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.
YouTube announced an update to their stats pages yesterday, and although I’m still quite mad at them, statistics are something I can never resist.
We like a good pie chart here at Sidepodcast and YouTube delivers the goods with their latest update, in fact we also get our hands on some demographics we’ve never had the opportunity to see before - ages and gender.
First up I should say that this data set is slightly flawed, because it relies on viewers not only being logged into das tube, but also that they tell the truth in their profiles too. Additionally, it doesn’t account for viewers logged in as someone else (as so often happens here when I browse using Christine’s profile).
That said, the charts are of a certain amount of use so for the basis of this post I’ve picked stats from last week’s Turkey Preview video. It’s been live for almost 7 days and offers plenty of data to work with (at the time the screenshots were taken 4,478 unique views).
Let’s take a look at the demographic data relating to ages:
As Christine pointed out already, yesterday was a bad day in the Sidepodcast office. In part because due to what can only be described as “some confusion” from the people at YouTube, we were served with a copyright infringement notice.
That kind of thing is never going to set your day off well, especially when it turns out to be completely false. Or at least we think it has, YouTube appear to have taken a vow of silence over the whole affair.
The morning started pleasantly with some non-taxing file uploads planned for the latest video of Inside Track, when just after 11am, the following email arrived:
I’m really enjoying some up the videos Ferrari have been putting up onto YouTube recently. While lacking in the production values of say Honda Racing TV, they do offer a unique perspective on the team. The latest video is an interview with chief designer Nikolas Tombazis.
Somehow the producers have achieved a retro vibe that’s so convincing I had to double check it hadn’t actually been filmed in the 70’s, but it’s definitely modern.
Mr. T (as only I call him) reveals some insightful information about the difficulties the team faced getting their new hollow nose through the mandatory crash test, as well as how the team are preparing for the 2009 regulations.
If you haven’t seen it already, it’s worth five minutes of your time, if only because I’m interested to hear if you think he’s drunk on duty or not?
Today, Ferrari were the first of the teams to launch their 2008 challenger, and YouTube user yossidlr provides us with the media interviews conducted at the launch.
Slightly long winded, and not the world’s most exciting unveiling, but worth 10 minutes of your time if you’re after the full low down from Kimi & Co.
Watch the drivers talk about the new ECU for 2008, and remind yourself that it really is “the same for everybody”.
Vijay Mallya certainly seems determined to get the name of his team out there, he’s now started television adverts in India. I’ve never seen a Formula 1 team specifically advertising themselves. You quite often see an F1 car zip across the bottom of a Renault advert, for example, but purely to advertise the team?
Here is the advert in it’s full glory [spotted on Rediscover Formula One].
Not that bad, really, is it?
The Queen may have her annual Christmas message, she may even be on YouTube this year. However, Sidepodcast still has the first lady of F1 podcasting and she’s posh too. So we’ll go one better this year with an alternate (vaguely Formula 1 themed) festive message.
We’d love to promise it’ll cheer you up and make your day, but given some of this years scandals, you might want to keep the antidepressants on hand just in case.
Merry Christmas to one and all!
Music played: Allison Crowe, The First Noël
Music comes from music.podshow.com. Thanks to Dailymotion for the inspiration.
Two days ago Christian Horner confirmed that Red Bull’s RB4 chassis will make its track debut in January. That in itself isn’t a particularly fascinating fact - announcements about new car launches rarely are. What is worth mentioning though, is the team’s new video, released today on YouTube.
A 30 second time-lapse sequence shows staff entering and leaving the factory in Milton Keynes and then confirms the car’s launch date to be 16th January 2008. The video is attributed to a user named sequencepostprod, which we can probably assume is related to the television company Sequence Post Production (SPP).
UK Formula 1 fans will probably recognise SPP as the team behind some of ITV’s title credits as well Martin Brundle’s “F1 Insight” series. Presumably the team have been brought in to work on the launch, but it’s odd that the video doesn’t feature on Red Bull’s homepage alongside the other official showreels, not to mention the fact that the production company decided to release it under their own name first.
Here’s the full clip in case you haven’t already seen it:
I wonder if this means Formula 1 teams are finally getting to grips with viral videos and social networking?
We’re looking forward to 2008 already.
Enjoy Kimi’s crowning moment from last night’s event:
Hell of a show, and a damn sight better than the Autosport awards we had to suffer through earlier this week. Apparently UK fans can see more when the event is shown on Eurosport this coming Monday.
Update: Thanks to Journeyer for finding the highlights reel too:
F1 teams are finally getting a grip on the video sharing revolution, and to prove the point, Honda F1 Racing have just published an interview with their new team principal, Ross Brawn, up on YouTube.
If I was being picky, I’d point out that this video appeared on the Honda Racing TV site, two days ago. What took so long to get it onto YouTube?
Nevertheless, it’s a good interview, and a great sign of things to come.
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