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Friday, November 13, 2015
Thursday, November 12, 2015
2015 Brazil - Thursday Press Conference
Felipe Massa almost won the championship in 2008 here in Brazil. Now he drives for Williams and could be on the podium so keep an eye on him ;)
The press conference is in two parts and here they are. Take a look!
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
FIA press conference schedule - Brazil
Home favourites Felipe Massa and Felipe Nasr and two-time Brazilian Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel will be amongst the drivers facing the press at Interlagos on Thursday, while on Friday Sauber’s Monisha Kaltenborn and Toro Rosso’s Franz Tost will join other senior team personnel in answering questions from the media. The line-ups in full…
Thursday, November 12, 1100 hours (1300 GMT)
Jenson Button (McLaren), Nico Hulkenberg (Force India), Felipe Massa (Williams), Felipe Nasr (Sauber), Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso)
Friday, November 13, 1600 hours (1800 GMT)
Federico Gastaldi (Lotus), Monisha Kaltenborn (Sauber), Graeme Lowdon (Manor), Paul Monaghan (Red Bull), Franz Tost (Toro Rosso)
The qualifying and post-race conferences with the top three drivers will take place immediately after the respective sessions.
(source: f1.com)
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
The Brazilian Grand Prix - did you know?
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| Fernando Alonso took 3rd place in the 2007 Brazilian GP. He has the most podiums from Interlagos. |
Did you know that Juan Pablo Montoya was the last man to take back-to-back wins at Interlagos? Or that Fernando Alonso has scored more podiums in Brazil than any other current driver, and yet has never tasted victory? We bring you the most intriguing facts, stats and trivia ahead of this weekend's Formula 1 Grande Premio Petrobras do Brasil 2015...
The Brazilian Grand Prix has been a permanent fixture on the F1 calendar since 1973. Interlagos hosted the first five races, and every race from 1990 onwards. Another track was used in 1978 and throughout the 1980s, however - the five-kilometre Jacarepaqua circuit located in Rio de Janeiro.
The country experienced home success from the off, with Emerson Fittipaldi winning the first two editions before Jose Carlos Pace scored his sole F1 victory for Brabham in 1975. The circuit was renamed in Pace's honour following his death in 1977.
Pace was the second Brazilian to prevail in F1 racing, following in the footsteps of Fittipaldi, whose own breakthrough came in the 1970 United States Grand Prix. Since then, four other Brazilians have stood on the top step of a Grand Prix podium: Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna, Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa. In total, those six drivers have given Brazil 101 victories - a count only bettered by the United Kingdom (248 wins) and Germany (157).
Impressively, five of those six have all won at home - the exception being Rubens Barrichello. In 19 races at his home venue, the Brazilian was on pole three times, but on Sundays he recorded 11 DNFs - eight straight between 1995 and 2003 - and only one podium, when he finished third in 2004...
...a race that was won by Juan Pablo Montoya (pictured with Barrichello in the main image above), who also set the fastest lap of the race - a 1m 11.473s, which remains the outright lap record.
Of the current field, only Massa (2006 and 2008) and Sebastian Vettel (2010 and 2013) have won more than once in Brazil. Kimi Raikkonen (2007), Jenson Button (2012) and Nico Rosberg (2014) all have one win to their names.
That, of course, means that both Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are still chasing their first victories at Interlagos. Hamilton has been on the podium only twice, finishing third in 2009 and runner-up last year. Alonso, meanwhile, has eight podiums - second only to Michael Schumacher on 10 - without managing to break through.
In terms of manufacturers, Ferrari and McLaren are locked on eight wins apiece at Interlagos. The two teams also have 23 podiums each - but McLaren just have the edge in qualifying, having taken nine pole positions to Ferrari's eight.
Pole doesn't always equate to victory at Interlagos, however. From 32 races, the polesitter has triumphed just 11 times, a ratio of 34 percent - one of the lowest of any circuit on the current calendar. The last two years have bucked the trend slightly, with Vettel and then Nico Rosberg achieving the feat in 2013 and '14 respectively.
Speaking of Rosberg, the German enters the weekend chasing a fifth straight pole - which would be his best run in the sport, and also the joint fourth best in history. Of the current grid, only Hamilton (7), Alonso (5) and Vettel (5) can boast a longer run of consecutive poles.
Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen, meanwhile, is the on-form driver in terms of points finishes. The teenage sensation has finished inside the top ten in the five races prior to Brazil, a record no other driver can match. Verstappen is still a long way short of the all-time record for consecutive races in the points, however: that belongs to Kimi Raikkonen, on a staggering 27.
Raikkonen can boast another unusual stat at Interlagos - in the last decade, he and Ferrari team mate Sebastian Vettel are the only two drivers to have triumphed at the circuit in the same year they won the world championship. Raikkonen managed it during his first spell with the Scuderia in 2007, while Vettel was triumphant in both 2010 and 2013, on both occasions with Red Bull.
That 2013 triumph also meant Vettel was crowned champion on Brazilian soil. It's a surprisingly common occurrence - in fact all five of the world champions on this year's grid - Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Button and Vettel - have clinched a title in Brazil.
Burrowing owls are a common sight at Interlagos. The miniature birds are unique in that they've developed longer legs than other owls, which enable them to sprint as well as fly - handy when trying to keep out of the way of errant F1 cars!
On an unrelated animal front, did you know that in 1958 a rhino was a candidate in Sao Paulo's city council elections? 'Cacareco', as the rhino was named, won by a landslide, although the ballot was hastily recast. To this day, 'voto cacareco' remains a term for a protest vote.
(source: f1.com)
Monday, November 9, 2015
2015 Brazilian Grand Prix preview
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| The 2003 Brazilian GP was slippery. |
How many can remember the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2003 when most of the cars retired the race and Alonso was taken to the hospital? Let's hope nothing like that happens.
When the 2003 race at Interlagos was red flagged there was only two men on the podium: Kimi Räikkönen and Giancarlo Fisichella. Kimi stood on first place, Fisi on the second and Alonso was supposed to be standing on third place but was forced to go to the hospital after the crash that ended the race.
At the next Grand Prix Kimi had to give his number one trophy from Brazil to Fisi because the race control changed the results after the race. There was so much going on that they didn't even know who had won the race when it was stopped. If Kimi had kept his 1st place he would have been world champion in 2003.
Here is a video with a few highlights of the race:
Last year Nico Rosberg won the race, just like he did in Mexico in the previous race. Take a look at last year's results:
I am pretty sure the top3 will have the same drivers as last year but in a different order.
Here are my predictions:
Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
Race:
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
- Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
- Felipe Massa, Williams
Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
Surprise: Felipe Nasr will have a great weekend.
This GP's bonus for the PREDICTORS LEAGUE will be who's pitstop will be fastest. I'll pick Nico Rosberg!
Post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE!
The rules:
POINTS: 1st - 3 2nd - 5 3rd - 10
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. If you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points same if you get 1 correct. eg. 2nd you get 5 points. If a driver wins the race and you said he would come 2nd or 3rd no points would be awarded. Same if he came in another position, and you predicted that wrong. A table will be posted up every race weekend. The point scoring system will change once the cars become more competitive. Everyone will say a merc 1,2 so it won't be close or fun.
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! like the Mercedes.
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 & JI. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway. We may also come up with some other prize if it helps.
That's it for today and if you want to send me feedback then email me: f14lifeblog@gmail.com
Sunday, November 8, 2015
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