2015 Hungarian Grand Prix preview

Rest in peace Jules Bianchi (1989-2015).

Hello everybody! 

I was really excited about this week's Grand Prix but have a lot of difficulties expressing those same kind of feelings that I had earlier. It's of course because of what happened to Jules Bianchi. May his soul rest in peace.

It was F1-4-LIFE's 2nd birthday also yesterday but it was the same day as Bianchi's funeral. Don't really feel like celebrating.

Jules Bianchi testing for Ferrari.

Oh and take a look what I wrote a year ago in my Hungarian GP review: "In the future there will be three drivers dominating F1; Ricciardo, Bottas and Bianchi!" Oh god how this made me feel just awful. Poor Jules... I feel so sorry for him and his family. I always liked him and knew how good he was. He was always better than his teammates.

The weekend will be very sad and different but it will get better after every race. I hope the winner dedicates his win to Jules. That would be the right thing to do.

But who might win? I remember that Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen have been very successful in Hungary so they will definitely do well on Sunday.

Kimi and Lewis have been several times on the podium in Hungary.

Here's how well they have done in the past:

2001 - Kimi was 7th with Sauber which was pretty ok with that car.

2002 - Kimi was 4th leaving him just barely outside of the podium.

2003 - Kimi was 2nd after starting from 7th on the grid.

2004 - Kimi retired after having electrical problems with his McLaren

2005 - Kimi wins!

2006 - Kimi retires from 1st when overtaking nervous back-markers on a very slippery track.

2007 - Lewis wins in Hungary for the first time! And guess who was 2nd? Kimi!

2008 - Kimi was 3rd and Lewis retired.

2009 - Lewis wins again and guess who is 2nd this time? Kimi again!

2010 - Lewis had gearbox issues and Kimi had left F1 in the end of 2009.

2011 - Lewis was 4th.

2012 - Lewis wins and Kimi was 2nd on his comeback year.

2013 - Same thing! Lewis won and Kimi 2nd.
2014 - Lewis was 3rd and Kimi was 6th. Both of them had technical problems.

Don't have really that much to say this time because all I can think about is Jules. Let's move on to the predictions.

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari
3. Valtteri Bottas, Williams

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Surprise: Mercedes will start having some technical problems. They can't be that good in every race!

Post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE!

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

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FIA press conference schedule - Hungary

Lotus’s Romain Grosjean and Williams’ Felipe Massa will be among the drivers facing the media in Budapest on Thursday, while on Friday it is the turn of senior team personnel to field the questions, among them Honda’s Yasuhisa Arai and Ferrari’s Maurizio Arrivabene. The line-ups in full…


Thursday, July 23, 1500 hours local time (1300 hours GMT)
Romain Grosjean (Lotus), Nico Hulkenberg (Force India), Felipe Massa (Williams), Roberto Merhi (Marussia), Felipe Nasr (Sauber), Sergio Perez (Force India)

Friday, July 24, 1600 hours local time (1400 hours GMT)
Yasuhisa Arai (Honda), Maurizio Arrivabene (Ferrari), Paul Hembery (Pirelli), Christian Horner (Red Bull), Franz Tost (Toro Rosso), Toto Wolff (Mercedes)

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

(source: f1.com)

Bianchi's funeral to be held on Tuesday

 

The family of Jules Bianchi have announced that his funeral will take place in his hometown of Nice on July 21.

The Frenchman passed away last Friday at the age of 25 after succumbing to the injuries sustained in a crash at last year's Japanese Grand Prix. He had been in a coma since October.
It was confirmed via twitter that a service will be held on Tuesday from 10am, at the Sainte Reparate Cathedral.
Since his passing, tributes for Bianchi have flowed in from around the globe.
"We thank Jules’ colleagues, friends, fans and everyone who has demonstrated their affection for him over these past months, which gave us great strength and helped us deal with such difficult times," his family said in a statement. "Jules fought right to the very end, as he always did. The pain we feel is immense and indescribable."

(source: f1.com)

RIP Jules Bianchi | His Career & Driver's Thoughts (video)

Jules Bianchi with his former teammate Max Chilton on the left.

Jules Bianchi dies nine months after crash in Japanese F1 GP

Jules Bianchi's family has announced that the 25-year-old Frenchman died on Friday night, nine months after his crash in Formula 1's 2014 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

Bianchi had been in a coma since the accident, in which he suffered a diffuse axonal injury after colliding with a recovery vehicle while driving for Marussia.

He was initially treated at the Mie Prefecture medical centre in Japan before being transferred to a facility in Nice a month after the crash.

Although rehabilitation therapy began late last year, in May Bianchi's father Philippe admitted that the family's hopes were fading and his death was announced in the early hours of Saturday morning.

"It is with deep sadness that the parents of Jules Bianchi, Philippe and Christine, his brother Tom and sister Melanie, wish to make it known that Jules passed away last night at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) in Nice, (France) where he was admitted following the accident of 5th October 2014 at Suzuka Circuit during the Japanese Formula 1 Grand Prix," said a statement from the Bianchi family.

"Jules fought right to the very end, as he always did, but today his battle came to an end.

"The pain we feel is immense and indescribable.

"We wish to thank the medical staff at Nice's CHU who looked after him with love and dedication.

"We also thank the staff of the General Medical Center in the Mie Prefecture (Japan) who looked after Jules immediately after the accident, as well as all the other doctors who have been involved with his care over the past months.

"Furthermore, we thank Jules' colleagues, friends, fans and everyone who has demonstrated their affection for him over these past months, which gave us great strength and helped us deal with such difficult times.

"Listening to and reading the many messages made us realise just how much Jules had touched the hearts and minds of so many people all over the world.

"We would like to ask that our privacy is respected during this difficult time, while we try to come to terms with the loss of Jules."

Bianchi, whose great uncle Lucien was a sportscar and F1 racer in the 1950s and '60s, was a Ferrari protege who won French Formula Renault and European Formula 3 titles in 2007 and '09 respectively.

He reached F1 via campaigns in GP2 and Formula Renault 3.5, spending 2012 as Force India's third driver before getting a race seat with Marussia the following year.

He famously scored the team's first points with ninth place in the 2014 Monaco GP.

(source: autosport.com)

2015 Silverstone (Full Race)

I had to post this again because the previous video was erased from YouTube.

MiniDrivers - Chapter 7x09 - 2015 British Grand Prix

Take a look at this cartoon! I will probably start posting these after every race if people like them.