Tooned 50: The Grand Finale

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

Alain Prost Interview about Raikkonen and Alonso at Ferrari in 2014

Here is an interesting interview with Alain Prost talking about two champions in the same team.

He clearly has experience when we talk about this topic because he has been teammates with Lauda, Rosberg, Senna, Mansell...

After this we also get some words from Damon Hill.

1986 British Grand Prix

Ladies and gentlemen! Haven't posted these for a while so here is the 1986 British Grand Prix.

Commentary by Murray Walker and James Hunt.

Flavio Briatore's big mouth

Flavio Briatore has been opening his mouth to the media again. For example he is saying that Alonso has no reason to switch teams.
-Didn't Alonso just say that he needs a car like the others (Red Bull)?! To me that's a big reason. Alonso is a racing driver and he wants to win! He isn't winning with Ferrari at the moment.

Then he said that Alonso has a contract with Ferrari so it's impossible to break that.
-Tell that to Kimi Räikkönen! Santander paid Ferrari in the end of 2009 to kick Kimi out of the team so that Alonso could drive for them. Did he forget this? And Briatore is not the best person to talk about rules when he is the one usually breaking them. If you want an example then the "crashgate" incident in 2008 is probably a good one.

Briatore also said that Ferrari and Alonso are a winning combination and that he could drive as anybody's teammate.
-When is the last time Ferrari won anything? He is also third in the points which is worse than last year. Even Lotus and Mercedes are better than Ferrari at the moment.

And if Alonso could drive as anybody's teammate then why did he demand that they kick Kimi out instead of Massa in 2009? It was obvious for a lot of people that Alonso wanted the better one to leave. And what about 2007 when Alonso had problems with Hamilton? Briatore is talking so much gibberish that I am starting to think he is senile. Maybe Alonso should talk for himself and not this guy.

Briatore also said that Alonso is the new Senna.
-I understand that he probably meant that Alonso is good but comparing him to Senna? Why? There is not so much same about them. In my opinion Alonso is more like Prost than Senna.

Earlier Briatore said that if he had a team with one bad driver he would get an even worse driver to be his number two man in the team.
-This is probably the stupidest thing I have ever heard in the Formula One circles. Why would anybody want a bad driver to have an even worse teammate? That makes no sense!
If it was up to me then I would get a better driver and let the first driver to be the number two man.

Briatore is a very weird and crazy individual but that's probably why we enjoy seeing him so much.
He is very entertaining and unfortunately that's the only thing he is right now.. just entertaining and nothing else.

In my opinion it was a good penalty to ban him from this sport (after "crashgate") but still in a weird way I miss him. He was so many years a part of this sport that it feels like something is missing.

Sometimes you just have to except the truth that times change and there is nothing you can do about it anymore.

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.

Formula 1 1984 Monaco Grand Prix

Have you seen the movie "Senna"? In the beginning of the movie they show clips from the Monaco GP 1984. Senna almost beats Prost in his first season with a Toleman-car (not a good car at all) and could have won if they would have continued the race.

This was the race when everybody's jaws dropped. The race where people learned the name Ayrton Senna and remembered it forever.

If you don't have the time to watch this video then let me explain a few things for you.

This was Senna's first season and he had one of the worst cars. This team was almost like Caterham is today but it didn't matter to Senna. It was the beginning of his career and the only thing he wanted right now was to score a few points.

It rained at the Monaco GP in 1984 and it was very hard to drive but not for Senna. He was the best driver in the rain ever! Everybody was struggling and some of them even hit the walls and retired.

Senna starts to overtake the others like it was the easiest thing in the world. He even overtakes Keke Rosberg and Niki Lauda with this terrible car! He sets the fastest lap and almost catches Prost in the lead.

Prost is aware that somebody is behind him and fast as hell. He gets worried and wants to stop the race ("because of the rain"). We all know that the problem was not the rain it was Senna. And when they stopped the race Prost slowed down and Senna just flew by him in top speed. It was obvious that Senna would have won if the race would have continued.

Senna couldn't believe that he was on the podium. He waved his hand up in the air like he had won it all. That was the first time ever Senna stood on the podium in Formula One.

Now enjoy the full Monaco GP from 1984! Click on the video and be amazed.

The race is commentated by Murray Walker and James Hunt (the 1976 world champion).

Bonus information: Toleman was struggling with money and became Benetton, then Renault and now they are known as Lotus and has Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean driving for them.
Benetton won 1 constructors and 2 drivers championships, Renault won 2 constructors and 2 drivers champonships. Let's just wait and see when Lotus wins a championship..

Kimi Räikkönen is loved in Asia

Here is a Gangnam style video with "Kimi Räikkönen" or his driver's outfit at least.
It's funny if you can picture Kimi actually dancing in this video when he is so.. you know.. Kimi.

Kimi has a lot of fans in China and specially girl fans. Why is that?
Do girls in China like blonds from the north or do they just like Kimi Räikkönen?
Or is it so that mostly girls like F1 over there and they choose to cheer for him?

When Kimi comes to the airport in China there is hundreds of girls screaming for him.
No other driver gets this treatment over there so why Kimi? I don't know the answer so I am really asking.
I would understand if he represented an Asian team or engine manufacturer but he doesn't.

Ayrton Senna was also really popular in Japan but that was because of McLaren who used Honda engines back then. The japanese were really proud of the success Ayrton had. But then again Alain Prost drove for the same team but Ayrton had more fans even though they were teammates. Maybe Ayrton was such a big character just like Kimi is today.

I understand that you have to choose another driver to cheer for if your own country doesn't have a driver in F1 but why do they mostly cheer for Kimi? There is nothing wrong with it I am just asking.

I was very excited myself as well when Kimi started in F1 back in 2001. I knew how unexperienced he was when he came to F1. It is quite strange actually because Kimi had competed in only 23 Formula Renault races before F1.. AND KIMI WON 13 OF THOSE 23 RACES! That's crazy!

He started his F1 career almost by accident. Sauber asked the Robertson brothers (Kimi's managers) if they could talk about getting a deal with Button who they also managed at that time. But Button was not available and Sauber really needed a driver after Mika Salo left the team.

The Robertsons told Sauber that he should see this incredible new talent they had found. Mika Salo heard about this and told Sauber that he knows who Kimi is. He is a new star and that he should grab him quickly.
Sauber and Ferrari used to test together back then and they gave Kimi a chance to test with them in Italy.

Kimi jumped in the Sauber and broke Barrichello's lap record after a few laps. A rookie was faster than Schumacher and Barrichello with a Sauber when they had Ferraris! This sounds crazy but it happened.

Schumacher asked "Who is he?" and they answered "It's Kimi Räikkönen a new Mika Häkkinen". Then Schumi looked impressed and answered "He's fast!".

One year with Sauber then McLaren grabbed him even though he had a 3 year contract. Money talks.. Then Ferrari got interested and got him after Kimi had lost several championships because of retirements. Kimi won his first race at Ferrari and became champion at the end of the year.

So if you think about Kimi's story it's easier to understand why he has so many fans in Asia and anywhere else. It's like a movie story! He was poor and started to drive, was a good driver from the beginning and now he is a millionaire world champion.

All great champions have great stories. I must say that Kimi is one of my favorites as well.

But I love F1 and not just one driver.. Even though he is great.