Sidepodcast

• Length: 3:17 
• Size: 3.1 MB 
• File: day7.mp3 
• Transcript: day7.pdf 
• Torrent: day7.torrent 

Welcome to Sidepodcast’s series Days that Shook the F1 World. So far we’ve looked at the US Grand Prix in 2005, Ayrton Senna’s death in 1994 and more. Today we’re looking at a pivotal moment in Formula 1 history, and the date was 9th October 1991.

It’s fair to say that Max Mosley is not the most popular person in F1 at the moment, and his tenure at the top of the FIA may soon be drawing to a close. However, when he first got the job back in 1991, he was definitely the preferred option.

It was the events of the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix and the subsequent fallout that first promoted Max to stand against the then president of the FISA Jean-Marie Balestre. The FISA was the sporting part of the FIA, and they were suffering from a case of bad reputations. Already we have discussed the lacklustre attempt at banning ground effects, which ultimately led to more accidents and deaths.

In Japan, an accident between Senna and Prost caused the Brazillian to be excluded from the race, handing the ’89 World Championship to Prost. Further to that, an appeal by McLaren served to see Ayrton’s super-license suspended and he was given a fine for $100,000. Predictably Senna spoke out about the decision and his comments claimed championship manipulation by the FISA. This angered Balestre, so much so that Senna was called before the World Motorsport Council to explain himself. The courts decided to take away Senna’s superlicence altogether, and he wasn’t going to be allowed it back unless he apologised for his comments.

The following February, Senna was finally persuaded to make the apology and his licence was returned. Max Mosley started to solicit support to become the FIA President. Although this obviously had something to do with the incident with Senna, it may also have had origins in the history between Mosley and Balestre. A vicious war had been raging between the FISA and the FOCA.

The FOCA was headed up by Bernie Ecclestone with Max Mosley as his right hand man. They were working on the team’s behalf to increase revenue share and make sure that everyone had their say. The FISA was fighting against them.

Eventually, the war drew to a somewhat amicable resolution, with Balestre taking over as President of the FIA and continuing to make the rules for Formula 1, whilst Ecclestone took over the commercial rights for the sport and divied up the cash.

In 1991, Balestre’s FIA presidency was up for renewal, and Max Mosley stood against him. Mosley easily gained the presidency. For a while, teams were satisfied. Max was working with them instead of against them, rule changes began to happen and everything was hunky dory. Teams and drivers felt so comfortable that Senna was able to speak out against the former President without fear of losing his licence. He denied making any apologies about the manipulation claims.

Of course, the happiness couldn’t last, and you’ll find politics rearing up almost every day now. But it’s safe to say that at the time, Mosley was the best thing that could have happened to the sport.

That’s all for this episode of Days that Shook the F1 World, and all for this series. Please visit Sidepodcast.com to leave your comments about this and any of the other shows in the series. Thanks for listening.

Theme music: Dylan in the Movies, Better Days and Causeway, Change in My Lifetime.

• File: People6.mp3
• Length: 04:03
• Size: 3.7 MB
• Transcript: People6.pdf

Hello and welcome to the fourth episode of F1 People. This short series from Sidepodcast offers a biography of some important figures in Formula 1. This episode is about Frank Williams.

Francis Owen GarbattWilliams was born April 16, 1942. His father was an RAF officer and his mother a teacher, and headmistress. Their marriage broke down, however, and Frank was brought up by an aunt, and sent off to boarding school in Scotland.

After school, he worked as a travelling grocery salesman to fund his racing activities – a passion grown from rides in a friend’s Jaguar. In 1961, he began racing his own Austin car, and met Jonathan Williams, another racing driver. They moved to London and shared a flat, together with another young driver Piers Courage. Frank could not afford to keep his racing career alive, so he became Jonathan’s mechanic instead. Together they took part in Formula Junior events and moved on to Formula 3. Frank tried to revive his driving career within Formula 3, but by the end of 1966 he had retired with the idea of starting his own business.

Frank Williams Racing Cars was born. In 1967, he purchased an old Brabham chassis and entered a race at Brands Hatch as a team owner. He entered Formula 2 and F3 with moderate success, and he used the same tactics to move into Formula 1. He gave a race drive to his old friend Piers Courage, Piers died in 1970 at the Dutch Grand Prix. In 1972, Williams expanded his F1 team to running two cars, for Henri Pescarolo and Carlos Pace. In July, the team introduced their first constructor car, but Pescarolo crashed it on its very first appearance.

Frank struggled for sponsorship and money for the next few years, and was forced to take backing from Walter Wolf in 1976. The oil tycoon began to rule over the team, so Frank took his best engineer Patrick Head and left. They formed Williams Grand Prix Engineering.

Again, they purchased a March chassis while building up the car, and by 1979, Williams was running two FW cars. Clay Regazzoni took the FW07 that year and won their first victory at Silverstone. More wins followed, despite driver squabbles, and in 1982, Keke Rosberg brought Williams their first World Championship.

In March, 1986, Frank and colleague Peter Windsor were travelling from the Paul Ricard circuit in France to the airport, and they were involved in a car accident. Windsor escaped with minor injuries, but Williams, who was driving, was paralysed and has been in a wheelchair ever since.

The team gained engine support from Honda, and the Williams-Honda cars were strong in both 1986 and 1987, featuring Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell as their drivers. In 1988 Honda left them for McLaren, and after a year with an inferior engine, they returned as Williams-Renault for 1989. This partnership saw a couple of World Championships in the early 90s, but the success was marred by the death of Ayrton Senna. Frank’s desk is adorned by a black and white photo of Piers Courage and one of Ayrton Senna – the only two drivers to have died in Williams cars.

Williams continued to win championships, and be competitive, and many put this down to Frank’s hard-working but humble nature. He asks everyone within the team to call him by his first name, and he invokes a kind of loyalty in his staff that has seen some of them work for him for 30 years or more. After the Ferrari domination began in the late 90s, Williams slipped down the grid somewhat. These days, they are a high profile team, but continue to struggle for pace, loitering in the mid-section of the grid.

Frank was awarded a CBE in 1987, and became a Sir in 1999. He is also one of the few non-French people to win the prestigious Legion D’Honneur for his success with the Renault team.

Frank is very proud of the fact he owns the only truly independent team left – a team who exist solely to race in Formula 1.

That’s everything you need to know about Frank Williams. Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow for the last episode of F1 People.

Theme music: Natives of the New Dawn, People.

• Length: 06:34 
• Size: 74.2 MB 
• File: video19.m4v 
• Transcript: video19.pdf 
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The drivers’ championship is heading to a climax, and it could all be over this weekend. Join Christine as she takes a look at the penultimate race of the 2007 season.

With long straights and tight turns, this is a particularly technical track, and one which requires more than its fair share of aero efficiency. Cars will be running with a high level of wing, while braking stability is of paramount importance.

With many teams already focusing efforts on their 2008 challengers, could this be a chance for smaller teams to shine?

Music played: Steve Doctor, South China Sea

Music comes from music.podshow.com, with special thanks going to Allianz SE, Brembo, Toyota Motorsports GmbH, ING Group and RTV GmbH for the use of their video footage and images.

• Length: 3:38 
• Size: 3.4 MB 
• File: history2.mp3 
• Transcript: history2.pdf 
• Torrent: history2.torrent 

Welcome to Sidepodcast’s History of F1. On the last episode, we looked at the years leading up to the beginning of the Formula 1 World Championship, including French road races, and participation in the Indy 500. Now we can move on to the 1950s, when the official Championship began and records started to be kept, and broken.

After the Second World War, the FIA initiated the World Championship. The new sport was called Formula A, but would change to Formula 1 pretty soon afterwards. The minimum race distance was changed, having been 500km originally, but reduced to 300km. This meant that more tracks were eligible to host GP events and in 1950, the first championship race took place at Silverstone. The first race of the new F1 World Championship was the British Grand Prix and was won by Giuseppe Farina. He went on to add Belgian, Italian and Swiss races to his list and beat Juan Manuel Fangio to take the World Championship title.

The driving style of most championship contenders was to be hunched up behind the while, ultimately uncomfortable, and struggling to keep control of the car. The new Champion Farina brought about a new style, with outstretched arms, so that he looked very cool and relaxed as he took his crown. This driving position took off and soon everyone had relaxed their driving style to match Farina’s.

Although Juan Manuel Fangio lost out on his first attempt at the World Championship, he didn’t give up and soon became the most successful driver of the 50s. He won five titles with five different manufacturers, which is a mighty achievement. One of his moves came after a horrific accident at Le Mans. The 24 hour race, that continues to be popular to this day, took place in 1955 as it always did. But it ended with an awful crash that left upwards of 80 people dead. Fangio was lucky to escape, and his team thought it best to call it a day. That team was Mercedes, and they obviously changed their minds at some point through the years.

One of Fangio’s biggest rival was Sir Stirling Moss, a driver who always seemed to finish behind his nemesis. In fact, Moss is renowned as the best driver who never managed to win a championship. He is also loved for being a British driver in a British car, especially when he won the British Grand Prix in 1955. Accidents plagued his career though, and the early 60s saw him break both his legs. Moss retired after a few more years of struggling, and no championship title.

Moss was held off the title in 1958 by another British driver Mike Hawthorn. Driving a Ferrari, Hawthorn managed to beat his fellow countryman who was struggling in his Vanwall. The politics within Formula 1 and within Ferrari itself made Hawthorn very uncomfortable though, and he was upset enough to retire at the end of the year. Tragically, only a few months after his departure from the racetrack, Hawthorn was killed in a road accident.

Britain really was seen as the home of motorsport, despite the early origins in mid Europe . More and more British drivers entered the races, with more and more British engineers helping them along the way. By the 1960s, British Racing Green, was soon “adopted” as the Official colour of Formula 1, due to the number of teams racing under the dark green colour.

That’s all for the second episode of Sidepodcast’s History of F1. On the next show we’ll zip forward to the 1960s, where drivers competitiveness really began to take hold.

Theme music: Friction Bailey, Hope in my History.

• Length: 08:43 
• Size: 97.9 MB 
• File: video9.m4v 
• Transcript: video9.pdf 
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As the British Grand Prix is Sidepodcast’s home race, we’ve pulled out all the stops to bring you the best F1 preview video to date.

First up, we’ve got exclusive footage from the recent test at Silverstone, where 9 of the 11 teams turned up to spend 3 days blasting around the English countryside. We also take a behind-the-scenes look at how mainstream television works with Formula 1 teams to bring fans closer to the action, when ex-drivers-turned-commentators Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell take to the Northamptonshire track in a pair of Williams F1 cars.

Additionally we have our usual fast lap around the circuit, this time Christine takes you around classic corners such as Copse and Becketts, names steeped in Grand Prix history - they don’t build ‘em like the used too. Finally we look back at last weeks French GP and check how the two championships are stacking up as we reach the halfway point of the 2007 season.

It’s an action packed show!

Music played:

Noodlebox, Like You
Kelvin Declined, 42

Music comes from music.podshow.com, with special thanks going to Allianz SE, ITV PLC, Locog and RTV GmbH, for the use of their video footage.

• Length: 3:26 
• Size: 3.2 MB 
• File: guide1.mp3 
• Transcript: guide1.pdf 
• Torrent: guide1.torrent 

Welcome to the Sidepodcast Guide to Formula 1. This series is aimed at complete newbies to Formula 1, people who have never seen a race, or who had no idea what was happening when they did watch one. Trust me, I went through a year of watching every race without knowing who was who or why they were doing what they were doing. I know what you’re going through. Once I made the decision to figure it all out though, it wasn’t long before things started to click into place. And now I want to help you have the same experience.

So let’s start at the very beginning and take a look at where Formula 1 fits in the world.

In the early 1900s, F1 began with rickety cars and older gentleman drivers, but the actual F1 Championship didn’t begin until the 1950s. As the decades passed and the Championship developed, it soon became clear that Formula 1 was the pinnacle of motorsport. The cars were the fastest, the technology was the most advanced and the drivers were at the peak of their fitness coming from countries all across the world.

With the introduction of sponsorship, F1 took on its more commercial form and can now be considered big business – with figures reaching millions and billions with ease. With big business comes politics and sometimes it’s who you know and how much money you have that gets you what you want. F1 is riddled with conspiracy theorists – I will admit to being one of them – but depending on how immersed you want to get in the Formula 1 world, that side of things is easily ignored.

What really matters is what happens on the track.

Travelling across the globe for about eight months of the year, Formula 1 visits countries large and small, rich and not-quite-so-rich, with colourful backdrops, glamorous visitors and plenty of local culture to be soaked up. Covering Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a Formula 1 weekend is an intense ride, from early testing, to the closing laps of the race.

The basic structure features a race every fortnight. Sometimes the calendar is played with a little bit and there are races on back-to-back weekends, or sometimes you have to go a few weeks before seeing the familiar faces again. Once it is time for another race, you can monitor the news for your favourite team as they arrive at the destination. I’ll get into the details of the weekend another time, but in brief, Friday involves practice sessions, Saturday is for qualifying and Sunday is race day. Then there is just time to digest the events of the weekend and catch up with all the press releases, before the teams are moving off to their next destination.

I won’t lie and tell you there is never a dull moment in Formula 1. Being a fan is a frustrating business. The winter months can pass with no news whatsoever, and unless there is a race on that week, there’s very little to keep you occupied. You have to be dedicated to find news that will keep you interested when nothing is going on. The races themselves are also quite sporadic. You can be leaping with excitement during the frantic action of the pit stops, and then there can be many laps just watching the traffic go by.

But when you catch that fantastic overtaking move, or end up on the edge of your seat to see who comes out on top, it is absolutely, 100% worth it.

I think that’s enough for our introduction – join me next time for a more in depth look at the race weekend.

Theme music: Cedar Falls, Car Crash.