Welcome to another installment of the Motor Sport audio podcasts. You’ll all be pleased to know that Roebuck’s Lauda impression makes a return and we’re even treated to a ‘Sir Jackie Stewart’. Besides mimicking the Formula 1 paddock we also discuss Alonso’s move to Ferrari, Kubica’s situation, Singapore 2008 – briefly, you’ll be pleased to hear – and the Goodwood Revival amongst others.
As always let us know what you think and feel free to ask us a question by emailing ed.foster@motorsportmagazine.co.uk or by commenting below.
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BRILLIANT!!!
Thanks once again Gents for a lovely bit of audio.
Much appreciated here in deepest, darkest, Africa. Where, according to Todt, we in RSA dont care much about a GP!
Go Vatenan, go McLaren, go Motorsport
Hearing Rob’s voice again was like having Track Torque back!
Having never heard Mr. Roebuck imitating anybody, I was laughing when I heard his Lauda and Sir Jackie. More please!
I wante to write to offer encouragement for your podcast. I started reading Motor Sport around 1980, when I discovered it on a visit to the UK. I have read it more or less constinuously since. Now that I am 53 years young, I most enjoy your hstorical coverage of the era in which I was first interested in the sport.
You have asked for feedback on the frequency and duration of the podcasts. I feel that monthly is about right. If it becomes more often, then it just becomes another “news of the week” item… and there is already plenty of that. With your historical view, you are not tied to events of the day or week. Deeper commentary on the current events of the month is something that is NOT available elsewhere, where straight reportage, certainly is.
As far as the duration, an hour is a nice number, but I would certainly not encourage that that be a hard limit. If the conversation is flowing, let it flow. If it is sagging, try to keep it alive for an hour… you never know when something interesting will happen…but if a session is dying, just end it. And if it is really dull, don’t even bother to upload it. After all, part of the beauty of this medium is the freedom from scheduling that a normal broadcast would face on radio or TV.
Keep up the fantastic work, it is enjoyed here.
Michael Hodish
Norwalk, CT
NEW England, USA!
Once again, unmissable stuff.
I am slightly concerned by the hint that these might not go on for too long, but otherwise a fantastic experience again. Surely you can’t think that you would run out of topics – expecially as nothing on here was not current (i.e. it’s not like you’re are using up a finite amount of anecdotes)…
But this stuff is exactly why I subscribe to Motorsport and have a vast stack of past issues in my study. Genuine experts with deep knowledge, experience and love of our sport giving opinion on how it is, was and (perhaps) should be. Podcasting is the modern equivalent and remains the next best thing to being there in a pub with you all.
Many thanks – especially for Nigel’s mimicry. Long may you continue.
The editor is indeed wrong..
If we didn’t like politics we wouldn’t have anything in F1 to make fun of !!
This is all very encouraging and thanks for all your positive comments on our latest get-together around the microphones in the Motor Sport office in London.
Yes, for me too, it’s a bit ike being back in the old Track Torque radio studio and I’ve always missed that weekly show for real fans of the sport. I guess the internet is the place these days and I must say that a converted warehouse by the river in Chelsea is a very different place to be from a converted church in the Fratton Road in Portsmouth. But the idea is the same and we hope to get more guests in with us as the weeks go by. We fully intend to carry on as long as we can get the backing from the magazine.
We will encourage Mr Roebuck to do his excellent impressions as this can, as we know, be very entertaining.
There is more than enough to talk about, especially if ‘F1′ continues to shoot itself in the foot at such regular intervals.
I’m away on holiday next week but the podcasting and the blogging will be back once I’ve had a few days in the sun and been to the new historic racing event at Portimao the week after next. Will be interesting to see the new circuit that will, at some point, be the home of the Portugese Grand Prix.
We’ll all be up at some uneartly hour tomrrow I guess. Just hope it’s worth it and we get a good race at a wonderful track.
RW
How about a new ‘Grand Prix of Gibraltar’, voiced by Nigel Roebuck, and written by Clive James?
Well done chaps, excellent stuff. But I would keep the scheduling of the podcasts informal. Only do them when there is something interesting to talk about, which may be more or less than once a month.
Apologies for my comments months ago about the audio quality, which I have tracked down to the equaliser program on my soundcard. I offer the observation, without further comment, that the “environment” setting that gives the most lifelike aound reproduction is “padded cell”…
Many thanks indeed for your podcasts. A very worthy addition to the website. Wasn’t Vettel stunning at Suzuka; an absolutely brilliant performance at such a great track. Here’s hoping that Yas Island provides some exciting dices on November the 1st. See you there!
Keep this up! Please have a special sub-feature every time with Niki Roebuck and Nigel Stewart . Ask thm some hard questions.
There are two excellent ideas in your latest comments on the podcasts.
A new GP of Gibraltar with Mr Roebuck doing the Ustinov role is a terrific idea and I will certainly suggest this to Nigel when we next meet for lunch.
And, an interview with Lauda and/or JYS (he does many othersd as well) could be a lot of fun too.
We will mull these over and see what might occur. I am going to start a script for the Gibraltar caper. I have some ideas……………………..
And yes, a superb drive from Vettel. Like Hamilton, he is very exciting to watch in the car.
RW
another great podcast. you guys are really onto something. GP of Gibraltar – make it happen!!!!!
can’t wait for the next magazine to arrive with Nigel’s article on Andretti at the US bullrings in the 60s! An idea for a future issue could be one on AJ Foyt in a similar vein? He has a lot of great stories to tell and seems willing to share!
Either one would make a great podcast guest as well – they love to talk!
Right! Both Foyt and Andretti would be fantastic.
I think Mr Roebuck is trying to get Mario for a podcast and yes, his article in the latest mag is terrific!
Both ideas filed and noted Dave!
I am still recovering from seeing Valentino Rossi fail to win in Portugal. Extraordinary. But great to have Casey Stoner back and in such good form. Looks like an exciting end to an exciting season in store.
RW
Gents,
Just wanted to feedback how great I think the Podcasts are – they just keep getting better and better.
Keep up the format and experiment with some different contributors – Jody was excellent.
Excellent podcast, please keep it up. My father and I had the great previlige of having a long chat about everying F1 with Nigel on the Eurotunnel on our seperate ways to Spa 07, this podcast takes us both back to that day, it’s as if your all chatting down the pub.
A few ‘interviews’ with Jackie & Niki would be great.
Looking forward to Nov 09, when it will all be over.
I’ve really enjoyed the podcasts – they’re getting better each time. An hour a month sounds about right, but keeping it flexible depending on what is going on makes sense too. Well done all concerned.
A few of you may be wondering why I have not delivered a new blog lately, and why I have been so unusually quiet………………………………
For the past week I have been on the island of Corfu which is in the Ionian Sea, the northernmost of the Greek islands and near to the coast of Albania. I was creating a new blog yesterday but a storm on Saturday night left us without phone or internet. These have now been restored so I have no excuse, except that it is still stormy, the wind is bending the olive trees and the sea is threatening to come ashore in the village of Arillas just below us on the north-west coast. As I write, there are white horses as far as the eye can see and another huge black cloud is scudding across a blue sky.
On the motor racing front, I’m off to Portugal this week for the Masters historic meeting at the new Portimao circuit on the Algarve. Right now, however, there won’t be many planes flying into or out of Corfu.
Looks like I may be watching the Grand Prix at Interlagos on TV which is a shame as this is my favourite of all the races on the current F1 calendar.
And this year it looks as though Jenson Button will take his title in Sao Paulo. At least they really know how to party there so JB will be assured of a day/night to remember.
More on this, and much els, when we re-convene in London for our next podcast.
RW
What can I say different than everybody else – another excellent podcast. Audio is quite good now and the longer format is very enjoyable. I really appreciate the unfettered discussions, with the “tell it like it is” approach. Once a month is about right.
Great podcast but very surprised by how over-rated Alonso is.
Briatore’/Symmonds used the illegal (as judged) ‘tuned’ mass damper to take the 2006 WDC with Alonso but since then the Spaniard seems to have been swamped by a newer and faster generation which includes Kubica, Hamilton and Vettel.
In 2007, Alonso cracked under pressure with errors in Bahrain, Spain, Canada – all pre-”Spy-gate” – and then crashed in Japan (where Hamilton won and Raikkonen finished 3rd) with the championship still on the line. He let a rookie driver get the better of him that year and was forced to go “down” the grid. Senna or Prost would never have let that happen.
This brings us to Alonso’s second stint at Renault where he’s had a full two years and unequivocal Number 1 status to help move the car up the ranks. He’s had access to the same highly-acclaimed and talented group at Renault F1 as ’05/’06 and a power plant which Red Bull have used to win five Grand Prix races to date…and yet he’s been unable to push the car up the grid. It puts a serious question mark over his supposed ‘development skills’ doesn’t it?
I mean, Fernando’s legitimately won only a single race over a period when even a Toro Rosso was able to take the chequered!
Lastly, we’ve seen Alonso unable to maximize his team’s points chances in the last handful of Grand Prix races. He hit Sutil from behind at la Source in Spa, got out-gunned by Glock on lap 1 in Singapore and then went through yellows at Suzuka which dented Renault’s race chances.
Guests in the podcast said Alonso’s the most ‘complete’ drive on the grid…but where’s the evidence?
Possibly at the end of 2006…but it’s now three years later and Alonso seems to be living off former glories while Raikkonen continues to monster a Ferrari which is, at best, the 6th fastest car behind Red Bulls, Brawns, McLarens, BMWs and Toyotas these days…and driving through fireballs to do so.
Raikkonen, for instance, is making a complete mockery out of Fisichella…a man who crushed Sutil at Spa and nearly won from pole only a couple of months ago…a man who, from time to time, was able to beat Alonso himself while they were at Renault. Similarly Hamilton with Kovalainen who was reputed to be just as fast as Alonso when he was test driver for the Regie in 2006.
Could it be that the podcast team is totally over-rating Alonso’s skills and completely under-rating the likes of Hamilton, Raikkonen, Vettel, Kubica and Massa?
Seems so.
I hadn’t cottoned-on to these podcasts until today.
Very enjoyable. I hadn’t read about the impressions talent before either!
These ‘poddies’ have quickly become essential listening, and I love Tim’s comment about it like being in a pub with you all – spot on.
The content, knowledge and clear love of the subject in everyone around the table is pure joy.
But can you do anything about the actual *audio*? The constant soundtrack of ‘off-mic’ heavy breathing and snorting from those not talking can be sorted either by gating the mics or having someone there to mix the sound live. And covering some of the reflective surfaces would minimise the ‘recorded in a fishtank’ effect.
That’s my only moan – honest!