2015 British GP Thursday Drivers Press Conference (Full Video)

Interesting drivers today!

The British Grand Prix - did you know?

Did you know that seven drivers have scored their breakthrough Grand Prix triumphs on British soil? Or that on four separate occasions British drivers have locked out all three steps of the podium? On the eve of the 2015 Formula 1 British Grand Prix, we present a compendium of the event's most fascinating stats and trivia...

Silverstone hosts its 49th Grand Prix this year. Only two tracks have hosted more - Monza (64) and Monte Carlo (62). Both circuits, like Silverstone, were on the inaugural Formula One racing calendar in 1950, though the British circuit had the honour of hosting the very first round of the world championship.
Giuseppe ‘Nino’ Farina won that first race for Alfa Romeo. With countryman Alberto Ascari victorious at Silverstone in 1952 and 1953, Italian drivers won three of the first four world championship races on British soil. However, they’ve not won any races in the country since…

The great Jim Clark won his home race a joint record five times in the Sixties

By contrast, British racers have always tended to fare well on home soil. 17 of the 48 previous races at Silverstone have been won by British drivers, with a further six home wins coming when the race was staged at Aintree and Brands Hatch. In ’63, ’64 and ’65 Jim Clark led British sweeps of the podium places, followed home on all three occasions by Graham Hill and John Surtees. British drivers also locked out the rostrum spots in 1958, led by Peter Collins - the first Briton to win at Silverstone.

Speaking of Jim Clark, the Scottish racer won five races in Britain - a record only matched by Alain Prost. It’s a measure of Clark’s dominance, however, that his tally of 365 laps in the lead of races in Britain remains unsurpassed.

In terms of teams, it’s Ferrari who can boast the best win tally in British Grand Prix history. The Italian team have taken 16 victories - including their first ever world championship triumph in 1951 - on British soil. 13 of the Prancing Horse’s wins have come at Silverstone, with the other three at Aintree (1961) and Brands Hatch (1976 and 1978). McLaren and Williams have claimed 14 and 10 victories respectively at their home race.

No other team has triumphed as often as Ferrari in Great Britain. The Scuderia have taken 16 wins, including 13 at Silverstone.

Of the current grid, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton have both won the British Grand Prix twice, whilst Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg each have a single British victory to their name. In total, Alonso has stood on the podium at Silverstone six times - only one off Alain Prost’s and Michael Schumacher’s joint British Grand Prix podium record of seven. Jenson Button, by contrast, has never stood on the rostrum in front of his own fans, despite taking part in more races at Silverstone (15) than any other current driver.

Alonso also shares the record for most pole positions at Silverstone with three (with Clark, Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill). But if you think pole position is all-important at Silverstone, think again. Only four of the last 20 races have been won from pole position at the Northamptonshire venue.

Speaking of Mansell, the moustachioed racer holds the record for the most British Grand Prix fastest laps. The local favourite claimed seven of them over 11 starts on home soil, as well as four victories. Kimi Raikkonen has the most fastest laps in Britain of the current crop - four.

Fernando Alonso has more British Grand Prix podiums to his name than any other current driver

Five drivers have won the British Grand Prix by a lap or more over their nearest rival - Ascari in 1952, Juan Manuel Fangio in 1956, Jackie Stewart in 1969, Emerson Fittipaldi in 1975 and Prost in 1985. The smallest winning margin in British Grand Prix history came in 1955 when Stirling Moss crossed the line 0.2 seconds ahead of Mercedes team mate Fangio at Aintree.

That victory incidentally was Moss’s first in F1 competition. Six other drivers have scored maiden victories in Britain - Farina (1950), Froilan Gonzalez (1951), Tony Brooks (1957, shared drive with Moss), Jo Siffert (1968), Peter Revson (1973) and Johnny Herbert (1995).

The longest race in Silverstone history was the 1956 event which was won by Fangio in 2h 59m 47s. The shortest was the 1985 race, won by Prost in 1h 18m 10.436s.

Seven of the 10 Formula One teams are based in Britain, all within a 160-kilometre radius of Silverstone. Force India - whose factory is in Silverstone - are based the closest to the circuit, McLaren - in Woking - are the furthest away.

And finally, if Lewis Hamilton spends one or more laps at the front of the field at Silverstone, he'll surpass Jackie Stewart’s 45-year record of 17 consecutive Grands Prix led. What better place to do it than at home?

(source: f1.com)

FIA press conference schedule - Great Britain

Home heroes Jenson Button and Will Stevens will be among the drivers facing the media at Silverstone on Thursday, while on Friday it is the turn of senior team personnel to field the questions. The line-ups in full…

Thursday, July 2, 1500 hours local time (1400 hours GMT)
Valtteri Bottas (Williams), Jenson Button (McLaren), Marcus Ericsson (Sauber), Pastor Maldonado (Lotus), Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari), Will Stevens (Marussia)

Friday, July 3, 1600 hours local time (1500 hours GMT)
John Booth (Marussia), Eric Boullier (McLaren), Matthew Carter (Lotus), Monisha Kaltenborn (Sauber), Vijay Mallya (Force India), Claire Williams (Williams)

The qualifying and post-race conferences with the top three drivers will take place immediately after the respective sessions.

(source: f1.com)

Order you tickets to Silverstone!

Order your F1 tickets to the British GP from this link: http://www.bookf1.com/f1-britain/tickets.htm?afid=815

The money you spend on that page will automatically help this blog

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.

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3rd - 10

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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.