This is how it feels like to drive in Spa!

The next race is going to be in Spa so here's an exciting video for you. I will probably post some more videos from Spa before the next race.

Chilton to race at Goodwood Revival

Marussia’s Max Chilton will become the first contemporary Formula One driver in nine years to compete at the UK’s famous Goodwood Revival meeting next month, when he climbs behind the wheel for the September 12-14 event.

British driver Chilton, who is in his second year of F1 competition, will race in the Shelby Cup, a one-off event being held to mark 60 years of the small-block V8 engine and the 50th anniversary of one of the most iconic cars to ever use the powerplant, the Ford Mustang.

With only cars powered by small-block V8s eligible for the race, Chilton will share a 1965 Mustang with Richard Dutton, boss of the successful junior single-seater squad Fortec Motorsport.

The last current F1 driver to take part in the Revival was Vitantonio Liuzzi in 2005, while former world champion Damon Hill was also an active Formula One competitor when he raced at the inaugural event in 1998.

The Revival routinely attracts famous F1 faces, past and present, both on and off the track. Last year saw Red Bull’s chief technical officer Adrian Newey among the race winners, partnering former Indy 500 winner Kenny Brack in a Ford GT40.

(source: f1.com)

Happy birthday Nigel Mansell!

No driver fought harder to get into Formula One racing and few fought harder when they got there. Hugely determined, immensely aggressive and spectacularly daring, he was one of the most exciting drivers ever. With his win or bust approach - 31 wins and 32 crashes - he became the most successful British driver and ranks third in the world in fastest laps, fourth in wins and fifth in poles. With the Union Jack on his helmet and a chip on his shoulder, he was both quick and controversial. His awkward personality made him some enemies, his heroic performances made him millions of fans. Nigel Mansell was a driven man and it showed.

Born on 8 August, 1953, near Birmingham, Nigel Ernest Mansell first drove a car in a nearby field at the age of seven. That same year he watched Jim Clark in a Lotus win the 1962 British Grand Prix at Aintree and decided then and there to emulate the great Scot, an ambition no doubt entertained by countless other small boys. Few of them would have persevered through Mansell's many misfortunes. 

After considerable success in kart racing, he become the 1977 British Formula Ford champion, despite suffering a broken neck in a testing accident. Doctors told him he had come perilously close to quadriplegia, that he would be confined for six months and would never drive again. Mansell sneaked out of hospital (telling the nurses he was going to the toilet) and raced on. Three weeks before the accident he had resigned his job as an aerospace engineer, having previously sold most of his personal belongings to finance his foray into Formula Ford. Next, Mansell and his loyal wife Rosanne sold their house to finance a move into Formula Three. In 1979 a collision with another car resulted in a huge cartwheeling crash he was lucky to survive. Again he was hospitalised, this time with broken vertebrae in his back. Shortly after this, stuffed with painkillers and hiding the extent of his injury, Mansell performed well enough in a tryout with Lotus to become a test driver for the Formula One team. In his Formula One debut, at the 1980 Austrian Grand Prix, a fuel leak in the cockpit left him with painful first and second degree burns on his buttocks. 

Mansell became very close to Lotus boss Colin Chapman and was devastated by his sudden death in 1982. He stayed with the team for two more years, then moved to Williams in 1985. Near the end of that season, having no victories to show for 71 Grand Prix starts, Mansell suddenly blossomed into a prolific winner, starting with the 1985 European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, where he wept on the podium. In a span of 18 months he won 11 races, yet lost out on two World Championships he was poised to win. In 1986 a burst tyre in Adelaide destroyed his season at the last possible moment. In 1987 it was a serious qualifying accident at Suzuka that injured his back again (a spinal concussion) and handed the title to his hated Williams-Honda team mate Nelson Piquet (who called Mansell "an uneducated blockhead" and took verbal shots at Rosanne). For Mansell (who never physically attacked Piquet as he had Ayrton Senna after they collided at Spa), the highlight of 1987 was his scintillating late race charge to beat his least favourite Brazilian at Silverstone. Mansell was simply unstoppable, setting lap records 11 times in the final moments as he reeled in the other Williams. On his victory lap, as thousands of patriotic fans in the feverish grip of 'Mansellmania' flooded onto the track, their hero stopped to kiss the tarmac at the spot where he'd overtaken Piquet at 180mph. 

Mansell thrived on adversarial situations, using them to fuel his motivational fires, and if they didn't exist he seemed to go out of his way to create them. His 'me against the world' mentality caused conflict. At Williams, Patrick Head said "he thinks everybody is trying to shaft him at all times" and Frank Williams called him "a pain in the arse". The media also tired of Mansell's chronic complaining. But the fans loved him for the pure, palpable aggression with which he raced. Even that wasn't enough to overcome the deficiencies of the Judd-engined Williams cars in 1988 and when an opportunity arose at Ferrari Mansell seized it with both fists. 

His 1989 debut with Ferrari began with a win in Rio and throughout the season he flogged his Ferrari for all it was worth, endearing himself to the fanatical Italian tifosi who called their moustachioed British hero 'Il Leone' (The Lion). At the Hungaroring, where overtaking is supposed to be impossible and where he had qualified a seemingly hopeless 12th, Mansell stormed through the field, scraped past Senna's McLaren in a breathtaking manoeuvre and won the race. In 1990 the wheels came off Mansell's Ferrari bandwagon when Prost became his team mate and out-manoeuvred him politically. At Silverstone the 'British Bulldog' theatrically threw his gloves into the adoring crowd and announced he was retiring at the end of the season. A couple of months later he made a U-turn and announced he was returning to Williams. In 1991 he won five times in the Williams-Renault but lost out on reliability to McLaren's Senna, who took the title. The next year Mansell dominated, winning nine of the 16 races in his Williams-Renault FW14B, but shortly after he was declared the 1992 World Champion he again announced his retirement. His grievances with Williams included a dispute over money and anger that the despised Prost might be his 1993 team mate. Williams offered a last-minute incentive of whatever conditions he wanted but Mansell stalked off to IndyCar racing in America, where he immediately dominated, even on the unfamiliar high speed ovals, and became the 1993 IndyCar champion. 

In 1994 Williams persuaded him to return for the final four races, the last of which, in Australia, he won in stunning fashion from pole position. The next year he raced twice for McLaren but decided the car wasn't up to his speed. And so, after 187 hard races in 15 tumultuous seasons, 41-year-old Nigel Mansell left Formula One racing for good.

He retired a rich man, operating several business enterprises, including a Ferrari dealership and a golf and country club (he played golf to a professional standard) and lived the good life with his wife Rosanne and their three children. 

"I had my fair share of heartaches and disappointments," he said of his career, "but I also got a lot of satisfaction. I only ever drove as hard as I knew how."

Happy birthday Nigel!


(source: f1.com)

1982 Austrian GP Österreichring - Full Race

I am pretty sure I haven't posted this earlier. Enjoy ;)

Comparing the 2014 teammates after 11 Grand Prix's

Sorry for not posting this yesterday as I promised but here it is now only one day later ;)

So I am going to compare the teammates with each other. I was supposed to post the qualifying results yesterday and the race results today but because I am late with this I will post them both in the same post.

First points, then qualifying and then race results.
If there is a retirement the point doesn't count. That's why there isn't always a total of 11 points.

Let's begin!

Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton, 191 pts, 2nd, best result 1st (Malaysia, Bahrain, China, Spain, Great Britain)
Nico Rosberg, 202 pts, 1st. best result 1st (Australia, Monaco, Austria, Germany)
Qualifying: 7 - 4 Winner: Rosberg
Race: 5 - 3 Winner: Hamilton

Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel, 88 pts, 6th, best result 3rd (Malaysia, Canada)
Daniel Ricciardo, 131 pts, 3rd, best result 1st (Canada, Hungary)
Qualifying: 7 - 4 Winner: Ricciardo
Race: 6 - 1 Winner: Ricciardo

Ferrari
Fernando Alonso, 115pts, 4th, best result 2nd (Hungary)
Kimi Raikkonen, 27pts, 12th, best result 6th (Hungary)
Qualifying: 9 - 2 Winner: Alonso
Race: 10 - 0 Winner: Alonso

Williams
Felipe Massa, 40 pts, 9th, best result 4th (Austria)
Valtteri Bottas, 95 pts, 5th, best result 2nd (Great Britain, Germany)
Qualifying: 7 - 4 Winner: Bottas
Race: 4 - 3 Winner: Bottas

Force India
Nico Hulkenberg, 69 pts, 7th, best result 5th (Malaysia, Bahrain, Monaco, Canada)
Sergio Perez, 29 pts, 11th, best result 3rd (Bahrain) 
Qualifying: 9 - 2 Winner: Hulkenberg
Race: 5 - 3 Winner: Hulkenberg

McLaren
Jenson Button, 60pts, 8th, best result 3rd (Australia)
Kevin Magnussen, 37pts, 10th, best result 2nd (Australia)
Qualifying: 6 - 5 Winner: Button
Race: 8 - 2 Winner: Button

Toro Rosso
Jean-Eric Vergne, 11pts, 13th, best result 8th (Australia, Canada)
Daniil Kvyat, 6pts, 15th, best result 9th (Australia, Great Britain)
Qualifying: 6 - 5 Winner: Vergne
Race: 2 -2

Lotus
Romain Grosjean, 8pts, 14th, best result 8th (Spain, Monaco)
Pastor Maldonado, 0pts, 19th, best result 12th (Austria, Germany)
Qualifying: 10 - 1 Winner: Grosjean
Race: 3 -1 Winner: Grosjean

Marussia
Jules Bianchi, 2 pts, 16th, best result 9th (Monaco)
Max Chilton, 0 pts, 21st, best result: 13th (Australia, Bahrain)
Qualifying: 8 -3 Winner: Bianchi
Race: 7-1 Winner: Bianchi

Sauber
Adrian Sutil, 0 pts, 17th, best result 11th (Australia, Hungary)
Esteban Gutierrez, 0 pts, 20th, best result 12th (Australia)
Qualifying: 6 - 4 Winner: Gutierrez
Race: 3 - 1 Winner: Sutil

Caterham
Kamui Kobayashi, 0 pts, 22nd, best result 13th (Malaysia, Monaco)
Marcus Ericsson, 0 pts, 18th, best result 11th (Monaco)
Qualifying: 9 -2 Winner: Kobayashi
Race: 4-1 Winner: Kobayashi

Let me know if you guys want me to write about the drivers (teammates) more specifically. I might just post some more of this same subject if there are more than a few requests. 

Melbourne hopes new deal will bring Ricciardo home win

Australian Grand Prix organisers are optimistic that Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo will score a home win in Melbourne by the end of the decade, after the city signed a new contract to host the race through to 2020.

Melbourne will celebrate its 20th running of the Australian Grand Prix next season, and having renewed its deal for a further five years over the weekend, wants to witness two-time F1 winner Ricciardo add an Albert Park victory to his tally.

“Within this contract we hope to see Australia’s own Daniel Ricciardo win the Formula One Australian Grand Prix and become world champion,” said Victoria Premier Denis Napthine on announcing the extension.

As one of several global sporting events staged in Victoria, the Australian Grand Prix - in which Ricciardo finished second this year before his car was disqualified - brings up to $39 million of economic benefits to the state and generates in the region of 400 full-time equivalent jobs.

“In addition, the worldwide broadcast delivers invaluable promotion and coverage to Melbourne and Victoria,” added Victoria’s Minister for Tourism and Major Events Louise Asher. “These cornerstone events enhance our international reputation as the world’s most liveable city.”

Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One group CEO, said the signing of the new contract was well deserved, commenting: “I congratulate Melbourne for the excellent way in which it presents Formula One to the world.”

(source: f1.com)

The History Of Grand Prix Racing

Another documentary for you guys. I have got a lot of requests for these and I try to post documentaries every time I find any. For now you gotta enjoy the ones that I have already posted ;)

Tomorrow I will write about the 2014 drivers a little. Let's say that I will compare them again with each other and see how well they have done this season to this point.