Racing Eagles

Buxton in as SpeedTV's Pitlane Reporter.

Will Buxton will be the pit lane reporter this year for SpeedTV's coverage of Formula One. A great choice.

SpeedTV: Varsha on USF1 (Video)

I know a lot of this is just clearing the air sort of reporting but one thing did strike me. I think Varsha is a pretty good reporter with a decent legal mind. Yet it should be noted that with the recent Campos bailout, the Dallara chassis is not an option since it will be on the grid with a different team. That means they can't use the same chassis as another entry because that would be in violation of the FIA's sporting regulations.

Speaking of the sporting regulations, the FIA and FOM obviously are not on the same page. It sounds like USF1 was going off the interpretation of the Concorde Agreement which teams could miss races. However, the people that actually adjudicate the races, the FIA, have recently stated a team cannot.

If this is the case, then USF1 and Bernie's people were foolish not to notice this till now. People need to remember that the Concorde Agreement is a business contract between the teams and Bernie. Bernie's company (Formula One Management or FOM) is the commercial rights holder, not a rule making or legislative body.

The question for me and for USF1's future is what will the FIA do with this inconsistency? It depends how much of a influence or knowledge they had in the development of the Concord Agreement.

If the FIA was involved in the drafting of Concorde Agreement, then they violated their own regulations. If they were not, Bernie and FOM are in trouble for contractual inconsistencies between their contract with the FIA to run the commercial side of the sport and with the teams in the sport.

We might be in for some serious lawsuit action if USF1 wants to press its' case. I hope they do because the FIA and FOM needs to learn a lesson that they shouldn't write their contracts and legislation this poorly.

After all, it wouldn't be a Formula One season without some high drama court action.

Matchett in the USF1 factory.

It took me a few days to find this clip that showed during the race. Steve Matchett "drops in" on USF1 to take a look around the factory. I will not comment but I know that the peanut gallery is going to have a field day with this one.

SpeedTV: Matchett and Hobbs discuss the 2009 F1 season.

Note: This aired on Sunday before Toyota and Bridgestone pulled out of the sport.

SpeedTV: Ken Anderson and Chad Hurley Interview

Ken Anderson and Chad Hurley were interviewed on SpeedTV's Windtunnel program on Sunday. A few notes from the interview.

• So they've had 6,000 inquiries for employment so far. I guess I don't have a shot then.

• Ken Anderson and Chad Hurley win the silver metal in the 'F1 Deflective Answer Olympics' in front of third-place Bernie Ecclestone. Ron Dennis, while he has breath in his lungs, will always been the champion with his world famous 'Ron-speak.'

• Ken Anderson looked pretty uncomfortable. That said, he is a lot better a choosing his words than Peter Windsor is. Sometimes Peter has a tendency to well... get himself into trouble with the "call it as I see it" perspective he has. (On a personal note, that's one of the things I like about the entire SpeedTV F1 broadcast team whenever I watch a race. They're reasonably opinionated and good at making light of situations. For example, their commentary during the whole live timing fiasco at Hungary had me crying laughing. Great TV. Compare that to BBC's Jonathan Legard who could put a speed addict who just did the same amount of cocaine as John Belushi to sleep.)

  Back to Windsor. Being outspoken and opinionated is great when you are a journalist but it will get you in trouble in the private sector. Believe me, I've seen it way too many times when reporters and columnists leave newspapers to work in public relations. Ken seems a little more deliberate in what he says and follows the best public speaking advice I ever received; "Less is more." He also seems a lot more grounded then most Formula One people in the paddock today.

• I get the feeling that many are over-stating Chad Hurley's role in the team. From various sources, he really wasn't an F1 fan before Ken and Peter talked to him about investing in the team. I think he is viewing in the way which he said in the interview. Nothing really more than that. It's an investment opportunity. It's also way to explore new media how fans and organizations (sports teams and companies alike) interact with consumers.

  Companies are struggling to deal with the who new world of real-time, opinionated, and decentralized culture of commentary which we now live in. For companies like YouTube's parent company Google, there is a lot on the line to provide an answer. It's funny for a sport that is technically advanced as Formula One is, the way it uses technology is awful. I am glad Hurley is coming and showing Bernie what these new tools can bring to F1. I would go into more but I am stepping over a column which I will be writing soon.

• It's nice to see Krista Voda in the hot seat in hosting Windtunnel. She does a really good job on the NASCAR shows whenever I watch. It's nice to see her expand her wings a little bit and do more than just NASCAR. No one beats Dave Despain in that seat but she is a very good fill in.

Williams F1 "Inside Track" and their other multimedia presentations

Before every race SpeedTV posts "Inside Track" which is a race preview program produced by Williams F1. Out all the team on the grid, the team that I believe does the best job with new media is Williams. In addition to the "Inside Track" program, there are several other things they produce that I enjoy:

The AT&T Williams Team podcast: Unlike Force India and Renault's podcasts, Williams produce their podcast in-house. It's hosted by Clair Williams and interviews the drivers and various other members of the team. They however make the podcast more than just about how they did on the track. They get into the personalities behind the team and gives us mere mortals a glimpse into the life of a F1 team.

Their blogs: The team and each of their drivers have blog which is featured on their site. What's nice is the material they present is very diverse. What other team could say they've done a blog post on their accounting department?

All the little thing: There is a bunch of little stuff which I enjoy. For example, I can't imagine how much work it took to complete this interactive factory tour. On the other end, I really like how simple and vast their photo gallery is. Overall I really like Williams' web site. It simple, gives fans a lot material, gives sponsors proper recognition throughout the site, pretty well designed, and simple to navigate.

The USF1 team discussed when they launched that they were going to be a more interactive team with in-house TV production facilities and such. Well Mr. Windsor and Mr. Anderson, here is the bar. I am really interested to see what you come up with.

SpeedTV's Review of the Hungarian Grand Prix (Video)