2017 Hungarian Grand Prix review

The Hungarian Grand Prix was the first F1 race without a Brazilian driver in the field since the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix!! Felipe Massa didn't feel well before qualifying and was replaced by Paul diResta. He jumped into the car without any tests or adjustments which might be very difficult for a driver. Heikki Kovalainen filled in for Kimi Räikkönen in 2013 also without tests but at least he got to drive in practice sessions so it went a little bit better. Still a great great job from Paul diResta even though Kimi had something to say about him:



The start was interesting for a few reasons. First of all Lewis Hamilton got overtaken by both Red Bulls even though they collided with each other after that. Max Verstappen was already challenging for 3rd place but Valtteri Bottas shut the door on him. After this he tried desperately to defend his position against his teammate Daniel Ricciardo and took him out of the race. Ricciardo said "what a fucking loser" on the radio after he got confirmation that it was his teammate who crashed into him. Verstappen got a 10 second penalty.

Later on in the race Sebastian Vettel got some problems with his car. Kimi was much faster than Vettel but was told to keep his position. That's just sick if you ask me! I mean yes I understand that Ferrari wants to maximize their championship points for Vettel because he is leading the championship but it is not fair. What about Kimi? What about giving them a fair fight for the championship? I hate what they did to Rubens Barrichello with Michael Schumacher and what they did to Felipe Massa with Fernando Alonso. Very sad and makes the sport boring! In my opinion these team orders should be banned.

Behind Kimi we could see Bottas and Hamilton catching him and making it very dangerous for him. He even told Ferrari on the radio that they are putting him in a very difficult situation. They didn't seem to care. Even Vettel said after the race that maybe he should have let Kimi pass him.

Hamilton had radio issues and people were joking that this is good so that he can't ask the team to tell Bottas to let him pass. Right away when the radio started working he asked if they could tell Bottas to let him through. WHAT A SURPRISE! (not) Why can't he fight him like he used to fight Nico Rosberg?! I mean I loved that!! Is Bottas too hard to overtake or isn't Hamilton's motivation as high as it used to be? I know that it is hard to overtake in Hungary but this has happened on other tracks also this season.

Mercedes told Bottas to let Hamilton pass him and that he will give the position back if he can't overtake Kimi. He couldn't but stayed in front anyways.

Just before the finish line Hamilton gave the position back to Bottas. It was almost like Hamilton was thinking to the last corner if he should give the position back or not. I was surprised that Hamilton gave the position back. Vettel would not have given his position back to his teammate like that (at least that's what I think). Hamilton gets a lot of respect from me for giving the position back. Then on the other hand why is it such a big deal to keep a promise? That's just normal isn't it? I just hope that if Hamilton doesn't win the championship he doesn't lose by 3 points of less.

What else to say? Two things.

First of all McLaren did a good decision to take those penalties (for gearbox changes etc.) in Silverstone instead of Hungary because now there was no penalties and this track suites McLaren better. Both cars were in Q3 on Saturday and Fernando Alonso set the fastest lap on the race! They also scored more points. Alonso 6th and Vandoorne 10th.

Second thing is Nico Hulkenberg giving feedback to Kevin Magnussen about his driving in the middle of an interview and then Magnussen told him to suck his balls. Makes me laugh... it's both sad and funny at the same time. See the video on the F1 4 Life facebook page if you haven't seen it yet.

Let's move on to the predictions and the results.

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Vettel took pole.

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 4th and Vettel won the race.
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 3rd.
3. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. He was 2nd and it was his 8th podium in Hungary (a new record)

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Fernando Alonso was fastest!! That's the real surprise!

Surprise: Romain Grosjean, Haas - He retired from the race

Come onboard if you want to be a part of our 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!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW, MH, JI & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

FORMULA 1 PIRELLI MAGYAR NAGYDÍJ 2017 - RACE RESULTS

FORMULA 1 PIRELLI MAGYAR NAGYDÍJ 2017 - QUALIFYING

FORMULA 1 PIRELLI MAGYAR NAGYDÍJ 2017 - PRACTICE 3

FORMULA 1 PIRELLI MAGYAR NAGYDÍJ 2017 - PRACTICE 1 & 2

2017 Hungarian Grand Prix | Virtual Circuit Guide

R.I.P. Leo Kinnunen, the first flying Finn

Today the F1 world lost somebody who is a bit unknown but still a remarkable person.

The first finnish F1 driver Leo Kinnunen! He drove in 1974 at the age of 30-31 so most of you readers didn't even follow the sport back then. I know that some of you did but probably still don't remember him. Here's a little reminder or a info package....

Kinnunen was close to moving to Formula One already for the 1971 season. With the help of world champion Jochen Rindt he was negotiating for a race seat with Team Lotus, which was controlling the series at the time and eventually won the World Constructors' Championship that season. After Rindt's sudden death at Monza, the negotiations came to a halt. According to Kinnunen, Bernie Ecclestone wanted him to drive for free. Kinnunen turned down the offer and demanded a wage for his services, as he was a professional racer. This ended his Formula One career even before it had actually started, and he went to drive in the Interserie instead.

In 1974, Kinnunen was looking for a job and John Surtees offered him one of his new Formula One cars, Surtees TS16, on lease. Kinnunen accepted the offer since the Surtees TS14 had done well the previous season. After finally finding sponsorship, Kinnunen entered the series with a new team and a Cosworth DFV V8 3.0 litre engine. Antti Aarnio-Wihuri allowed the team to use the name AAW Racing Team, which was recognized and had a good reputation in racing circles.

AAW Racing's first Grand Prix at Nivelles turned out to be a disaster. The TS16 arrived in time for the race weekend, but Kinnunen had never even sat in the car before. It also turned out that the car had been used as a mobile testbed by the factory, and it already had a damaged monocoque and rear suspension. On top of that, it was 80 kilos overweight, the engine lacked power and the team was not allowed to get the top quality tires all the top teams had. When Kinnunen took the car on track, its gearbox broke after three laps. The team, consisting of only three mechanics, had no spare parts and repairing it turned out to be unsuccessful, as the gearbox broke again in qualifying, leaving Kinnunen without a recorded time and the only driver not to qualify for the race.

After Nivelles, the team concentrated on testing and fixing the car. They did not travel to Monaco but entered the next race in Sweden. Kinnunen managed to qualify 25th. Actually, only 24 cars were qualified for start but due his good relations within the Swedish motor sport circles Kinnunen was allowed to start the race. So was Vern Schuppan who qualified 26th. Schuppan finished the race 12th but was disqualified from the results.

The AAW team knew that the car would not last the whole race, so they fueled it for only ten laps in order to make a quick press run. This compensated the overweight of their TS16 and Kinnunen managed to overtake five cars in eight laps before a spark plug problem forced him to retire. Kinnunen later told that one spark plug thread in the cylinder head had been stripped. A Ferrari mechanic loaned them a threaded insert kit to fix it but the Finns did not master the method and the plug never seated properly.

The rest of the season did not go well for the team either. They were not allowed to take part in the Dutch Grand Prix and did not qualify for the races in France, Great Britain, Italy and Austria. Lack of funding then forced the team to retire from Formula One.

Today he passed away but we shall always remember him in Finland as the first flying Finn. Rest in peace.