FIA 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix - Thursday's Press Conference

Watch the full version of thursday's FIA press conference with Valtteri Bottas, Paul Di Resta, Esteban Gutierrez, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Räikkönen and Pastor Maldonado from this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haVqcN1xKJw

You can also read the whole thing from this link: 

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/7/14827.html

Kimi doesn't like to sit at boring press conferences..

Sky Sports F1 Legends Mika Häkkinen

Sky Sports made a documentary series about F1 Legends in 2012. The episodes were all great but one of my favorites was Häkkinen's episode. Mika Häkkinen was my favorite driver after Ayrton Senna had passed away. Häkkinen was a friend of Senna's and also his last teammate at McLaren in 1993. 

Häkkinen almost lost his life at Adelaide in 1995. He was in a coma for a short period but recovered.

He won his first GP in 1997 and 2 world championships in 1998 and 1999.

In the year 2000 it was close but because of several retirements he had no chance against Schumacher in the end.

In 2001 he became a father and lost the interest of the sport. He gave his seat to Kimi Räikkönen after the 2001 season.

Today Mika Häkkinen is the manager of Valtteri Bottas. Some say that he is the next Häkkinen. Let's wait and see what happens with his career. But in the meantime you can start by looking at this video and remember how good Häkkinen was.

(press the YouTube-logo to watch this full screen on YouTube)

Rush - The movie about James Hunt and Niki Lauda

Everybody has probably heard about this movie already. If you haven't then check out the trailers below right away! Kimi Räikkönen said that if he had an idol it would be James Hunt. This movie tells us a story about James Hunt's and Niki Lauda's battles. Chris Hemsworth is starring in this movie as James Hunt. You may remember Hemsworth from such films as Thor and The Avengers. It will premier in September if I remember correctly.

I am so excited about this that I am busting. Is this finally going to be a good grand prix -movie? After so many bad ones this really makes up for them. For example "Driven" by Renny Harlin starring Sylvester Stallone was so bad that I lost all hope for good racing movies.

If someone knows a good racing movie then please tell me cause I would love to see it! I am planing to review some racing movies in the future and post them here.

Don't tell me that "Senna" is a good racing movie cause it's a documentary film and not an actual (fiction) movie. "Senna" was as a documentary the best I have seen in my entire life! No documentary can beat that one. Maybe I shall review that one as well someday.

To see this trailer in YouTube on full screen click on the "YouTube"-logo.

Nascar vs. F1

(click on the YouTube -logo to watch it in full screen on youtube)

I've heard of this video before and forgot all about it. Now I checked it out and it was very entertaining seeing Lewis Hamilton and Tony Stewart in this video representing their own sports.

I have watched Nascar races but it's almost always the same. They put the pedal to the medal and turn their wheel to the left. This is almost everything they do in every single race! Maybe I am missing something here so please tell me what else there is to see in Nascar. Don't tell me anything that has already been said in this video. Tell me something new.

I love racing but for me just going fast isn't proper racing. Anybody could just jump in a car and start pushing the pedal down. And if you can crash into somebody and push each other on the track then that's just for drivers who can't overtake like a real driver.

My grandmother could also push the pedal down and crash into somebody but why is that good racing? I love it when in F1 your mistakes show easily how bad you are. And only the good drivers can continue the race and score points. It's about superb drivers, surviving and hi-tec/super fast cars.

Alonso and Räikkönen are the best two drivers to avoid accidents. How many times has Alonso crashed into somebody? And the last time Räikkönen has retired a race was in 2009! Yes I know he didn't drive 2010-2011 but still.

Hamilton is also getting better. A few years ago he crashed a lot cause he was in my opinion a bit too aggressive. He has made a lot of progress though. Keep it up Lewis!

Maybe I am not the best person to talk about which sport is better (F1 or Nascar) cause I am one of the biggest F1 fans ever. It would not be fair so maybe somebody who likes both sports equally could do this. Please let me know if you see somebody writing or talking about this with a "neutral" perspective.  I would like to hear all of the thoughts from a fans point of view and not the drivers (Lewis and Tony).

Caterham F1 Team racing the streets of Moscow

Heikki Kovalainen driving in the streets of Moscow at the Moscow City Racing -event.
The video is filmed with GoPro-cameras so the material is very nice. You can watch it in HD (720p) if you like but only if you change the quality yourself from the settings.

Press the YouTube -logo first to see it on full screen and to change settings.

These kind of events are awesome if you live in a country that don't have a F1 Grand Prix.
In 2006 I went to the Helsinki City Grand Prix to see the Toyota F1 team and 4 time rally world champion Juha Kankkunen drive around the Helsinki Railway Station Square. They had screens all over so you could see the incar-camera as well.

I was very excited to see Jarno Trulli drive by me with his Toyota. It was nice to see the car but why did he drive so slowly? They asked him about it and the answer was that the road was too bumpy..
I know it can be difficult but come on! You are a racing driver who has won in Monaco! Put the pedal to the medal!

Juha Kankkunen was no disappointment. He was so fast with the rally car and how he drove in to the corners! Wau! What a sound! He has not lost his touch at all.

I know it was probably harder to drive the F1 car but anyways. Jarno Trulli should have shown a little speed at least. The guy is famous for his qualifying speed but at that event he did not impress me.
I used to like Trulli a lot but when he became Kovalainen's teammate I saw how much better Heikki was.

Sometimes city's can not handle events like these so they do something else. For example they display cars in shops or malls so people can take pictures. I have also seen cars (turned into simulators) in arcades walking by quickly without knowing who's they were.

Here is a list of cars and where I saw them:

• In Turkey I saw a yellow F1 car so it was probably a Jordan. 
• In Macau I saw a red and white car so it was probably an old McLaren or maybe a F3 car from the early 90's.
• In Helsinki I saw Heinz-Harald Frentzen's car at a shopping mall and Kimi Räikkönen's 2012 Lotus at a jewelry store. Räikkönen's car was probably a replica because the car looked so new.
• In Hong Kong I could not believe my eyes when I stood in front of a McLaren sports car store. I saw AYRTON SENNA'S CAR!!!!

Keep your eyes open! Because you never know who's car could suddenly be in front of you. Even though your city or country doesn't have it's own grand prix.

Ayrton Senna documentary on YouTube - The right to win

I have seen so many Ayrton Senna documentarys even before his death and I never get tired of these.

This is the full version so you don't have to play around with clips. The video has english subtitles as well. This is not the 2010 documentary called "Senna" so don't get confused. 

Click on the YouTube logo to watch it full screen on YouTube. Enjoy!

How to watch F1 when you are far away from home

Every now and then it happens that you are somewhere else when you should be at home watching F1. I always plan ahead situations like this so I don't miss anything.

First I have a F1 live streaming-software on my phone that I use in situations where I am sitting on a bus or working etc. Live streaming is good for free practice sessions or saturday qualifying but I could not watch a GP from a stream! I must see the whole thing. I could pay a lot of money just so I wouldn't miss anything.

It's possible to watch GP's from the internet by paying about 5 euros. But this works only if you are carrying a laptop and you have access to the internet. There are also sites that show the GP's for free but there are usually commercial breaks and signing in etc. I would rather pay the 5 euros to see everything without interrupting and with my favorite commentators.

I don't usually have a laptop with me so I try to find bars that show Formula 1 or check if my hotel has channels that show it. For example I saw the last GP in Hong Kong at a bar. First I went a few days earlier to a british pub and asked them if they would show the Grand Prix. The girl at the bar said that she didn't know and asked a guy named Adrian if they did. He said absolutely and I thanked them for the information.

Later I got worried because it has happened before that when I am abroad people always say that they are showing it and then they realize that they don't even have the channels for it. So I found a backup bar for watching F1 just in case the first one didn't show it for some reason.

Sometimes they just say anything to get customers. At Cyprus last year I changed bars twice and the third didn't bullshit me about actually showing the GP. In Turkey they said sorry we don't have the channels anymore and when people started to leave suddenly they said that they had the channels. Why would they do that?! Maybe they wanted to watch something else them selves?

In Hong Kong at the british pub it was a bit different. I went there early to get good seats in front of the big screen TV. But then the bartender asked me if I was there to see "the game". I said that I was waiting for the GP and that they had promised me that it would be possible to see it at that bar.

The bartender looked at me and asked "what GP?" THIS WAS A DISASTER AGAIN! But he offered to show the Grand Prix from another smaller TV without sound next to the front door.

I was not ready to sit there and try to ignore 50 crazy football fans scream next to me while I watch F1 from a smaller TV without sound!

Then I remembered the other smaller bar and ran over there like Carl Lewis! And then I saw a big screen TV showing F1 preview shows. What a sweet sight! The second I walked in to the bar the bartender turned the music off and turned up the volume on the TV. Thank God!

Sometimes they show F1 at hotels or even in your room. In London they showed the GP at our hotel restaurant and in Dubai I could have watched it in my room. Instead I jumped in a taxi and went to Abu Dhabi (taxi's are really cheep in Dubai).

It took me an hour with the taxi and it cost me less than what I paid from my apartment to the airport back at home. The tickets to the GP were about 340 euros. Damn! And I got the cheapest tickets there was!

The tickets allowed you to see the qualifying, the GP2 race (not a part of the GP2 series) and the F1 race. After all of this there was a concert with various artists including Paul McCartney. I just went to see the F1 race cause I didn't have time to go to Abu Dhabi 2 days in a row. The race was the main thing anyway..

The feeling when I saw my first F1 race live was incredible. I felt like a teenage girl at a Justin Bieber concert (only I am a man who likes racing and hates Justin Bieber). "There's Schumi! that's Button! hey Hamilton! Alonso and Vettel!" Unfortunately Räikkönen was not at that race cause it was the 2011 season. But anyways I highly recommend it to all of you F1 fans out there.