Ravetto: Caterham looking for a new base

Caterham have confirmed they are looking to leave Leafield and move into a new headquarters as part of ongoing restructuring and stabilising efforts.

Team principal Manfredi Ravetto said the team are aware they still face 'bumpy roads' in their fight to revive their fortunes, but said recent development efforts had paid off, boosting confidence and taking the team to a new level of performance.

"For avoidance of any doubt, Leafield remains the team's base, even though it's no secret that we are looking for a more suitable alternative," Ravetto said in an interview posted on Caterham's official site. "We look forward to the final three races of the season; we will keep fighting, we will keep improving and we will introduce some positive surprises: stay tuned!

"This gives us confidence to approach the last three fly-away races in America and the Middle-East with an extra-boost: our performance is steadily improving and recent results plus our great qualifying performance in Sochi are putting us on a level the team has hardly shown previously.

"We are on a high and we keep fighting day after day, even if there are a few negative comments or scepticism from some people who would be happy to see us failing. What we do is answer with facts, starting with the technical improvement of the car and stabilising of the team's financial side - but we just want to remind everybody that we are those brave ones who try to firefight; we are not the ones who left the team in a critical status.

"We know there are still some bumpy roads ahead and we don't expect an easy ride, but we will deal with each situation as it arrives."

Ravetto also moved to clarify the reasons behind Kamui Kobayashi's retirement in Russia, adding: "I was very surprised to hear Kamui referring to some mileage-saving instruction coming from the team's management: we saw via telemetry that there was a potential issue with the brakes and we decided to avoid any risks. To be clear: we instructed Kamui to retire because the safety of our drivers is our first concern."

Caterham remain 11th in this year's constructors' championship. Ravetto was installed as team principal in September, after Christijan Albers departed the role less than two months after taking over the day-to-day running of the team following a takeover by a consortium of Swiss and Middle Eastern investors.

(source: f1.com)

Marussia: Bianchi’s situation ‘remains challenging’

The Marussia team have released an update on the medical condition of driver Jules Bianchi, who suffered a severe head injury in a serious accident at the recent Japanese Grand Prix.

Bianchi remains critical but stable in the Mie General Medical Center in Yokkaichi, and the following statement was issued at the request of his family and in conjunction with the hospital:

“The past nine days have been extremely difficult for Jules and his family. As a consequence of the accident at Suzuka, a number of medical challenges have needed to be overcome and the situation remains challenging due to the diffuse axonal traumatic brain injury Jules has sustained. 

“Jules remains in a critical but stable condition in the Intensive Care Unit of Mie General Medical Center in Yokkaichi. The Bianchi family continue to be comforted by the thoughts and prayers of Jules’ many fans and the motor sport community. In particular, the many demonstrations of support and affection during the course of the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi were of enormous comfort to Jules’ parents and the relatives and friends also present at the hospital.

“The family will provide further medical updates when appropriate.”

Bianchi went off in wet conditions late in the Suzuka race and collided with a recovery vehicle that was removing the damaged Sauber of Adrian Sutil, who had crashed out a lap earlier.

(source: f1.com)

FIA post-race press conference - Russia

Drivers: 1 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes); 2 - Nico Rosberg (Mercedes); 3 - Valtteri Bottas (Williams)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Alex Popov)

Q: What a wonderful race guys - thank you very much. I know Lewis you are a real fan of Russia, of Russian racing. Now you've won the first Russian Grand Prix in 100 years exactly. How do you feel? 
Lewis Hamilton: So happy to be here. We've had an amazing week. The fans and really the organisers… Russia's been so good to me and to the team. I'm so grateful for all the support and I'm really looking forward to coming here many, many more times. It's not very far from where I live so I'm going to be hopping over for some holidays for sure.

Q: I know you're impressed by the ski resorts here. Look, 17 points now, you have. Seventeen points in front of Nico. You think it's enough or not? 
LH: Obviously Nico did a great job to recover from his mistake earlier on today but the car was performing really well. We did a great job as a team. It's history for us, so I feel very proud to be a part of it - me and Nico and all the team members. To get the first constructors' championship for Mercedes Benz is amazing, so it's a beautiful day.

Q: Nico, it was a really wonderful fight with Valtteri and you won it. Do you really think the tyres were gone or was it a bluff, like in poker? 
Nico Rosberg: No, it was a great strategy from the team. The thing is that our car is unbelievable. It's so good; everybody has done such a great job building this car. That's why half of me of course is extremely disappointed that I messed up today but the other half, I'm really, really happy, because everybody in the team deserves it so much. For them the most important title of the year is the constructors' championship, that's why I can even smile a bit, because I'm happy for everybody to have achieved that.

Q: Ladies and gentlemen, 52 laps on the same set of tyres, what a great race. Valtteri, on the last lap of the race, you set the first ever Formula One fastest lap in a Russian Grand Prix. But you lost the fight with Nico, so are you happy or not? 
Valtteri Bottas: Well, I need to be happy for us as a team. You know, what we have been doing since last year is amazing. Again on the podium, so a good amount of points. We were today ‘best of the rest'. Unfortunately, Mercedes is still quite a bit ahead but, you know, we did the best we could from where we started, so we need to be happy as a team.

Q: This man is still in the fight for third [in the drivers' championship] with Daniel Ricciardo. But we are back for one quick question [with Lewis] because we all know the Russian story: the evening after the race, we must celebrate. And you have three weeks…
LH: Is there vodka?

Q: It's OK for you?
LH: Yeah, I don't mind. Thank you.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis, congratulations, tremendous win there. We could see you were pushing very hard by the number of fastest laps you did - but you seemed to have virtually no problems. Any problems with fuel consumption? Any problems with tyres? Just one little lock-up we saw from you.
LH: Yeah, it was a good, good day and an amazing weekend. Firstly, I'm just so proud to have contributed to have worked with this great team, to get the first constructors' championship for Mercedes-Benz. I could have only dreamed of that when I joined this team. So, a great day for that. Huge congratulations to all the guys that are here and back home in the UK and also in Germany. But yeah, today, once I was out in the lead I was really just having to control, just looking after the tyres, managing the fuel was quite straightforward. And then, towards the end of the race the car felt great so I could push or not push. I wasn't really having to push much and even when I was having to pick up the pace a little bit when I eventually found Nico was behind, it was easy to match the times. And the car's been amazing this weekend and I really, really enjoyed the track. I tell you, Russia's been one of my favourite places so far this year, so it's very cool to have won the first race here.

Q: Nico, a fantastic drive through the field really - but what happened on the first lap? We heard you say you had a vibration. Did that go with the change of tyres? Tell us about that because that really governed your whole race.
NR: Yeah, of course. It was just a mistake on my side, braked too late and that's it. Very unnecessary because it was my corner and should have been in the lead after that. So, obviously very disappointed with that. After that my tyres were just square. They were vibrating so much I couldn't see where I was going so I knew that I had to pit. For me, I thought that was it. I thought that was the end of the day - but then of course, partly happy to get back all the way to second, passing Valtteri along the way and then… yeah, it's just thanks to my car. My car was just unbelievable today and that's what allowed me to come back through the field. That's the main thing really. In hindsight really, even if it was a bit…I could have pushed more during the race, y'know? But it's always easy to know afterwards but even at the end my tyres were fine. So, yeah, that's a pity but anyway, it's difficult to know that during the race.

Q: Valtteri, at one point the pace seemed to be really close to Mercedes, perhaps closer than we've seen in any race so far this year.
VB: Yeah, the beginning seemed to be very good and I was not far off from Lewis and everything was going into the plan. The tyres were feeling good and suddenly the rear tyres started to go, started to lose pace and was struggling more and more and Lewis was getting far away. Then we stopped for the prime and it took just a really long time to get the prime tyre to work. It was just getting better towards the end. I did my best lap in the last lap of the race. It was really weird. And as it took so long to get the tyres to work, Nico got me in Turn 1. It was a bit of a surprise for me, didn't expect him to come inside. Luckily I saw him in time so there was no contact. Yeah, as a team I think we again did a good job. We've come so much forward from last season so it's again, really good to be on the podium.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Michael Schmidt - Auto, Motor und Sport) Nico, when you tried to overtake Lewis at the first corner, you were on the inside line; is it because it's not the racing line, is that line, let's say, that you normally have to brake a little bit earlier to compensate? 
NR: No, I don't think so. It was definitely doable and I just messed up, very simple, no explanation. Just braked too late and too hard.

Q: (Heikki Kulta - Turun Sanomat) Valtteri, last year you had your best result in Austin. Is it going to happen this year also? 
VB: I really hope so. I got my first points in Formula One in Austin last year so it would be nice to have a good weekend there. I think the track should be OK for us so let's aim for that.

Q: (Frederic Ferret - L'Equipe) Nico and Lewis: now that the constructors' title has been won, will you change your way of racing together or will it be the same? 
LH: Same.

NR: It's the same, you know. Up until now, it's always been we can fight and it continues to be like that. We can fight, it doesn't change.

Q: (Haoran Zhou - F1 Express) Lewis, can you describe your experience on the podium and especially when you were handed the trophy? Be as specific as possible. 
LH: Well, it was kind of normal really. Kind of surreal for the president to be presenting the award. That was a great experience. The crowd have been amazing this weekend. I don't know, I just never... I didn't know that Formula One was something that people followed here in Russia. I didn't know that there was actually a real love for it. To see the people turn out in their thousands yesterday and the grandstands full and then again today... They're really enthusiastic, it looks like they're really excited that we're here and on top of that they did an amazing job with the track, the layout, with the surface, with the actual event. You would have thought they'd had this event many many times. I take my hat off to them.

Q: (Leonid Khayremdinov - Red Star) Lewis, you had a wonderful season with this ninth victory and your lead is now 17 points, but I remember this in 2007 and you had the same 17 points behind Kimi Raikkonen. Are you not afraid of repeating the situation as in 2007? 
LH: I remember 2007 very well. I wasn't afraid then either but I guess I was perhaps less experienced so I'm a completely different man today so I'm looking forward to the races coming up.

(source: f1.com)

2014 Russian Grand Prix review

The winner of the first race in Russia!

The first ever Formula One race in Russia is over and now it's time for me to talk about it.

In the start Nico Rosberg challenged his teammate Lewis Hamilton for the lead but braked too late and had to cut the corner. He was told to let Lewis through and he responded that he would actually want to pit for new tyres. That was his only stop of the race and it seems that it was a good strategy. He was 2nd right after Lewis in the end.

The only man who could have challenged Rosberg for second place was Valtteri Bottas. He actually was 2nd for a long time but got overtaken by Rosberg eventually.

Rosberg overtook Bottas by forcing him off the track and after this maneuver Bottas didn't have the speed to overtake him back.

The race was quite boring and I am not the only one to say so. One of my admins said that same thing right after the race on our Facebook page. If I try to remember something else then the only thing I can think of is Romain Grosjean's stupid mistake with Sauber's Adrian Sutil. He could have avoided that collision for sure but didn't wanna let Sutil through.

The other thing I remember was Ferrari's poor pit crew. What happened during Fernando Alonso's pitstop? That was just awful. First they dropped the car too early and they tried to lift it again but Alonso drove away because they had already given him the green light. I almost laughed at them.

Next race is in three weeks in the United States. Only three races remaining.

Now Let's see how well I did on my predictions:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

Race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - CORRECT
3. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull - WRONG. He started good but ended up behind his teammate. The Finn Valtteri Bottas was 3rd.

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Bottas was fastest.

Surprise: Kimi Räikkönen will get one of his best results this season - He was good in practice but the race didn't go that well. He dropped about 3 positions in the start and didn't get much higher.

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

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 AE, JT, MW & MH. 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

F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE STANDINGS AFTER THE RUSSIAN GP

1. AE (F1-4-LIFE) -> 98 points
2. Darcy P Lang -> 91 points
3. Larry Gallagher -> 87 points
4. Elliott Robson -> 82 points
5. Peter McLaren -> 80 points
6. Rich Kewell -> 79 points
7. Regina Ehrnrooth -> 78 points
8. MW (F1-4-LIFE) -> 60 points
9. Dylan Curry -> 55 points
10. Jon Yountz -> 47 points
11. Jaakko livari -> 44 points
12. Anthony Brian Ayrton Senna -> 43 points
13. JT (F1-4-LIFE) -> 41 points
14. Jonathan Riggs -> 36 points
15. Liutauras Raulynatis -> 29 points
16. Leonardo Machado -> 27 points
17. Rab Mckinney -> 24 points
18. Jake Lakin -> 19 points
19. Martin Francis -> 16 points
20. Martin Mihalic -> 14 points
21. Shaun Magnano -> 14 points
22. David Perry -> 13 points
23. Abijith Kv -> 13 points
24. Leo Harry Gowing -> 11 points
25. Flavio Wallis -> 10 points
26. Jayson Nufc Nicholson -> 10 points
27. Craig Whitehead -> 10 points
28. Joel Booth -> 9 points
29. Paolo Gagliardi -> 9 points
30. Steven Peli -> 6 points
31. Jared Tallott -> 5 points
32. Mark Newman -> 5 points
33. Ryan Lane -> 3 points
34. Will Leahy -> 3 points
35. Craig Lymer -> 3 points
36. Coilin Higgins -> 3 points
37. Craig Taylor -> 3 points
38. Christopher Damien Wiseman -> 1 point
39. Vitor Lobo -> 0 points
40. MH (F1-4-LIFE) -> 0 points
41. Pippaa Chilton -> 0 points
42. Richard Gehl -> 0 points
43. Junaid Khan -> 0 points
44. Ewan Darlington -> 0 points
45. Chris Kemp -> 0 points
46. Saadi Tate -> 0 points
47. Theodore Dickman -> 0 points
48. Josh Dennis -> 0 points
49. Brian Dodgy Discs Hughes -> 0 points
50. John Hersam -> 0 points
51. Elaine Hannon -> 0 points
52. Natalie Bandee -> 0 points

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. 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 AE, JT, MW & MH. 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.

The drivers championship standings after the Russian GP

1	Lewis Hamilton	British	Mercedes	291
2	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	274
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Australian	Red Bull Racing-Renault	199
4	Valtteri Bottas	Finnish	Williams-Mercedes	145
5	Sebastian Vettel	German	Red Bull Racing-Renault	143
6	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	141
7	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	94
8	Nico Hulkenberg	German	Force India-Mercedes	76
9	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Williams-Mercedes	71
10	Kevin Magnussen	Danish	McLaren-Mercedes	49
11	Sergio Perez	Mexican	Force India-Mercedes	47
12	Kimi Räikkönen	Finnish	Ferrari	47
13	Jean-Eric Vergne	French	STR-Renault	21
14	Romain Grosjean	French	Lotus-Renault	8
15	Daniil Kvyat	Russian	STR-Renault	8
16	Jules Bianchi	French	Marussia-Ferrari	2
17	Adrian Sutil	German	Sauber-Ferrari	0
18	Marcus Ericsson	Swedish	Caterham-Renault	0
19	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuelan	Lotus-Renault	0
20	Esteban Gutierrez	Mexican	Sauber-Ferrari	0
21	Max Chilton	British	Marussia-Ferrari	0
22	Kamui Kobayashi	Japanese	Caterham-Renault	0
23	Andre Lotterer	German	Caterham-Renault	0