An Aside With Joe #16

Today the latest 'An Aside With Joe' podcast was released and amazingly they are up to no.16 already. It doesn't seem long since the first one.

These chats with journalist and author Joe Saward are always very revealing and in this edition you can find out about:

• making Grands Prix green;
• a Grand Prix for electric cars;
• Silverstone's deal;
• an update on the Motorsport Business Forum, not the Monaco one like much of the F1 media but the Orlando event (and the reasons why he went there);
• hydroplanes - yes, really;

I've said it before and it is ever true - after listening to Joe speak for just under an hour you come away feeling a lot wiser about motorsport and you look at it through different eyes - plus you can impress your friends with the knowledge. Of course, your friends don't care about motorsport and they still think Button is called Jason, hah, what do they know, nothing.

Thanks to Sidepodcast and especially to Joe for making the time to produce these, and particularly this episode which was an unexpected addition.

I know it is Christmas but you should make time for this one, LISTEN HERE.

Ultra-Delayed Race Notes: British Grand Prix 2009

[Preface - Due to accountancy studies I fell behind with the editing of these posts. They were written during the live BBC coverage as usual, save for the race result and points. Anything in italics in square brackets was written during the edit, just like this paragraph.]

2009 Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix
Circuit: Silverstone Circuit
Location: Silverstone, Northamptonshire, England, UK
Distance: 60 laps

Coverage: BBC One / BBC Radio 5 Live[*]
Anchor: Jake Humphrey
Analysts in the paddock: David Coulthard (DC) and Eddie Jordan (EJ)

R5 commentary[*]: David Croft (Crofty) and Anthony Davidson (Ant)
R5 pitlane[*]: Holly Samos

Tyre selection (red): SS / S / M / H

[*for many years the BBC has held the UK radio rights to F1. In '09 they also picked up the TV rights and they now offer an alternate feed on digital television, combining TV pics with radio commentary. I tend to use this feed.]

Coverage begins at 12.10pm.

Great intro highlighting Silverstone's journey from a wartime airfield alongside a farm into the circuit we know today. You can watch it right here, if it doesn't get pulled:



Pure class.
Immediate cut to Jake on the grid, which is currently empty of cars but surrounded by stands full of fans with air horns!

Chatter with Jake, Eddie and DC. I usually ignore this bit and get a cup of tea and a bit of toast while they cover the points tables, and tell the casual fans about the news most of us diehards have read on blogs and websites...

Talking with Max and Bernie: [remember - this was during the FOTA / #MaxOut thing]

Max: Some teams want to take over the financial side from Bernie. He says some teams got near an agreement (FOTA), and "the others, what we call 'the loonies' tore it up". Says Flavio sees himself as the Bernie figure in the new arrangement.

Bernie: We have the Federation, we have the commercial side and we have the teams and that's how it should stay. People complain that Max.. we should get rid of Max. We can't rid of Max, he's the President of the FIA, there are 120 votes and they vote for what they want. He wanted to save money for the teams and there seems to be some objection to that.

Talk with John Howett of Toyota. [I'm bored of politics and since this was some time ago I'll chop short this section.]

Qualifying report with Ted

Lewis - "I gave it my all and there's not much more I could have got from it. I was miles off."
Sutil crashed but is unhurt and fit to race.
Button struggled with low grip - "quite a different car to the one I had in Turkey."
Webber was blocked which ruined his lap.
Vettel on pole - "the lap was very close to perfect, I'm very pleased."

Vettel, Barrichello, Webber, Trulli, Nakajima(!), Button, Rosberg, Glock, Raikkonen, Alonso, Massa, Kubica, Kovalainen, Piquet, Heidfeld, Fisichella, Bourdais, Hamilton(!), Buemi
Pitlane: Sutil
[big thanks to my BT Vision DVR for allowing me to catch that rapidly-scrolling list]

Lee is out in the stands with the fans with their airhorns! Talks about how the view hasn't changed for 60 years since the first race here - but we don't see the view, we see Lee sitting among the fans.

Feature - Hamilton takes Humphrey around Silverstone in a Mercedes SLR 722, in the wet, oversteer city! He does some donuts.. Then they let Jake loose with Lewis as passenger! He does surprisingly well for such a powerful car in low grip conditions, until the eventual spin comes... donuts but the pitwall... Lewis - "You're completely relaxed but unaware of the danger!"

(on the qualifying show, Jake drove Jenson Button around in a slightly lower spec Merc - Jenson was pretty tense and stand-offish, Lewis was egging him on and really at ease)

Live with Damon Hill talking about British GP 2010. Says they have great plans for Silverstone and he's hopeful for the future.

Live with Max.. [spin this on, out of date now and very boring even at the time, move on...]

Pit stop feature with Martin Brundle and Force India to a great Sigur Ros backing track.
26 men: lollipop man, 3 jacks, 2 starters, fireman, 2 fuellers, deadman, 4 wheelgunmen, 4 changers, 4 with new tyres, 2 spare fuellers...

I still don't get why the most advanced racing cars in the world still require manual jack-men instead of internally-carried jacks operated by hydraulics or air pressure.

Straight into Martin's Gridwalk - features coming thick and fast!

Her Majesty's Royal Marines Band from the commando training centre in Devon are at the front of the grid, standing ready.
- Martin finds a race marshal, the unheralded heroes of the racetrack, unpaid volunteers doing it for the love of it, paying their own travel/accommodation costs to get up close and personal. This guy says he is a motor technician by day...
- Martin walks behind a wall and waves to the crowd, they cheer!!
- Back to the grid proper to find some 'names'..
- Lord March: "Festival of Speed, 2 weeks time, should be a great weekend." [it was, I was there!]
- Victoria Pembleton, Olympic swimming medallist. Says she was invited by the Brawn team. Standing next to Richard Branson: Crossing his fingers for Button.
- Mark Webber: "Bit of traffic with Kimi, all's not lost we're still 3rd on the grid. Need to get Rubens immediately to fight Sebastian. Need clear air, we can get 2nd eventually."
- Kazuki Nakajima, 5th, best ever qualifying in F1: "Was a great qualifying yesterday, thanks to the team. Realistically we can grab points, need to push really hard."
- Adrian Newey: "Hopefully we can get the break today."
- FLAVIO: "I want to be in this business for a long time, if this makes me a loonie that's fine. We want F1 with Ferrari, McLaren, Renault, etc, etc, top drivers, this is Formula1 for us."
- Bernie: "There will be a British Grand Prix for sure, depends if Donington get their act together, if not it'll be here. Don't worry." MB: "I am worried."
- Vijay Mallya: "Brake problem caused Sutil's crash, it ruined Fisichella's fast timed lap as well, luck hasn't favoured us".

The Royal Marines play the national anthem while the Beeb merges clips of Silverstone's history. Cheers!

Ted with Rubens. Says Red Bull have done well here, says even though they are favourites he has a chance.

Fast and furious build-up show.. nearly there..

Fuel Strategy Summary
Vettel was quickest in qual despite being heavier than anyone near him - ideal strategy.
Webber should have been on pole, lighter, but was held up by Kimi.
Button's target is 3rd.
Kaz was quick, he's very light, 15 laps.
Kovalainen is heaviest by far, 1-stopping, lap 32.

Grid:
Vettel (pole), Barrichello
Webber, Trulli
Nakajima(!), Button
Rosberg, Glock
Raikkonen, Alonso
Massa, Kubica
Kovalainen, Piquet
Heidfeld, Fisichella
Bourdais, Hamilton(!)
Buemi
Pitlane: Sutil


Engines fired.
Formation Lap
Gridded
1.2.3.4.5..GO!!

Vettel leads, Kimi is moving up.
Button has fallen back!

Fisichella makes up two positions! Alonso and Heidfeld were fighting and went wide.
Button has passed Massa and is now 8th.
Replay: Massa ran wide at Copse.

Vettel is considerably faster than anyone else, up by almost 1sec over RB and MW, who are both half a second up on the rest of the field. Kimi onboard replay: lightning start

Heidfeld radio: Box Nick, front wing change.
Nick: Stay out stay out.
What he can't see is he's 2sec lap down on the cars ahead of him.
[You can see this too if you watch the race live and load up the timing screen on f1.com]

Hamilton tries it on Kubica, not into Abbey, almost touch through Bridge!
The Alonso vs Heidfeld battle has been raging since the start, Heidfeld may have a damaged wing but is managing to hold off Alonso.

Vettel is streaking away from the field despite being heavier - can he win this one?

Button radio: Massa going to lap 24.

Lap 9: Heidfeld is driving the perfect racing line and making Alonso work for it - great stuff!

L10: Hamilton radio: "Window is open. Kubica is much longer than us, you need to pass him."

L12: Vettel is now the length Hangar Straight AND Becketts corner ahead of Barrichello and Webber, who are running together.

L13: Vettel sets another FL! 1m20.821. Everyone else is running 1m22s laps.

L15: Massa: "Expect Button in 4-5 laps."
Nakajima pits from fourth, slightly false position due to the weights.

Heidfeld has fallen a long way back, he needs that wing and doesn't seem to want to take it.

L17: Nakajima got out ahead of Heidfeld... and Kimi beat Kazuki to make up a position.

Rosberg, Trulli, Button are in.
Button on the hard tyres and a longer stop compared to the others. He's on a long middle stint.
Button out between Kimi and Kaz. Trulli and Rosberg ahead of them all.

On lap 18, Vettel has lapped Sutil.

Barrichello pits, as does Glock.

Longish stop for Webber - who beats Barrichello!! Excellent stop from Red Bull.

L20: Hamilton pits, now race leader Vettel stops.. takes soft tyres.

L21: Live timing shows Alonso is last, we don't know why. Just checking gaps... it looks like that was just the gap, everyone in the back half of the field is stuck behind Heidfeld so if you pit from there you're going to be last!

L23: Heidfeld stops, that group should get faster now.
Massa pits.

Hamilton passes Heidfeld who is exiting the pits.

Holly in the pitlane: "Jenson has been complaining of understeer at high speed."
He has had this problem all weekend.

L24: Vettel now has a lead of 21.5 seconds! Then there is a long train of cars fairly close together, right the way back to last place.

L28: Vettel has been told to look after his tyres. He has a big lead and doesn't need to fall off the track... as a result he has backed off by 6/10ths compared to Webber. Webber is pulling away from Barrichello.

Order on lap 30 - half distance:
Vettel, Webber, Barrichello, Rosberg, Massa, Trulli, Raikkonen, Button, Nakajima, Fisichella, Glock, Piquet, Kubica, Kovalainen, Sutil, Alonso, Hamilton, Bourdais, Heidfeld, Buemi.
The latter three are lapped and all 20 cars are running!

And as we go over the line Hamilton is alongside Alonso! He takes the position into Copse - now he has to let Vettel through to lap him, before immediately starting on Piquet.

A lap later he passes Piquet in an identical move into Copse, which we see from the onboard camera.

L33: Rosberg is told to pressure Rubens into a mistake.

L34: Kovalainen pits and comes out ahead of Hamilton, but lets Lewis through.
Bourdais hits the back of Kovalainen!! Front wing destroyed. Kovy's rear tyre has been punctured, race ruined by Bourdais.

Ant Davidson on 5Live blames Kovy for changing his line too often

Is there debris on the track, will we need a Safety Car?

L38: Kovalainen pits the car to retire, race over.
Vettel has lapped everybody up to and including Kubica in 12th position.

L39: Bourdais now retires.
Rosberg radio - standard wing adjustment coming

Heikki with Holly: "Someone rammed into the back of me and punctured the tyre, and damaged the floor of the car so I couldn't continue. It was better not to fight with people because I needed to lose as little time as possible."

Raikkonen pits.
Rosberg pits a lap later.

L44: Hamilton runs off course at Club!
Vettel pits.
Replay: Hamilton got his tyre on to the grass and spins into the middle.

L45 (15 to go): Massa is really catching Barrichello now - and pits. Webber currently leads due to the pit sequence.

L46: Webber pits now and Vettel retakes the lead.
Barrichello is also in, from 3rd, will he beat Massa? Yes, easily with traffic in between.

L49: Button pits. He shouldn't need much fuel, only 11 laps remain. Button is back up to 6th which is where he started... but is a reasonable recovery after dropping to 9th at the start.

L51 - 9 to go: Top 3 are really strung out but there's a nice fight from Rubens back.. would be nice if we could see it though, instead of endless shots of Vettel.

Button in 6th is on soft tyres, while Massa and Rosberg in 4th and 5th are on hards and struggling with them. Jenson is 1sec per lap faster, will he have time to make a move?

Five laps remaining. Button is only 1.4 behind Rosberg and catching fast. Glock is working on Kimi.

3 to go: He's not close enough yet.
Equally Glock isn't close enough to Kimi.

Okay, we are at Bridge with just over 2 go and now Jenson has caught Nico, within striking range.

Final Lap for the leader, but another 50 seconds before this group reaches the line. No other close action on track so rightly we focus on this.


Sebastien Vettel WINS!!

Webber makes it a 1-2 finish for Red Bull.

Barrichello 3rd, Massa 4th... does Nico beat Jenson for 5th? Yes! Trulli and Raikkonen complete the points finishers.

Vettel radio: "This is a dream coming true, we've won the British Grand Prix, thank you!!"

Donuts from Hamilton on the cooldown lap! He'll probably get a fine from the FIA because they don't like that sort of thing - but I doubt he cares! [amazingly, I don't think he got a fine or even a stern warning]

Multiple air horns celebrate the winner!
Climbing the stairs to the podium to the applause of the Santander grid girls.
Adrian Newey will be on the podium for Red Bull.

Podium

German anthem for Vettel.
Austrian one for RBR - they get this stuff right at Silverstone, unlike in China where they played the British anthem for the Austrian-owned team, which is only headquartered here.

BIG trophies.
Bob Constanduros on the circuit PA: "Champaaaaaaaaaagggnnnnneee!!!!!!!"
Newey gets a drenching!
Photo op on the top step.

Conference:
Sebastian Vettel, winner:

The start was very important, I had to push for a gap. I was able to push, push, push more and more. Second stint wasn't easy at all, the team said to me be careful, I had a lot of traffic a lot of lapped cars. The last pitstop I was in clean air, the last ten laps I was counting everything down. You could argue the last ten laps were quite easy but for the rest it wasn't, I was pushing very hard. Fantastic. It shows we are on the right way. The car was fantastic, we did it, we proved both of us it it step in the right direction. I also want to thank Silverstone, every single one in the grandstands I want to thank, the atmosphere was amazing, just what I was hoping for when I saw Senna and Mansell here.

Mark Webber, second:

The race was lost in the first stint, there was no chance to bridge the gap it was too big. In the last stint it was a question of getting the car home. I want to echo Sebastian's words, the team, the guys have buried themselves in the factory, they have been led well and are responding to that. It's the best I could have done today. Congratulations to Sebastian, he did a good first stint and that laid the foundation. Silverstone.. we all love driving Formula 1 cars, that first sector. The British fans are fantastic.

Rubens Barrichello, third:

[I take] a lot of pride. After yesterday we were thinking 3rd was the best we could have. I'm very proud of the achievement i had. In turn one I was running off the track, it was difficult to know if the wind would hit you. I did what i had to do. My target is to close the gap on Jenson. I want to thank the doctors because I was in terrible back pain.

The BBC continued with a post-race debrief which I don't have the space to transcribe, and to be honest after a 50 minute lead-in plus a 1hr25m race my hands are too tired to continue.

Race Result

Pos	Driver	Gap	Pts
1	Vettel	60 laps	10
2	Webber	15.1sec	8
3	Barrichello	41.1sec	6
4	Massa	45.0sec	5
5	Rosberg	45.9sec	4
6	Button	46.2sec	3
7	Trulli	68.3sec	2
8	Räikkönen	69.6sec	1
9	Glock	69.8sec
10	Fisichella	71.5sec
11	Nakajima	74.0sec
12	Piquet	1 lap
13	Kubica	1 lap
14	Alonso	1 lap
15	Heidfeld	1 lap
16	Hamilton	1 lap
17	Sutil	1 lap
18	Buemi	1 lap
DNF	Bourdais	accident
DNF	Kovalainen	retired

Drivers' Championship

	Driver	Prev.	GER	Total
1	Button	61	3	64
2	Barrichello	35	6	41
3	Vettel	29	10	39
4	Webber	27.5	8	35.5
5	Trulli	19.5	2	21.5
6	Massa	11	5	16
7	Rosberg	11.5	4	15.5
8	Glock	13		13
9	Alonso	11		11
10	Räikkönen	9	1	10
11	Hamilton	9		9
12	Heidfeld	6		6
13	Kovalainen	4		4
14	Buemi	3		3
15	Bourdais	2		2
16	Kubica	2		2

- Both Red Bulls make gains on Brawns.
- Kimi into double-figures!


Constructors' Championship

	Constructor	Prev.	Ger	Total
1	Brawn	96	9	105
2	Red Bull	50.5	18	68.5
3	Toyota	38.5	2	40.5
4	Ferrari	17	6	23
5	Williams	11.5	4	15.5
6	McLaren	13		13
7	Renault	11		11
8	BMW	8		8
9	Toro Rosso	5		5
10	Force India	0		0

- RBR score double Brawn's haul.
- All of the top 5 score, nothing for McLaren or Renault.

The next race is the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. [notes will be up soon!]

UK flag courtesy of 4 International Flags

GP2 Catch-Up - Silverstone

Delayed mini-notes from the two GP2 races held at Silverstone, supporting the British GP. I plan to do this style of notes for GP2 from now on with the proviso that they'll be dropped if I'm too busy. Nice get out clause, eh? As I said before, I'm miles behind on watching GP2 which is why I'm posting about Silverstone the weekend after the series ended. I do know who won, I'd like to see how he did it!

Coverage from ITV4, who have improved at every round.

Silverstone, Northamptonshire, England
Rounds 9 and 10 of 20.

FEATURE RACE
36 laps
Sat. 5 July
Dry and sunny, patchy cloud

- Senna and Grosjean start on the front row.

- GO! Senna leads, Grosjean drops a place to di Grassi, as Pantano also gains. Conway had a terrible start from 8th and is now about 24th.

- Senna off course at Stowe, rejoins 5th. May have been the wind which is strong here, cars with wings don't like strong winds as it messes with the downforce. Lucas di Grassi now leads.

- Zuber is off course as well, he was 4th. Replay: Spins at speed! He's rejoined.

- Chandhok makes a good move on someone... we cut to Buemi losing multiple places, replay, tyres touched with Maldonado.
- Someone in the gravel! Ran wide. Maldonado. The Buemi collision caused damaged?

- 2 cars pitted for tyres - this is early. Conway is one of them.
- Maldonado off again at the same place as last lap.

- Chandhok takes Fillipi, another good move, Fillipi left the door open a little too much and Chandhok took it.

- Vitaly Petrov takes Ho Pin Tung, Petrov is 10th from 16th on the grid.

- 11 laps gone, 25 to go: di Grassi, Grosjean, Pantano. More cars are starting to pit.

- Grosjean pits from 2nd. Most cars have pitted except for the faster cars who are leaving it a while longer. Grosjean emerges 8th with 6 guys left to stop. Grosjean is the leader of those who have pitted.
- Pantano pits. Championship leader before this weekend. Does he beat Grosjean? No! Pit strategy didn't work, positions maintained.
- di Grassi is in, so is Senna - almost touch in the pits! Senna had to brake to avoid him. Senna comes out in 10th, di Grassi is 4th, still ahead of Grosjean and Pantano.
- Chandhok is in, gets out ahead of Senna to gain a place.

- Kobayashi took an early pit stop and it worked well, he's now 4th.

- Spoke too soon! 2 laps later he's out of the car, parked on the grass. Technical failure of some kind.

- Buemi passes Fillipi through Bridge corner, ballsy.

- Pantano in 3rd is faster than Grosjean in 2nd, directly behind him.
- Pantano pushes his way through! They touch several times under braking for the chicane.

- Chandhok v Zuber, wheels touch, Zuber stays ahead. Then Zuber blocks into Copse! Not impressed with that, pretty dangerous place to block.
- Meanwhile Pantano has caught di Grassi, the leader. Grosjean has fallen a long way back having leaned on his tyres earlier.
- Zuber just lost three places, he didn't slow down in time and overshoots the corner. Watching the mirrors and not the road? Chandhok, Senna and Buemi are through.

- Pantano dummies di Grassi into Stowe, passes for the lead! di Grassi fights back at the next corner but can't quite do it. 5 laps to go.
- Maldonado in the wall! Major damage, he spun the car in front of someone almost taking him out too. Local yellow only due to location of the car, it is out of the way.

- Chandhok passes Grosjean but it was under the yellow so the place is given back immediately. Buemi then gets by Senna!
- Grosjean very slow through the fast corners compared to Chandhok. Grosjean is locking his brakes at nearly every corner. Chandhok is now through.
- The last three laps of this were absolutely crazy! Grosjean v Senna v Buemi. Brilliant stuff. Grosjean lost out due to wearing his tyres but held on valiantly for most of that and does indeed beat Senna who went over the gravel in the last few corners.

- Giorgio Pantano wins! di Grassi 2nd, Chandhok 3rd, Buemi 4th, Grosjean 5th, Senna 6th. Conway made it as far as 14th after dropping to 24th on lap 1.



SPRINT RACE
24 laps
Sun. 6 July
Very Wet

- Fillipi on pole because he finished 8th yesterday. Zuber alongside him. Top 8 from race 1 are reversed, P9 onwards line up in yesterday's finishing order.

- Buemi and Herck crashed on the out lap to the grid! They cars hadn't even reached the formation grid yet, let alone the race start grid. I have a feeling we could see a lot of cars go out. Buemi should have started 5th, Herck was way back.

- GO! Someone stalled, slow getaway for Zuber. Lots of spray. Maldonado was the staller. Fillipi leads ahead of Senna (started 3rd). Senna passes him for the lead, but in the same shot his teammate Chandhok spins off!
- Fillipi is off the track, in the gravel. Yellow flags at turn one, don't know why.

- Parante and d'Ambrosio in the gravel, d'Ambrosio should continue.
- Grosjean has lost his front wing, is somehow holding off the other cars at these wet lower speeds. Petrov spins under acceleration! Pantano now 3rd.
- Grosjean pitted for his new wing.

- Fillipi vs Kobayashi, Fillipi goes off again and gives the place away.
- Conway is somehow 4th and setting fastest laps - he started 14th!

- 5 laps gone and the top 4 are already 20 seconds ahead of the next group.

- Grosjean has recovered to 12th, he's passed Villa. Grosjean's teammate Fillipi has spun off again!! He's struggling to stay on the track.
- Senna is now setting fastest laps while leading.

- Grosjean is pushed onto the grass by Buurman! Grosjean gets by him on the next straight, just drives past.

- At half-distance we have: Senna, di Grassi, Pantano, Conway, Soucek, Petrov. Just the top six score in the sprint race, top 8 in the feature race.

- Grosjean picks off Valerio easily for 9th.
- Kobayashi is 7th and he started on the last row of the grid.

- Petrov v Soucek for multiple corners! Petrov wins. He'd been faster at the overtaking spots but yellows prevented a pass before now. Kobayashi has caught these two while they were fighting.
- Soucek and Kobayashi collide!! Soucek pushed into the barriers, wheel ripped off the car. Replays... might not have been a push as Soucek got a wheel in the dirt which spun him around. His car is far enough out of the way not to need safety car.

- Raining hard now. Maldonado takes a drive-through for speeding in pitlane, after his car was pushed there to be refired at the start!

- Fillipi has pitted and retires. Maldonado now has to take a 10-second stop/go penalty for overtaking under yellows. Not much point him continuing after his day!

- Asmer has spun through the polystyrene advertising hoarding, destroying it, he was running last already.
- Senna is now in lapped traffic, which can't see him due to the spray. He's 8 seconds up on di Grassi who will surely close in now. 3 laps to go.

- Villa messes up the chicane and gets on the grass, spins around and stalls it. He was the only driver to finish every race this year - until now. He's out.
- Asmer spins again, either at the same place as last time or he's taken out another hoarding! He gets out and walks away.
- Senna has actually opened out the gap going through traffic.

Bruno Senna wins! di Grassi 2nd, Pantano 3rd, Conway 4th, Petrov 5th, Valsecci 6th.

Replays: Big shunt on the last lap! Three cars into each other at Bridge corner, involving Kobayashi, a BCN car and Maldonado. Lots of debris at Bridge. Terrible for Kobayashi who was 6th and on for a point after starting 25th.
Only 15 finishers, six of whom were lapped.


POINTS
Top 6 at the halfway point of the year:
50 Pantano
39 Senna
25 Buemi
24 di Grassi
23 Grosjean
20 Petrov



BLOG NOTES

Thanks to Jeff at MyNameIsIRL for pointing out the FEEDJIT live feeds by adding it to his own blog. A great addition which I have no qualms about stealing. It misreports where I am but you get the right region within the country. It'll be interesting to see a) if I have many readers and b) where they are.

The McLaren/Hamilton penalty hearing was today and the result will be announced tomorrow. I am expecting no change to the penalty and possibly an extra penalty for 'wasting time', which is not without precedent.

I was at... BTCC Silverstone

On Sunday I made the 3 hour journey to Silverstone to see the British Touring Car Championship. You can view my photos here.

I usually go to the Thruxton round (which is half the distance away) but missed it for a family commitment. It was raining so I nearly didn't go but my resolve to FINALLY see some racing in 2008 won through! Just ridiculous that this was my first race of the year, I've normally done at least one by mid-summer.

The journey time, plus being delayed by traffic in the rain, and the race timetable this weekend meant I missed Race 1 of 3 of the headline BTCC event, which I was pretty pissed off about because it ended as I was pulling into the car park. Not to worry - still over 5 hours of racing to go! BTCC races are run over 25 minutes and the support races are 15-20 minutes or so.

Short, sharp action is the order of the day which means the drivers take risks. There is also zero gap between races, as soon as one field enters pitlane at the end of a race the next field is leaving to form on the grid before their formation lap.

Once I'd moved from the car park and bought my ticket the SEAT Cupra race was under way, so I picked up a bratwurst roll and headed to the nearest stand where the view was pretty damned good. I found myself at Luffield corner, which is slow but has good sightlines. Thankfully it was a covered stand - the intermittent rain had returned.


I knew there was a break in the programme now and was now desperate for a hot cup of tea after the food and the drive, also I love to wander around getting different views and taking in the atmosphere - so I gave up this view. Little did I know that this was when the '50 Years of BTCC' parade of old cars was happening! Luckily I would meet them in the paddock later.

Tea bought and a wander had, I sat myself in a stand to drink the tea and warm up a bit, finding out that the chosen stand was on the pit straight. Unlike most events, this time I had no plan for where I would be at each race, just take it as it comes and explore. The pit walkabout had just started. I took a photo, sent a text and joined the long queue for the bridge.


It took a very long time to get over the bridge and it was a shame this was the only way in other than walking all the long way to Bridge corner and crossing there. So long that the gate to pitlane itself was closed when I arrived, I 'only' had access to the paddock - which is more access than with most racing series in this country!

I found Tom Chilton and Gordon Shedden of Team Halfords (the rebranded Team Dynamics). 'Sonic' (the hair) is being interviewed in the team hospitality unit, 'Flash' Gordon is the guy in the hat in the foreground. Deciding not to bug them I move on.


I had lots to see in the paddock and wanted to get back trackside before the Clio Cup started - those guys are nuts. It was then I found the historic touring cars from earlier.







I could hear engines firing up in the support paddock, which I never did find, this meant the Clio Cup guys were getting ready to go out. Plan: Quick nose in the back of the pits and then head back over.


(FRenaults were in pitlane not support paddock)

Trackside at Copse corner (turn 1), from this location the Clios were underwhelming, not much happened. I missed lap one getting back over that bloody bridge. I think what action there was was happening elsewhere. Also not much atmosphere as there were only a scattering of people here.


I took to a seat back on the start straight for the second BTCC race of the day. It wasn't eventful from my position but a lot happened elsewhere, suddenly we were down to 15 cars from the 24+ starters. This is a good place to sit for the speed - but you don't know what's going on because the commentary can't be heard over the engines.




There were three support races held between the 2nd and 3rd BTCC encounters. These were the Ginetti Juniors series for teenagers, the Formula Renault 2.0 UK series for developing talent, and the Porsche Carrera Cup GB. One pic from each:




I slipped away during the Ginettas to buy some merchandise, which I believe is a legal requirement at any race circuit. I certainly feel guilty if I leave a track having not bought any. I got the BTCC 50th Anniversary polo shirt in blue, which I recommend to anyone. Returning for the FRenault grid I sat through the rain to watch both this and the Porsche Cup. I'm not entirely sure why I did that, sheer determination to see as much racing as possible I think. Yet there was a covered grandstand a hundred feet away (albeit full).

Up next was BTCC race 3, the partly-reversed grid race. Top x positions from race 2 are reversed, where x is determined by a draw live on TV.


I enjoyed this one. The BMWs were shit-hot off the line, Jackson passed a complete row before my eyes! Amazing traction. Then later Turkington got knocked into a spin by Neal. You could better hear the commentary from this location, the end of the main stand, the large green one with 'SILVERSTONE' written along it.


And so the end! After being disappointed earlier I had significantly improved my mood as the racing went on, despite the rain, by the end I wanted more racing!

This time the BTCC closed proceedings, I have been to other tracks where there is a closing support race to help ease the traffic out. This ought to happen here because the new approach road doesn't solve the problem of leaving the car parks.


Click this for the track map, they used the short layout, turn right at Becketts, rejoin at Priory.

On the whole, if you ever get the chance to visit the BTCC anywhere in the UK, make sure you do so, you get great racing all day long - as long as you pick your viewing spots wisely.

I'm happy I've finally attended a race in 2008. This may by the only one I make this year. I'd like to go to the Le Mans Series at Silverstone in a fortnight but I'm not sure if it will be possible yet.

Finally, there was a fairly big crowd at Silverstone, most of whom were in the covered stands. Check out Autosport.com's photos of Superleague's inaugural event at Donington Park where literally tens of people turned up! I'm glad I didn't go there.

See you in a couple of days for the Detroit IRL notes. I already know the winner because I went to GrandPrix.com and got spoiled - I didn't expect them to report it, they don't always!

British Touring Cars

This is the 50th season of the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), which started life as the British Saloon Championship. I've been to several BTCC meetings over the last few years and you can view photos from those events through the Picasa links on the right-hand side.

For the uninitiated, the BTCC is Britain's premier motorsport category. The current format is for 3 races of about 20-25 minutes all held on the Sunday of the race meeting. Race 2 grid order is the finishing order of race 1. For the 3rd race the same is true apart from up front, where a random draw is held to determine how many positions are reversed. e.g. if 8 is chosen the poleman moves to 8th, the 8th-placed driver starts on pole. There are 10 of these race meetings per year making for 30 points-paying races.

The racing is a lot closer than the World series (WTCC) who's drivers are less inclined to push each other. BTCC is very much 'rubbing is racing', I usually hate that phrase and I dislike it in every other series but the BTCC would not have its character without it.

I'm heading to Silverstone tomorrow where the 50th anniversary celebrations will be held (I'm not sure what those celebrations will be). Thruxton is my nearest round but I missed it for family reasons, and I need my fix before the season is over!

In preparation for this weekend I've been catching up with this year's races, which I can't see live as I don't have ITV4. I 'acquire' them in the same way I get other stuff. So my GP2 plans went out the window and I watched BTCC at Snetterton, Oulton Park and Knockhill which immediately precedes Silverstone. Silverstone holds the penultimate meeting of the year, the season concludes at Brands Hatch 3 weeks from now.

BTCC currently uses the National layout at Silverstone, which is only just over a mile long and very fast. As a Grand Prix track it is also very wide. All this makes for a lot of two-wide oval-style action! I will return with pics and a report which I'll post as soon as I get the chance!

If you have the chance to catch BTCC on TV, do so, it is great fun. It is live on ITV4 from just after midday with highlights shows dotted around hither and thither. Outside of the UK, I believe the full season is shown on a delayed basis on SPEED during the winter in the USA (& Canada?). Not sure if you guys get 'as live' or just the highlights. Keep watching those listings.

Note on Superleague: It starts this weekend and I said I'd do a preview. I was wrong, I haven't had time and I can't see myself getting interested enough to do one.