NAZI GRAND PRIX - Richard Seaman and the Silver Arrows

Another Discovery channel documentary for you guys. Here's some Grand Prix racing before the Formula One series.

2015 Season F1 Tickets

Last year it was possible to order tickets through F1-4-LIFE and I would like to announce that it's possible this year also.

GET YOUR TICKETS FROM THIS LINK!


...or click on the banner above that says "F1 Tickets". I will every now and then post links on the Facebook page as well to make it as easy as possible.

If you go and see any Grand Prix' then please let me know and show some pictures if you took any. I would love to see them!

F1 Treasures XIII

I said that I was going to visit some other Finnish flea markets this week and this is what I found. Not entirely F1 stuff but every item has something F1 related in it.

I have talked earlier about "Ruutulippu" but if you don't remember or haven't read about it then here's a few words about it:

Ruutulippu means checkered flag in Finnish and it's a TV program in Finland. They also publish a book every year about Finnish motorsports. Every year there's a lot about F1 but in the early 90's it was more about Rally because Finland's Juha Kankkunen did quite well back then. He won 4 world championships.

Here's the first book. Juha Kankkunen on the cover and this is from 1993. It cost only 3 euro and late I noticed that there's Juha Kankkunen's autograph on the cover!! WOW!!

The second book is from 2010 and it was 1 euro.

Inside the book there was a DVD. The disc has various nostalgic moments from the TV show.

The third book is also from 2010 but it is another version of the previous book. This book was given only to VM (Vauhdinmaailma = The world of speed) subscribers. This also cost me only 1 euro.

I thought that people wouldn't be interested of these kind of posts so I stopped doing these. Later I got feedback from none Finnish readers asking me to do more of these. I understand that it might be interesting to know more about Finnish motorsport culture so this is probably why some of you wanted more.

Next time when I go to a flea market I will definitely look for more F1 stuff. I'll keep you posted if I find anything.

The Front Line Full Documentary

I am uploading this again because the previous video was erased from YouTube. Enjoy!

F1 Treasures XII

Today I went to a few second hand stores and found a Mika Häkkinen book. I actually have this as an "audio book" on CD but this real book cost me only 1 euro so why not?

The book is about Mika's life after F1 and that he almost returned to the sport. I like the book.

Then I found a Formula One car for my son... OK! it was for me!

Then I got some more Lotus deodorant from Lidl and they were 2,50 each.

That's it for today. I will check out more flea markets and second hand stores this week for more F1 stuff. I'll get back to you guys tomorrow!

Comparing the 2015 teammates: Force India

Force India has decided to stick with the same drivers as in 2014 and they are a good pair in my opinion.

Hülkenberg has always been a good driver and in my opinion he is one of the best drivers in Formula One. Perez on the other hand is a driver who is a bit off sometimes but is capable of scoring some very good points for him and his team. Perez was good at Sauber but at McLaren he couldn't beat his world champion teammate Jenson Button. Last year he got a podium but lost to Hülkenberg in points.

The comparing starts here and I will begin with Sergio Perez. First the year, then the former teammate and how the season went.

2011 - Kamui Kobayashi. Perez started his career with a very good and hungry teammate. Kobayashi was said to be a rising star but for some reason he isn't driving in F1 anymore.
The first season in F1 wasn't that good for Perez. Kobayashi got double the amount of points than Perez. Sauber was also a very weak team that year which didn't really give him a chance to show any skills.

2012 - Kamui Kobayashi. This time the Sauber was working much better than the year before and even Perez was driving better. He won Kobayashi with 6 points (66-60) and even got three podium finishes. The 2012 Malaysian GP was the best race ever for Perez. He almost won the race but got second place in the end fighting with the two time world champion Fernando Alonso. People were talking that Perez was going to replace Massa at Ferrari. In the end Perez got a contract with McLaren after Lewis Hamilton wanted to leave.

2013 - Jenson Button. Now it was time for Perez to show his real potential but he failed. Jenson Button was not an easy man to beat. Perez lost 73-49 in points and lost also his seat at McLaren to the newbie Kevin Magnussen. Not a good year for McLaren and not for Perez either. 

2014 - Nico Hülkenberg. I will talk about him when I have compared his teammates first.

Let's take a look at the German superstar Nico Hülkenberg. Some say that if Kimi Räikkönen would have stayed with Lotus Hülkenberg would have joined Ferrari for sure.

2010 - Rubens Barrichello. The only season that Hülkenberg has lost to his teammate. As a rookie he got only half of the points that Barrichello got. But then on the other hand Hülkenberg retired twice more than Barrichello. The young rookie from Germany also shocked everybody by taking pole position in Brazil with a car that wasn't good enough for that.

2011 - This year he lost his seat when Williams needed a pay driver and signed Pastor Maldonado. Hülkenberg would have gotten a seat for sure in another team but Williams notified him so late that all of the seats were already taken.

2012 - Paul di Resta. Hülkenberg was back again and showed his teammate who's boss with the points 63-46. Hülkenberg was now a driver that every team was keeping an eye on. McLaren could have signed him for 2013 but thought that his 2014 teammate (Sergio Perez) was a better choice. An interesting question was in the air: If they would have signed Hülkenberg instead of Perez would they have signed Magnussen for 2014? We will never know and only wonder.

2013 - Esteban Gutierrez. This was a pretty obvious victory for Hülkenberg because he got over 8 times more points than his teammate. The points were 51-6! What a difference! Sauber were happy enough to keep him for one more season though. Hülkenberg was good enough to say that he wasn't happy with the car and returned to Force India who were glad to take him back.

2014 - Sergio Perez. He got Force India's first podium since 2009 but Hülkenberg won him in points and being more consistent. 

If I would take a guess I would say that Perez will lose this time too because "the Hulk" is a very tough teammate to beat.

Comparing the 2015 drivers: Williams

Today we shall talk about the two Williams drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa. 

Valtteri Bottas has been with the team for a few years. First he was the test driver / reserve driver and then for the past two years he has been one of the racing drivers. 

Felipe Massa joined Williams before last season so he should be used to the team by now.

OK guys.. I'll do this the same way as I've always done. So first the year, then the teammate and how the season went.

I'm gonna start with Felipe Massa because he got to Formula One first.

2002 - Nick Heidfeld. After Räikkönen got a seat at McLaren Peter Sauber signed Felipe Massa as Nick Heidfeld's teammate. Sauber said that Massa was even better than Räikkönen and was sure that everybody would see it. Unfortunately Massa didn't perform as good as Räikkönen a year before. Massa was 14th in the championship with 4 points. Heidfeld was 10th with 7.

2003 - Peter Sauber didn't want to continue Massa's contract because of "numerous mistakes" in 2002. Massa became Ferrari's test driver and later Sauber wanted him back for the 2004 season.

2004 - Giancarlo Fisichella. Massa had gotten better but this time he had a more experienced teammate against him. In the end Fisichella was higher up in the standings with 22 points and Massa had only 12.

2005 - Jaques Villeneuve. Now he had a former world champion driving with him. For the first time ever Massa was better than his teammate! The former world champion got 9 points and Massa got 11. This was not because of luck or bad luck. Massa was much better that season and got a seat at Ferrari for the next season.

2006 - Michael Schumacher. Schumi was fighting for the championship with Alonso. Massa was just the "junior teammate" who came to learn from the legend how it's done. Massa was 2nd in his first qulaifying with Ferrari right after Schumacher. Later on he started winning races and got better and better.

2007 - Kimi Räikkönen. The Iceman won his first race with Ferrari and 5 more races that same season. He also won the championship before Hamilton, Alonso and Massa. The brazilian said that 2008 was going to be his turn.

2008 - Kimi Räikkönen. This year Ferrari had a lot of technical problems. Massa retired 3 times and Räikkönen 5 times. Sometimes they had big problems even though they got to finish the race. Massa was more lucky than Räikkönen and was 2nd in the championship. It seemed for a while that he was the champion but Hamilton overtook Timo Glock on the last lap and won Massa by a single point. Anyways this was the second time he won his teammate in Formula One.

2009 - Kimi Räikkönen. This year the car was even worse. Räikkönen only won one single race for Ferrari and Massa had a serious accident in Hungary. He was replaced by Luca Badoer and later Giancarlo Fisichella who were not nearly as good as Massa. If you count Massa's, Badoer's and Fisichella's points together you get less points than Räikkönen got from the whole season.

2010 - Fernando Alonso. Alonso won him by 108 points with the new scoring system and was 2nd in the championship. He lost the championship in the last race when he got stuck behind Petrov. Massa was far behind in 6th place in the end of the season.

2011 - Fernando Alonso. Alonso's victory over Massa was even greater. 139 points more!

2012 - Fernando Alonso. Even more! 156 points, but Ferrari gave Felipe Massa one last chance to prove himself to the team.

2013 - Fernando Alonso. Alonso won Massa again very clearly which forced Ferrari to sign Kimi Räikkönen instead of Massa. They lost faith in him but wished him well.

2014 - Valtteri Bottas. I'll talk about him after I have compared Valtteri's previous teammates.

Here we go! It's Valtteri Bottas' turn. The list is very short because he has driven only two season's in Formula One (as a racing driver).

2013 - Pastor Maldonado. He was expected to be better than Bottas but it wasn't so. Bottas got 4 points and Maldonado got 1. According to the Williams team Bottas seamed to be a more mature driver than Maldonado even though he was a rookie. Bottas also got a P3 in the Canadian qualifying session which was a big surprise. Williams had an awful car in 2013.

2014 - Felipe Massa. He was also expected to be better than Bottas but he wasn't. He drove better than he did at Ferrari but it wasn't enough against Bottas. The points were 186-134 between them and Bottas took six podiums and Massa "only" three.

Last year I said: "People are not going to agree with me on this one but I really think that Bottas has a chance of being better than Massa in 2014". I was right and I am sure that he will beat Massa this year also. I like Massa but he has to do better in 2015 to beat Bottas. He is very though.