F1 Digest – Europe GP
- Length: 9:40
- Size: 8.9 MB
- File: digest48.mp3
- Transcript: digest48.pdf
- Torrent: digest48.torrent
Race day in Valencia finally took place then after weeks of anticipation. Unfortunately it didn’t live up to the hype and was marred by controversy rather than action. F1 Digest presents a full round up of events.
The Race
We were probably expecting too much, and as the field got further and further apart, it didn’t look like it was going to deliver. In the end, it was a couple of retirements and some pit lane incidents that caused the excitement.
Conclusions
Only a couple of drivers had a good day, Vettel and Massa in particular. Most people were frustrated with their performance, thinking things could have gone better, and everyone is looking forward to Spa.
August 24th, 2008 at 22:00 #1 - me said:
loving the vettel quote
and also hats off to bourdais for not having the worse race in the world ever.
August 24th, 2008 at 22:32 #2 - lou said:
Great podcast as usual
I originally started listening to it on this page but it stopped at 4min 16 secs…
I have also just noticed the three new feed things on the left hand side of the page. They make a nice addition to the site
August 24th, 2008 at 22:37 #3 - me said:
hmm, mine was okay. wonder what happened there?
was going to do a post, but i’m flat out of time. will maybe have go into detail later in the week. glad you like it.
August 24th, 2008 at 23:12 #4 - Dom said:
Its a shame about this race. Sad the only real positive I got out of the weekend is “At least we’re going to Spa next.”
It seems the location of the circuit was so brilliant for Bernie, the racing was forgotten, and we all know there’s only one circuit that can pull off a dull race and be even more popular! (That’s a bit harsh on Bernie, we all got over-excited). Doesn’t put me in a hugely positive mood regarding Singapore though.
Oh well, there’s always next year. And the year after that, and the year after that, and the year after that, and so on.
August 24th, 2008 at 23:20 #5 - Steven Roy said:
Great show Christine especially considering what a bad race it was. I ran it the same way Lou did and it ran all the way through without problems.
I had forgotten SPa was next so that is something to look forward to even if it is a Ferrari track.
August 24th, 2008 at 23:26 #6 - me said:
i think the plan is, it’ll be so dark you won’t notice how bad the racing is.
they’ll never manage both spa and monza on a single engine, will they?
August 24th, 2008 at 23:58 #7 - Steven Roy said:
Given that Ferrari have taken over from Renault in the blown engine stakes they will be lucky to get through either race.
August 25th, 2008 at 00:10 #8 - lou said:
no idea, it worked in itunes though so all is well
I was so grateful for live commenting. Live commenting makes everything at least 10 times better
Are Spa and Monza generally dusty tracks? (i can’t remember from last year). If they aren’t then maybe… cause both Hungary and Valencia have been really dusty, maybe it’s the combination of dust and heat…
August 25th, 2008 at 00:29 #9 - Steven Roy said:
Good point Lou. I hadn’t thought about the dust. Neither Spa nor Monza are dusty and both will probably be cooler than either Hungary or Valencia.
August 25th, 2008 at 00:41 #10 - me said:
fantasy racers spreadsheet now updated here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p8keuzIyql2acXGQgmKvbXA&gid=1
August 25th, 2008 at 02:18 #11 - Felipe Leite said:
Sorry guys for not participating of the live commenting thing, but I had a friend’s marriage to go on saturday at another city and was away from a computer during the race.
But let me check how well I did with my fantasy racers bet:
And I managed to get to the first page of our league! Not only that, I’m now at the bottom of the top 20!
Looking at my first result (200 points, 3 less than Christine after the first round!), it is unbelievable that I am getting closer to the top guns.
BTW, congrats Jordan, your now the number 1 in our league, 11th overall.
On the downside, now autosport is only 3 points behind us. We need to do better at the next round!
August 25th, 2008 at 06:33 #12 - Scott in Italy said:
Where do I start complaining about the fine because “no sporting advantage was obtained” ? Feel like setting up an extra page somewhere so we can confine discussions?
August 25th, 2008 at 06:43 #13 - Scott in Italy said:
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to read the steward decision for myself and went wandering (and wondering) around the FIA site
This link
http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/pressinformation/f1pressinfo/europe/Pages/europe.aspx
The scrutineering report is interesting – it lists all the car changes, who is going to start on a new engine or new gearbox this week and all that sort of stuff about who pulls their cars apart. It’s one PDF of all the reports over the weekend – perhaps it is updated live throughout the weekend?
It doesn’t have the steward report about Massa though – does anyone know where I can read it?
August 25th, 2008 at 07:27 #14 - Scott in Italy said:
The decision appears here (it is really short)
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/eur_08_document_411.gif
Note: it defines the competitor as the team, not the driver. I also notice that the F1.com site calls 10,000 euro fine “hefty”. for a team, ten thousand is a pathetically small amount of money.
I disagree with nearly every aspect of this decision. I believe that the stewards got this very wrong in my opinion. So teams can try dangerous things, and if it doesn’t work to give them “sporting advantage”, they get a fine that amounts to a slap on the wrist? If safety is of “paramount importance” like they say it is, how does this fit with the fine they handed out. It is farcical, and I think this should be worse than the spygate saga of last year.
If the FIA can penalise drivers for doing bad things for F1 sport, can they impose things on the stewards as well?
Rant over. for now.
August 25th, 2008 at 13:16 #15 - Steven Roy said:
Only the FIA could think that a 10,000 Euro fine for Ferrari is hefty a year after Max said that people in the future would think a $100million fine for McLaren was very light punishment.
We have yet another ruling from the stewards that is contrary to their own rules and as in every case of a new invented ruling Ferrari benefits.
August 25th, 2008 at 13:36 #16 - me said:
i think you hit the nail on the head with the donnelly connection, but then we all expected this to happen back in january.
August 25th, 2008 at 14:01 #17 - OOwen Roberts said:
Your missing the point.
F.I.A. stands fr Ferrari Is All.
Ferrari can do no wrong therefor what they did was not wrong.
Run pit crew over in the pit lane; cause other cars to scrape the pit wall, that’s fine if your car is red.
You must have heard Massa’s comments “I was the lead car; he was the last car; he should have backed off and let me out”.
Then there was his engineer’s comments about “A silly little incident”, the man is an arrogant prat, which is of course the principle qualification for being in the Prancing Horse Team, or shold that be Mincing Mare.
August 25th, 2008 at 14:03 #18 - me said:
i think that’s exactly the point we’re making isn’t it?
no disagreement from me.
August 25th, 2008 at 14:07 #19 - Steven Roy said:
I thought it was Ferrari International Assistance.
Looks like Keith is in for a busy day. His item on this subject is on its second page and after 80 comments is showing no sign of cooling down.
August 25th, 2008 at 14:09 #20 - me said:
i think renault came up with that title during the mass damper affair
i have a sneaky feeling this afternoon’s conversation will be somewhat skewed that way too.
just testing live skype calls. anyone feeling brave?
August 25th, 2008 at 14:11 #21 - Alex Andronov said:
Oooh. I might be.
August 25th, 2008 at 14:13 #22 - Steven Roy said:
I must get skype
August 25th, 2008 at 14:15 #23 - me said:
nice one. the sound might be choppy as we’re sending video up and bringing skype down, can’t hurt to try it though.
at the moment, it’ll only be one call at a time. real time conference calling is a little further down the road (xmas probably!).
August 25th, 2008 at 14:15 #24 - me said:
you can ring from any phone (0121 28 87225), but it’s not free.
August 25th, 2008 at 14:18 #25 - Alex Andronov said:
Ah I didn’t expect to get the voicemail… Perhaps somebody else has beaten me to it!
August 25th, 2008 at 14:25 #26 - Alex Andronov said:
If you have been testing it by you calling yourself you may be getting really really bad quality. Skype has a number of known issues when calling somebody on the same internet connection as yourself.
August 25th, 2008 at 14:27 #27 - me said:
it’s still on voicemail because we’re not live until 3pm (ish). we’ll disable it once we are. or at least, when we’re ready to take calls.
i’m thinking we’ll put out a live request and take them sequentially, if that’s cool?
August 25th, 2008 at 14:30 #28 - Alex Andronov said:
Sorry me that makes total sense.
I thought when you were saying:
That you wanted somebody to call in now to test it. I must have been having a mid afternoon brain fade
August 25th, 2008 at 14:32 #29 - me said:
sorry, it was me. christine interpreted it that way too!
i meant to say, we’re testing skype. if it works, is anyone feeling brave later?
honestly, i shouldn’t be left in charge of a keyboard.
August 25th, 2008 at 14:33 #30 - Alex Andronov said:
Especially one that might play under pressure
Have you had an alternative suggestion on that front yet?
August 25th, 2008 at 14:35 #31 - Alex Andronov said:
I wondered about, with all of your references to the temperature last week if you might want to have: “It’s getting hot in here”.
But then I remembered what the next line was and thought that might turn this in to something quite different than family entertainment!
August 25th, 2008 at 14:37 #32 - me said:
nope. we can use it again i guess. but we could do with a couple to keep in rotation.
August 25th, 2008 at 14:39 #33 - Steven Roy said:
I hear Ferrari have a loop of ‘another one bites the dust’ ready for when they blow an engine:)
Or you could have Alan Donnelly’s personal choice for when he invents a new rule. ‘Oops I’ve done it again’
Or you could choose anything from our musicians named after food. I can’ believe I forgot about Fish when we were doing that.
August 25th, 2008 at 14:40 #34 - Alex Andronov said:
Wasn’t it Phish?
August 25th, 2008 at 14:41 #35 - Alex Andronov said:
There is “Apply some pressure” by Maximo Park (or the Mark Ronson version from the album Version)
August 25th, 2008 at 14:41 #36 - lou said:
The only one I can think of is that annoying song by Britney Spears, ‘oops I did it again’ but I dont think that’s as good as under pressure.
August 26th, 2008 at 23:57 #37 - Bartek said:
Wow! This is great
August 27th, 2008 at 00:00 #38 - me said:
which bit bartek?