5 YEARS OF THE F1 REJECTS PODCAST

[TimmyB]

Ladies and Gentleman,

On this date 5 years ago, 2 Sydney men aged in their early to mid-twenties committed a heinous crime against humanity.

In a moment of insanity they decided that the one feature their circa. 1999 website was missing was a podcast (very anachronistic of them). So immediately after the Hungarian GP of 2005, these two men switched on their cheap microphones in the middle of a wintery Australian night and recorded their thoughts on the Grand Prix they had just witnessed. It was, by all accounts, 17 minutes of pain, and not just pain for the listeners afterwards due to some horrid audio clipping. The podcast had very little structure, very little direction and very few jokes.

However, even this early in the life of the podcast it was clear to see where their allegiances lied. Lest we forget that this was the Grand Prix where Chanoch Nissany was 12 seconds off the pace in Practice. Somehow they managed to do another podcast 3 weeks later for the Turkish GP where the first ever race review song was included: 'Istanbul, Not Constantanople' by 'They Might Be Giants'.

It was a pioneering era. Remember that this was before ANTSMSW5PG... before SUPER Aguri... before Yuji Ide and Sakkon Yammamoto... before conspiracy theories and before HWNSMBM (although some believe that he has always existed and that he is immortal).

Gradually, race by race, the quality of the podcasts improved. These men eventually realised that recording straight after the race was a foolish move and placed undue hardship on them, so instead recorded it whenever it was most convenient for them.

Flash forward 5 years and the podcast still exists, a cult has been built up around it and the podcast is craved so much by so many in the cult that they would rather listen to one of their own perform a cheap imitation of the podcast than for there to be no podcast at all.

So, hats off and bow down to Jamie and Enoch, they have dedicated some 500 to 1000 hours to the podcast (let alone the website) and I for one am deeply grateful.

This thread has been set up so that people can share their highlights from the podcast over the past 5 years. But because I started the thread I'm giving two:

- Firstly, when they commentated on a lap of the Monaco GP circuit by just reading out the advertising signs. This was such a unique and inspired idea and was pulled off so well that it has become one of my favourite moments.

- Secondly, meeting them in person at the Australian GP of '09 and being interviewed for the podcast not long after their interview with HWNSMBM. The boys were beaming!

Have at it guys!

[shinji]

The emotional goodbye to Soopah Agoori is a personal highlight.

It truly is all good though. Kudos to Jenoch, I think that they've really perfected capturing the tiny, tiny bit of Formula One that isn't horribly cynical, financially-fuelled and sickening, and filtering it into something palatable and interesting. Here's to the next 5 years!*




*2017-2022

[MinardiFan95]

Congratulations to Jamie and Enoch for 5 years of making the best F1 podcast on teh interwebs (at least in my severely misguided opinion anyway).
Looking back over the 5 years since the podcast started we have seen many great moments in F1 (but not F1 punditry, thanks to James Allen and Jonathon Legard). There have been countless -gates, accusations of McLaren cheating, accusations of Ferrari cheating. We witnessed the retirement and comeback of Michael Schumacher as well as Luca Badoer's comeback (all two races of it), the start of Kamui Kobayashi's F1 career and last but not least, the start of the HWNSNBM legend.

2005 saw two of the great underdog teams, Minardi and Jordan, leave the sport, the F1 career (all of the few Friday Practice sessions) of Chanoch Nissany and the Indianapolis farce which saw Tiago Montero on the podium and both Minardi's score points.

2006 was looking bleak for fans of rejectdom. Minardi had been bought by Red Bull and was used as a B team for their driver development program. This was until Soopah Aguri came along with their 2002 Arrows chassis and the epic driver lineup of Takuma Sato and Yuji Ide, who was so rejectful he had his superlicence revoked. For a few rounds he was replaced by Franck Montagny but they wanted a Japanese driver. They signed Sakon Yamamoto, also known as that bloke who's head is going to fly off. Williams had a dismal year, and recieved ROTY.

2007, Friday Practice 1 at Melbourne and Takuma Sato was 4th fastest in the Soopah Aguri, a long way ahead of the factory Honda's. Taku went on to score points in the Spainish and Canadian GP's (6th at Canada after passing Alonso on the road). Spyker had their 15 minutes of fame at the Nurburgring, with Markus Winkelhock leading his so far only GP after Mike Gascoyne made the decision to start the #21 Spyker on wets. ROTY went to Honda, for being utterly rubbish almost all season.

2008 saw a sad loss when Soopah Aguri had the rug pulled out from under their feet by Honda before the race at Istanbul, not Constantinople. Sebastian Vettel won at a wet Monza race for a team that was once Minardi, albeit without Minardi's underdog spirit. Adrian Sutil lost what would have been an excellant 4th at Monaco when Kimi the Ice(cream)man unkindly punted him at the chicane.

2009 was known for three things; Luca Badoers long awaited comeback for Ferrari, the start of Kamui Kobayashi's F1 career and most importantly, the formation of the F1 Rejects forum. Jenson Button became the first ROTY winner to win a World Championship and Fisichella came second at Spa in a Force India. There was also a little thing known as crashgate that got Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds banned from F1.

2010 saw three new teams battling it out at the back of the pack. There would have been 4 if USF1 wasn't such a failure. They recieved a ban from F1. Stefan F1 tried to enter with Toyota's old cars, but sadly failed. A little known driver named Michael made his F1 comeback and was very unimpressive.

5 years, 97 podcasts and 3 community podcasts later, the F1 Rejects podcast is still going strong. We shall sing in celebration...
Here's to the losers, bless them all.

[Waris]

Hooray for the podcast! One of my favourite moments was when they did that Rejects kart race and had actual onboard footage in the podcast.

But of course, ALL of the 5 years' worth was AWESOME.

[Stramala]

So when will work start on the 5th Anniversary (a.k.a. Germanian) Edition?

[watka]

Thank you Jamie and Enoch for your dedication over the years, it's been a pleasure (and occasionally a pain) to listen too!

[RejectSteve]

2006 was looking bleak for fans of rejectdom. Minardi had been bought by Red Bull and was used as a B team for their driver development program. This was until Soopah Aguri came along with their 2002 Arrows chassis and the epic driver lineup of Takuma Sato and Yuji Ide, who was so rejectful he had his superlicence revoked. For a few rounds he was replaced by Franck Montagny but they wanted a Japanese driver. They signed Sakon Yamamoto, also known as that bloke who's head is going to fly off.

I maintain Honda only financed Soopah Aguri because of the F1 Rejects podcast.* Five years but it seems just like yesterday in some ways. I won't be forgetting the highlights such as reject interviews but also Nissanymania, Mikolamania, Soopah Aguri, ANTSMSW5PG, HWNSNBM, Inexperience, or "the innovative line of going through the gravel."

*Go ahead, prove me wrong!

[Phoenix]

I maintain Honda only financed Soopah Aguri because of the F1 Rejects podcast.*
*Go ahead, prove me wrong!

No, a Nigerian prince, with the help of Santa Claus, forced them. When the Nigerian prince and Santa Claus had an argument and split, the end was nigh for Soopah Agurih.

[shinji]

I maintain Honda only financed Soopah Aguri because of the F1 Rejects podcast.*
*Go ahead, prove me wrong!

No, a Nigerian prince, with the help of Santa Claus, forced them. When the Nigerian prince and Santa Claus had an argument and split, the end was nigh for Soopah Agurih.

The relationship was built on lies.

[Yannick]

5 years already? Congratulations to all participants of the podcast, especially Enoch and Jamie - and the community podcasters without whom it might not have lasted a full 5 years.