Sidepodcast

We are now celebrating Goodwood Sunday, plus Wimbledon Finals day for the men’s game and… actually, I think that’s about it. Still, it is set to be a good day, and we are having a pretty good, relaxing weekend at SPC Towers. Finally, we are sitting back and taking stock of what we have got, and trying to improve things rather than bring new technology on board. Meanwhile, here are some F1 topics:

• Campos Racing have suggested that the lack of budget caps won’t hinder them in 2010, so I am wondering if Max chose his new teams on the basis that they could survive without the caps? We know that USF1 were allowed in because they’re working really hard on their funding, so is it all about the money? (Answer = yes.)
• Conspiracy theory of the day: Bruno Senna drove his uncle’s title winning MP4-4 up the Goodwood Hill yesterday and trashed the gearbox. Lewis Hamilton was due to drive it today and has now been denied the opportunity. Coincidence or intention? Hamilton will now run last year’s MP4-23 instead.
• Talking of Goodwood, we’ve had loads of people commenting as they navigate the grounds. Nick and Lukeh have both been in touch, and we were getting lots of snippets throughout yesterday about Newey and Glock. Expect more good stuff today.

That’s enough to talk about for now, I reckon. It’s a bit of a quiet weekend in terms of F1 news, as teams are either busy demonstrating or resting up for next week’s race. Anyway, I’ll see you in the comments.

It is Independence Day today, although Mr C and I also recognise it as the day Will Smith helps save us from aliens. Bruce has got the meteorites covered and Will knows what he’s doing with those UFOs, what could go wrong? Anyway, here are some of the things we’re talking about:

• What’s going on with Alan Donnelly then? The story is that Virgin are moving their sponsorship, which is fair enough. Their relationship with Brawn has been dwindling almost since the first race. So, what does this Donnelly fella have to do with it?
• Over on the F1 Big Pic, we took the challenge of covering the Valencia story. What were the chances of finding a decent pic of that instantly forgettable race? I am mightily disappointed the green building didn’t make the pic, but we should be able to see more of that if there is less seating around.
• Finally, Alianora has written a great post about her daily process of finding out what’s going on in the world of F1, detailing which sites she visits and in which order. Would love to hear other people’s routines as well.

That’ll do it for now. It’s Goodwood Saturday, so we’ll still be keeping an ear and eye out for any pics or tweets cropping up. As always, I’ll see you in the comments.

It is young Sebastian Vettel’s birthday today, so I suppose he is one year less young now. I wonder if he will ever not be “young” Seb? Anyway, the first person to mention Little Britain gets a lifetime ban from Sidepodcast (this sentence not included, obviously). Here are some of the community things happening:

• Scott’s Puma fan report finally went up on their site, and it’s a really great read with some fabulous photos. There was also a really good video, although that seems to have gone MIA (grrr, Bernie). If you did manage to catch the video, please join me in the call for Scott to replace EJ on the BBC.
• Gavin’s been away on a trip to Norway, and took some ace photos. I do like some good holiday snaps. Also, get used to the sharing of photos, as I’m expecting to link to plenty more from those going to Goodwood. Take lots of pictures on our behalf and we’ll share them with the crowd.
• Finally, this isn’t directly community related, but I wanted to give a quick plug to the DarkUFO LOST Episode Cup. The competitions on this site were our inspiration to run the character and circuit cups on SPC, so props to them. Also, if you like LOST, go vote!

That’s all for now. As it is Friday, let us know what your plans are for the weekend. We’re not going to Goodwood, so we’ll probably be around (as if we wouldn’t have been anyway!). I will see you in the comments.

It’s Thursday already, and whilst this is not a revered day amongst the Sidepodcommunity, we are hurtling towards the Goodwood weekend. A few people are heading to the Festival of Speed, and I bet the excitement is building. Don’t forget to leave us a voicemail from the grounds, if you are going: 0121 28 87225. Meanwhile, here’s what we’re talking about:

• Timo Glock has revealed his optimistic side by suggesting that it isn’t out of the realms of possibility that Toyota could win a race this year. That’s actually as far as he goes though, admitting that he’s careful when it comes to talking about the team’s first win. I guess he doesn’t want to jinx it?
• On the subject of wins, Nick Fry has come out in support of Barrichello saying that he is overdue a win. I’ve just realised that we see a lot less of Mr Fry since he had to stop wearing those green trousers. It’s much better that he is behind the scenes, wouldn’t you say?
• My new mini series started yesterday, so if you haven’t heard it yet, please check out F1 Safety – Helmets and Clothing. There will be six more short shows over the next few nights, so we’ll be covering all sorts of safety aspects of the sport.

That’s it for now. As ever, feel free to discuss what’s on your mind, and don’t feel constrained by what I’ve mentioned above. I’ll see you in the comments.

It is essentially the halfway point of the year today, with 182 days gone, and 183 still to go. On the one hand, this year is absolutely flying and it’s ridiculous that it is July already. On the other, I feel like June went really slowly and Le Mans seems like eons ago. Anyway, here are some things we’re discussing:

• Abu Dhabi seems to be flavour of the moment, with a Yas Marina circuit being released to allow fans closer to the track. I couldn’t get it to work, so have no idea what the under grandstand bit is like. However, the track gets a mention in F1 Minute and the Big Pic today, so their marketing is clearly working!
• Kimi Raikkonen will be officially rallying in a World Rally Championship event in Finland at the end of July. With Le Seb doing Le Mans, and Kimi rallying his heart out, which other drivers could take part in other series?
• Bridgestone have announced the tyre allocations for a further four races, with Hungary and Valencia taking the two softer compounds, whilst Belgium and Italy stick with the medium and soft variety. Does this actually mean anything though? For a viewer, the only thing that matters is soft versus hard, rather than one of four individual compounds. Another Bridgestone fail?

That should keep us going for now. There should be some more excellent tennis on later, which is one bonus for us hitting the last week in June and first week in July already. I’ll see you in the comments.

The last day of June has rolled around (already!?) and it is Ralf Schumacher’s birthday today. Yes, him, the other Schumacher. I wonder what he will be doing to celebrate his 34th birthday. Anyway, here are some of the things we’ve been talking about:

• Mario Theissen has become the next team boss to admit that the overtaking rules need some work. We can all see it, obviously, but it means a little bit more coming from the people who help to shape the rules in the first place. He does add that the fact the field has closed up so much is unexpected and has made things a lot more excited. Qualifying, yes, Mario. The race, not so much.
• Following on from Heikki’s triumphant attempt at the Ask the Expert quiz on F1.com, Adrian Sutil steps up to have a go. He’s not so hot on getting the correct answers, as Heikki managed to top the field of drivers asked so far, whilst Sutil falls way down the bottom of the order. Sounds familiar, no?
• I was thinking, you know those games where you take the best parts of various people to make an über-person? Who would make up your ideal driver? We’re talking qualifying skill, overtaking ability, temperament, helmet colours, anything that makes up a driver. What do you reckon? I’m giving it some thought, let me know what you come up with.

That’ll do it for now, I reckon. Feel free to discuss how quickly June has gone for you, I know it has absolutely flown for me. As ever, I will see you in the comments.

It is Monday once more and we are thrown headlong into another week. With the extended break before Germany, though, we are not counting down to a race weekend, but rather another ‘off’ weekend. Still, as it is only Monday, that would be looking quite far ahead, wouldn’t it? Here are some things going on at the moment:

• Ferrari have admitted that they could very well be shifting their attention to the 2010 season, which isn’t exactly a surprise given how poor they are doing at the moment. The only problem is, no one really knows what 2010 is going to be, so it’s a bit early to be puting all your eggs in that basket, isn’t it?
• Apparently the continued building works at Donington are set to resume in August, which seems like an awful long time away. Now that they have all the necessary paperwork in place, and Gillett keeps saying financing shouldn’t be a problem, why can’t they get started now?
• We recorded a fun Debrief yesterday with lots of feedback and Fantasy Racers stats, plus all our findings from the Shell visit at Silverstone. The live show can be replayed here, or you can tune into the podcast version here.

That’ll do it for now. I’ll be tuned in to the tennis all day, so if anyone else is watching, please join me in a spot of live commenting the Wimbledon action. Feel free to ignore the tennis-shaped talk if you like, though, and discuss anything that comes to mind. I’ll see you in the comments.

It is Sunday. Mr C and I enjoyed a nice day off from Sidepodcast yesterday, which involved watching the tennis, blogging a bit, catching up on RSS feeds, and commenting. Okay, technically not going completely cold turkey but we have already established that isn’t possible. Here are some of the things going on at the moment:

• Ollie has written a fantastic guide to Goodwood. The Festival of Speed is next weekend, and if you’ve never been before there are plenty of handy tips and some invaluable advice to help you along your way.
• There are plans for a new Sidepodmeetup afoot on the wiki. This time heading to a new Continent, Bassano and Journeyer are heading up the plans to meet in a completely different timezone to us. If you’re around and about for the as yet unconfirmed meet, please visit the wiki and sign up.
• This has nothing to do with F1 at all, but I wrote a post earlier about my top five favourite modern Doctor Who episodes, and Lukeh was inspired to write his own thoughts on the up to date Who series’. Please let us know your thoughts if you’re a fan, because we’re really missing the series this year.

There will be a show later on today, probably starting about 6pm, although we are not confirmed on that time yet. We did enjoy starting later last week because the show was out before the day was done, but it is a bit of a wrench being ready for 6. Stay tuned though, and we’ll let you know asap. See you in the comments.

It’s the weekend! It’s been a long old week (aren’t they all?) and I don’t know about you but I am looking forward to some downtime. Whilst there is no racing for a couple of weeks, I’m pretty sure there’ll be enough F1 nonsense to keep us going. Meanwhile, the blogs have been particularly active.

• Not content with setting up one new blog, Nick has only gone and added another to his lineup. With the politics side of things a particularly serious topic, Nick’s turned his attention to all things satirical with: Not the F1 News.
• When Shell invited us to join them for Friday Free Practice at Silverstone, we were glad to find we weren’t the only bloggers/podcasters in attendance. We had a good chat with F1 Punter, who in turn made the most of his day and has now done a sterling job of writing up his fuel findings.
• In last week’s show we mentioned that we bumped into Fraggle in the SRC building, but according to her Flickr photos, we were the least interesting people she met. There’s Jackie Stewart and Heikki Kovalainen (sorry Amy!) plus many more. Take a look.

As ever, let us know what you’re up to this weekend, if it’s anything exciting, and equally if it is not. I will see you in the comments.

It was all going much too well, and then Max came along and ruined it. It was bound to happen on Thursday, because that is never a good day, and now we are left with the repurcussions once more. Bah. Instead, I will talk about other things going on in F1:

• There’s a lot of talk about iPhone apps at the moment, with the official F1 in high demand, and a new Red Bull one as well. James has a quick rundown of what to expect, and we’ll be doing a review of the F1 app shortly. Stay tuned for that.
• McLaren have said that it was simply a matter of circumstance that saw the KERS initiative fail. Whitmarsh said the concept was good, but the timing was just a little off. It seems as though the system is officially dead to F1.
• We saw a prime example of reporting going wrong yesterday when it was rumoured that the Nurburgring would be naming a grandstand after Vettel. As it turns out, it’s a Red Bull package, with fans paying a price to get a special Red Bull themed weekend, hence the name of the grandstand, plus a “free” hat and things like that.

That’s all for now. I think we have moved beyond the capabilities of the happy place, and therefore, I will see you in the comments. Maybe.