Sidepodcast

It’s a rollercoaster ride for Formula 1 drivers at the moment, especially for those who are teetering on the brink of expulsion from their teams. We already know Heidfeld is being observed closely, and with the Alonso-to-BMW rumours getting stronger, he’s probably quite worried right now. Bourdais is also under scrutiny, having been told to shine just that little bit more.

Le Seb has hit back, though, and said to his team that there’s no point keeping him if they think he’s going to adapt to a car that he doesn’t like and isn’t working.

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• Length: 3:34 
• Size: 3.3 MB 
• File: history1.mp3 
• Transcript: history1.pdf 
• Torrent: history1.torrent 

Welcome to Sidepodcast’s History of F1. This series will take us back to the beginning of the 20th century, when Formula 1 was all about honour, it was a gentleman’s sport, and it mostly involved getting to the end of the road without falling in a pothole. We’ll travel through time (not literally, of course), to see how Formula 1 became the corporate and money-orientated sport that it is today.

The F1 championship, and all the official records, date back to the 1950s, but the essence of F1 can be traced all the way back to the early 1900s. Back then it involved heavy cars. Drivers would be accompanied by a mechanic because reliability was such a problem, and the track was just a simple road in France. I say simple, but actually, the races were long and tough. The first proper motor race was called the Paris-Bordeaux because… well, it went from Paris to Bordeaux. It was 1200km, and the winner achieved it in 48 hours. Average speeds were a rocketing 29.9 miles per hour. 1901 saw the first race with Grand Prix in the title, the French Grand Prix, taking place at Le Mans. This time they covered the 700 miles at a much speedier 63 miles per hour.

Our first important milestone occurs in 1908. Previously the cars had wheels and spokes that were permanently attached and often breaking. Now, detachable tyre rims were introduced so that mechanics could play around with them and keep their cars in the race. Shallow bunkers were built at the side of the roads, at pre-arranged places, so the drivers could pull over and allow the tyres to be changed. These were called pits. Ah… the first pit stops were now taking place. The ability to change tyres didn’t make the cars any easier on the rubber though, as the winning Mercedes of the 1908 French Grand Prix went through ten sets of tyres. Perhaps not impressive by today’s standards, but he would have been changing tyres because he had to.

During World War 1, racing was stopped in Europe, so a lot of the drivers went to the States to participate in the Indy 500. After the war, Grand Prix began to take place in both Le Mans and Lyons, with France being the main hosts for motorsport. The racing bug spread though, with Monaco and Belgium both hosting their own GPs. Notable winners were Ferrari, Mercedes, and Bugatti, all ahead of their compatriots in engineering terms.

Just before the Second World War, interest in Grand Prix racing fell to an all time low, due to the Depression and the impending war. However, the instigator of the fighting, Adolf Hitler, actually funded quite a lot of the technological development in racing, with both Audi and Mercedes benefiting from government support. Germans began to take the power of racing away from the French and the Italians, and introduced new techniques, including aerodynamic research, and special mixtures of fuel.

A legendary driver, Tazio Nuvolari from Italy, began to shine as he won everything he entered. He won the first race to feature a qualifying format – the Monaco Grand Prix in 1933 - but his greatest achievement was at the German Nurburgring in 1935, where he beat nine up to date cars with a four year old Alfa Romeo. The first Formula 1 racing superstar was born.

That’s all for our first episode of Sidepodcast’s History of F1. In the next show, we’ll have a look at the 1950s, when the official F1 championships began to take place.

Theme music: Friction Bailey, Hope in my History.

• Length: 3:29 
• Size: 3.3 MB 
• File: guide3.mp3 
• Transcript: guide3.pdf 
• Torrent: guide3.torrent 

Welcome to the Sidepodcast Guide to Formula 1.

Pit stops are a funny thing – absolutely necessary to keep the cars running for the length of the race, but ultimately a bit of an inconvenience.

The pit lane runs alongside the start/finish straight, with the entrance just before and the exit just after the line. The teams set up their garages there, with mechanics waiting to assist their team and engineers monitoring all that is happening out on track. Given the amount of people milling around the pit straight, a speed limit is imposed to try and improve safety.

The pit crew is not insubstantial. Some teams have as many as 22 people ready and waiting for each pit stop, including three on each wheel, two on the fuel rig, two with jacks, some people clearing the sidepods and the lollipop guy. In a normal racing pit stop, the car will be flagged to come into the lane via radio. It used to be that signs were held out by the pit crew over the race track, but technology has made that all but redundant. You do find the odd occasion when the radios aren’t working and someone is risking their arms out on the pit wall.

Anyway, the car comes in to the pit lane and crosses a white line signalling an immediate reduction in speed. Drivers are often penalised for speeding in the pit lane. The lollipop man will be furthest away from the garage, indicating to his car where to pull in, and the driver will pull to a stop in the marked box. Immediately, the car is jacked up so that the wheels can be changed, and it will also be refuelled, and any adjustments made to tyre pressures and wing positions.

The average pit stop is probably about 6-8 seconds, and to get through the pit stop and out in front of your opponent, you probably need a 30 second advantage.

Teams can run any combination of pit stop strategies, fuelling their cars longer to run a one-stop strategy, or keeping the weight of the car down but having to stop two or even three times. There is no limit to the number of times a car has to pit, but the size of the fuel tank dictates that they must stop at least once during a race.

Sometimes, pit stops occur more often than the race engineer planned. When a car is in trouble and can manage to get back to the pit lane, mechanics can try their best to fix it and get it back out on track, albeit further down the running order. Often a car will limp into the pits and retire, if it makes it back to the garage at all.

If a driver breaks a rule, the stewards can impose a drive-through penalty which means the car has to visit the pit lane without stopping at his garage. Because of the speed limits within the pit lane, this can be disastrous.

The sport of F1 is notoriously lacking in overtaking – when it does happen it’s usually quite an event – and so a lot of the jostling for position takes place in the pits. It can be based around strategy, but for those cars at the front of the grid, a good lead is essential. Each lap that you stay out longer than your opponent, will gain you a few seconds advantage. That’s because you will still be running light, whilst the other driver will be full of fuel and heavier. So, of course, decisions need to be made about how heavy you will run to start with, which in turn impacts on your qualifying position as well.

It’s then that you start to see what a rich tapestry the sport really is, where seemingly off-hand decisions can result in a podium position or a retirement from the race. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the pit lane.

In our fourth instalment of the Sidepodcast Guide to Formula 1, we’ll be looking at how a Formula 1 car is different to that car out in your garage.

Theme music: Cedar Falls, Car Crash.

• Length: 3:59 
• Size: 3.7 MB 
• File: guide2.mp3 
• Transcript: guide2.pdf 
• Torrent: guide2.torrent 

Welcome to the Sidepodcast Guide to Formula 1.

You’ve heard the introduction and you know what F1 is about, so now you want to sit down and watch a race. The first thing you need to do is find out when the next race is on. The calendar for each year is available a couple of months before the season starts, and is published on many different websites. The official sites have calendars and countdowns, many blogs will post about the dates to come. A quick Google search will point you in the right direction.

The coverage you get will depend on where you are in the world. Here in the UK, we get both qualifying and the race on the TV, but have to rely on the internet for all the practice and testing results as and when they happen. Of course, if all else fails, you can subscribe to Sidepodcast for race reports and all the news you need to know.

Anyway, shameless plug over, what can you expect from a race weekend?

Races usually take place every two weeks, but it seems to be getting more and more erratic, sometimes having races weekly, and then an entire month off. Once the teams have arrived at a circuit, the race weekend can really begin.

Friday practice is so called because it takes place on the Friday before the race. It consists of two sessions, both 90 minutes, and the teams can run what they want, when they want, to get a feel of the track and the conditions. It’s not always an accurate prediction of who’s going to fare well during the race, but it can give you a good idea of who’s fast and who is lagging behind. The teams like to get the fastest times because it’s good publicity for them and their sponsors.

Saturday morning consists of another practice session. This one is 1 hour long and is more indicative of what is going to happen in qualifying later that day. Track conditions will be improving all the time, as the cars get more rubber from their tyres onto the tarmac, and again, drivers will be striving to get the fastest time.

The qualifying format has changed several times over the years, but the idea behind it is still the same. Throughout the hour-long session, the teams will run their cars to find an ultimate fast lap – one that will dictate the position they will start in for the race the following day. If a car fails to secure a time due to driver or mechanical error, it is most likely they will start at the back of the grid. Where you position yourself in qualifying is more than just aiming to get first – you also have to think about where on the track you end up. The racing line favours the driver in pole position, and when in grid formation, two cars are staggered next to each other all the way back, so the second place car will suffer the worst track surface.

Sunday is race day. Teams will get their cars set up and their drivers ready, and then wave them off around the track to form their grid position. All the mechanics are welcomed onto the grid to make their very last minute preparations and escort their famous guests around for the pursuing cameras. The atmosphere before the race begins is feverish and the anticipation is almost better than the race itself. However, it’s when the track is cleared of people, and the drivers head off on their parade lap, that you know something good is about to happen. The five lights come on one by one and when they go out, its go, Go, GO! Sorry, almost turned into a commentator then. The first corner is usually the most exciting, with 20+ cars bundling and jostling for position. After that, the 50 or so laps of a race fly by, with retirements, overtaking and pit stops, until eventually the winner crosses the start finish line for his share of the glory. The top eight drivers receive points, as do the top eight constructors. The race winner, and those in second and third get to partake in a little champagne on the podium, whilst receiving their trophies. The winning constructor of the day also receives a magnificent trophy for their contribution to a great race day.

After that, there’s just time for a debrief in the following press conference, where the top three talk about how tough the conditions were and what they did to outsmart their fellow sportsmen, before everyone goes home for a rest.

Next time on the Sidepodcast Guide to Formula 1, I’ll be looking at pit stops in more detail.

Theme music: Cedar Falls, Car Crash.