I went to a karting club for the first time in over 10 years!

Me and my wife at Formula Center Helsinki

Last Sunday after the Chinese Grand Prix I had a strong feeling that I must do something I haven't done in a long time. KARTING!

I started driving when I was 7-8 years old and I drove for a junior team / club called Micro Monza. I did that for a few years and then decided to focus on my other hobby - Football (or Soccer as the Americans call it). After this decision I only drove every now and then for fun with friends or relatives.

Later when I was an adult I joined another club called Kart'in Club and drove there until I had to join the marines in 2004. Then I never drove again until last Sunday! The place is called Formula Center.

The feeling to drive after such a long time was unbelievable! My wife also enjoyed it and we decided to come back to Formula Center in the near future. This might be in a few weeks or months but I can't wait that long! I contacted my brother and we decided to go this or next week. He studies to be a car mechanic so he is a great person to bring along. My sister heard that we are planning to go and now she is also joining us. We shall see who is the fastest in the family! :D

I'll post some pictures when we are going (if we take any pics next time).

Tomorrow I will post the Bahrain GP preview. Remember to post your predictions under that post for the PREDICTORS LEAGUE.

2015 Chinese Grand Prix review

It was an ok race but I wasn't very happy how the race ended behind the safety car. This hasn't happened that many times in F1 history but I have seen all of those races and it has never been a good thing if you ask me.

Let's talk about how the race started shall we.

After the warm up lap Lewis Hamilton placed his car in an angle at his grid spot so that he could easier go in front of Nico Rosberg without turning the wheel as much. Was he really that worried about Nico? I would have been more worried about the Ferraris!

Speaking of Ferraris did you see how well Kimi Räikkönen's start went? He jumped from 6th to 4th by overtaking both of the Williams's (Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas).

Bottas had a good start because he overtook Massa. Unfortunately for his sake he didn't hold that position very long because when Kimi overtook him he also lost the position back to Massa. You can clearly now see that Ferrari has done a better job than Williams. Last year Williams were in front of them most of the time and Red Bull was the second best team. Now Williams is still the 3rd best team but Red Bull has dropped even further back. Ferrari might even catch the Mercs at some point of the season just like Red Bull did with Brawn in 2009. But in 2009 it was too late to win the championship.

Red Bull and Renault are really struggling. Daniel Ricciardo's start was a disaster when his car went into antistall and didn't move forward very fast. He got overtaken from both sides in an instant. Daniil Kvyat retired again even though he drove well. What a pity! Ricciardo and Kvyat are both great drivers and they are wasting their time at Red Bull if they can't get things moving forward. Should Red Bull try to use Infinity engines or should they just wait for Renault to solve the problems? Who knows... that's probably what's on Christian Horner's mind right now. Max Verstappen also retired once again. He also had a great race and showed better skills than Carlos Sainz, but if you can't bring the car to the finish line it doesn't count or even matter.

Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean did a very good job! Lotus has also made huge progress if you haven't noticed. Maldonado was just flying and overtook several cars one by one. Then he crashed with Jenson Button but this time the blame wasn't on Maldonado. Button even admitted that it was his own fault.

The funniest moment was when Kimi said on the radio "get these two McLaren's out of the way!". Listen to this clip:



The end part of the race was boring because after the last retirement the safety car was deployed just 2 laps before the finish. They didn't have time to restart the race before it was all over. Hamilton asked Mercedes if he had already won it just to make sure. Rosberg was second followed by the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen.


As usual it's time for the predictions and the results.

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - WRONG. He was 3rd.
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 2nd.

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

Surprise: McLaren will do better this weekend! - CORRECT. They managed to finish with both cars!

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 Chinese GP

2015 Constructor Standings after the Chinese GP

2015 PREDICTORS LEAGUE standings after the Chinese GP

1. Leonardo Machado - 41 points

2. Tim Saunders - 36 points

3. Ryan Lane - 31 points

3. Shaun Magnano - 31 points

5. JT (F1-4-LIFE) - 28 points

6. AE (F1-4-LIFE) - 26 points

6. MW (F1-4-LIFE) - 26 points

6. David Perry - 26 points

9. Jaakko Iivari - 25 points

10. Jonathan M Yountz - 23 points

10. James Redman - 23 points

10. Daniel Vanderburg - 23 points

10. Archie Donato - 23 points

10. Neil Marchant - 23 points

10. Elliott Robson - 23 points

16. Abijith Kv - 18 points

16. Larry Gallagher - 18 points

16. Rich Kewell - 18 points

16. Marcel Kircher - 18 points

20. MH (F1-4-LIFE) - 11 points

20. Peter McLaren - 11 points

22. Richard Gehl - 10 points

22. Chris Kemp - 10 points

22. Eric Lemens - 10 points

25. Rodrigo Gonzales - 8 points

25. Corey Lea - 8 points

27. Белмин Aљоски - 3 points

27. Anthony Brian Ayrton Senna - 3 points

27. Tom Maw - 3 points

27. Dylan Curry - 3 points

31. Vitor Lobo - 0 points

31. Steven Peli - 0 points

31. Daniel Kelleher - 0 points

31. Martin Hubbard - 0 points

We have had 34 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 Chinese Grand Prix - Race

2015 Chinese Grand Prix - Qualifying