Tooned 50: The Grand Finale

The last Tooned 50 with all the legends alive in the same episode. Enjoy!

FIA press conference schedule - Singapore

Among those facing the media at Marina Bay on Thursday will be the Ferrari-bound Kimi Raikkonen and the driver who has been tipped by many to replace him at Lotus, Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg. Meanwhile, Friday’s press session includes the man who could decide Hulkenberg’s fate, Lotus team principal Eric Boullier. The line-ups in full...

Thursday, September 19, 1800 hours local time (1000 GMT)
Valtteri Bottas (Williams), Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber), Sergio Perez (McLaren), Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Adrian Sutil (Force India).

Friday, September 20, 2315 hours local time (1515 GMT)
Eric Boullier (Lotus), Robert Fernley (Force India), Tony Fernandes (Caterham), Franz Tost (Toro Rosso), Claire Williams (Williams).

The qualifying and post-race conferences with the top three drivers will take place immediately after the respective sessions.

2013 Italian Grand Prix Preview

A picture from the old part of the track (the loop).

Are you ready for the Italian grand prix and the Monza track? This is one of the most legendary tracks in F1 history and it is also Ferrari's home grand prix.

Several Formula One legends have died on this track. The list is long so I shall mention just a few.

• In 1955 the Ferrari legend and two time world champion Alberto Ascari died here during a test session. 
• Wolfgang von Trips and 14 spectators were killed after he collided with Jim Clark in 1961. 
• Jochen Rindt was crowned as the Formula One world champion at the end of the 1970 season. Unfortunately he had passed away before that at Monza. The points were enough to make him the champion.
• The best Swedish F1 driver ever lived was Ronnie Peterson. He died in a hospital after a serious crash at the start of the 1978 Italian grand prix.

The Monza track has changed several times over the years. At first it looked like this:

This was in 1922-1933 before the F1 series even existed. The track was 10 kilometers with 4.5 kilometers in the loop and then 5.5 kilometers on the road track.

Later in 1935-1937 the track was changed and looked like this:

In 1950 the Formula One series started and Monza was the last race on the calendar. The race was won by Nino Farina even though Juan Manuel Fangio had been faster all weekend. Fangio got pole position and set the fastest lap of the race. Unfortunately he retired due to a gear box failure and Farina won the race and the first championship. The track was again different and it looked like this:

In 1955 it looked again like it did in the beginning (with the road- and loop-part). After 1969 the oval part was not used anymore and the track looked about the same it looks today.

The fastest lap on the combined track was set in 1960 by the American F1 world champion Phill Hill. The record was 2.41.400 and the time was set with a Ferrari.

The fastest lap on the modern track is made by Rubens Barrichello in 2004 and also with a Ferrari. The current record is 1.21.046 and the reason why it is so much faster is that "the loop" is no longer in use.

Last year Lewis Hamilton won in Monza before Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso.

Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen had some problems in the race. Vettel had to retire because of the problems with his alternator and Kimi's Lotus had no speed to compete with the others. Lotus was not good at tracks like Monza but he was still 5th.

Romain Grosjean had got a penalty in Spa so he got replaced by Jerome D'Ambrosio. He had a chance to show everybody his skills but couldn't keep up with Räikkönen at all.

Sergio Perez really showed that he is a competitive driver when he overtook several "super drivers" with his Sauber and took the second place at the end.

Alonso made the Ferrari fans very happy when he took the third place and spoke in Italian on the podium. He even took one of the TV cameras and filmed the crowd with it. That was some good entertainment for them and for us others as well.

And now it's time for my guesses and here they are:

Pole position: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull

Race:

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
3. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari

Fastest lap: Mark Webber, Red Bull

Surprise: Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso

Tooned: What's It Oil About

 McLaren made a new Tooned episode a week ago with Mobil1 about oil.

McLaren Tooned 50

So now I have found and watched the new episodes of Tooned with Sergio Perez and Jenson Button.

The show is now called Tooned 50 because of McLaren's 50'th year in Formula One.

There are two episodes at the moment:

And as a bonus there is a "making of"-episode:

Please click on the YouTube-logo to watch these episodes in full screen on YouTube.

A few words after the practice and qualifying sessions

I was very surprised about Räikkönen's position. He is usually better than Grosjean but for some reason not in Hungary. Last year Romain took the second place at qualifying but in the race Kimi overtook him after the second pitstops leaving him in 3rd place.

Tomorrow Romain has a very good chance to challenge both Hamilton and Vettel. I still think that Räikkönen is going to be higher up than Grosjean. Kimi has no problems overtaking Romain and even if he had I think that Lotus wants to be extra nice to him right now when he is deciding what to do next year.

I believe there will be a lot of action in the start. Kimi and Fernando will do everything they can to get higher up. They are the drivers everybody should keep their eyes on. Both of them has won this race ones before but Kimi has been more times on the podium than Fernando.

I was surprised that Button lost to Perez cause he really likes this track. He has also won here two times before. Jenson even took his maiden vistory with Honda here in 2006 like I wrote before on Sunday.

The disappointment was Williams' lack of pace. At first it really looked like they had found some new speed but in the end they fell down to the places where we are usually seeing them (this season).

But just like Kimi always says "the race is on Sunday" and nothing really matters what happens on Friday and Saturday. It seems that in the long runs Lotus and Ferrari are strong when it's hot weather and Mercedes is not.

I have nothing against this driver and I used to cheer for him but it would be boring to see Vettel win again. I like seasons where it's really tight from the beginning till the end.

Let's hope that we see a new winner tomorrow or somebody who hasn't won in a while.
Maybe someone like Kimi (last victory in Australia), Lewis (never won with Mercedes) or Romain (never won a race)?

Romain Grosjean, Lotus