Gasly to make F1 debut in Barcelona test

Red Bull junior driver Pierre Gasly will get his first taste of Formula One machinery after being
called up by Toro Rosso for May's in-season test at Barcelona.

Gasly had been a contender for a 2015 race seat with the team, but ultimately lost out to Carlos Sainz - whom he also finished runner-up to in Formula Renault 3.5 last year.

The 19-year-old Frenchman's outstanding record in junior formulae also includes winning the Formula Renault 2.0 Euro crown in 2013, a title previously won by McLaren protegee Stoffel Vandoorne. The pair will both compete in GP2 this year.

The Barcelona test, one of two in-season tests in 2015, takes place on May 12-13 - immediately after the Formula 1 Gran Premio De Espana Pirelli 2015. Austria's Red Bull Ring hosts the second test on June 23-24.

(source: f1.com)

Top 10's - Most legendary teammates

The series continues again! 

Today I am listing the most legendary teammates in my opinion. Here we go again...

1. Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost (McLaren)
2. Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
3. Niki Lauda and Alain Prost (McLaren)
4. Giuseppe Farina and Alberto Ascari (Ferrari)
5. Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss (Mercedes)
6. Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve (Ferrari)
7. Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren (Cooper-Climax)
8. Phill Hill and Wolfgang von Trips (Ferrari)
9. Denny Hulme and Jack Brabham (Brabham-Repco)
10. Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson (Lotus)

Senna and Prost both won a championship when they drove together, Hamilton and Alonso got the equal amount of points but lost to Kimi Räikkönen by one point, Niki Lauda won Alain Prost by half a point! Rest of the pairs on the list are teammates who I have only read about or seen in documentaries so they have got their spots based on that.

Stirling Moss would have been champion many times but was always 2nd behind Fangio in the championships. If he had driven in some other time period he would have gotten much more respect. Even though he never won a championship he is still one of the all time best. It's not easy to beat Juan Manuel Fangio. I bet most of the champions in history would lose against him.

Care to make your own Top 10 -list on the Facebook page for example? Go right ahead! I will read them all because I really want to know your opinions as well.

Top 10's - Best German drivers of all time

The series continues! 

Today I am listing the top 10 best German drivers in my opinion. Here we go again...

1. Michael Schumacher
2. Sebastian Vettel
3. Wolfgang von Trips
4. Heinz-Harald Frentzen
5. Ralf Schumacher
6. Nico Rosberg
7. Nico Hulkenberg
8. Jochen Mass
9. Timo Glock
10. Nick Heidfeld

Who would you list as the best of all time? Care to make your own Top 10 -list on the Facebook page for example? Go right ahead! I will read them all because I really want to know your opinions as well.

2015 Malaysian GP review

The finger boy is back.

The 2nd race is now behind us and in two weeks it's time for the Chinese Grand Prix. Before that we will go through yesterday's race and see how it went..

There was a pretty clean start from my point of view. Nothing bad really happened at the start but still on the first lap Kimi Räikkönen got hit THREE TIMES from behind by different drivers. One of them was Felipe Nasr who also hit him in Melbourne. This time Kimi got a puncture at the main straight and had to do a full lap with only three tyres. He dropped to the back and was almost a lap behind the rest after his pitstop.

After this Pastor Maldonado also got a puncture, but he got to the pits much faster because he had almost completed the second lap when it happened. He was the first one to pit.

When Kimi and Pastor had made their pitstop Marcus Ericsson made the most stupid mistake and went slowly off track to the red gravel. He got stuck and couldn't continue. The safety car was deployed and most of the drivers pitted. Pastor and Kimi didn't gain any advantages because they were so far behind.

Sebastian Vettel stayed out and took the lead. This was a surprise for Mercedes but they were sure that they would overtake him during his next pitstop.

Williams had problems in the pits once again and this time it was Valtteri Bottas who was the unlucky driver. They trained for a day (just pitstops) in Barcelona but they still can't do things right?! They really screwed up! Well actually they didn't screw Bottas' back tyre on fast enough and he lost a lot of time... AGAIN. Team Williams have great drivers and a great car so why are they throwing it all away by messing things up in the pits?! That's just STUPID!! It doesn't make any sense! Get a better pit crew or something! Those guys aren't even the most valuable workers you have! I mean even I can screw a wheel on but I can't design a racing car!! Everybody's doing their job except the pit crew obviously. So much money and valuable points down the drain. If this wasn't the first time I would let it go but come on! How many times did they mess things up last year? They could have beaten Red Bull for sure if it wasn't for the screw ups in the pits.

Sorry I got a little carried away there... but let's move on :D

Kimi got stuck behind Roberto Merhi who couldn't even catch the safety car. Kimi was a bit angry and asked on the radio if he could pass the cars in front but he was not allowed. That must have been frustrating for him.
When the safety car came in they were still 6 seconds behind the rest. THAT'S JUST CRAZY!

The race was on again with Vettel in the lead and most of the other fast cars were at the back. Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Kimi Räikkönen, Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were just flying overtaking car after car. Then after a few laps Kimi pitted again and dropped to the back once more...

Kimi Räikkönen continued to overtake car after car and the Mercs were already at the front battling with Vettel. After the German's first pitstop the Mercs were in front of him, but then he showed us what this year's Ferrari can do: he overtook Nico Rosberg's Mercedes! Last year only Bottas and Ricciardo managed to overtake a Mercedes once or twice. It seems that Ferrari's pace is much better than we all had expected.

After everybody had made their last pitstop Sebastian Vettel was leading, Lewis Hamilton was 2nd and Nico Rosberg was 3rd.

On the last laps we saw some great battle between teammates. First of all Max Verstappen overtook Carlos Sainz and showed him that even though he is only 17 years old he is somebody to take seriously. Then Felipe Massa had a lot of work keeping Valtteri Bottas behind him and in the end he couldn't hold him any longer. Bottas was too quick for him. Last year Williams asked Massa to let Bottas pass and he refused. This year there was no need for team orders.

The drivers of the day were definitely Vettel and Kimi. Sebastian won the race and Kimi managed to take 4th after all the problems he had. Great result!

One more thing I have to say before I go to my predictions. Have you guys noticed that Toro Rosso is doing better than Red Bull? Christian Horner has been moaning about the engine and that the car is perfect but the problems are with the engine. OK Horner... but why is Toro Rosso doing better than you guys if you have the same engine? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!! :D That's all I have to say about the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Now let's see my predictions and the results!

Pole Position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 2nd and Sebastian Vettel won!
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 3rd.
3. Valtteri Bottas, Williams - WRONG. He was 5th.

Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. Nico Rosberg was fastest.

First to pit: Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull - WRONG. Pastor Maldonado pitted first.

Surprise: Carlos Sainz Jr. is going to show us some more of his speed - Maybe.. but it was Max Verstappen who showed more of his speed if you ask me!

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. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

2015 PREDICTORS LEAGUE standings after the Malaysian GP

1. Tim Saunders - 28 points

2. Jaakko Iivari - 20 points

3. AE (F1-4-LIFE) - 18 points

3. Abijith Kv - 18 points

3. David Perry - 18 points

3. Leonardo Machado - 18 points

3. James Redman - 18 points

8. Daniel Vanderburg - 15 points

9. Elliott Robson - 13 points

10. JT (F1-4-LIFE) - 10 points

10. Richard Gehl - 10 points

10. Chris Kemp - 10 points

10. Eric Lemens - 10 points

14. Ryan Lane - 8 points

14. Shaun Magnano - 8 points

14. Peter McLaren - 8 points

14. MW (F1-4-LIFE) - 8 points

14. MH (F1-4-LIFE) - 8 points

14. Rodrigo Gonzales - 8 points

20. Белмин Aљоски - 3 points

20. Anthony Brian Ayrton Senna - 3 points

20. Tom Maw - 3 points

20. Dylan Curry - 3 points

24. Jonathan M Yountz - 0 points

24. Vitor Lobo - 0 points

24. Larry Gallagher - 0 points

24. Steven Peli - 0 points

24. Daniel Kelleher - 0 points

24. Martin Hubbard - 0 points

24. Rich Kewell - 0 points

We have had 30 different predictors this season.

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. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

2015 Driver Standings after the Malaysian GP

2015 Constructor Standings after the Malaysian GP