der Seb” or “Das Seb”…..
August 6th, 2008 at 6:23 pmme said:
ahhh, thank you r.b. any idea if that’s pronounced as it reads?
e.g. sounds like foreign.
August 6th, 2008 at 6:28 pmKris said:
This is so long I’m going to have to wait until tomorrow to be able to listen.
I hope that it’ll be worth the wait, but I’d caution against getting to this length on a regular basis: I really don’t like the idea of having to plan things around listening to sidepodcast (like I have to with any TV I want to watch, ignoring iplayer) and what are the poor newbies going to do when comfronted with an hour long, bandwidth busting, whopper of a show! Surely theres a risk of them not wanting to spend that amount of time on it and move on.
August 6th, 2008 at 6:32 pmme said:
yeah apologies about that. we’re practising for the live edition so it’s a bit loose.
the file isn’t going anywhere though is it? it’s not like it’ll time out in 24hrs and be gone forever?
i was worried when the last episode hit 45mins. personally i think 30mins is perfect (well actually i think f1 minute at 60 seconds is perfect), but we’ll try and keep it tighter in the future.
August 6th, 2008 at 6:37 pmme said:
you’re by no means the only f1 fan to do so either r.g. not that i’d ever be comfortable with that though.
when another renault engine blows up it’s their problem, not mine
August 6th, 2008 at 6:38 pmR.G (Formally known as Gaulty) said:
lol mate, thanks for reading the e-mail out anyway
August 6th, 2008 at 6:38 pmR.B. said:
Vettel’s nickname should be: Der Seb
Das Seb would be neither male nor female!! Not recomended to say that to a German.
I’ve heard once some Germans call Vettel by another nickname. They called him Baschtl.
Panda Ohren is pronounced really easy. Just with a hard R.
Foreign without the F and with a hard R.
BTW: good show.
August 6th, 2008 at 6:41 pmme said:
cool thank you, we’ll correct ourselves on the next show
…assuming of course, mclaren don’t drop the ears.
August 6th, 2008 at 6:50 pmR.B. said:
they will find some other hideous thing to put on the car!!
August 6th, 2008 at 6:54 pmChristine said:
We’re trying to find the right balance at the moment, too, because if we miss out talking about a certain driver or team, then we get told about it. But if we talk about everyone, it becomes a bit… waffly.
So, we’re just tweaking things and trying to find out where the best balance lies.
THIS is too long.
August 6th, 2008 at 6:57 pmChristine said:
Also, apparently Renault might be a bit miffed at the Alonso pit stop thing.
August 6th, 2008 at 7:03 pmme said:
yes. it takes longer to upload and then longer for everyone to download, it also costs us more to host. so smaller = better.
i wonder if we should do a quick run down of every driver in the field and give one word answers to how they faired? that way we guarantee to talk about everybody, but also keep it snappy.
here’s my starter for ten:
kovi = opportunist
timo = superstar
kimi = protracted
alonso = defensive
lewis = timely
if anyone has any other ideas for tackling 20 drivers in less than 20 minutes, please chip in.
August 6th, 2008 at 7:11 pmR.G (Formally known as Gaulty) said:
Heidfeld = still struggling qualifier
glock = star in a reasonbly priced car
August 6th, 2008 at 7:13 pmme said:
dan b. has a unique take in his article this week:
http://tinyurl.com/54v6rt
way too much effort for every race mind you!
August 6th, 2008 at 7:19 pmme said:
blimey. well it was an odd change of position, and it meant in that alonso just missed out on the podium.
i can’t see ferrari being that daft though, i’m sure renault just need to figure out where they’re missing out.
August 6th, 2008 at 7:21 pmlou said:
Hey guys. Great Show! I don’t think it was overly long. It was a good race and you covered it in the correct amount of detail. If you’re looking to make it shorter perhaps stick to the margin of 35-45 mins for the regular shows (although personally I prefer the longer ones) and maybe 45-60mins for the specials (for example when you have attended a race). Tbh I was expecting this week’s to be a longer cause you had the mini series the week before.
Can’t wait till you go live, Do give us some more details closer to the time
I want to make sure I’m around 
oh and my offer to help with any transcribing still stands btw.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:59 pmScott Woodwiss said:
hey guys check out my F1 haikus in dan’s topic XD
August 6th, 2008 at 9:27 pmme said:
sound like a good plan
appreciate it, and haven’t forgotten you, just been preoccupied with bandwidth costs.
wow, cool
sorry didn’t realise dan started a facebook topic too:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22…4566720&topic=5387
August 6th, 2008 at 9:49 pmR.G (Formally known as Gaulty) said:
You guys talked about the superleague formula yet?
August 6th, 2008 at 9:53 pmme said:
i did in the comments earlier today:
http://www.sidepodcast.com/…p/#comment-91230
however i wouldn’t dare bring it up on air, because i’m bound to offend anyone and everyone involved with football. i literally know nothing about the game.
we saw the car at autosport, and it looked like a decent machine, but beyond that i’m clueless.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:17 pmR.G (Formally known as Gaulty) said:
the irony. I’ll send you an e-mail about it, helps you and get me some more air time
August 7th, 2008 at 8:33 amAlex Andronov said:
I loved it. And didn’t think it was overly long. And I loved the fact that I renamed the “Live Commenting Live… Thing”. Awesome!
BUT…
I really don’t think you have to mention everyone. I think it’s better to editorialise and ignore drivers who need to be ignored on a race. It’s probably safest to mention the Ferrari drivers, the McLaren drivers and Kubica. Essentially drivers where it’s news even if they are annoymous. And perhaps Button (because otherwise Lou might never speak to you again) and then anyone else who takes your fancy.
When people don’t get mentioned then somebody has to phone in and complain. On most weekends you do have a one weekend gap afterwards. This is ideal material for that week. “Feel we missed out your favourtie driver? Phone in and give your report (must be less than 60 seconds long)”.
Again I’m happy with the length but I too worry about new people. But then me didn’t sound too keen on getting new listeners at the moment so maybe that’s no bad thing!
August 7th, 2008 at 8:56 amChristine said:
Thanks Alex, all good points and taken on board.
I think “me” loves having new listeners… until he realises they come at a price!
August 7th, 2008 at 10:27 amMattw said:
]Yawn! is this idea still floating around?
We had a rash of these ideas years ago - GP Masters came and went, A1GP came and proved successfull and superleague never got off the drawing board.
Cannot see the logic of brining two money grabbing sports together, into what will be an expensive sideshow.
August 7th, 2008 at 10:41 amRocket said:
Hi guys. I just had a look at the ads on the side page of Sidepodcast regarding corporate tickets to next year’s (2009)Australian F1GP in Melbourne. I actually found advertising for the 2008 race, with this strange blurb…
“Australian fans will be the first to see some significant changes to racing with several of the big names having switched teams - Alonso to McLaren, Raikkonen to the Ferrari red and our very own Mark Webber taking to the wheel at Red Bull, with David Coulthart as his teammate.”
Now despite this being an ad for this year’s race they have Fernando driving for McLaren! I know you probably have no input but I just thought it was funny seeing such an error. I don’t think I will be getting tickets through these guys.
August 7th, 2008 at 11:58 amme said:
cheers alex. however, given complete editorial control i wouldn’t have talked about kovi, because he didn’t do anything worth mentioning. i know he won the race, but it was an unimpressive win and he wasn’t the story (100th gp winner or no).
we didn’t talk about hamilton much when he won the monaco gp… and thus got into heaps of trouble.
that is a good plan, we sort of had that this week with scott discussing mclaren and r.g. emailing in about bmw. we should encourage that
August 7th, 2008 at 12:02 pmme said:
wow. i’m thinking, google aren’t charging enough for advertising these days are they?
you couldn’t capture that with a screen grab could you rocket? it doesn’t appear in my list.
August 7th, 2008 at 1:49 pmMattw said:
The answer is simple - set up a preimum rate phone number, then test to see which driver brings inthe most money when not mentioned.
August 7th, 2008 at 2:32 pmme said:
August 7th, 2008 at 2:48 pmJoe said:
Downloading it now : P
Just wondering about the F1 Mastermind-style thing that’s supposed to be happening, is it going to happen? I know of course you’re busy with other things and all that, but I’m looking foward to it. Oh and Batracer is something I’d look foward to too : D
August 7th, 2008 at 2:56 pmChristine said:
Oh, it’s definitely going ahead. We’re getting there, bit by bit.
Everyone had better start swotting, because I’m working on some fiendishly difficult questions
August 7th, 2008 at 3:09 pmScott Woodwiss said:
I sent you guys an e-mail about my bad luck in the Real Life BATRacer game. Yeah, I’ve had a lot of bad luck this season
August 7th, 2008 at 3:10 pmScott Woodwiss said:
Even so, I’ll still manage to get all but 1 right
August 7th, 2008 at 4:13 pmJordan Allen said:
Here’s an answer to one of them….
“Franck Montagny or a baby Panda, previously a groundhog/woodchuck/marmot and Jenson Button….”
I will let you guys figure out what was Christine’s question….
August 7th, 2008 at 5:58 pmKris said:
I finally got to listen to everything… Thanks as always
You misunderstood me: I wasn’t intimating that I’d need to drop everything to come and listen to you right away, but that I’d need to set aside the time somewhere down the line: Its a lot easier to find half an hour (or so) than it is to find a full hour’s worth of time, - especially seeing as I’m not the most productive person in the world <shamelesscreeping> whilst concentrating on such a wonderful podcast! </shamelesscreeping>
August 7th, 2008 at 6:15 pmChristine said:
Can never have too much of that
It’s an interesting point, because the other good thing about podcasts rather than TV, is that pausing and picking them up again later is a million times easier.
August 7th, 2008 at 6:48 pmme said:
unless it’s a bbc podcast, in which case you have to download it within the first week, or it’s gone forever.
August 7th, 2008 at 6:54 pmDom said:
Hi guys, back from a week of solid F1 isolation (not spent stalking Martin Brundle). Failed to catch the ‘Unsuccessful Hungarian Hamilton-fest’ but these are my thoughts on the scrapings I’ve found lying underneath Bernie’s Copyright Empire.
Who Exactly is the First Driver at Ferrari? There must be one, it’s Ferrari after all.
May I suggest a ’sorry-to-hear-you-retired’ greeting card and a calming CD of whale noises for Massa?
Have I ended up following the wrong sport or have Nelson Piquet and Timo Glock finished the last two races in second?
Gonna be slightly distracted by some sport-hoopla in China for a bit, so I can only hope to join in with your planned live goings-on.
August 7th, 2008 at 7:00 pmLe BOL said:
Hallo, citoyens!
It looks like my laptop needs a couple of artificial limbs so it will be spending some time in one of the worst computer clinics in Europe ran by Acer Customer ASSistence Lisbon headquarters. It’ll come out just in time for Valencia race, my little Acer Frankenstein Aspire (to produce decent laptops some day) series.
I’ll be leaving occasional comments from two of my town’s public libraries, unless they block all F1-related sites as “obscene”.
I was wondering whether it would be possible for robots to race in F1 in the future? You can give them deceased champions looks, imagine a team with two Fangio clones or maybe two Rindts? They would be cheap to run and would love to do PR events 24/7, not to mention photographer-friendly function, you can make them pose and smile all the time! And robots can use KERS to recharge their batteries, fantastic idea for Max.
August 7th, 2008 at 8:56 pmme said:
that’s a very good point. you could argue that it’s kimi, seeing as every time massa looks to be getting ahead, he’s thwarted.
i am loving the podiums this year!
call me when they introduce some kind, hell, any kind of amateur motorsport and i’ll be interested
August 7th, 2008 at 9:00 pmme said:
hehe. good timing though.
August 7th, 2008 at 11:13 pmSteven Roy said:
I really enjoyed the show and didn’t think it was too long.
Kubica said he doesn’t want to drive the KERS car so Webber is not alone.
I like the accent on mein comment
Hamilton was lucky in one way with his puncture but he was very unlucky that it happened at the first corner so that he had to drive a full lap on 3 wheels.
You talked about watching the start of the race a few times because someone had put it on drop.io. ITV have the race and qualifying at http://www.itv.com/CatchUp/default.html for 30 days after the broadcast so any part of the race you want to see again can be viewed there.
So ‘me’ thinks he can drive faster than an F1 driver. I look forward to the Birmingham kart race to admire his talent. On that subject Alianora mentioned the race at GP Wizard and had people deperate to enter straight away. I think we should do it on the Saturday night if we can get the track. Some people might not be able to make Friday because of work and some (like me)may have a long drive on the Sunday.
August 8th, 2008 at 3:59 pmz-baumgartner said:
Listening to the podcast i thought i should share my experiences of f1 on tv in ireland. Currently we can watch the qualifing and races on itv as in the uk as well as friday practice on the itv website. However i much prefer to watch f1 on the satellite channel setanta irelnd. It also shows qualifying and races live but it also broadcasts friday practice 2 live. Furthermore the coverage has far fewer breaks than itv and also has a magazine show called gp racing on track. The commentators are also superior in my opinion and gary anderson technical input is brilliant.
All and all, not much to complain about!
August 8th, 2008 at 4:37 pmChristine said:
Just in time for the Olympics, the BBC have rolled out their own pages that reload automatically - so that their reporters can live blog the event.
Do you think they stole the idea from ‘me’?
On the Live Blog of the opening ceremony, Caroline Cheese wrote:
And then ten minutes later said, actually, if you want to watch the video, you need to F5… then you can throw the button away.
August 8th, 2008 at 4:40 pmSteven Roy said:
It’s pandalicious
For the past few days I have been playing a game called Rumble Town Racing and as I went flying by some trucks I kept noticing a panda picture on them so I decided I would slide sideways as I was going past one to get a full side view. http://drop.io/sidepodcast/asset/pandalicious001 Imagine my surprise when the panda’s head is accompanied with the slogan ‘It’s pandalicious’. What are these people selling?
August 8th, 2008 at 4:49 pmme said:
they’ve gone one better than us though:
“You can switch between up to seven live video streams”
damnit! do we have the budget for another 6 cameras?
August 8th, 2008 at 4:50 pmme said:
i have no idea, but that’s the best slogan ever
August 8th, 2008 at 4:53 pmChristine said:
Well, no, but I think the idea is that they have seven different things to look at.
How many cameras do you want to point at me??
August 8th, 2008 at 4:57 pmme said:
oh. this round to the bbc then
August 8th, 2008 at 5:08 pmR.G (Formally known as Gaulty) said:
Erm, and unless you can come up with a firework display like that, I think its 1-0 to the Olympics as well.
August 8th, 2008 at 5:10 pmGord Heath said:
Bit off topic…sorry.
I finally joined Fantasy Racers and I wnt to join the Sidepodcast league.
Can you supply me with the league number and password please?
August 8th, 2008 at 5:24 pmme said:
not helping
August 8th, 2008 at 5:26 pmme said:
gord, all the details you need can be found here:
http://www.sidepodcast.com/2008/02/25/its-only-make-believe/
if you beat christine from this late a start, i will laugh and laugh…
August 8th, 2008 at 5:28 pmGord Heath said:
From what I’ve been hearing that wont be too hard.
Sorry Christine.
August 8th, 2008 at 5:31 pmGord Heath said:
Ok, I’m signed up and listed in a 151st place.
No place to go but up from here.
August 8th, 2008 at 5:51 pmme said:
that’s the spirit
August 8th, 2008 at 6:33 pmAlianora La Canta said:
Who Exactly is the First Driver at Ferrari? {Dom - 19 comments ago}
Luigi Villoresi, if you’re being pedantic and using chronology and race numbers to make that determination.
If you meant to ask who was the first driver at Ferrari this year, and aren’t being pedantic, I’d say Massa. It was supposed to be Raikkonen, but that part of the script appears to have been lost in transit.
Gonna be slightly distracted by some sport-hoopla in China for a bit, so I can only hope to join in with your planned live goings-on. {Dom - 19 comments ago}
I’ll be keeping an eye on the swimming in particular, plus anything involving Finland and Singapore (some of my friends want updates). My mum has already asked me if I can call up the equestrian events on iPlayer, since she doesn’t feel like staying up until 2am to watch it.
Not that any of the above will stop me from commenting here
I’ll be leaving occasional comments from two of my town’s public libraries, unless they block all F1-related sites as “obscene”. {Le BOL - 18 comments ago}
I’ve heard rumours of a library internet computer blocking Google before (no idea why or even if it’s true), but surely they wouldn’t block Sidepodcast?
I think we should do it on the Saturday night if we can get the track. Some people might not be able to make Friday because of work and some (like me)may have a long drive on the Sunday. {Steven Roy - 15 comments ago}
Sounds good to me. I’ve set up a wiki page in an attempt to co-ordinate the organisation of the event. It looks like being on the evening of Saturday 10 January 2009.
do we have the budget for another 6 cameras? {me - 11 comments ago}
Unless you actually intend to have seven things going at once, you probably don’t need the budget for six more cameras. Otherwise, simpler is superior because you can concentrate on the content.
Incidentally, the model shop nearest work has introduced an RC helicopter at £30. However, I still don’t think I should be the one flying it if we go down that road, since my co-ordination is not brilliant…
unless you can come up with a firework display like that, I think its 1-0 to the Olympics as well. {R.G - 7 comments ago}
I had to switch off halfway through the firework display because it hurt my ears at even the lowest volume setting
Lucky I wasn’t competing there, really.
August 8th, 2008 at 6:48 pmme said:
quality! thank you alianora.
August 8th, 2008 at 7:01 pmlou said:
At the begining of the year my school had blocked all f1 sites (well every one that i usually visit). Luckily did they unblocked some of them (inc sidepodcast).
August 8th, 2008 at 7:17 pmLadySnowcat said:
Errr…why?….
Kimi has suffered more misfortune with Oz, Canada, Magny, Silverstone, Monaco to name but 5 for starters…
Massa suffered in Oz and Hungary… although Silverstone qualy could be mentioned….
So more misfortune and more points….
August 8th, 2008 at 7:53 pmAlianora La Canta said:
I’m sure the script said that Raikkonen was supposed to have considerably less misfortune than he’s actually had. And he is the defending world champion, so you’d usually expect a certain momentum to be maintained. At the moment it’s not so much momentum as a random setting as to whether Kimi will find the performance or not.
August 8th, 2008 at 8:05 pmLadySnowcat said:
Alianora whilst I’ll agree that Kimi hasn’t the best qualy stats in the races that just isn’t the case…
In virtually every race where he could be criticised and, given the general climate, is criticised, there has been a Ferrari problem which he has been trying to overcome…
What would you have had him do in say Hungary or Germany that he didn’t do?…
He isn’t random at all… in fact I have been amazed at how he actually tries right to the end… in fact that has generally been his downfall when he is miles behind and trying to make up for the problems encountered…
I know I am biased but I watch his times so carefully, live timing permitting, that I do feel qualified to comment…
August 8th, 2008 at 11:14 pmDan Brunell said:
A special one for Sidepodcast…
Sidepodcast dot com / Christine and me give insight / best show on the net
August 8th, 2008 at 11:20 pmChristine said:
Awwwww. Totally made my day
August 9th, 2008 at 2:16 amScott Woodwiss said:
Kimi in the WRC soon?
http://www.topgear.com/content/news/stories/3112/
August 9th, 2008 at 2:29 amme said:
i think axis has the best response to this:
http://axisofoversteer.blogspot.com/…ar.html
August 9th, 2008 at 2:54 amJordan Allen said:
Well, it would appear that Kimi has lots of expereince in this sort of driving…
August 9th, 2008 at 10:56 pmSteven Roy said:
I like the new logos. Very nice.
August 9th, 2008 at 11:03 pmR.G (Formally known as Gaulty) said:
Yeah, the new logos are looking good and I see your putting torrent download up as well. But the mini-series logo, it makes me think its the ‘Goodyear Mini-Series’…
August 9th, 2008 at 11:11 pmme said:
i hear ya, but when you’re trying to represent the concept of f1 history in an 80×80 pixel graphic you’re probably going to get that.
other runners in line for that spot were an orange mclaren, a teapot renault and the 7-UP jordan. all of which suffered similar problems.
a tyre company that covered 30 years of the sport seemed to sum it up best.
August 9th, 2008 at 11:17 pmR.G (Formally known as Gaulty) said:
I see your point.
August 9th, 2008 at 11:52 pmJordan Allen said:
Hey! What’s wrong with the Jordan 191? That car’s model number is a story in itself….
All kidding aside, why not just used a solid colour backdrop of correct National Colours with high-contrast text?
Germanic Silver, which is how Mercedes got that “Silver Arrows” nickname.
Italian Red with bonus point for finding the proper “Blood Red” shade for ferrari.
French Blue, the silly sky blue of the Mantras work best.
British Racing Green if you get tried of the plain “BRM” backgroud add a yellow racing stripe to turn it into a “Lotus Background….”
But you get the idea.
August 10th, 2008 at 12:03 amme said:
you may have to enlighten me on that one.
you’ve lost me, you want an image containing those four colours? that sounds like the worst logo in the world, but just in case you’re onto something i made a mockup and put it drop.io:
gotta be honest, i prefer the goodyear tyre.
August 10th, 2008 at 12:18 amF1 Torrents of the Legal Kind | Sidepodcast : Your Weekly F1 Podcast said:
[...] talked briefly on last weeks show about some minor issues we’ve had recently in regards to our bandwidth costs. If you managed [...]
August 10th, 2008 at 12:42 amJordan Allen said:
You almost got the idea me. Just picture the icon as the nose of one of 1960’s F1 cars, just giving enough detail to Figure out the nationality and make of the car. Thus, the Mantra will be a solid “sky blue box” with whatever Superimposed text you want, presumably in black text.
Another example, for the Sidepodcast logo, there will be in the foreground “Sidepodcast” but for the background, well, Christine likes either Button or Montagny, both race for Japanese cars. Now the Japanese racing colours are white with a red racing stripe, so for the background you use a solid white background with a red racing stripe and Sidepodast in Black text on top.
If you really want to have fun add the white circle with a black number for whoever driver you want represented.
August 10th, 2008 at 12:49 amme said:
sounds like an awful lot of effort!
bearing in mind it took 6 months to coax me into making three images.
August 10th, 2008 at 1:02 amJordan Allen said:
When Eddie Jordan was going to enter F1 with 7-Up sponourship the type number was going to be 911. Needless to say, Porsche was not to impressed with that idea, and took Jordan to court for trademark infringment. Eddie managed to raise enough of a stink to Porsche, that he had to re-print all his promotional material that to shut Jordan up they gave him the keys to a brand new Porsche 911….somehow I think the cost of reprinting promo material does not compare to a Porsche 911….
BTW two silly logos of what I was thinking of are on the way. I must admit that placeing a number in the circle using MS paitn is a pain so I frerehanded it, but it gives you the idea. And it does not take that long at all.
August 10th, 2008 at 1:07 amAlianora La Canta said:
In virtually every race where he could be criticised and, given the general climate, is criticised, there has been a Ferrari problem which he has been trying to overcome… {LadySnowcat - 14 comments ago}
Ferrari may have had a problem that Kimi is trying to overcome, but his success rate in tackling it has been extremely variable. Massa’s hasn’t (on the few bad days he’s had this year, it’s tended to be entirely because he made one or a few critical error(s) on race day).
Some weekends, Kimi seems a man inspired, and absolutely nothing, in Ferrari or out of it, can stop him (he’s had weekends like that in previous years as well). Other weekends, Kimi is less inspired and the performance is lost in a fug of ambiguity. Kimi does not like wishy-washy cars, but Felipe doesn’t seem to mind too much.
This is why your question of “What would you have Kimi do differently?” is so difficult to answer - without being there, the tangle of different causes of Kimi’s underperformance are difficult to untangle. What the causes are and the way they interact with one another would affect the answer - which could, on the information given so far, range from “Virtually nothing” to “Virtually everything”.
Kimi’s arguable loss of the leadership role may be temporary (and unless he seriously messes up, normal service will be resumed before the end of the year). It may not even be primarily or even significantly his fault. But it feels real.
Hey! What’s wrong with the Jordan 191? That car’s model number is a story in itself….
you may have to enlighten me on that one. {me - 3 comments ago}
A classic EJ story. When deciding what to call the first Jordan, it occurred to Eddie that it was going to be released in 1991 and it would be the 1st chassis Jordan had produced. Put together, it would also create a strong evocation of exotic fast cars, which would bring a certain marketing cachet.
However, Porsche heard about the proposed 911 F1 car and phoned up Eddie to remind him of their company’s road car range. This was in the days before the courts told Intel that you can’t copyright a number, so this posed quite a problem. The case would have gone to court, but Jordan and Porsche reached a settlement which led to Jordan switching the components of the name around to get 191. In return, EJ got the free use of a Porsche 911 for the 1991 season. Crafty…
August 10th, 2008 at 8:32 pmLadySnowcat said:
Alianora you are comparing qualy with race performance me thinks…. Ferrari put Kimi at a disadvantage in Oz (during qualy), Magny Cours (exhaust), Monaco (wheelnut), Silverstone (tyres)…. those were the situations I mention…. also he carried tons more fuel in Hungary which hardly helped him …
Looking at the race he was tons better at pretty much all the races Felipe didn’t get pole for, even if his qualy disadvantage played to his disadvantage….
Felipe has had some awful races whereas Kimi has managed to bring the car home in the points even when things haven’t gone right….
That’ll be when exactly…. people criticised him for Hockenheim but the guy was on fire and if he hadn’t been queued up behind Massa in the safety car stop he’d have been right at the front as he overtook, totally cleanly every time, more cars than anyone else…. I saw this as I was there but you wouldn’t have seen it on TV….
In all the races he was criticised for the guy never stopped trying until the end of the race… the same can’t be said of Massa….
Alianora… You haven’t even tried to answer my question as I think the only answer is probably “Qualify better” which is exactly what Kimi says himself…. the fact that the understeery Ferrari suits Massa better and Kimi would prefer the oversteery Macca he just gets on with in a typically Kimi way…. without slagging the team off….
It would feel real if you weren’t watching him as closely as I do… I know I sound “stalkerish” … but I watch his times religiously, when live timing doesn’t glitch….
Every one of the races that Kimi has been substantially criticised for is one where Ferrari, through the problems noted above, have put him at a disadvantage by mechanical or strategic failure and I actually think he’s actually then tried too hard to get it back to where it should be… actually if he chilled out and didn’t push so hard he’d probably have got a better result…
August 10th, 2008 at 9:48 pmAlianora La Canta said:
That’ll be when exactly {LadySnowcat - previous comment}
Kimi inspired (in 2008) - Malaysia, Spain, Turkey, France
Kimi in ambiguity (in 2008) - Australia, Monaco, Germany, Hungary
According to the lap chart, Kimi overtook 1 driver (Alonso on lap 3) before the second round of pit stops. Basically, he went quickly only when he went on the minority tyre (good strategy should have had him on that tyre for the first two stints). There’s more to team leadership and championship-grabbing than just going quickly and being a good overtaker, which Kimi was after the second stop, passing 5 drivers - Rosberg, Alonso (again), Vettel, Trulli and Kubica) in the final phase of the race.
Kimi may have passed more drivers than anyone else in Germany, but if he’d planned his tyre strategy better, he wouldn’t have needed to - or if he had passed that many, he’d have finished higher in the end. Tyre strategy is supposed to be a joint driver/team decision.
Alianora… You haven’t even tried to answer my question {Lady Snowcat - previous comment}
I’ve explained why my answer was so vague in my previous response. What I can see is that the exact answer is nowhere near as simple as “qualify better”. I know there are a few drivers on the grid for whom it is that simple (much as it pains me to say it, Fisichella is one of them), but Kimi isn’t one of them because sometimes he does qualify well enough that he could have a major influence on proceedings. But then sometimes he exerts that influence in the race when someone not looking at the finer details of Kimi’s weekend would not expect it to be possible for him and other times he doesn’t exert the influence expected from a reasonably good grid position.
Since Kimi’s weekend isn’t falling over at the same point each time, it suggests that whatever’s stopping him from reaching his potential does not strike at the same point. It doesn’t even seem to be entirely connected with the timing of Ferrari failures - I didn’t see anything purely Ferrari stopping Kimi at Germany, for instance, because the main thing that got in his way was poor tyre strategy (it wasn’t even the general strategy that went wrong, as pretty much everyone else copied him!).
August 11th, 2008 at 1:43 amScott Woodwiss said:
check this out, a onboard hotlap of the new valencia circuit with an F3 car. I like it! some great corners and plenty of overtaking opportunities, me thinks we’ll see some great racing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG-7tj9U2mQ
August 11th, 2008 at 2:27 amme said:
that’s a nice, wide street circuit isn’t it? like i said in last weeks show, a bit too much concrete. feels like driving around an industrial estate, but i’m sure the ariel shots will be lovely.