Sidepodcast

• Length: 23:08 
• Size: 21.3 MB 
• File: guideomnibus.mp3 
• Transcript: guideomnibus.pdf 
• Torrent: guideomnibus.torrent 

Welcome to the Sidepodcast Guide to Formula 1. This is the omnibus edition, where the seven separate shows (originally released over seven days) are brought together in one place.

Here are the links to the individual show notes:

1. Introduction
2. Race Weekend
3. Pit Stops
4. F1 Cars
5. The FIA
6. Safety
7. Attending a Race

This was the first mini series Sidepodcast ever released, originally in 2007, and served as a good introduction to the sport for those who had never watched before.

• Length: 28:09 
• Size: 25.9 MB 
• File: forgottenomnibus1.mp3 
• Transcript: forgottenomnibus1.pdf 
• Torrent: forgottenomnibus1.torrent 

This is the omnibus edition of Forgotten F1 teams, gathering together the seven short shows that made up the mini series, originally released over consecutive evenings.

Here are the links to the individual show notes:

1. Simtek Grand Prix
2. Pacific Grand Prix
3. Forti
4. Arrows
5. Onyx
6. Life
7. Eifelland

We had lots of good suggestions coming in for more forgotten teams that didn’t make this list, so look out for a second series coming soon.

• Length: 3:26 
• Size: 3.2 MB 
• File: forgotten7.mp3 
• Transcript: forgotten7.pdf 
• Torrent: forgotten7.torrent 

Welcome to the final episode in this Sidepodcast mini series – Forgotten F1 Teams. We’ve covered from the lows of Life to the highs of Arrows, and now it’s time to check in with our final team – Eifelland.

In your travels, you may have come across a German caravan company called Eifelland Wohnwagenbau. In the 1970s, Eifelland owner Gunther Henerici started sponsoring a couple of teams in the lower formulas, plus German F1 driver Rolf Stommelen. In 1972, Henerici decided that he’d set up his own team for Stommelen and enter the world of F1 constructors. He bought a March 721 chassis, and commissioned Luigi Colani to redesign it. This is where the fun starts.

Colani had good credentials, having designed several successful sportscars, but he didn’t necessarily have all the knowledge required to create a Formula 1 car. Either that, or he was just having a laugh. The rear wing on his design was simply an extension of the bodywork, curving upwards, with no gaps for the air to squeeze through. The front wing was just as odd, and then Colani went and installed an airbox ahead of the driver for good measure. The best bit of the car, though, was the lack of wing mirrors. Colani decided the best way for a driver to see whether he was about to be lapped was by means of a periscope mirror, starting directly in the driver’s line of vision, and extending upwards. With a V8 Cosworth engine and some Goodyear tyres, the Eifelland car was launched.

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• Length: 5:00 
• Size: 4.7 MB 
• File: forgotten5.mp3 
• Transcript: forgotten5.pdf 
• Torrent: forgotten5.torrent 

You’re listening to Forgotten F1 Teams, a mini series from Sidepodcast chronicling the rise and fall of some of those teams you might not have heard of. We’ve already covered four teams this series, and now it’s time for our fifth: Onyx.

The team began life as Onyx Race Engineering, at the tail end of 1978. Founders Mike Earle and Greg Field had plenty of experience between them, having competed in F3, F2, F5000, and Formula 1. In fact, the pair had teamed up to build the Lec F1 team in the 70s, but that had come to an end after a Silverstone accident, and Onyx was their next challenge.

The new team entered F2 for a couple of years, finding a competitive driver in Riccardo Paletti. In 1982, Paletti moved to F1 with Osella, but Onyx wanetd him back for their own F1 entry the next year. Paletti was killed, however, at the Canadian GP, and the lack of plans meant the team began to flounder. Greg Field sold his half of the team but even that didn’t seem enough to secure their future. Finally, things began to look up when the March F2 team was outsourced, and Onyx picked up the contract.

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• Length: 4:00 
• Size: 3.7 MB 
• File: forgotten4.mp3 
• Transcript: forgotten4.pdf 
• Torrent: forgotten4.torrent 

Welcome to Forgotten F1 Teams – a mini series from Sidepodcast chronicling the rise and fall of teams that couldn’t stay the distance. This is the fourth show, we’ve already looked at Simtek, Pacific and Forti, but today we’re talking about Arrows.

Arrows Grand Prix came to life in 1977, founded by previous Shadow employees, Franco Ambrosio, Alan Rees, Jackie Oliver, Dave Wass and Tony Southgate – the surnames of whom spell out Arrows… sort of. Based in Milton Keynes, their Formula 1 entry was a bit of a rush job, with their first ever car being produced in just 53 days. Riccardo Patrese was brought on board to steer the car and the early signs were promising. They finished tenth in their first race in ‘78, almost won their second, and picked up some points in their third Grand Prix.

Unfortunately, the team didn’t have an easy start to life with some early controversies. Founder Franco Ambrosio had to leave the team after being found guilty of financial misconduct in Italy, and sent to prison. The team were then sued by Shadow for copyright on their chassis, which was upheld by the court. However, this didn’t stop them, as while the decision was being made over the the copied chassis, Arrows had built a brand new car, which then took to the track without them having to miss a race.

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Please do not forget to update your Fantasy Racers team.

I’ve had a look at mine, and you’ll be pleased to know I have given it some thought. Not serious thought, but I did assign at least five minutes to the decision making process.

I wanted someone from McLaren and someone from Ferrari. I’m not good at predicting things, and I like to hedge my bets. From Ferrari, I picked Raikkonen, because, you know, it’s wet.

Last time I had a full team of Germans, and I liked seeing all those similar flags in a row. So today, I chose the only other Finn on offer. Kovalainen. Finnish and at McLaren – he satisfies both criteria.

And finally, as I had some cash left over, I threw Bourdais into the mix. You never know, he might bring me some luck.

Go and update your team now, or if you haven’t signed up yet, visit FantasyRacers.com. I’m currently 116th, so everyone still has a chance of beating me.

A week or so ago, we looked at how the driver’s websites stacked up against each other, in four very separate posts. Now we’re turning our attention on the teams, but the criteria is still the same. I’ll be looking at it from a fan’s point of view, assessing the content and general usability. The geeky one takes a more, well, geeky look at the sites, and then we rate them. Here goes.

Ferrari

I tried to link to the actual Ferrari Racing bit of the site, but it’s so flash-based, there’s no unique ID for that page. You have to pick your language, navigate whether you want the site or the store, then click on racing. Too much effort! Once you get that far, there’s not that much information on there anyway, but I do like the timeline through the years. A unique way of doing a biography, that includes a fascinating look at the way the cars have changed. The one problem I found is, even though I picked English, there still seems to be the odd Italian word thrown in here and there, making navigation harder, but not impossible.

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• Length: 10:32 
• Size: 9.7 MB 
• File: digest20.mp3 
• Transcript: digest20.pdf 
• Torrent: digest20.torrent 

Some of the best overtaking we have seen in a long time took place in Turkey, and some fascinating strategy choices as well. Catch up with all the action, and the aftermath with F1 Digest.

The Race

Just the one safety car and only three retirees, but one of the best races for overtaking we’ve seen for far too long.

Conclusions

A controversy is stirring between McLaren and their tyres, and we take a look at what the other team’s thought of their various fortunes today.

Since the Sidepodcast league was set up over on Fantasy Racers, we’ve had a record number of teams enter. Although, having said that, any number would be a record for us, this being the inaugural competition and all. Still, 92 teams is nothing to be sniffed at and we owe Dan a considerable quantity of beer tokens for getting this particular ball rolling.

We may have mentioned, we love messing around with graphs and this new league contains lots of potential for stats and pie charts, but there is one metric that is most fascinating.

Presenting, Sidepodcast Fantasy Racers by Country:

I thought that F1 wasn’t popular in the US? Bernie, are you listening? To be fair, though, the UK also has an England/Scotland split as well, but where are the Welsh?

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Last year, we ventured into the world of Fantasy F1 by taking part in a competition on Batracer. I say “we” but of course, I didn’t have the patience to put in the hours of effort required, and I certainly wasn’t impressed when we only managed twelfth place after all the time invested. It’s not that I was taking it too seriously, but I just wanted to see more of a result for all the hard work.

Since then, I’ve been thinking about Fantasy F1 and its many different forms, and wondering whether there is one out there that takes minimal effort and simply adds that little extra element to watching a race. Just as I was about to mention it on the show and solicit opinions, Dan Cross beat me to it and posted details of a Sidepodcast league he had set up over on FantasyRacers.com.

Of course, we had to go and check it out, and I immediately set up my team “Sidepodcast Racers”. It was incredibly easy to do, sign up (email and name required only), pick a team name, pick your drivers. There’s a limited budget, obviously, but you can recruit a couple of good names to your team. My team at the moment consists of: Adrian Sutil, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica.

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