Force India sign Alfonso Celis as development driver

Force India have recruited Alfonso Celis as their new development driver, with the young Mexican set to take part in seven official practice sessions during the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Celis, 19, made his way up the karting ladder in his homeland before moving to Europe to race in single-seaters. He has spent the 2015 season competing in Formula Renault 3.5 and in GP3, in which he scored his first podium at Spa-Francorchamps in August. He will get his first taste of F1 machinery in the end-of-season Pirelli test in Abu Dhabi on December 1.

"I would like to welcome Alfonso to the team and wish him well ahead of his debut with us in Abu Dhabi," said Force India team principal and managing director Vijay Mallya.

"As our development driver we will work hard to prepare him for the demands of driving in Formula One and provide a good grounding in all aspects of the job. It's a fantastic opportunity for Alfonso to learn from Sergio [Perez] and Nico [Hulkenberg], and to get valuable mileage in the car."

Celis, who will also spend time in the team's simulator as part of his new duties, added: "Ever since I started racing I've been dreaming of Formula One, so it's a huge honour to begin working with Sahara Force India.

"It's an amazing opportunity for me to learn about Formula One and to work closely with the engineers and race drivers. Being on the track in Abu Dhabi will be an incredible feeling. It's going to be the biggest moment in my career and I am fully focussed on doing a good job for the team."

(source: f1.com)

MiniDrivers - Chapter 7x18 - 2015 Brazilian Grand Prix

Sao Paulo stats - Rosberg first back-to-back winner in Brazil for 10 years

A day after capturing his fifth consecutive pole position, Mercedes Nico Rosberg raced to his fifth victory of the season, and in doing so secured second place in the drivers’ standings for the second year in a row.

The German is the seventh driver to score back-to-back wins in Brazil (and the first since Juan Pablo Montoya in 2005), and now has 13 wins to his name - the same number as double world champion Alberto Ascari and Scottish racer David Coulthard. Only Stirling Moss, with 16 Grand Prix victories, has triumphed more times without winning the drivers’ crown.

Incidentally, Brazil was Rosberg’s 184th race start, which means he has passed Nick Heidfeld to become the second most experienced German driver in F1 history. Only Michael Schumacher, with 306 starts, has raced in more Grands Prix.

Of course, Rosberg’s victory means that Lewis Hamilton has now gone nine races without winning at Interlagos, although the Briton’s second place finish did ensure Mercedes of their 11th one-two finish of the season, which ties their all-time record from last year. Can the Silver Arrows establish a new record in Abu Dhabi?

Along with capturing his third Brazilian podium finish, Hamilton also secured his seventh fastest lap of the season, meaning he has won the DHL fastest lap trophy for the second year in a row.

Elsewhere, a solid fifth place finish for Valtteri Bottas ensured Williams will finish third in the constructors’ standings for the second year in a row, while Nico Hulkenberg’s sixth place - equalling his best result of the season from Austria - helped Force India secure fifth in the standings, which is their best ever result under Vijay Mallya’s stewardship.

Further back a battling drive to tenth place (which became ninth when Felipe Massa was excluded from the results) enabled Max Verstappen to extend his point-scoring streak to six races, which is not only the longest such run of any driver on the grid, but also the longest in Toro Rosso history, breaking the record he shared with Sebastian Vettel.

Can the rookie keep up his excellent run at the final race of the season at Yas Marina in two weeks’ time? We shall see...

(source: f1.com)

Winners and Losers - Brazil

The cynics may dismiss it as ‘too little too late’, but Nico Rosberg’s second consecutive victory at Interlagos was impressive nonetheless, as he once more defeated Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton, this time depriving the world champion of that elusive win he so craves on idol Ayrton Senna’s home soil. And the Brazilians on the current grid were out of luck too: Sauber’s Felipe Nasr could manage only 13th, and that after compatriot Felipe Massa was excluded from eighth for a pre-race tyre infraction. We take a look back at Sunday’s formbook in the Formula 1 Grande Premio Petrobras do Brasil 2015…


Mercedes

Nico Rosberg, P1
Lewis Hamilton, P2

Rosberg was majestic on his way to a fifth win of the season which put his runner-up position in the drivers’ world championship beyond Vettel’s reach. Hamilton pushed hard, trying at one stage to eke out his tyre life to run a shorter stint later against his team mate, but things didn’t work out and he had to settle for second again.


Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel, P3
Kimi Raikkonen, P4

Vettel gambled on a short mid-race stint on softs, but it didn’t really help him to get close to the Mercedes, whose initial pace he had matched. Towards the end he closed on Hamilton, but only because the latter had backed off to preserve his hard-pressed tyres. Raikkonen, on a two-stop strategy to Vettel’s three, was a lonely fourth, well behind his team mate.


Williams

Valtteri Bottas, P5
Felipe Massa, Excluded

Bottas got one of his lost grid places back at the start then drove a canny two-stop race to stay out of trouble and bring his FW37 home in a solid fifth place. Massa continued to struggle on his home track but finished eighth on the road. However, on the grid his right-rear tyre was found to exceed temperature limits by 27 degrees Celsius, and after a post-race stewards’ enquiry he was excluded from the results. Williams intend to appeal the decision.


Force India

Nico Hulkenberg, P6
Sergio Perez, P12

Hulkenberg was very happy to make a two-stopper work and to take a strong sixth place that confirmed Force India’s fifth place in the overall standings. Perez had a tougher time with the handling of his VJM08 and at one stage complained of poor straight-line performance on his way to 12th.


Red Bull

Daniil Kvyat, P7
Daniel Ricciardo, P11

Kvyat once again extracted everything he could from his RB11, with the older-specification Renault powertrain. Seventh was a decent result, but Ricciardo was disappointed with 11th, rueing his grid penalty for switching to the disappointing new engine with its heavily revised specification.


Lotus

Romain Grosjean, P8
Pastor Maldonado, P10

Lotus had no real problems. Grosjean did a strong three-stop run to take eighth, while Maldonado started on mediums and looked good for a while on two-stops before gradually falling back out of the points. He got a five-second time penalty for pushing Ericsson into a spin the Turn 1, but eventually got a point when Massa was excluded.


Toro Rosso

Max Verstappen, P9
Carlos Sainz, Retired lap 1, engine

Verstappen was in tremendous form in a car that should not have been running as high as he made it run. His battle with Perez and Grosjean was nail-biting stuff, and his round-the-outside passes on the Mexican and, later, Nasr provided some of the race’s best entertainment. Sainz’s engine cut out on the grid, forcing him to start from the pits, and when it cut out again on the opening lap he had to retire.


Sauber

Felipe Nasr, P13
Marcus Ericsson, P16

Sauber had a tough time, considering that Nasr ran second during the opening pit stops. Sadly, his gamble on a two-stop strategy failed to pay out, while Ericsson’s prospects were damaged when Maldonado sent the Swede briefly skybound when the Lotus hit the Sauber in Turn 1 midway through.


McLaren

Jenson Button, P14
Fernando Alonso, P15

The McLarens lacked straight-line speed as usual, but both drivers felt that they are making progress on the chassis front. Alonso had to have a second new engine fitted ahead of the race after his problem in qualifying, and his 12th of the year and associated replacement bits earned him 25 grid penalties.


Marussia

Will Stevens, P17
Alexander Rossi, P18

Stevens finally got the upper hand over team mate Rossi, as Marussia recorded yet another two-car finish to round out the American’s tenure in the second car, which passes back to Roberti Merhi for the season finale in Abu Dhabi in a fortnight’s time.

(source: f1.com)

2015 Brazilian Grand Prix review

The top3 remained the same at the race start but Valtteri Bottas came from 7th place to 4th, He couldn't keep his position against his fellow Finn though. I guess he didn't want anymore drama with Kimi Räikkönen so he let him pass "safely" instead. Kimi almost got Bottas' front wing with his tire but luckily nothing like that happened this time.

Carlos Sainz Jr. retired from the race on the first lap at sector 2. Very irresponsible that they didn't bring out the safety car when he left his car on track. It was not on the racing line but still! When they are on the first or second lap the cars are still very close to each other, so the racing line doesn't always matter when many are overtaking. Have they already forgotten that Jules Bianchi passed away this year due to an accident that took place over a year ago? Nobody could have thought that it would happen but it did! Maybe some of you think I'm overreacting but why should we take chances?

After this the race just went on and nothing really happened. Lewis Hamilton stayed behind his teammate Nico Rosberg but didn't really make any aggressive moves on him. I mean he tried a few times carefully and backed off. Then he demanded for a different strategy than Rosberg so that he could probably get in front of him. The strategy was still pretty much the same and Hamilton lost even more time after his pitstops. For me it is pretty clear that Rosberg is doing a much better job than Hamilton at the moment. Hamilton is already the champion so maybe he doesn't feel like putting as much effort in his overtakings as usual? I don't know but it's getting even more boring than it has already been with the Mercs. They stayed like that from the beginning till the end.

Behind Rosberg and Hamilton finished the three drivers that we are used of seeing behind them; the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen, with Williams' Valtteri Bottas being best of the rest. The only interesting thing about these three drivers were that Vettel broke Kimi's record of most podiums in his first Ferrari year. Kimi got the championship in his first year and there were less races but anyway. Take a look at what Vettel has done this year: three wins, three 2nd places and seven 3rd places! I mean you guys must stop saying that Vettel is overrated or that he can only win with the best car etc. He is phenomenal! I've said this since 2007 and no, I am not a Vettel fan. I used to be but not anymore. I started to dislike him and Red Bull after a while but I can't say that I wouldn't enjoy his driving now. Thanks for making the Mercs nervous from time to time. Otherwise this would get too boring.

Usually I don't talk about the podium interviews but now I just have to. Did anyone else notice that Martin Brundle, who interviewed them, talked like Rosberg was just lucky and won because of that and not his driving. I mean what was that? He totally deserved the win and Hamilton couldn't overtake him so that was it. No need to make him feel bad after 5 poles in a row and two wins. That's not luck my friend, that's just skills. You Martin should know that or are you saying that you didn't do good in Formula One because you were unlucky? All in all I respect Brundle but don't be a Hamilton fanboy! You should be smarter than that. I would also like to point out that I'm not a Rosberg fan if I seemed like one.

If Rosberg wins in Abu Dhabi again would you be surprised? He has done pretty well lately. He has almost seemed like the number one driver of Mercedes even though he isn't. I just hope that his great speed continues to the 2016 season so that it wouldn't be so easy for Hamilton next season. 


That was it and now here are my predictions and the results:


Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. His teammate took pole again.

Race: 

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 2nd.
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He won the race again this year.
3. Felipe Massa, Williams - WRONG. He got excluded from the race.

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

Surprise: Felipe Nasr will have a great weekend - I wouldn't say so. I thought he would be more motivated in front of the Brazilian crowd but he wasn't apparently.

Fastest Pitstop: Nico Rosberg - WRONG. It was his teammate who had the fastest pitstop.


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

Massa excluded from Brazil results over tyre breach

Williams’ Felipe Massa has been excluded from the results of the Formula 1 Grande Premio Petrobras do Brasil 2015 after the stewards found that his right-rear tyre did not comply with the maximum permitted temperature ahead of the start of the race.


Williams have, however, served notice of an appeal following the verdict.

Checks made on the grid by the FIA after the five-minute signal had been given revealed that Massa’s right-rear tyre was 137 degrees Celsius, which is 27 degrees above the maximum temperature of 110 allowed by Pirelli.

The corresponding tyre pressure at 137 degrees was 20.6 psi, 0.1 psi above the minimum starting pressure.

The matter was referred to the stewards who, after hearing from a Williams representative, determined that the team had breached article 12.5.1 of the Technical Regulations, Article 3.2 of Sporting Regulations and Article 12.1.1.i of the FIA International Sporting Code.

Massa was thus excluded from his eighth-place finish, lifting Lotus’s Romain Grosjean and Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen into eighth and ninth respectively, and Lotus’s Pastor Maldonado into the final points-paying position of 10th.

(source: f1.com)

2015 PREDICTORS LEAGUE standings after the Brazilian GP

1. James Redman - 146 points

2. Peter McLaren - 140 points

2. Leonardo Machado - 137 points 

4. Jonathan M Yountz - 109 points

5. Ryan Lane - 102 points

6. Larry Gallagher - 102 points

7. AE (F1-4-LIFE) - 75 points

7. JT (F1-4-LIFE) - 75 points

9. Shaun Magnano - 59 points

10. Rich Kewell - 53 points

11. MW (F1-4-LIFE) - 44 points

12. JI (F1-4-LIFE) - 43 points

13. MH (F1-4-LIFE) - 40 points

14. Tim Saunders - 36 points

15. Elliott Robson - 31 points

16. David Perry - 26 points

17. Dylan Curry - 24 points

18. Daniel Vanderburg - 23 points

18. Archie Donato - 23 points

18. Neil Marchant - 23 points

21. Abijith Kv - 18 points

21. Marcel Kircher - 18 points

23. Yõrt Martö - 13 points

24. Richard Gehl - 10 points

24. Chris Kemp - 10 points

24. Eric Lemens - 10 points

27. Rodrigo Gonzales - 8 points

27. Corey Lea - 8 points

27. Vitor Lobo - 8 points

30. Anthony Brian Ayrton Senna - 6 points

31. Todd Steinberg - 5 points

32. Белмин Aљоски - 3 points

32. Tom Maw - 3 points

32. Haresh Reddy - 3 points

32. Paul Beecham - 3 points

36. Steven Peli - 0 points

36. Daniel Kelleher - 0 points

36. Martin Hubbard - 0 points
36. Sharon Walmsley - 0 points

36. Alexandre Langlois - 0 points

We have had 40 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 & JI. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.