Sidepodcast

There seems to be some demand for live commenting the Bathurst event, and we aim to please. Jeremy has been really kind and supplied an introduction to the event, because we know very little. If you’re watching any of the racing, then feel free to use the Live Commenting Live… Thing to it’s best abilities.

Mt Panorama, Bathurst. New South Wales. A few hours drive west of Sydney, this 6. 2 km track with the almost 2 km long ‘Conrod’ straight, is known worldwide. The cars take roughly 6 hours to cover 161 laps. For touring cars, (’V8 Supercars’ in Australia) this is a long race.

As with all forms of racing, there will always be a difference between the top teams, and the rest. Even though V8 Supercars is a parity formula, with the cars resembling their road going counterparts in body shape only, the factory (GM) Holden and Ford teams usually lead the way. The exciting thing is, there are a lot of teams setting times within a few tenths of pole position.

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• File: Episode56.m4a
• Length: 32:54
• Size: 30.4 MB
• Transcript: episode56.pdf

What a race! Absolutely incredible start to the season, and as ever, we have plenty to say about the winners and losers of the weekend.

Intro

A podcast of two halves, it’s difficult to explain.

Good Week / Bad Week

It’s a good week for teams and their debut’s, Super Aguri make it to Australia, whilst Toro Rosso will be getting their new car. It’s a bad week for a couple of the drivers in McLaren and Red Bull.

News and Views

A quick catch up with Trulli’s mood, the future of the Australian Grand Prix, and Patrick Head’s “crazy” idea for reversing the grids. Also, did Pedro de la Rosa join the GPDA for something to do?

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• Length: 8:23 
• Size: 7.8 MB 
• File: digest4.mp3 
• Transcript: digest4.pdf 
• Torrent: digest4.torrent 

What a race to start off with! F1 Digest brings you all the details from an incident packed Sunday in Australia, including your comments and the team conclusions.

The Race

We all knew that the regulation changes would lead to a few more driver incidents, but who could have imagined that there would only be seven drivers left at the end of the 58 laps?

Conclusions

A dream start for McLaren, BMW and Williams, whilst Ferrari and pretty much everyone else had the worst possible season opener imaginable. Everyone is now sweeping Australia under the carpet and looking forward to Malaysia.

• Length: 7:41 
• Size: 7.1 MB 
• File: digest3.mp3 
• Transcript: digest3.pdf 
• Torrent: digest3.torrent 

The third show of our Australia coverage features all the action from Free Practice and Qualifying, your comments, and a roundup of what to expect for the race.

Free Practice 3

A shorter practice session, with hotter weather, and even more slippery track conditions. Towards the end of the session, the temperature spiked, seeing some unusual results.

Qualifying

The new style qualifying is similar to the old, but heralded bad luck for Raikkonen and Webber, and good luck for Hamilton and Kubica.

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• Length: 4:58 
• Size: 4.6 MB 
• File: digest2.mp3 
• Transcript: digest2.pdf 
• Torrent: digest2.torrent 

The first two official sessions of the 2008 season have taken place, and F1 Digest will run you through the important moments of each. Plus, a little bit of feedback and some driver conclusions.

Free Practice 1

Some race debuts for the rookies, some mechanical issues for Williams and Red Bull, and plenty of wobbles. See more comments on FP1 here.

Free Practice 2

A really slippery track, Webber leading the way, and a couple of big spins into the gravel from Massa and Trulli. See more comments on FP2 here.

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Something new we’ll try today, as suggested by Lou is a live comment / chat thread throughout free practice.

Lord knows if many people are planning to stay up for one or both sessions today and there’s probably a whole bunch of fabulous things we could do to make this better, easier, faster or whatever… but who’s interested in forward planning, eh?

We’ll post times, thoughts, and opinions live in the comments as the session progresses and feel free to join in the fun any time!

Oh, and try not to fall asleep, eh?

• Length: 6:03 
• Size: 5.6 MB 
• File: digest1.mp3 
• Transcript: digest1.pdf 
• Torrent: digest1.torrent 

Kicking off the brand new season, with a brand new show from Sidepodcast, F1 Digest brings you full coverage of the race weekend. Today’s show is the Australia Preview.

Vital Statistics

• Date: 16th March
• Circuit: Albert Park
• Length: 5.3km
• Laps: 58
• 2007 Winner: Kimi Raikkonen

Preview

Discussing the battle at the top of the grid, Heidfeld’s predictions and BMW’s baggage. We talk Bridgestone’s tyre choices and the effect the circuit will have on them. Plus, it’s only fair to look at the tail end of the grid as well, Force India and Super Aguri’s challenges on this first race.

• Length: 05:16 
• Size: 60.2 MB 
• File: track1.m4v 
• Transcript: track1.pdf 
• Torrent: track1.torrent 
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Make sure you’re up to speed for the first race of the 2008 Formula 1 season with this race preview from Sidepodcast.

Get the full run down on who’s driving where this year, catch up with Toyota’s new signing Timo Glock and find out what he thinks of the Melbourne circuit. Look back at what happened during last year’s event and how it affected this season’s regulations before taking a complete lap around Albert Park.

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We all like to make predictions, don’t we? I know I do, and I love to find out what other people think too.

Before the 2008 Formula 1 season gets underway, I really want to hear your predictions for the finishing order of the first race. I’m so keen, in fact, that I’m trying to make it really easy for you.

As mentioned on this week’s show, we have a free voicemail facility idly awaiting your call and I’ve even written you a script. It goes something like this:

Hi, I’m… [your name] and my predictions for the top three finishers in Australia are:

• 3rd place… [driver name]
• 2nd place… [driver name]
• 1st place… [driver name]

So all you have to do is figure out who it’ll be!

Here’s one I made earlier:

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