You’re listening to Sidepodcast, and this is the latest mini-series: Forgotten F1 Teams. I think it’s probably self explanatory but this is a series dedicated to profiling some of the forgotten teams. Forget about your Ferrari’s and your McLaren’s, what about those who didn’t make such an impact on the sport, but still have a story to tell? Those are the ones you’ll hear today. Thanks should go to Scott Woodwiss for suggesting the topic, and the teams, and we’ll dive right in with Simtek Grand Prix.
Simtek Grand Prix was born from Simtek Research Ltd, the name standing for Simulation Technology. The company founders were Nick Wirth and Max Mosley, both of whom had serious pedigree within motorsport. Mosley had been a team owner before with March, and Wirth was a mechanical engineering student who was snapped up by March as an aerodynamicist, working underneath Adrian Newey. When March was sold to Leyton House, Mosley and Wirth? both decided to leave, and joined forces to create Simtek. Originally, the company had a single office in Wirth’s house, but it was soon obvious they needed a bigger, more wind-tunnel shaped base, which they built in Oxfordshire.
Mosley had the connections that meant racing teams from all over the globe were interested in using their research technologies, but while keeping the clients satisfied, Simtek began designing an F1 car for BMW in secret. The plan never came to fruition, however, and BMW delayed entry to the sport.
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.
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.
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.
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.
With the Mosley scandal continuing without an end in sight, it’s nice to have a bit of racing to take our minds off it. Here we catch up with all the news from Bahrain, and a bit about Max as well.
Intro
Too much to talk about, must get on.
Good Week / Bad Week
Good week for ticket sales and Toro Rosso, and a bad week for Hamilton and Vettel for two very different reasons.
News and Views
Ron Dennis is the keynote speaker at the Motorsport Business Forum in Bahrain, Ferrari may or may not have a new nose cone on the way, and yes, we discuss the latest in the Max story.
Ah, finally a breather between races, but the controversy never ends. Catch up with the latest news and gossip with Episode 58.
Intro
Unfortunately, the Chain has gone, but it may be back, we’ll see.
Good Week / Bad Week
Good week for Jean Todt and money, and a bad week for Renault and pretty much everyone else.
News and Views
Force India have to use the lesser of two roads, McLaren have been forced to the back of the Bahrain pit lane, Massa and a lot of other people are unhappy with qualifying, despite tweaks, and er, there’s FIA presidency news.
Martin Brundle has stepped up to the plate and showed he’s not willing to sit quietly while the FIA take yet more liberties as motorsport’s governing body.
Following on from the FIA’s plans to begin libel action against The Sunday Times, Martin responded in his column with this declaration:
I’m tired of what I perceive as the “spin” and tactics of the FIA press office, as are many other journalists.
It’s been rumoured for a while that accredited F1 writers have felt unable to voice their opinions on key decisions, for fear that their paddock passes (and by association, their livelihoods) will be revoked or denied. This issue stems from the fact that the federation have control over who qualifies for passes and who doesn’t. You can read the official accreditation guidelines on their web site, but what the guidelines won’t tell you is who gets the final say on approvals.
Common sense suggests that in the interest of democracy, the process of allocating such passes should be handled by an autonomous body, one without any vested interests or axes to grind.
Going back to Martin’s column, one further quote that really concerned me was this nugget of information (emphasis mine):
I expect my accreditation pass for next year will be hindered in some way to make my coverage of F1 more difficult and to punish me. Or they will write to ITV again to say that my commentary is not up to standard.
For me, that line is the most revealing part of the article because it hints that the FIA’s desire to control and filter the way F1 is reported goes far beyond this simple lawsuit. Suggestions that the motorsport federation directly contact media outlets to deride their staff is bloody frightening.
For years we’ve assumed that ITV commentator James Allen managed to survive in his position because he’s the perfect foil to calm unhappy housewives when another minor-crisis-soap-opera gets delayed due to “those noisy racing cars”. It had never crossed our minds that the sports governing body may actually be encouraging ITV to keep the guy, because he poses no threat, has no opinion and offers no criticism. He is a safe pair of hands to paper over the political shenanigans and underhand tactics the world need not see.
Let me ask any ITV viewers out there, when was the last time that you thought Martin Brundle’s commentary was not up to standard? Think about it for a bit, because in a year that has been dominated by British media obsessing over Hamilton’s debut, Martin has for me remained the only person worth listening to on a Sunday afternoon. The only voice of reason in a sea of overbearing and suffocating obsession.
Earlier this year Sidepodcast was afforded the opportunity of Martin’s company at the GPLive event, where we were treated to almost an hours worth of racing anecdotes, knowledge and insight. If you have any doubt about the commitment that this man has to Formula 1, and the quality of his journalism then please listen to him and watch him in action. I defy anyone to question that man’s ability.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation owns the Times of London, who, let’s not forget, are now the world’s largest media organisation. They, more than anyone, are used to doing battle with rogue states and authoritarian dictators who are keen to restrict democracy by manipulating the media to push their own propaganda. Some two-bit motorsport federation will be no problem for Newscorp.
I do however think it will be an issue for ITV.
The British broadcaster have, on more than one occasion, shown themselves to have the backbone of an anaconda. They will likely freak at the idea of employing a potentially libellous commentator and we will all suffer as a result.
The ‘FIA sues newspaper’ story isn’t just about free speech, it’s not even about exercising media control any more. It is about a supposedly neutral organisation actively trying to manipulate how the sport over which they preside gets covered by the media.
That it got this far is troublesome. That it should continue is unthinkable.
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.
Welcome to the second episode of Sidepodcast’s latest series – Days That Shook The F1 World. Yesterday we looked at the US Grand Prix in 2005, and today we’ll focus on another earth-shattering day in F1 History. This time it’s May 1st 1994.
Formula 1 is synonymous with the warning: “Motorsport is dangerous.”
And it is, although it used to be a lot worse.
Sir Jackie Stewart’s autobiography talks about a period in his racing career where he lost over 50 friends and colleagues in ten years. In the 50s and 60s, a serious crash in racing meant terrible injuries or death. And the trend continued until 1994 when the death of Ayrton Senna put F1 safety on the front page.
Senna was a legend, a hero, a proper champion. He didn’t always do things by the book, but he was one of life’s good guys. He took the usual route to F1, through karting and Formula 3, then dominated Formula 1 for the ten years he participated. With many wins and three championships already under his belt, Senna started the 1994 season badly. He’d recently made the switch to Williams but the Renault powered car was a bit of a handful and he retired for the first couple of races of the season.Arriving for the third race at Imola, Senna was hoping for some good luck.
On Friday, Rubens Barrichello was seriously injured and hospitalised, preventing him from completing the race weekend. Ayrton Senna was his mentor, and visiting his friend in hospital shook his confidence in the safety standards at the track quite considerably.
On Saturday, Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger was killed during a practice session. Senna began to question his involvement in the sport, but spent Sunday morning organising the recreation of the Driver’s Safety group and offering to take the lead role within the group.
Despite his misgivings, Senna’s racing blood took over and he started the race from pole position. A safety car slowed the cars down for 6 laps, after a start line accident, and then on the 7th lap, Senna went off track at almost 200 mph, and crashed into a concrete barrier. Although it was a high speed crash, it didn’t look like the devastating crashes the sport had previously seen. However, Senna was motionless in the cockpit, until medical attention arrived. He was airlifted to hospital but pronounced dead.
Several questions were raised about the incident itself, including why it took the medical staff so long to reach the car. Marshalls were on the scene instantly, but could only wave their yellow and red flags to stop the passing cars, they were not allowed to go near the car itself. It looked terrible, with many people standing around whilst Senna remained in the car.
There are also questions about why Senna wasn’t pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, rather than being airlifted away during resuscitation procedures. Italian rules declared a death at the track would result in an investigation and the sporting event to be cancelled.
Whilst questions remained, Senna was given a state funeral and the world mourned. Books have been written about him, songs reference him, and charity events take place in his name. His most important legacy though, is the improvement of safety in the sport.
There had been several attempts to tighten up safety procedures over the years, but with such an awful weekend as that fateful one in Imola, Max Mosley decided enough was enough and things had to change. New introductions included the HANS device, higher cockpit sides, sturdier chassis’, and that was just on the cars. Better tyre walls and gravel traps were also put in place. It’s no coincidence that there hasn’t been a death in Formula 1 racing since 1994.
Thank you for listening to Days That Shook the F1 World. Visit Sidepodcast.com to leave your comments, and don’t forget to join me tomorrow for our third important date.
That’s our first topic covered, a day that really did unsettle F1 to its very foundations. Join me again tomorrow for part two, featuring another day that shook the F1 World.
