Send questions to the F1-4-LIFE Facebook page

I posted something earlier on the F1-4-LIFE Facebook page and thought that I should also post it here on the blog so that all the readers know what's going on. I know that everybody doesn't use Facebook even though most of you do.

Here is the text I posted:


"Hello F1 fans! I was just talking to the other admins and we decided to do something new.

You may now send us questions that we will answer and post on the blog next Tuesday (after the Monaco GP). The blogpost will be linked on this wall.

No names will be shown so stupid questions are also welcome.

You may ask anything about the Monaco GP, about F1 in general or about us if you find us interesting.

Send the messages to our inbox at this page or email f14lifeblog@gmail.com

You may also post them under this post but then everybody will see your question in advance.

Remember to post your PREDICTORS LEAGUE TOP3 also! You may do it here or inbox us.

-AE, MW and JT"


Now if you are wondering about the PREDICTORS LEAGUE then here is a reminder what that is about:

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

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. If you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points same if you get 1 correct. eg. 2nd you get 5 points. If a driver wins the race and you said he would come 2nd or 3rd no points would be awarded. Same if he came in another position, and you predicted that wrong. A table will be posted up every race weekend. The point scoring system will change once the cars become more competitive. Everyone will say a merc 1,2 so it won't be close or fun.

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! like the Mercedes.

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side JT, AE & MW. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway. We may also come up with some other prize if it helps.

Hope to get messages from all of you soon! Tomorrow I will post the Monaco GP preview.

33 DAYS Trailer HD

Have you heard about this? Another F1 movie!! well, it's a documentary but anyway I am very happy.

For a while there was no Formula One related films and now they all come out at once!

Enjoy the trailer and let's wait for the real thing!

2014 Chinese GP (FULL RACE) in car footage ONLY

Watch the 2014 Chinese Grand Prix in car footage with german commentating.

Maldonado hails 'big step forward' for Lotus after test

Pastor Maldonado believes Lotus made real and significant progress during this week's two-day test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The Venezuelan topped the day-two timesheet and racked up more than 100 laps on what was his first trouble-free day of testing in 2014.

In addition to Maldonado's running, reserve driver Charles Pic managed 70 laps on day one, making the session Lotus's most productive test of the year so far. 

The Enstone-based squad had previously suffered poor reliability in testing, with pre-season being particularly torrid. In Bahrain in February the team averaged just 29 laps per day over eight days on track.

Maldonado said his smooth run in Spain was crucial, allowing the team to make strides with both set-up and performance work.

"It's been a big step forward," Maldonado said of the second day. "That was a complete day for us and my first normal day of testing this season.

"We didn't have any problems and we gained a lot of good running with good track conditions compared to [day one]. We ran to plan and completed everything we wanted to do. 

"We learnt a lot more about the car, the set-up and performance is improving all the time so I'm feeling more comfortable to push too. Hopefully [that] means we'll be much better for the rest of the season."

Alan Permane, Lotus's trackside operations director, said Lotus's prospects for the rest of the 2014 campaign had been lifted by the two days in Barcelona.

"We completed everything we set out to do today," he explained, "including aero assessments, mapping work, energy recovery scenarios, evaluations of set-up and ride height, tyre usage programmes and so on and I'm pleased to say the E22 didn't miss a beat. 

"We completed over 100 laps today so it's been very good to see what is possible when we have good reliability. 

"With the data we have collected over the last two days and the progress we've made, we're in much better shape heading to the next races. There is plenty of potential in the E22."

Lotus's positive test performance comes off the back of their first points finish of the year, with Romain Grosjean having claimed eighth place in Barcelona last weekend.

(source: f1.com)

Maldonado puts Lotus on top as Barcelona test ends

Pastor Maldonado capped a promising test for Lotus by going fastest on the second and final day of this week's test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The Venezuelan set the early pace and led for the majority of the day, racking up 102 laps in the process. A late change to Pirelli's super soft compound then thrust him to the top, as he worked down to a 1m 24.871s - faster than Lewis Hamilton's pole time, and almost one second better than Nico Rosberg managed for Mercedes.

The German also broke into triple figures on the lap count, while his run included a first trial of the Mercedes' prototype 'megaphone' exhaust. The team removed the device for Rosberg's later runs.

Kimi Raikkonen was third for Ferrari, racking up 94 laps as the team recovered from a disrupted first day in Barcelona. A late run meanwhile lifted the Ferrari-powered Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez into fourth, half a second down the road. The team suffered a brief fire at the rear of the Mexican's car before lunch, but otherwise enjoyed a relatively trouble-free day.

Gutierrez's late run carried him above the Williams of Susie Wolff, who tested the Mercedes-powered FW36 for the first time ahead of her Friday practice debut at Silverstone in July.

Wolff's fastest time, a 1m 27.280s, was set on the soft compound and was enough for fifth overall. She steadily improved throughout the day, with her only mistake coming when she spun exiting Turn 10 early on.

Marussia's Jules Bianchi was another late improver, as a final run on the soft compound elevated him into sixth and ahead of the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel.

The four-time champion suffered a problematic day and did not emerge for the first two hours, with the team subsequently confirming gearbox issues had caused the delay.

Force India's Daniel Juncadella and Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat also hit trouble - the former running off at Turn 4, and the latter causing two red flags - on their way to eighth and 10th respectively. Juncadella's day was devoted to tyre development work for Pirelli.

The pair sandwiched Belgian youngster Stoffel Vandoorne, who managed an impressive 136 laps - enough to qualify for a Super Licence - on his F1 debut with McLaren.

"This has been a fantastic day for me: my first experience in a Formula One car, and a really great opportunity to get plenty of laps under my belt," Vandoorne said.

"I want to say a big thank you to the team. It's also great to have been able to contribute to the test programme: 136 laps today was a fantastic achievement, and it's great that it's earned me my F1 Super Licence."

Caterham meanwhile were unable to run at all due to damage following Kamui Kobayashi's crash in the closing stages of day one.

Unofficial Wednesday times from Barcelona:
1. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 24.871s, 102 laps
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 25.805, 102 laps
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 26.480, 94 laps
4. Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber, 1m 26.972s, 85 laps
5. Susie Wolff, Williams, 1m 27.280s, 55 laps
6. Jules Bianchi, Marussia, 1m 27.718s, 55 laps
7. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 1m 27.973s, 73 laps
8. Daniel Juncadella, Force India, 1m 28.278s, 91 laps
9. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, 1m 28.441s, 136 laps
10. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1m 28.910s, 21 laps

(source: f1.com)

2014 Spanish Grand Prix review

This time I had to leave right after the race so didn't have any time to write the review until now. Sorry for the delay guys! Let's get right to it then..

In the start Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas got very good starts as they usually do. No surprise there but it was worth mentioning.

Kevin Magnussen on the other hand did what he has done in every race. Broke his front wing! He has complained that the F1 cars are much longer than he expected and can't see properly where it starts and ends. Eric Boullier said that Magnussen is still learning just like Romain Grosjean did at Lotus a couple of years ago.

Speaking of Grosjean, have anybody noticed how much better he is than Pastor Maldonado? Maldonado crashed AGAIN! This time the victim (yes the victim) was Marcus Ericsson. It didn't do him that much harm though because he is still going to be last with his Caterham.

Lotus on the other hand is very close to the pace they had last year and the season before that. Think about it! Grosjean is relatively high up on the grid and Kimi used to be even higher so it looks normal right? If that's true then we can clearly see that Maldonado is NOT a very good driver. Let's see if his money is good enough next year to give him another chance.

What about Ferrari? They were not that good here either. When I looked at some footage of the cars coming in to a corner it was pretty clear. All of the other teams turned normally but the Ferraris were shaking like hell and had some weird vibration going on. This is exactly what Kimi Räikkönen has been complaining about. Well... there is a lot they have been complaining about but that's one thing.

This time Kimi had some new things to complain about and who can blame him? He was ahead of Alonso the whole race and it didn't look like the order would change. Then they changed Alonso's strategy which let Alonso pass Kimi with newer tyres.

Ferrari said that Alonso needed the new tyres to catch Sebastian Vettel but why didn't they give the tyres to Kimi who was in front and had a better chance? This is where I am a bit confused and please correct me if there is something I am missing here. Were they favoring Alonso or was it just a big mistake?

Kimi was very unhappy and asked the team on the radio what is going on. The press also asked Kimi why Ferrari did what they did but Kimi didn't want to answer that question. He got even more angry when they asked him if he is a number two driver because of the strange strategy of Ferrari.

Red Bull is clearly the second best team right now! Daniel Ricciardo was third and best of the rest. He also won his teammate again but this time Vettel was very close behind. It's looking better for him race after race. Vettel even set the fastest lap.

The Mercedes drivers had some weird body language after the race. It was clear that Nico Rosberg was very unhappy with the result and Lewis Hamilton was very glad to snatch the championship lead from Rosberg.
The Mercedes staff had mixed feelings because they wanted to say sorry to Rosberg and congratz to Hamilton.

The next race is in Monaco where Rosberg lives so he might have a small advantage there. He has been driving those streets his whole life and he won there last year.

Then it's time for my predictions and the actual results.

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - CORRECT
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull - CORRECT

Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. Sebastian Vettel did that for the first time this season.

Surprise: Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - He will find some new speed finally! - CORRECT! But Ferrari screwed up his race strategy or favored Alonso. You make the decision.

I have never come this close of getting everything right. Only the fastest lap was wrong but I still got full points in the Predictors League.

Remember to post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE next time! Here are the rules:

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

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. If you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points same if you get 1 correct. eg. 2nd you get 5 points. If a driver wins the race and you said he would come 2nd or 3rd no points would be awarded. Same if he came in another position, and you predicted that wrong. A table will be posted up every race weekend. The point scoring system will change once the cars become more competitive. Everyone will say a merc 1,2 so it won't be close or fun.

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! like the Mercedes.

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side JT, AE & MW. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway. We may also come up with some other prize if it helps.

That's it for today and if you want to send me feedback then email me: f14lifeblog@gmail.com

The drivers championship standings after the Spanish GP

1	Lewis Hamilton	British	Mercedes	100
2	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	97
3	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	49
4	Sebastian Vettel	German	Red Bull Racing-Renault	45
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Australian	Red Bull Racing-Renault	39
6	Nico Hulkenberg	German	Force India-Mercedes	37
7	Valtteri Bottas	Finnish	Williams-Mercedes	34
8	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	23
9	Kevin Magnussen	Danish	McLaren-Mercedes	20
10	Sergio Perez	Mexican	Force India-Mercedes	20
11	Kimi Räikkönen	Finnish	Ferrari	17
12	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Williams-Mercedes	12
13	Romain Grosjean	French	Lotus-Renault	4
14	Jean-Eric Vergne	French	STR-Renault	4
15	Daniil Kvyat	Russian	STR-Renault	4
16	Adrian Sutil	German	Sauber-Ferrari	0
17	Esteban Gutierrez	Mexican	Sauber-Ferrari	0
18	Max Chilton	British	Marussia-Ferrari	0
19	Kamui Kobayashi	Japanese	Caterham-Renault	0
20	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuelan	Lotus-Renault	0
21	Marcus Ericsson	Swedish	Caterham-Renault	0
22	Jules Bianchi	French	Marussia-Ferrari	0