Sidepodcast

A few minutes ago, I was busily running back through all of the live comments we missed out on during the weekend, when I came across a short sentence from Scott posted during Friday’s first session. The statement left me completely gobsmacked and admittedly I reacted quite strongly, so much so in fact I thought I needed a full post on the subject.

Quite Loud

This year, Christine and I attended our second ever Formula 1 race, Christine also attended her first F1 test just last week. Occasionally in the past we’ve also been present during a number of F1 demo runs. All of these things are important, because they involve exposure to either a running V8 or a running V10 engine and those things can be quite loud.

How loud? Well roughly speaking, at full pelt a modern F1 engine creates between 120 and 140 decibels of loudness. By comparison a normal conversation measures approximately 60 decibels. According to the UK Noise Association, human hearing can be damaged through sustained exposure from levels over 85db (although it can vary depending on the situation and the individual).

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• Length: 24:12 
• Size: 22.1 MB 
• File: episode64.mp3 
• Enhanced: episode64.m4a 
• Transcript: episode64.pdf 
• Torrent: episode64.torrent 

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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I don’t want anyone to think that I’m obsessed with Formula One television coverage, but when I saw this fantastic demo the other day, the only thing I thought was - Bernie needs to see this:

If you play the video and sit back, all you’ll see is a ride on board a VW Beetle around what I’m assuming is New York City. However, grab your mouse, click on the video and drag for a few seconds and then the thing really comes to life.

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It was with particular disappointment that I read of Super Aguri’s struggles getting into the Istanbul paddock yesterday. My dismay came not from the desire to see the team find a safe passage to race next Sunday, but rather because I hoped they had just stayed home this week.

I appreciate this is an incredibly harsh thing to be thinking, and I’m also aware that amongst F1 fans I’m in the minority here. The problem for me is this whole process has now been publicly dragged out for far too long, leaving the Oxfordshire outfit with little dignity at the end of the day.

It’s been pointed out to me by several people during the past couple of weeks that it was SS United defaulting on sponsorship payments, that led the team into their current predicament. We know Aguri lost almost $30 million after the contributing company failed to make an expected second payment, but there was also an additional $10 million missing from the coffers after Giedo van der Garde’s sponsors failed to honour any payment.

Now these two issues may be entirely unconnected, but I’m seeing a pattern emerging here. Someone must be responsible for the failure to land the supposed income and it isn’t helped by the fact that to all intents and purposes SS United Group don’t appear to exist.

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According to the marketing website Brand Republic, ITV are having to drop the price of their proposed 2008 Formula 1 sponsorship package due to insufficient interest.

The company recently lost 2007 sponsors Honda, after it was claimed the asking price would increase from £2.5m up to £4m for the coming season. It now looks as though this years price will be roughly similar to last years, despite the increased interest the channel received due to some bloke from Stevenage.

Recently, ITV’s head of sport Mark Sharman, stated that:

What sport does, and Formula One in particular, is deliver an ABC1 male audience, and that’s priceless for us.

One might suggest that there is a price, and that £4m is a bit too steep.

Last year the Brazilian Grand Prix, which witnessed the climax of the driver’s championship, managed to net an average of 7.3m viewers, compared to just 4.9m the previous year. So there may well be a valid argument for a price increase, but it would appear that so far, ITV haven’t found anyone willing to cough up as much as they’d like.

You can read the full story on Brand Republic, although be warned that it’s a subscription site and you’ll have to log in to view the whole article.

• File: Episode49.m4a
• Length: 17:01
• Size: 15.8 MB
• Transcript: Episode49.pdf

An episode brought to you by the power of over-the-counter drugs, we’re both ill but determined to cover the topics of the week.

Intro

Is it man-flu if I caught it off him?

Good Week / Bad Week

One team has a good week of testing, whilst another has a bad week, and Fernando Alonso has both.

News and Views

We share two excellent comments on the new stewarding rules, and discuss what we’ve seen in magazines recently (including some recognisable faces in Autosport a couple of weeks ago)! Also the Kimi Raikkonen official podcast, if you can call it that, and how Honda and Renault are making the most of the internet before the season even starts.

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