F1 Minute Video

F1 Minute is now available as a video podcast!

I like to plug the work other people are doing if I enjoy it, and our favourite purveyor of minute-long daily audio news updates is now providing them in video form.

Here is the first video, which is for the update of January 4th:

Kubica Set to Stay at Renault - F1 Minute (4 January 2010)
Uploaded by f1minute.

Keep in touch with new releases at F1Minute.com's video section (or via DailyMotion or YouTube), there is a slight lag at the moment while they find their feet but they'll soon be released in sync with the audio version. For the moment I'll keep the audio player embedded here on this blog, if you prefer to use that.

Tangentially, F1Minute.com is also the home of F1 Big Picture which is always worth a look, and a good place to source the text from original press releases from teams and the FIA. I think it is an under-appreciated site so let's give it some love.

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.

TMR on Planet IRL podcast!

Kohl from PlanetIRL has a new podcast and was gracious enough to ask me to appear on his first show. I was glad to agree even though I was mortified at actually talking out loud! What might I say?

Find out here!

Show Details

Host: Kohl Kirkland

F1 Segment
- Dex Brennan, from Midweek Motorsport and www.radiolemans.com
- Me!

IRL Segment
- Existing PlanetIRL co-writer Lisa Kenny.
- New PlanetIRL co-writer Paul Dalbey, also of http://greatestspectacleinracing.blogspot.com/

Special Guest
- Daniel Herrington, currently running inside the top ten in the Indy Lights points standings

Head over to the PlanetIRL to download the show!

* *

I let the side down a little by saying "umm", leaving gaps and generally being a bit quiet, but that's me generally anyway - for a quiet guy I didn't do too badly, particularly when paired with experienced motormouth Dex! He was a legend stepping in at the last minute when the booked guest found himself stuck at work.

What have I learned? If I ever go on a podcast again I'll be sure to prepare notes first and cut down on the nervous laughing! I very much enjoyed it though, and I hope the podcast is a success.

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.

TMR on Two Podcasts!

Amazingly I have appeared on two podcasts in the last week. Hot on the heels of meeting up with the voices and commenters at Sidepodcast.com last week when an impromptu chat was recorded with a whole group of us, I also joined in with the Sidepodpanel on Sunday night! It was a lot of fun and I hope to go on again at some point in time, if they'll have me. The edited podcasts are now live on the site so go over and check them out!


Sidepodchat:
This is an irregular feature on the website and the Science Museum Meetup provided an ideal chance to hold a version with everyone actually present in person. I had a few words to say but preferred to mill around listening to everyone else speak, as much as was possible with so many people in an open space!
Head here to listen to the podcast, it comes in at a tidy 16 minutes and you can listen on the page or download the MP3.
Although I sent a voicemail just before Melbourne, this was my first 'proper' podcast appearance with me talking live and direct into the mike. A very strange experience!


Sidepodpanel (Series 2 Panel 10):
This is a regular series in which two teams of three guests answer questions set by a guest host, with points awarded by Christine who is the host of the other podcasts produced by SPC (as I'm sure you don't need telling, being regular listeners yourselves).
I was placed with Team Fish & Chips alongside Alex and Scott. We were up against Team Alex's Trousers comprising Gavin, Steven and Andy. The guest host was Chris Evans (not the TV/radio one). Don't ask about the team names. :-)

Before listening to this one you should be familiar with this video from the former ITV commentator James Allen.

It was a hell of a lot of fun to take part so thanks to everyone concerned! It was very, very nerve-racking being put on the spot and coming up with something but everyone was nice about it and encouraging - after all, they were all newbies once too - and actually it was a good thing because it meant the questions were pitched at the right level, and made us all think. Nice job Chris!

Head to this page to hear the podcast! This one comes in at less than 40 minutes. Download it and listen after this weekend's racing action if you prefer.

Don't forget to catch up with all the Bahrain action with their other podcasts across the weekend including the brilliant aSide with Joe featuring Joe Saward of GrandPrix.com, calling direct from Bahrain.

TMR Gets Airtime on Sidepodcast

That's right, I guested on my very first podcast!

I appeared alongside many others on Sidepodcast.com's recent Episode #97 with a modest little prediction for the upcoming Australian Grand Prix.

The podcast featured predictions from a whole host of regular commenters from Sidepodcast's Live Comments, many of whom have their own blogs which I recommend you check out (I'll be updating my links over the weekend).

If some of them seem at ease on the calls it's because they regularly call in to the various podcasts produced by SPC. This was my first phone-in to any show anywhere!

You can listen via two methods:

- If you've got less than an hour I highly recommend you listen to the full Episode as it weighs in at a perfectly-formed 43 minutes, an ideal length in my opinion because you don't have to set aside your evening to hear it! There are a variety of options for listening in, just go to the page to find out more. The predictions appear in the 'Feedback' section but don't worry about that, you'll come to it soon enough.

- If you're more pushed for time please check out the 6 minute Predictions Montage.


While you are on the site take a listen to this week's hilarious Panel featuring guest host Gavin Brown! The podcast edition should appear later this week so look out for it.

There are also a variety of F1 Season Previews to look out for as well as an hour-long fascinating chat with F1 scribe Joe Saward who is the man behind GrandPrix.com as well as being a published author of racing books. (Meesh, if you're reading this, he talks about the trials of being a journalist in the F1 media centre - some things don't change, even in F1!).
Even if you don't listen to any of the other items above, at least make sure you listen to that discussion. It's worth it.


SPC Crash Course
These guys 'live comment' everything. That is to say, a 'live blog' but with all the commenters joining in with conversation in real time. You can't quite imagine it until you see it, so go there now!

To keep up with chat between events, go here: Doohickey
For commenting during events, go here: LCLT

Just keep it clean and keep an eye on what thread you're posting in and you'll be fine.

Warning: This will take over your life. It has mine - and I don't see that as a bad thing. That's when you know you're hooked.

I will be in the comments for all F1 races and for as many qualifying sessions as I can make. During races I may be a little quiet as I'll be taking notes for this blog, though I do hope to throw my oar in from time to time. These guys do the practice sessions as well, unfortunately I have to work. Grr, damned work, grr.


PS - I still hate my voice

Racing Podcasts

The racing season is quickly approaching and in some places has started already, and that means the racing podcasts are doing the same. I just thought I would mention some of my favourites:

Midweek Motorsport
I've known about MWM for a couple of years now and 2009 represents their 4th season. At two hours every week it is a pretty hefty commitment which is why I've not listened until now, I until now preferred LiveFastRacing's podcast which was a similar length but every few weeks. With the demise of that podcast I've decided to switch over to MWM. They cover all sorts of racing with several guys from different backgrounds. There's an F1 guy, a sportscar guy (the legendary John Hindaugh who is the track announcer at ALMS events and the man behind Radio Le Mans), and many more.
Very knowledgeable and actually very much like the Eurosport MotoGP commentary in terms of style, the 'down the pub with your mates' atmosphere. I say that having only heard episode 1 of 2009 and they are on to no.3 as of today (there's a new one every Wednesday), so maybe they've settled down a bit? I'm playing catch-up so I get back to the 'current' week if you see what I mean, and I highly recommend you do the same.

Check it out at RadioLeMans.com!


FastMachines.com
Chris, Josh and George put together a fast and furious ride through the world of racing, everything from NASCAR to ALMS to bikes to their crazy no-holds barred opinions of F1. And all in about half an hour! I'm not quite sure how they cram it all in but they seem to cover everything and in detail. I've been listening since ep9 or 10 and it's a lot of fun.

Ep.21 is coming soon so keep checking FastMachines.com!


MyNameIsIRL.com
Jeff is the host of the I Am Mindy Show, a run through the latest IndyCar news in 30 minutes or less or your money back. Still relatively new to podcasting although you wouldn't know it from listening, our mate Jeff is considered by many to be one of the 'senior' IRL bloggers out there (along with Pressdog) and his blog is quickly becoming the focal point of IRL fandom. You tend to go there first then link through to other sites. His podcast is equally as good.

Head on over to MyNameIsIRL.com and search for 'Podcast'!

Try all of these once and then settle on the ones you enjoy most. I fully intend to listen to all of them throughout the year.

Too Much Racing

I started this blog under the name of 'Too Much Racing' because that's what I was doing - watching too much motorsport every week. It soon came to take on another meaning: there is Too Much for one blogger to cover! There's also Too Much for one person to watch even if they aren't writing about it. I am not complaining - believe me this is a nice problem to have! I never want to have to change the name of this blog to 'Not Enough Racing'.

In an average week I would read Autosport magazine, Autosport.com, GrandPrix.com and a few other news sites before hitting the (many) blogs, and of course the F1NGers group. I would watch at least one 'big' event per weekend (an F1 or IndyCar race usually) along with a 'smaller' event after work one evening (say a touring car meeting of 2 or 3 x 25 minutes).

Since the summer the real world has intervened and I've struggled to keep up with anything other than F1 and IndyCar, and I'm 6 weeks behind on Autosport magazines, though I always keep up-to-date with their website.
On the other hand I feel more integrated with the world rather than being sat in front of the TV and PC all the time!

Want I want to know from you all is this: How you do it? I'm sure you all have busy lives to lead, how do you follow so much in so little time?

Are podcasts the answer? So far I listen to FastMachines.com Radio (which is very good). I'd like to listen to others such as Live Fast Radio and Midweek Motorsport but at 2 hours apiece they are just too long for me personally at the moment (sorry guys).. though I will try a bit harder. I like FastMachines because they do a wrapup of the weekend in about 45 minutes to an hour.

I know in the US you have Wind Tunnel. I know that because I find my own way to watch it and it is a good programme. I think MotorsTV should start a European edition and have it link up with the Speed show from time to time.

Perhaps if I spent less time reading and writing blogs I might have more time to watch the racing, but I don't see myself changing. Then again a year ago I didn't even consider writing a blog.


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I caught up with some World Touring Car action this week, albeit from June! It was from Brno in the Czech Republic, where Alex Zanardi won the first race and finished 2nd in the second race! Brilliant performance achieved on merit, great to see it. I missed his first win since 'The Crash' so I'm very pleased to have seen the second. The gap between the two wins was too long and there was a LOT of emotion from the team, and frankly everyone no matter what shirt they wore, as he got out of the car after both races.
They were good races too, WTCC's best of the year up to that point. The boys are in Japan this weekend before heading to Macau, while I'm four months behind them.. Let's get Surfers Paradise (IRL) and Interlagos (F1) out of the way and then I can do a mega catch-up of everything I've stored up to watch over the winter.

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Another way to occupy my time is to play prediction games, an interest of mine since about 15 years ago playing F1 games in newspapers. I don't do that any more, having switched to internet games a long while ago.

I currently play two of them. One is F1Tipping and the other is an interesting new game set up by Andy from The SpeedGeek's Motorsport Blog, called ARFL. Check out his blog for full details about the game which covers F1, IndyCar, ALMS and NASCAR. I only joined a couple of weeks ago and already I'm familiar with how it all works, it may seem complex on the surface but it really isn't, just play for one week and you've got it. Then the fun starts!

I did used to help run a prediction game on the F1NGers group until I ran out of time for it, so I can appreciate how difficult and time-consuming it can be to run something like this. I can also see that Andy puts a lot of work into this one. He's looking for new teams, make sure you sign up for '09.

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Okay, long post today. I'm aware that complaining of a long podcast and then writing a long blog post is probably not the best idea but I don't really care.

I'm gonna disappear until Monday because I don't want to know the result of the IndyCar race until I see the race myself. If the IRL online feed was good I'd consider getting up at 4am, but not for the Leader Cam. It drove me nuts at Homestead not seeing the rest of the field, so I've not used it since.

Enjoy Surfers, and the Valencia MotoGP!