Sidepodcast

Max won his vote of confidence and upset a lot of people along the way. I suspect the majority of us are disappointed, if only because it would have been great to see what happened without him. I was not at all happy with the result of the vote, but it didn’t take long to come to the conclusion that he’s never going anywhere, so we may as well make the best of it.

It’s been two weeks now, since he was re-voted. And have you caught a glimpse of him recently?

You can understand why he kept a low profile before the extraordinary meeting. Aside from the fact that no one wanted to be seen with him, he was probably doing his best to stay out of the papers as much as possible. It didn’t work, but he kept his job. Now, however, is he still trying to keep that low profile? Did he not hear the criticism of him not being able to do his job properly?

If it was me, and granted, I’ve never been in that situation (!) then I would be grabbing the bull by the horns and ramping up my efforts as head of the FIA. I would turn up at the MSA/McLaren launch and say Go Motorsport is the best idea since sliced bread. I would be near the podium at Le Mans clapping and cheering and saying what a triumph the event is. I would be shooting Bernie Ecclestone down (again) and saying there is no threat of a breakway.

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I tend to judge how important a Formula 1 story is in the context of the wider world, by whether or not Fast Lane Daily make mention of it.

The show goes out five days a week and features lots of motoring related news, but it’s based in the States so F1 rarely gets a look in… unless of course it’s big news. Today’s FIA vote predictably was the lead story.

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Max Mosley secured 103 votes of confidence this morning in Paris, ensuring he’s able to stay on as the President of the FIA.

In what turned out to be a surprisingly short meeting (at least by the federation’s standards), 158 votes were cast in a secret ballot after hearing from 15 delegates.

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• File: episode64.m4a
• Length: 24:12
• Size: 22.1 MB
• Transcript: Coming soon

Yes, this one is all about Max, but it’s worth sticking around to be fully prepared for the EGM on Tuesday, and there’s a Feedback treat at the end of the show.

Intro

It’s all about Max.

Good Week / Bad Week

It’s been a good week for Max, and a bad week for Max.

News and Views

The Max Mosley timeline, and what we think is going to happen. Hmm. It really is all about Max.

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There are a few not very widely promoted suggestions that Ferrari’s win in Malaysia may have been one of those team order affairs. According to this story on Formula 1 Sport, Gary Anderson – a grand prix car designer – believes that Raikkonen being able to leapfrog Massa had been planned from the start.

Now, I don’t know who Gary Anderson is, whether he is a respected voice in the sport of not, but I can say I’m not a fan of this conspiracy theory. And I am a fan of a lot of conspiracy theories.

I believe that Kimi Raikkonen is just that good, and Massa is not. Given the evidence of previous GPs, this isn’t exactly a stretch to believe, is it?

The reason this story is getting my attention, however, is because when Stefano Domenicali was accepting his trophy on the Malaysian podium, I turned to “me” and said: “I don’t know when it happened, but I don’t feel the same animosity towards Ferrari. It doesn’t feel tainted.”

When I first started watching F1, and watching should be in quotes, because I couldn’t tell you a thing about it back then, it was Michael Schumacher this and Michael Schumacher that. Questionable wins here, dodgy tactics there.

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Last year, a driver was only supposed to use one engine for two races. If his engine blew up and he needed a fresh one, a penalty was imposed. Personally, I found it quite hard to keep up with this. Was the driver on his first or second race with his engine? Would he be forced to back off in the closing stages, coasting to a points finish? Was he more or less likely to break down this time around? Is it a penalty, or did the problem occur in transit?

I tried to keep a record, but in the end, I didn’t feel it mattered that much. At the beginning of every race, ITV commentator James Allen would explain the ruling to us anyway, point out anyone affected, and Martin Brundle would pick up on those who were managing their engines.

This year, however, it’s all gone a little bit crazy. Now we have to keep an eye on the engine and the gearbox. We need to remember who is going back ten places and who only five. We need to count two rounds for the engines and four for the gearboxes. And worst of all, the first engine breakdown is a freebie, no penalty at all.

The FIA say they will monitor the first engine breakdown and make sure it is a genuine failure. I don’t see why. If a team wanted to waste their freebie on switching an engine just because they feel like it, that’s their choice. When one does break down, they’ll wish they hadn’t.

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If Prodrive ever do make it to the grid, there will be another very fierce rivalry to cope with. Not only will we have McLaren vs Ferrari, and Alonso vs. The World, we will have to contend with Prodrive vs. Williams.

David Richards has had a bit of a rant about Williams, upset that they played such an integral role in blocking his 2008 F1 entry. He’s called them outdated, and financially unstable, and my favourite quote of all:

“It’s run by people who want to go motor racing, not by people who want to run a business.”

Because that is so outrageous, you know, people in motor sport actually wanting to race!

Seriously though, we all know that it wasn’t completely Williams fault – they threatened legal action if the team entered, but they couldn’t have actually done anything to stop the team participating. The real issues lie, as all of them seem to do, with the Concorde Agreement. Or perhaps, with the lack of a Concorde Agreement.

Without this, it’s almost impossible to plan ahead, to secure sponsors, and therefore, get your entry together.

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If the FIA ran football, so the saying goes, we’d have square balls and round pitches.

Yesterday’s announcement regarding the FIA’s revised plans for Formula One race stewards didn’t come as much of a surprise, given that grandprix.com highlighted the expected change over a week ago.

The new plan is to bring three random stewards to each race, plus Max’s right hand man, Alan Donnelly. Last year’s permanent steward Tony Scott Andrews has stepped down from his role, so the consistency that a regular face brought to the table has now been nullified.

Strangely this new structure is supposed to speed up the decision making process, although one fails to see how it could? A cynic might suggest that the introduction of Donnelly is just another way for Max to exert yet more control over the sport.

As grandprix.com points out, Donnelly isn’t exactly a model of impartiality either. His company Sovereign Strategy currently list Formula One Management Ltd as a client. It’s not hard to imagine the sport’s commercial interests being taken into consideration when looking at future rule infringements. Would last year’s embarrassing ‘cool fuel’ episode have gone as far as it did if Donnelly had any say in the matter?

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• File: Episode48.m4a
• Length: 18:09
• Size: 16.6 MB
• Transcript: Episode48.pdf

This episode brings you up to date with the most recent launches, plus discussion of some of the more controversial rule change suggestions, all with an irritating helping of sampling fun.

Intro

The new keyboard, what it does and why he loves it.

Good Week / Bad Week

This week has been good for the environment, and for Hamilton’s long term future, whilst his and ITV’s bank balance look set to suffer from a bad week.

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• File: Episode46.m4a
• Length: 23:02
• Size: 21.4 MB
• Transcript: Episode46.pdf

A welcome return for the audio half of Sidepodcast, this first show of 2008 covers some of the news stories that have cropped up over the holiday period. We also introduce a couple of new segments to the show, and as ever, solicit some feedback.

Intro

Mobile phone fun, as the new theme tune is uncovered in grand, theatrical style. Or not.

Good Week / Bad Week

A new part of the show, featuring some of the shorter news items of recent days. This week featuring Super Aguri, Toyota and Autosport International. I’ll leave you to guess who fits in which category.

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