Category: F1

Formula 1

Weekend Preview: 20-21 June 2009

Feature Events

FIA Formula 1 World Championship

– Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix
– Silverstone, Northamptonshire, England, UK
– (9/17)
– 60 laps
– www.f1.com

The final FIA Formula 1 British GP to be held at Silverstone, for the foreseeable future at least, as in 2010 this event is scheduled to move to Donington Park. Irrespective of how Donington will turn out, it will be a shame to leave Silverstone. The facilities for the crowd, the teams and the sponsors are not brilliant yet the actual racetrack is one of the best in the world. I absolutely love that camera position on the fence on the entry to Maggotts/Becketts, you really get a sense of the speed and the rapid direction change of these cars.

Quite what the motorsport landscape will look like by June 2010 is anybody’s guess – which teams will arrive at Donington? Will the circuit even be ready? Will FOTA organise their own British GP, held at Silverstone?

All this is for the future.

For now though, let us focus on this race meeting. We can reasonably expect the Brawns to be strong and today’s times from Free Practice suggest the recent Red Bull updates have strengthened that team. We could be in for a very competitive race!

While this is a home race for Jenson Button, it has historically been one of Rubens Barrichello’s stronger circuits, expect him to come into play here. As for the other teams.. forget it, they are scrapping for minor points.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on BBC One at 12.10pm BST (race start 1pm), followed by the F1 Forum on the red button service
USA – DELAYED on FOX at 3pm ET (I’m not sure how much pre-race they’ll have, if none that’s still a SEVEN HOUR tape delay *shocked*)

Support races: GP2 Series, FBMW Europe, Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, Historic Sportscars

BEFORE THE RACE at about 11am UK be sure to head to www.sidepodcast.com and join the live Parade Lap! It is an online radio show loosely discussing F1 with a laid-back Sunday vibe. It will end as the BBC coverage begins and there is live text commenting! Stick around on the site to live comment the race.

I intend to both live comment the race on SPC, and live tweet on Twitter. If you follow my Twitter account and are located in the US (or elsewhere) and do not wish the result to be spoiled, you should avoid Twitter completely or un-follow me until you have seen the race. Sorry, the live audience isn’t going to wait for you!


IndyCar Series

– Iowa Corn 250 Presented by Pioneer
– Iowa Speedway, Newton, Iowa
– (7/17)
– 250 laps
– www.indycar.com

The return to the fast 7/8ths of a mile oval in the Pressdog’s back yard, Iowa. Check his site for regular updates from the track during and after the weekend!
Iowa is a small oval but it is designed in such a way that the racing and the speeds are as they would be on a superspeedway. Craziness ensues! They haven’t been coming here long but it is turning into a must-see event, unfortunately year 1 was for all the wrong reasons will lots of crashes. Year 2 was much better with close racing everywhere. What will this year bring?

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports Xtra at 6pm BST
USA – LIVE on ABC at 1pm ET

Support races: Firestone Indy Lights, USAC..something or other

Other Events


NASCAR Sprint Cup

– Toyota / Save Mart 350
– Infineon Raceway, Sears Point, California, USA
– (16/36)
– www.nascar.com

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports Xtra at 10pm Sunday
USA – LIVE on TNT at 4.30pm ET Sunday

For all other events I will list the UK TV channel only, if you are elsewhere you will have to look it up (check their website).

NASCAR Nationwide & Trucks

– Milwaukee (Saturday on ESPN2 and Friday on SPEED, respectively)


GP2 Series

– Silverstone
– Britain
– (4/10)
– Setanta Sports 1: Feature on Saturday at 2.55pm, Sprint on Sunday at 9.25am (both live)
– www.gp2series.com

FIA Formula 2

– Brno, Czech Republic
– (2/8)
– Eurosport & live web streaming: Race 1 at 11am Saturday, Race 2 at 12.30pm Sunday
– www.formulatwo.com

FIA World Touring Cars

– Marriott Race of the Czech Republic
– Brno, Czech Republic
– (6/12)
– Eurosport: Race 1 at 11.45am, then F2 at 12.30, then Race 2 at 1.45pm(both Sunday)
– www.fiawtcc.com
– with F2, FMaster

FIA GT Championship

– Oscherseleben, Germany
– (3/8)
– Setanta Sports at 10:30am
– www.fiagt.com
– with FIA GT3 European Championship, FIA GT4 European Cup, Formul’Academy, FRenault NEC, ATS F3


Australian V8 Supercars

– Hidden Valley, Australia
– (5/14)
– www.v8supercars.com.au


Grand-Am Rolex Series

– Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, USA
– (6/12)
– www.grand-am.com


Super GT

– Sepang, Malaysia
– (4/9)
– www.supergt.net/en


Intercontinental Rally Challenge

– Ypres, Belgium
– (5/12)
– Daily updates on Eurosport
– www.ircseries.com

 

I believe that’s everything, let me know if you spot something else worth noting.

For those in the UK, don’t forget the return of Top Gear on BBC Two at 8pm Sunday!

Finally, if you missed the Jackie Stewart, Jim Clark and Graham Hill docos on BBC Four earlier in the year, as I did, they are repeated in one lump on Saturday night from 8pm. Enjoy!

Weekend Preview: 6-7 June :09

Feature Events

Formula 1

– Formula 1 ING Turkish Grand Prix
– Istanbul Park, Turkey
– (7/17)
– 58 laps
– www.f1.com

The Turkish GP is held at another Tilkedrome out in the middle of nowhere, miles away from the city it purports to represent. All the team personnel, media, etc. complain that it takes 1.5 hours to travel to/from the circuit from Istanbul, and that’s on a good run from the ‘near’ side of the city.

The problem in Turkey is the same as at a lot of other ‘new’ venues – lack of attendance. The prices are too high for the locals, or the locals are not sufficiently interested, or they like dressing up to look like grandstand seats.

That said it is one of the more interesting Tilke circuits, particularly the high-speed high-load multi-apex Turn 8, which creates a passing opportunity into the Turn 9 chicane, which in turn leads on to the back straight and another passing opportunity. The cars can race at this circuit.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on BBC One at 12.10pm BST (race start 1pm)
USA – DELAYED on FOX at 3pm EDT

BEFORE THE RACE at 11am UK be sure to head to www.sidepodcast.com and join the live Parade Lap! It is an online radio show loosely discussing F1 with a laid-back Sunday vibe. It will end as the BBC coverage begins and there is live text commenting!

Support races: GP2 Series, Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, Turkish Touring Car Championship


IndyCar Series

– Bombadier Learjet 550
– Texas Motor Speedway, somewhere in Texas, United States
– (6/17)
– 228 laps
– www.indycar.com

TMS is crazy. Fast, furious, non-stop action. If you’ve never seen a race here you won’t believe what’s going on.

TV Guide:
UK – DELAYED on Sky Sports Xtra at 11am BST
USA – LIVE on VERSUS at 9pm ET

Other Events


NASCAR Sprint Cup

– Pocono 500
– Pocono, United States
– (14/36)
– www.nascar.com

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 3 at 7pm Sunday
USA – LIVE on TNT at 12.30pm ET Sunday

Support races: Nationwide Series (Saturday), Camping World Trucks (Friday)

GP2 Series

– Istanbul Park
– Turkey
– (3/10)
– www.gp2series.com

British F3

– Hockenheim, Germany
– (4/10)

Grand-Am

– Six Hours of the Glen
– Watkins Glen, USA

Isle of Man TT

– http://www.iomtt.com/
The classic time trials are running over the whole week, up to next Saturday. These guys are utterly insane! I will post an ‘On The Limit’ video tomorrow, when I’ve found one, in the meantime check YouTube yourself.
ITV4 has been running nightly updates at 9pm and will continue to do so throughout the week, and ITV1 will have highlights on Sunday 7th and Sunday 14th.

* * *
This is actually a fairly quiet weekend when you think about it, in Europe all the other series try to schedule races for when F1 isn’t on so that has a big effect. Let me know if I’ve missed anything.

I will try to find time for a Le Mans preview during the week, possibly Thursday when qualifying is on and when things aren’t so hectic for me. Of course since you’ll all be listening to www.radiolemans.com and will have downloaded their preview podcasts, you’ll know all there is to know already!

The Customer Comes First

The esteemed Mr Pressdog has recently taken up the mantle of being the champion of the customer – the fan – who is losing out and needs to be listened to, needs to be taken seriously.

Formula 1 journalist Joe Saward agrees and he tells it straight both on www.grandprix.com and his blog, and he has been talking about how F1 should pay more attention to fans on several editions of podcasts from Sidepodcast.com.

Check out last week’s instalment “The Customer Always Comes First” on the link below (this quote is actually unrelated to fans and is about engines – but he is in the fans’ corner too), and be sure to check the site every race weekend for his latest musings as well as the regular Debriefs throughout the weekend from the SPC team.


http://www.sidepodcast.com/2009/05/27/an-aside-with-joe-the-customer-always-comes-first/

You probably ought to check the archives too.

F1 Preview – GP de Monaco 2009

FIA Formula 1 World Championship
– 67e Grand Prix de Monaco (6/17)
– Monte Carlo, Monaco
– 78 laps
– www.formula1.com
– F1.com Track Map
– Live timing

Event History
This is the big one, the grand-daddy of all Grands Prix. The very first Monaco GP was held in 1929 and 2009 marks the 67th edition of this classic race.

Despite being commonly referred to as Monte Carlo, that is only one small area at the top of the hill with the Casino, and the Hotel and Cafe de Paris. The harbour area is La Condamine.

There have been so many events at this race over the years it is impossible to provide a good enough summary here, needless to say the place is known for odd results! You need a lot of talent and fair amount of luck to win at Monaco because it has a knack of biting you.

Notable highlights include:
– Mansell getting a suspected puncture, pitting for new tyres and then hounding Senna all the way to the flag.
– Gilles Villeneuve winning in a turbo Ferrari when turbos were not meant to be suited to the place against the Cosworths.
– Panis winning in 1996 after not stopping when everyone else made one stop or more in changeable conditions.

– The final two laps of 1982:

The opening part of the classic movie Grand Prix:

There are an absolute ton of videos on YouTube, just run a search for Monaco Grand Prix!

Circuit
The 2.1 mile street circuit is known for being a test of both driver and machine, and while it is the shortest circuit of the year it is also the longest at 78 laps and usually runs quite close to the 2-hour time limit.

The proximity of the barriers makes for a unique challenge in GP racing with the smallest of errors causing race-ending accidents. There are only a few run-off areas, and some of these are relatively recent innovations.

In terms of circuit layout the actual footprint of the track has hardly changed through the entire history of the event, yet there have been notable changes to the surroundings. The addition of the swimming pool section and the Rascasse to replace the hairpin, the new tower blocks appearing every few years along the track (this year check out the new one at the chicane where there used to be a cliff face), the much later and very recent addition of the new pit buildings.

The track demands precision guidance of the car, yet the fastest way around is to hustle it as it is heavily dependant on mechanical grip from the tyres rather than aero grip.

Onboard lap, Nico Rosberg 2008:

Form
It has got to be a battle between Brawn, Red Bull and Ferrari, hasn’t it? I don’t see anyone else getting involved and I only include Ferrari because Massa ran well in Spain and Kimi qualified well here today.

Look also for Renault to score decent points and Force India to surprise some, though perhaps only because BMW and Toyota are having such a hard time this weekend.

What to Watch For
– The fastest blue flagger in all of racing. He’s on the hill after Ste Devote! Only the exit of the final turn at Long Beach comes close.
– Lots and lots of rubber marbles from the tyres after about 1/3rd distance. Its this as much as the walls that make passing hard here.
– Drivers making silly errors causing lengthy Safety Car periods.

UK TV
R: BBC One will air the Race live at 12:10pm with the race to kick off at 1pm.

US TV
R: SPEED will air the Race live at 7:30am ET

Parade Lap
Before the race festivities be sure to go to Sidepodcast.com Live Comments at 11am and await the live pre-race Parade Lap show, a lovely relaxed way to get into the GP. This is a live discussion which will end just as the BBC’s coverage begins, perfect!

Enjoy the race, my notes will hopefully be up in the gap between Monaco and Indy! Then again, you know me, maybe they won’t be.