2015 British Grand Prix preview

Nino Farina in his Alfa Romeo. Silverstone 1950.

Silverstone is one of the most legendary F1 tracks in the calendar. Did you know that the whole F1 series started back in 1950 at Silverstone? That's why this circuit is so important!

In the first GP Giuseppe "Nino" Farina won from pole position also setting the fastest lap of the race (1'50.600). The current lap record is from last year by Mark Webber 1'33.401. The track has changed several times so it's hard to compare.

So what happened last year in the previous Silverstone race?

Some of you readers said that it was a boring race but I disagree. Silverstone has many times showed us that the track is not only a classic but gives us interesting races.

Right at the start my eyes was on the two Ferraris and two Williams's. Kimi Räikkönen overtook several cars including his teammate Fernando Alonso. Felipe Massa had a terrible start and dropped to 21st. Valtteri Bottas start was awesome! He jumped up to 9th position.

Kimi was fighting very aggressively and when Alonso came next to him he went off right away. Then when he tried to come back on track he lost control of the car and had a 47G crash. That is a very hard crash! Felipe Massa was at the wrong place at the wrong time and got hit by Kimi's car.

The first thing Kimi asked on the radio was "is Felipe ok?" and Massa asked Williams the same thing about Kimi. Two former teammates still caring for each other. That's nice.

Then they fixed the barrier for 1 hour! What the hell was that?! In Monaco they fix barriers in 5 minutes! A bit weird if you ask me. Didn't they practice situations like this or what was the problem? At least we got news from Ferrari that Kimi is OK.

Then after 1 hour they continued racing and the McLarens were 2nd and 3rd at best but what happened then? Why couldn't they hold the positions? It was almost like they had vanished from the race. OK it was probably hard to keep up with Hamilton and Bottas who were extremely fast. Button was 4th in the end so it was the best possible result for McLaren I guess.

Mercedes had technical problems again and Nico Rosberg retired. Lewis Hamilton got 25 points more than Rosberg from Silverstone. 

What else happened in the 2014 Silverstone race? Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel had a nice battle for positions but why did they have to complain and cry so much about every single move they did? Remember the situation? Is it because they are both used to be the number 1 driver in the team and get grumpy when the better driver doesn't let you pass? I don't know the answer to that, I was just saying.

Everybody was so interested of the Alonso vs. Vettel battle that nobody noticed that Daniel Ricciardo was higher up and kicked both of their asses again! In my opinion Bottas and Ricciardo are the future of F1.

Here are my predictions for this year's Grand Prix at Silverstone:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
3. Valtteri Bottas, Williams

Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes

Surprise: McLaren might get some more points in Silverstone.

First to crash: Pastor Maldonado, Lotus

Remember to post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE.

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.

2014 Austrian Grand Prix - Historic F1 car race

The historic race from last year at Spielberg. This is in German but it's still interesting to look at even though you don't understand what they are saying. Just skip to the parts where they drive the cars ;)

2015 Austrian GP (Full Race)

The race is in a smaller window so that it would be legal for YouTube.

2015 Austrian GP Team Principal Press Conference

If you missed it please watch this video ;)

Unofficial Wednesday testing times from Spielberg

Unofficial Tuesday testing times from Spielberg

Winners and Losers - Austria

Mercedes were never truly threatened in the Formula 1 Grosser Preis von Osterreich 2015, but part was down to some big names struggling badly. Behind the Silver Arrows, Williams returned to the podium, Force India claimed their best result of the season, while McLaren suffered a torrid weekend for the second race running. We take a team-by-team look at Sunday's action in Spielberg...


Mercedes

Nico Rosberg, P1
Lewis Hamilton, P2

Rosberg owned Spielberg from the moment that he grabbed the lead from slow-starting poleman Hamilton. The world champion, who blamed clutch issues for his poor getaway, simply couldn't keep up with Rosberg this day, and added five seconds to his race time when he crossed the white pit lane exit line on the 36th lap. Yet another Mercedes one-two meanwhile put them even further ahead on their way to another constructors' title - although the drivers' fight looks far less settled than it did a few races ago…

Williams

Felipe Massa, P3
Valtteri Bottas, P5

Forty five years to the day since the death of his friend Piers Courage at Zandvoort, Frank Williams witnessed Felipe Massa take his first podium of the season with a great drive in which he benefited from Vettel's pit stop strife but then earned it by keeping the German at bay in the closing stages. Bottas was less impressive this weekend and struggled a little with a brake problem - and Hulkenberg - on his way to an eventual fifth.

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel, P4
Kimi Raikkonen, Retired lap 1, accident

Ferrari should have taken an easy third place, but Vettel lost crucial time and the position to Massa when the right rear wheel proved problematic in his pit stop. The German said he was happy with the way his SF15-T went, and believed they took a step forward in the race. Raikkonen got too much wheelspin on new soft tyres exiting Turn 2 on the opening lap and collided heavily with Alonso. The Finn was extremely lucky to escape injury as the McLaren rode over his cockpit.


Force India

Nico Hulkenberg, P6
Sergio Perez, P9

Hulkenberg followed his great Le Mans weekend by qualifying extraordinarily well and making Bottas work for it as he raced hard to sixth, his best result of the year. Perez got clobbered by Kvyat on the opening lap and suffered severe vibrations with a flat-spotted front tyre late in the race, but nevertheless contributed to a 10-point haul that lifted Force India up two places in the team standings to fifth overall.

Lotus

Pastor Maldonado, P7
Romain Grosjean, Retired lap 35, gearbox

After recovering from a clutch problem at the start, Maldonado made good use of a set of new soft tyres to pull himself into points contention, and was later flying on supersofts. He made a bit of a meal of taking seventh, with a couple of lively mistakes, but then he was fighting the aggressive and determined Verstappen. Grosjean should have been in that fight too, but steadily lost gears until retirement became inevitable.

Toro Rosso

Max Verstappen, P8
Carlos Sainz, Retired lap 35, power loss

Once again Verstappen was in fabulous form and was one of the stars of the race with his passing moves and refusal to be beaten. His fight with Maldonado was spectacular, hard and entertaining, despite his tyres being finished. Had he not got caught up behind stable mate Kvyat for two laps, he might just have held on to what would have been a deserved seventh place.

Sainz was less forceful and earned himself a pit lane speeding penalty, which was understandable as he was departing after a delay with a wheel during his tyre change, but in any case he didn't go the distance after suffering power loss.


Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo, P10
Daniil Kvyat, P12

Ricciardo earned a single point for Dietrich Mateschitz in Red Bull's home race, after doing an impressive 50 laps on a set of new soft Pirellis and then pushing aggressively on supersofts. It was a great drive but not a great result, but he said he was pleased with the RB11 in the race. Kvyat had a first-lap pit stop after damaging his nose on Perez's Force India, and thereafter struggled to 12th.

Sauber

Felipe Nasr, P11
Marcus Ericsson, P13

Nasr looked a points contender until overheating brakes forced him to ease off, and he lost 10th to Ricciardo late on. Ericsson twice had to reset his car's electronics on the way to a disappointed 13th.

Marussia

Roberto Merhi, P14
Will Stevens, Retired lap 2, punctured oil radiator

Marussia lost Stevens on the second lap after debris punctured an oil radiator, but Merhi maintained the team's record of finishing at least one car in every race they have competed in this season.

McLaren

Jenson Button, Retired lap 8, sensor failure
Fernando Alonso, Retired lap 1, accident

McLaren's awful weekend ended early, as Raikkonen lost it exiting Turn 2 on the opening lap and collected an innocent Alonso. Then Button, having made his mandatory 10s stop-and-go pit call - penalty for pre-race changes of several power unit elements - within the first three laps, came in again and was retired with a sensor problem just when he was preparing to try and go through non-stop after switching to a set of soft Pirellis.

(source: f1.com)