World Series, here I come (again)!

Image: automobilsport.com

For the past two years now, I have been an attendee of the British leg of the Renault World Series, which to motorsport fans and drivers is kind of like GP2 but not exactly as well known or popular. But it's still spawned Heikki Kovalainen, Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel as F1 stars, so it must be doing something right! But still, this is an event that is a great place for any motorsports fan in general to attend. Simple answer - it's free! Yup, that's not a typo. Renault genuinely do give away tickets to these events absolutely free. Who doesn't love a free day out anyways?

So what's it all about? What can you actually see there? Well for a start, there's the main event which are the 2 World Series races of course (1 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday). Then to go alongside that, there's a full program of support races from the Clio Cup, Formula Renault and my personal favourite, the Megane Trophy. Have you seen one of those things?! It's quite simply, as I put it, a standard Renault Megane that's overdosed on steroids. It's such an awesome looking car with huge flared wheel arches, a massive protruding rear wing and a chassis so low to the ground it's unbelieveable. Couple all that to the same howling V6 that the WSR racers use and it's literally heaven on wheels in my book. I absolutely adore the series and the new car, based on the new Megane Coupe, looks stunning. Cannot wait to see that this year!

Apart from the racing, you get some lovely demo runs on track as well from some historic Renault race cars from F1, Le Mans and rally. I should point out the rally car is an R5 Maxi Turbo which is usually driven by Jean Ragnotti, a rally driver and probably professional madman. The guy's skills in a rally car are simply jaw-dropping. He can literally drive a front wheel drive Clio on a rally stage like it's rear wheel drive. Search him YouTube and you'll know what I'm on about. But the big event of the day, apart from the WSR races, has to be the 2 F1 demos, usually showcasing a year old F1 machine in this season's colours. So judging by the pictures I've seen of Renault's roadshows, it's going to be an R28 in that white, yellow and orange paint scheme the current R29s are running around in.

Off track, there's a pitstop challenge, various racing simulators, a driving experience in Clios and plenty of merchandise to have a browse at. Plus, because of the open paddock at Silverstone, across the bridge and behind the pits, you can look at the teams working on the cars and take pictures. There's also a pit walk which takes place before the WSR race, but I've missed it on both occasions and I am determined not to miss it this year! In 2007 the event was held at Donington and last year and this year, as I've just mentioned, it's run at Silverstone. Another good thing is that the tickets allow you to use all of the circuits facilities, which means you can watch the on-track action from the grandstands. Last year, we watched the WSR on the back row of one of the covered grandstands on the pit straight. Lovely and cool, and just about in view of the big TV screens showing the action.

There's a few people from Sidepodcast who don't have the cash to make Goodwood, where another meet-up is going to take place I should imagine, who will be attending the World Series event too, so if you're reading this I hope to see you at some point during the day. As for me, I'll be attending with my dad and some of his friends from when he worked at Toyota, who are a riot to be with. Peter and Gareth have gone with us on both occasions and the latter is such a hilarious guy to be with, especially in the car travelling to and from the circuit. Both times on the way back he has made me laugh so much it's made me cry. That's how much fun I have at these events.

If you think a free day's racing sounds too tempting, then direct your attention to www.worldseriesbyrenault.com, click the event you're interested in, click the icon in the corner for free tickets, fill in the form and they'll be with you within 6 weeks. If you've never been, I can thoroughly recommend it if you haven't got the money to go to somewhere like Goodwood on the same weekend. A great alternative, if you ask me.

So you wanna be a virtual racing driver?

Anyone who knows me will know that as much as I enjoy real racing, I am a sucker for a good racing game, be it console or PC. They're practically all I play on my 360 and if I see a simulator at a show or race event, I just have to have a go and prove my worth. Either way, if there's a racing game and it looks good, then I'll play it. Although I have to admit I am longing to become a regular PC sim racer in the future. I just don't have the equipment necessary or up to standard - yet.

It is a plan of mine to have a proper desk in my room with a decent spec desktop PC with a bigger processor and good graphics card to get started. In terms of controls, I have a Logitech Chillstream joypad which is pretty much an 360 controller with an internal cooling fan that keeps your hands cool and sweat free. Why can't all controllers carry that? It is such a small feature, yet so useful. It's not uncommon for some gamers' hands to get a little clammy in the heat of battle. I for one can testify to that, as unpleasant as it sounds. I did have a wheel, a Logitech Driving Force Pro which was originally made for the PS2 game Gran Turismo 4 but is still a decent starter wheel and dead cheap to pick up now, but...well...let's just say it broke.

The wheel I've been so desperate for for a long time now is the Logitech (see a pattern here?) G25, which has a clutch pedal and a seperate shifter with the option of switching from a sequential to a H-pattern setup. There are of course paddles on the wheel but I like the fact that it covers all the bases in terms of how you want to shift gears. Trivial, I know, but that shows just how popular the wheel is. I've only tried the wheel once, at the Autosport Show on a sim racing pod that had RACE 07 running. I can still remember the car and circuit - a Caterham on the Brands Hatch GP layout. I did 3 laps and had a very big moment on one corner which somehow I was able to save.

Racing with a wheel is obviously a lot more realistic than doing so with a controller, but in my mind the G25 is the best one out there at the moment. Apprently they're already working on the successor, the G27, news of which I read on VirtualR.net, so just what changes there are from the 25 will be interesting to see. In terms of games, rFactor stands out as the premier racing sim for me more than the others. There may be others that claim to have better physics and be more realistic, such as Live For Speed, but I like rFactor because of the sandbox nature of it. It's pretty much a base for modders to basically create what they want. That's what I love about it. You get F1 mods, touring cars, rally, sportscars, GT, road cars, single seaters, NASCAR - you name it and it's probably available as a mod for rFactor. Image Space Incorporated, the game's developers, are already well underway and screenshots are coming through every week it seems. Graphics-wise, it looks great and I'm following them on Twitter, so any updates will come through there and on VirtualR.

There's an online racing series I've been following for a while called Formula Sim Racing. Right now, it's run using rFactor and the CTDP F1 2006 mod this season (I think - the cars look like they're from that mod). They run a rather nifty 7-tier system which allows drivers to progress from Amateur, with races at 50% of the length of the real race, all the way up to the World Championship with full length races and some of the best sim racers on the planet. Looking at some race replays and broadcasts on PSRTV, it looks really competitive and my kind of racing. I would love to race in that series and take part in the hard slog to progress up the ranks to the WC. It will take a lot of work but I'd really appreciate the shot at running at least one race. Hopefully I can do that sometime in the future. If you fancy having a look or finding out more, then visit www.formula-simracing.com

For now the 360 is my hub for racing games, with GRID and Race Pro dominating my racing gameplay. The latter received an update from Atari and Simbin which went online yesterday and fixes some online and offline gameplay issues, bugs and glitches. It's been long awaited but at last it's out and players can run online without any problems. Well, I probably wouldn't say every bug has been fixed, but the most noticeable ones I assume have been sorted out. Nevertheless it's the most realistic racing sim I've played on a console physics-wise. Sure the graphics aren't as good as GRID's for example but I've not played a racer on the console that feels better or more true to real life. Plus when you get a decent field of 12 players online, the racing can be simply brilliant. You do get some idiotic French and Germans, I've found, but I'm a member of RaceDepartment, a sim racing community that prides itself on clean, fun and professional sim racing.

So my advice? Well if you're a PC racer, get something like rFactor, GTR2, GTR Evolution, GT Legends or Live For Speed. All are great sims and all have thriving online communities. It only takes a bit of effort to find them. As for consoles, the new F1 game is coming, but not to the 360 or PS3 until next year, but the PSP and Wii will get one based on this season later on this year. Apart from that, GRID and Race Pro are great as is Forza Motorsport 2, which I haven't played for a whie but is still a golden oldie for the 360. Project Gotham Racing 4 is also fun if you don't want a racing game that's too simulated but too arcade. It's a nice balance and has half-decent graphics to boot. But to get started, get yourself a PC or laptop that has a good processor and graphics card. You can get gaming laptops and desktop systems which are pricey but give you what you want and more. But don't go mad and spend a fortune!

So who knows - get into it properly and I may be sat on the virtual grid next to you one day ;)

Their name is Lola, they are a race team...

Allan McNish drives Lola's 1995 prototype F1 car at Silverstone (Image: forix.net)

No doubt those of you who avidly follow Autosport Magazine's ever-popular website will know that yesterday the world renowned and world-famous race car manufacturer Lola made it known their considerations for a re-entry into Formula 1. It certainly came as a completely out of the blue announcement and pretty much shocked myself and my closest friends who associate with F1 in the same way I do. Certainly the last time we heard Lola and F1 associated together, it wasn't for anything good.

For those who are unaware of the Lola Group and what they do, they are pretty much one of motorsport's most productive race car constructors and have been for some 40 years. But when it comes to F1, their record isn't as glistening as it may be in other formulas such as IndyCar/Champ Car or sportscar racing for example. Despite the Lola Mk4, run by Reg Parnell's team, taking pole position in the hands of John Surtees on its first F1 appearance, the company have never seemed to get F1 and success to go hand in hand together. In fact their only victories came in partnership with Honda from Richie Ginther and Surtees respectively. That relationship soon ended and we didn't see the name Lola in F1 again until the 70s.

At that time, double world champion Graham Hill, father of 1996 world champion Damon, commisioned them to build a car for his new Embassy Racing team. While it looked more like a Formula 5000 car than F1, it was never really successful and the partnership only scored 1 point in its entirety. It quickly ended after 2 seasons and Lola disappeared off the scene once again until 1985, when a new partnership with Carl Haas, one half of the successful Newman/Haas/Lanigan IndyCar team (as it's now known), came to be for his Beatrice Foods-backed F1 team. Patrick Tambay and 1980 champion Alan Jones drove for them for two seasons with the best results being 4th and 5th respectively in Austria in '86.

After this came a link-up with Larrousse which resulted in Aguri Suzuki scored an amazing 3rd place at Suzuka which sent the Japanese fans wild. But it still wasn't enough. The partnership ended before the 1991 season, and they weren't seen again until 1993 where they tried another project with Scuderia Italia which, despite the Ferrari engine, failed miserably. Then came the infamous saga in 1997 when, after building the 1995 prototype as pictured above, they made a beeline for the 12th spot on the F1 roster. They successfully secured it, but the investors were impatient in wanting the car finished quickly. As a result, it was literally a case of going from the drawing board straight into building it, with no CFD and a miniscule amount of wind tunnel testing. The car was rushed to Melbourne without even turning a wheel and when it came to qualifying, the fastest time between the two drivers (Vincenzo Sospiri and Ricardo Rosset) was some 14 seconds off pole man Jacques Villeneuve. Thus, they failed to qualify and seeing this, their title sponsor Mastercard upped sticks and left along with all the other sponsors they had, leaving them broke and unable to continue. The cars turned up at Interlagos 2 weeks later, but the covers on them were never taken off and that was that.

But just because they haven't been a success in F1 doesn't mean they're a failure in general. Lola's cars have been some of the best around in the lower single seater formulas and other series such as IndyCar/ Champ Car and sportscars. Not only that, but they have been the designer of cars for Formula Nippon, Formula 3000 and A1GP which have all been great looking cars that still provide great racing. Their sportscar record isn't the most successful but Lola have made some recognisable favourites including the T70, the Lola-MG EX prototypes and more recently their own LMP1 closed prototype and Aston Martin's new LMP1, which managed a sensational debut victory just a couple of weekends ago at the LMS season opener at Barcelona.

So can they actually last more than about 3 or 4 years in the sport without having to pull out? I say on this occasion: yes. Reason? Look at what they've done since the shameful 1997 pull-out. They've got brilliant facilities which have enabled them to produce some wonderful cars which, despite not being the best or the fastest, haven't exactly been flops. Plus by being the main supplier for 4 seperate one-make single seater series, they've still been keeping their hand in with Formula cars. All this under the guidance of Martin Birrane who, after taking over from Eric Broadley, has transformed the company dramatically.

At the moment they're only considering it, but with Bernie confirming there will be 3 new teams on the grid for next season, and with USF1 pretty much owning one of them already, Birrane has said himself that the facilities they've built up since '97 can easily be adapted for the development of an F1 car. The only other info we know is that should they go ahead with it, it's extremely likely they'll go with the "FIA engine" from Cosworth. Because of the cheap, cost-effective engine and transmission package the governing body can provide teams, new or exsiting, an easy way to either get started or stay in the sport without it costing the earth. Yes, I know the Cosworth engine is 4 years old and useless, but to be fair it's the only way for those new teams coming in who, despite the propsed budget cap set to be enforced for next season onwards, can't afford a customer deal with an existing engine supplier.

Perhaps the FIA can do as Renault were allowed to and upgrade the Cosworth unit to bring it up to spec with the current crop of engines currently under the engine freeze (which is set to finish at the end of 2011). That way these teams which decide to go with this package won't suck! As for Lola, well I do hope it all comes good. Personally, I think they build good and fairly quick machines. Whether their efforts will be good enough for the pinnacle of motorsport once again - well, it's early days yet, but I'd certainly like to think so, wouldn't you?

Why are you still here?

Image: GPEuropa.net

Young talent these days is never really hard to come by, especially in racing. Those who initially impress in karting and the lower formulas can find themselves staring an F1 drive in the face. Some get there just on pure talent alone, like Fernando Alonso or Kimi Raikkonen. Some have their talents nurtured and supported, such as Lewis Hamilton. But there are also those who have greatness expected of them, and it's fair to say that greatness is not what Nelson Piquet Jr. has, at any rate.

The kid impressed in GP2 and A1GP, but since he stepped into an F1 race seat last season alongside double world champion Alonso, on his return to Renault after the fallout that occured at McLaren, it's been plain to see he hasn't shown anything significant that proves he is deserving of that drive. Despite a tough start to 2008 for the team, Alonso was still able to score back to back wins in Singapore and Japan and more points than anyone else in the second half of the season. Yet all Piquet really achieved was a lucky 2nd place at Hockenheim, all down to the strategy played by his race engineer. There's that and the reputation that he is utterly useless.

I don't know what it is with some drivers but when they make the jump from F3000/GP2 to the big time, something happens and their skills either get better and go from strength to strength or just disappear. Nelson most certainly falls in the latter. So far in his tenure at the top, he hasn't had one major success. Most of the time he fails to make it out of Q1 while Fernando managed to sail into Q3, and in the race he was usually the one who either suffered reliability problems or trundled round near the back of the field spending the afternoon racing with the Force Indias. 2009 hasn't been an improvement on last season so far, as the Chinese GP just gone has shown. His shenanigans on Sunday are a prime example of why his place in that team isn't deserved. With the wet conditions, similar to those of Fuji 2007 in my opinion, making things tricky enough for everyone out there, Nelson lost the car on the approach to Turn 5, skated across the grass and gravel and into a polystyrene marker board. Funnily enough, the nose of his R29 was broken by it, questioning resilience of such a machine. Anyway, he then almost became stuck in the wet sandtrap, but managed to haul himself out. Then comes the best part - it takes him around 30 seconds to a minute just to get the car going again. The anti-stall kicks in continously until Nelson is finally able to resume racing. Honestly, it made Richard Hammond's escapades in the R25 on Top Gear look good.

As if that wasn't enough, no sooner had the team replaced the nose on his car, that just a couple of laps later he dropped the car again under braking for the last corner, damaging the nose again in the process. Flavio Briatore's body language said it all. He certainly was not impressed. But this is what puzzles all us F1 fans - if Flavio can't tolerate Piquet's antics and misfortunes, why on earth is he still in that team? My guess is that he still maintains a close relationship with his father, 3 times world champion Nelson Piquet Sr. Flav joined Benetton in 1989, the same time that Piquet began his final 3 years of his career with the team. So my guess is that not only did he build and maintain a working relationship with the guy, but also a personal one which has pretty much lead to Jr getting the testing job and then the promotion to race driver.

I don't even think they're keeping him on because of sponsorship. From what I've seen, there's no evidence of any sponsorship links between Piquet and Renault. Nelson did mention in an interview with F1 Racing that he'd known Flavio since a young age. When asked about the first F1 race he attended and what made it special he said:

"My mum was friends with Flavio and Naomi Campbell - it was in July and there was a race in Austria. I was about 14 or 15. Flavio asked me if I wanted to go and I said "Yeah, sure!" You wouldn't believe it - it was just me and him on his plane. I stayed in his room, went with him to the track and he took care of me all weekend, like a father. It was really special, a great weekend. For him to be my boss 10 years later was really strange at first."

But in the same interview, he also mentions briefly that is not all "buddy-buddy" with him either. Talking about how supportive and fair he is, he said:

"Not always. He can be really tough and you need to be able to ignore the right things, absorb the right things and be able to judge everything."

Obviously there's some things which are right that he seems to be ignoring. You see, this is what gets me about talentless namesakes like him. He quite plainly and simply does not deserve to be in F1 any more. If I were Flavio, I would have cut my ties with him at the end of 2008. The 2nd place in Germany last year wasn't earned, it was just luck of the draw. The rest of the year he spent crashing, failing to make Q2 and breaking down all the time. I don't see any logic in keeping him in the team. Everyone predicted his head would be on the F1 chopping block either before or at the end of the season. Yet he's still there. That seat could be put to better use by promoting third driver Romain Grosjean or someone like Lucas di Grassi or Bruno Senna even. It just doesn't make sense at all. Hopefully Flavio will see some soon and do the right thing for both his team and in fact the rest of the grid. Then it'll be a case of "Nelson, you are the weakest link. Goodbye..."