2017 FORMULA 1 PETRONAS MALAYSIA GRAND PRIX - QUALIFYING

2017 FORMULA 1 PETRONAS MALAYSIA GRAND PRIX - PRACTICE 2

2017 Malaysian GP - Thursday Drivers Press Conference - Part 1 & 2

2017 Malaysian Grand Prix | Virtual Circuit Guide

Malaysian Grand Prix | Winners Through The Years

2017 Malaysian Grand Prix preview

Sepang has become a very legendary track over the years but this might be the last GP here.

Remember when Mika Häkkinen chased the Ferraris of Eddie Irvine and Michael Schumacher in the first race back in 1999? The Ferraris were dominating the race and Häkkinen was just barely behind them. After the race Häkkinen sat down on the podium because he was about to pass out. He said that it felt impossible to win them.

Later they found out that Ferrari was using illegal wings on the cars. The FIA said that they can't use them anymore but didn't give Ferrari a penalty. Maybe because that would have decided the championship as well? Häkkinen would have won Irvine in the championship with over 10 points before the last race.

In 2003 Renault showed their claws for the first time since the 80's by taking 1st and 2nd in qualifying (Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli). It was also Alonso's first pole position.
Unfortunately for Alonso's sake he didn't finish first in the race. He took the third place which was his first ever podium in F1.

The hero of the very wet Malaysian Grand Prix in 2003 was in fact not Alonso but Kimi Räikkönen. He took his first victory in F1 and smiled more than he did when he won the championship in 2007.




I would also like to mention the shortest Malaysian Grand Prix in history: The 2009 Malaysian GP that lasted for 55 minutes. It was stopped with red flags because of the weather and it never continued. Jenson Button won that race with Brawn GP (now Mercedes).




Then I must mention the race from 2013...

Remember MULTI -21?



Mark Webber decided to leave Red Bull and Formula One because of this race and Sebastian Vettel got even more haters than he already had. He ignored the team orders and put himself above the team.

So who has been most successful in Malaysia of the current drivers?

Podiums:

1. Sebastian Vettel - 5 (1st x 4, 3rd x 1)
2. Fernando Alonso - 5 (1st x 3, 2nd x 1, 3rd x 1)
3. Lewis Hamilton - 5 (1st x 1, 2nd x 2, 3rd x 2)
4. Kimi Räikkönen - 3 (1st x 2, 3rd x 1)
5. Daniel Ricciardo - 1 (1st x 1)
6. Max Verstappen - 1 (2nd x 1)7. Sergio Perez - 1 (2nd x 1)


Let's see my predictions!

Pole Position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari

Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari

Surprise: Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso

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 & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

35 years ago: September 25th 1982, Keke Rosberg won the world championship

Rosberg had a relatively late start to his F1 career, debuting at the age of 29 after stints in Formula Vee, Formula Atlantic and its antipodean counterpart Formula Pacific and Formula Two, then "feeder" series to Formula One. His first Formula One drive was with the Theodore team during the 1978 season. He immediately caught the attention of the Formula One paddock with a superb drive in the non-Championship BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone in just his second race with the team, emerging victorious after many of the big names had been caught out by a tremendous downpour. Rosberg wasn't able to qualify for a race afterwards, and was signed by another uncompetitive team, ATS, for three races after the Theodore team scrapped its unreliable car design. He returned to Theodore after they acquired chassis from the Wolf Formula One team, but these were also uncompetitive and Rosberg returned to ATS to end the season.

He next emerged with the Wolf team, midway through the 1979 season. However, the team was having difficulty staying solvent, and Rosberg had problems in finishing races. Rosberg soon had to change teams again when Wolf left Formula One, and signed with Fittipaldi Automotive which had bought the remains of Walter Wolf's squad. He secured his first two point-scoring results in the 1980 season, including a podium, but often failed to finish or qualify. 1981 was worse as he failed to score at all.

Despite this, Williams was interested in Rosberg, with the retirement of former World Champion Alan Jones leaving a seat open for the 1982 season. Given a competitive car, Rosberg had a highly successful year. He consistently scored points and earned his first victory in the Swiss Grand Prix at Dijon-Prenois late that year (despite being called the "Swiss Grand Prix", the race was held in France due to Switzerland's ban on motor racing in effect since the 1955 Le Mans disaster).

Rosberg's first memorable season came in a year where no driver won more than two races. With Ferrari's season marred by the death of Gilles Villeneuve at Zolder, the career-ending injuries to Didier Pironi at Hockenheim and the turbocharged Brabham-BMW and Renault cars suffering from poor reliability (and not helped by Brabham continually changing between the Ford V8 and the BMW turbo), consistency won Rosberg the Drivers' Championship, despite his Williams FW07C using the normally aspirated Ford DFY V8 engine which was considered outdated and out-matched against the vastly more powerful turbo cars. Rosberg's 1982 Championship proved to be the last World Championship win for the old Cosworth DFV engine which had been introduced to F1 by Lotus in 1967 (the DFY was a development of the DFV).

Rosberg's post-championship years would be hamstrung by both uncompetitive chassis from Williams, and the powerful but unreliable Honda turbo engine. For his title defense in 1983, Rosberg was again using the reliable Ford DFY V8. However, by this time, Ferrari, Renault and BMW had got their act together and the reliability of their turbo engines was starting to match their speed and power output. Rosberg still put his Williams FW08 on pole for the opening race of the season in Brazil (where he was disqualified from 2nd place because he was push started in the pits after he was forced to abandon his car in his pit bay due to a fuel vapor fire), and then won both the non-championship Race of Champions at Brands Hatch and in Monaco thanks to a clever choice of slicks at the start when all others started on wets, but it was increasingly obvious that without a turbo charged engine, results would be scarce. To that end, Frank Williams concluded a deal to run the Honda V6 turbo engine in his cars. Honda had come back into Formula One that year with the Spirit team and results had been slow with unreliability, but they were enthusiastic about joining Williams who had a reputation as a Championship-winning team. Rosberg and team mate Jacques Laffite first got their Honda turbos in the season ending South African Grand Prix at Kyalami and immediately the new Williams FW09 was on the pace. Rosberg finished in 5th place to give him 5th place in the championship. During the year, Rosberg earned the title "King of the atmospherics".

Despite good power from the Honda engines, Williams and Rosberg struggled in 1984 mostly due to the FW09B chassis not being rigid enough to handle the power delivery of the 850 bhp (634 kW; 862 PS) V6. The Finn managed to tame both the car and engine long enough to win the Dallas Grand Prix, but his only other podium for the year was a second at the season opener in Brazil (the 3rd time in succession he finished second in Brazil, but the only one from which he was not disqualified). After a frustrating year he finished the championship in 8th place with 20.5 points.

1985 would prove better for both Rosberg and Williams. The Finn had a new team mate in Nigel Mansell and the all carbon fibre Williams FW10 chassis was a big improvement over the FW09B. For the first few races the team used the 1984 engines until Honda introduced an upgraded version which improved power delivery, fuel economy and most importantly, reliability. Rosberg used the new engine to good effect, winning the Detroit Grand Prix and claiming pole in the next two races in France at the Paul Ricard Circuit and the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Rosberg's pole-winning lap at Silverstone created history when he lapped the 4.719 km (2.932 mi) circuit in 1:05.591 for an average speed of 160.9 miles per hour (258.9 km/h). This would remain the single fastest lap of a circuit in Formula One until broken by Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya at the 2002 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Keke Rosberg's fifth and final Grand Prix victory came at the 1985 Australian Grand Prix on the Adelaide Street Circuit. As it was the final race of the season, it was also Rosberg's final race for Williams. The win enhanced Rosberg's reputation as a "street fighter" as his final four wins (Monaco, Dallas, Detroit and Adelaide) had all come on street circuits.
Just as the Honda engine began producing regular results, Rosberg decided to leave Williams at the end of 1985 and signed for McLaren, winners of the 1984 and 1985 Drivers' and Constructors Championships. The Williams-Honda team would go on to dominate Grand Prix racing in 1986 and through 1987.

At the time, Rosberg's move to McLaren for the 1986 season had seemed a master stroke as they were the championship team of the previous two seasons, having done so (especially in 1984) in dominating fashion. However, the 1986 McLaren was now somewhat underpowered compared to its rivals, and Rosberg was soundly beaten by teammate, 1985 World Champion Alain Prost (the McLaren MP4/2C had been designed by John Barnard to suit the smoother style of Niki Lauda and Alain Prost, while Rosberg had never shed the ground effects style of late braking and throwing the car into a corner. It wasn't until it became known Barnard was leaving for Ferrari that the designer allowed Rosberg to fundamentally change his cars set up to suit his style. Ironically this coincided with Rosberg's only pole position of the season in Germany). On top of that, the fatal crash of Elio de Angelis while testing a Brabham in France deeply affected him (Rosberg and de Angelis were close friends) and he retired at the end of the season. He would later claim that he retired "too soon"^.

Keke Rosberg dominated the final race of his Formula One career, the 1986 Australian Grand Prix, though he did not win. While holding a 30 second lead over Nelson Piquet (his replacement at Williams), he had a rear tyre let go on lap 62. Thinking the noise from the back of his McLaren was engine related, he shut the engine off and pulled off the circuit, only to find when he got out and checked that all he needed to do was drive back to the pits to change tyres. However, he later revealed that he would never have won anyway, that he planned to give best to Alain Prost in the Frenchman's bid for back-to-back World Championships (Prost needed to win the race with Nigel Mansell finishing no better than 4th to claim the championship, while Rosberg had dropped out of title contention some races before). As it turned out, Prost won the race and the title, and a lap after Rosberg's retirement Mansell suffered the same fate as his former team mate, though in much more spectacular fashion.

Rosberg, who had made up his mind in mid 1984 that he would only race for two more years (but didn't announce it publicly until Germany 1986), had no regrets about leaving Williams and joining McLaren at a time when the Honda engine was starting to come on strong, while the Porsche built TAG engine (and the 3 season old MP4/2) was starting to show its age. In an interview following his retirement announcement, Rosberg said that he was glad he left Williams when he did, stating that had he stayed with them he may have quit Formula One early in the 1986 season after Frank Williams pre-season accident (in which he suffered a spinal cord injury which left him a tetraplegic) had left someone in a position of authority within the team who he said was one of the reasons he had decided to leave Williams, adding "We simply could not stand each other". While Rosberg did not name the person, it was generally believed to be Williams head designer and Technical Director Patrick Head, who had taken over the day-to-day running of the team while Frank Williams recovered from his accident.

2016 Malaysian Grand Prix: Race Highlights

F1 Circuit Guide I Malaysian Grand Prix from last year

Kimi's first win: 2003 Malaysian GP - FULL RACE

I am sorry that this video is in german. Couldn't get it in english right now. ENJOY!

Best Onboards | 2017 Singapore Grand Prix

MiniDrivers - 9x14 - 2017 Singapore GP

2017 Singapore Grand Prix: Best Of Team Radio

2017 Singapore Grand Prix review

First of all I predicted that this weekend Ferrari will be on top and not Mercedes. It would have happened if it wasn't for this incident:



So the thing what everybody wants me to say is who's fault was it? -WELL!! It's pretty clear that Sebastian Vettel turned on Max Verstappen who didn't have enough room when he had Kimi Räikkönen on the other side who was next to the wall. Kimi could have avoided the crash if he had braked and let Verstappen and Vettel pass him but that is not an option for a racing driver so it's stupid to even consider. Not Verstappen's fault even though many started by saying that it was his fault. Even Ferrari on their twitter channel!

Räikkönen and Verstappen continued to crash into Fernando Alonso who had to retire also later on due to the damages he got.

Vettel spun and crashed into the wall on the first lap after the crash with Räikkönen and Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton took the lead and after this everybody knew that he was going to win this race after all. BOOOORING!!!

Safety car was deployed and the tyre game was on. It had rained earlier so now they had to decide to use full rains or intermediates. It seemed that the rain tyres worked better at first but later on it was the intermediates that payed off.

Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat slided into the barriers after picking the intermediates. The safety car was deployed again. This time everybody was eyeballing Felipe Massa's and Stoffel Vandoorne's fight behind the safety car. What was the point of this? Vandoorne was ahead but Massa started racing him behind the safety car and even had contact! not very wise.

Marcus Ericsson spun and crashed later on and the safety car was deployed again but it didn't stop Hamilton. He took his 60th win of his career and his teammate Valtteri Bottas took his 10th podium of the year. He got the same amount of podiums from the whole time at Williams. Must feel good to be a Mercedes driver.

Daniel Ricciardo did no mistakes and took another 2nd place. He is always really good in Singapore! I am always sure that he will be on the podium when the F1 circus comes here.

And now predictions and results:

Pole position: Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - CORRECT

The Top 3 on Sunday

1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - WRONG. He retired on the first lap and Hamilton won.
2. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. He retired on the first lap.
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull - WRONG. He was 2nd and Bottas was 3rd

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

Surprise: Force India will have a good result - Looked good for Sergio Perez but not so much for Esteban Ocon.

Don't forget to post your own predictions for the 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, JI and PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

2017 PREDICTORS LEAGUE standings after the Singapore GP

1. James Redman - 128 points

2. AE (F1-4-LIFE) - 118 points

3. Larry Gallagher - 91 points

4. JT (F1-4-LIFE) - 72 points

5. Vitor Lobo - 55 points

6. Alexandre Langlois - 10 points

7. Leonardo Machado - 3 points

(The ones who have not scored points are not on the list)

Come onboard in the next GP if you want to be a part of our 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, JI & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

2017 Driver Standings after the Singapore GP

2017 Constructors Standings after the Singapore GP

2017 FORMULA 1 SINGAPORE AIRLINES SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX - RACE RESULTS

2017 FORMULA 1 SINGAPORE AIRLINES SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX - QUALIFYING

2017 FORMULA 1 SINGAPORE AIRLINES SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX - PRACTICE SESSION 3

2017 FORMULA 1 SINGAPORE AIRLINES SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX - PRACTICE SESSION 2

2017 FORMULA 1 SINGAPORE AIRLINES SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX - PRACTICE SESSION 1

2017 Singapore - Drivers Press Conference - Part 1 & 2

A collection of videos about the Singapore GP

2017 Singapore Grand Prix | Fast Facts

2017 Singapore Grand Prix preview

Marina Bay, Singapore

The Singapore GP is legendary even though it is one of the newer tracks. It was the first night grand prix and it is also known for the "crashgate" scandal. I have talked about it almost every year but I still think that it has been the most interesting thing in Singapore.

Nelson Piquet Jr. crashes into the wall on purpose.

Crashgate was perpetrated by the Renault F1 team who ordered Nelson Piquet, Jr. to crash deliberately during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, in order to gain an advantage for Fernando Alonso who was his teammate at the time.

On 28 September 2008, on the 14th lap of the Singapore race, Piquet crashed into the circuit wall at turn 17, necessitating a safety car deployment. This allowed Alonso to make an early pitstop and subsequently gain the advantage to win the race after starting 15th on the grid. Piquet described his crash at the time as a simple mistake.

After being dropped by the Renault team following the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, Piquet alleged that he had been asked by the team to deliberately crash to improve the race situation for Alonso, sparking an investigation of Renault F1 for race fixing by the FIA. After the investigation, Renault F1 were charged with conspiracy on September 4th, and were to answer the charge on September 21st 2009.

Flavio Briatore and Nelson Piquet Jr.

On September 16th Renault stated that they would not contest the charges, and announced that the team's managing director, Flavio Briatore, and it's executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, had left the team.

On September 21st it was announced that the Renault F1 team had been handed a disqualification from Formula One, which was suspended for two years pending any further comparable rule infringements. Briatore was suspended from all Formula One events and FIA-sanctioned events indefinitely, whilst Symonds received a five-year ban. Their bans were subsequently overturned by a French court, although they both agreed not to work in Formula One or FIA-sanctioned events for a specified time as part of a later settlement reached with the FIA.

This year I am sure Alonso will not win with McLaren even if a UFO would fall from the sky.

And now what I think will happen this weekend:

Pole position: Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari

The Top 3 on Sunday

1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari
2. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Surprise: Force India will have a good result.

Don't forget to post your own predictions for the 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, JI and PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

Best of Team Radio | 2017 Italian Grand Prix

2017 Italian Grand Prix | Race Highlights

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen | F1 Grill the Grid 2017

MiniDrivers - 9x13 - 2017 Italian GP

2017 Driver Standings after the Italian GP

2017 Constructors Standings after the Italian GP

2017 PREDICTORS LEAGUE standings after the Italian GP

1. James Redman - 123 points

2. AE (F1-4-LIFE) - 108 points

3. Larry Gallagher - 86 points

4. JT (F1-4-LIFE) - 72 points

5. Vitor Lobo - 55 points

6. Alexandre Langlois - 5 points

7. Leonardo Machado - 3 points

(The ones who have not scored points are not on the list)

Come onboard in the next GP if you want to be a part of our 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, JI & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

2017 Italian Grand Prix review

First of all we had an interesting starting grid when the two Red Bulls got penalties. We had Lewis Hamilton, the 18 year old Lance Stroll (youngest driver to start from the front row), Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas followed by the two Ferraris Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel.

When the race started the two Finns battled it out again and Räikkönen got ahead. In the end of the first lap Bottas overtook Räikkönen and took his position back. Bottas then continued to overtake both Stroll and Ocon but Hamilton was too difficult to overtake.

On lap 3 Felipe Massa and Max Verstappen have contact which gave the Dutch kid a puncture. How can one driver have so much bad luck?! So talented and struggles so much with things that are not in his hands. Feel sorry for him.

Räikkönen lets Vettel pass him and suspects that he has a problem with the rear of the car. Ferrari radios him that there should be everything in order. The Finn still believes that there is something not right and pits for new tyres. Right away he sets better laps with newer tyres but Vettel is long gone and has already overtaken Stroll and Ocon.

Daniel Ricciardo was being really fast as usual and was even challenging Vettel for third place. You never know what could have happened if the race would have been a few laps longer.

The Mercs were unstoppable even though Hamilton thinks Ferrari is faster. There's no question that Mercedes is the best car this season. The only reason Vettel has been in the championship lead is because he has driven outstanding races and has also got help from his teammate. Let's see when Mercedes starts with team orders as well. Even though Bottas is still in the game I think it's just a two man championship between Hamilton and Vettel.

Some said that the race was boring but I enjoyed it. Monza is such an exciting track and the fans/tifosis always make the grand prix a big spectacle. I especially enjoy the podium celebrations in Italy. It's so different than most tracks.

And now it's time for my predictions and here they are:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

Race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - CORRECT
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - CORRECT

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Ricciardo was fastest.

Surprise: Keep an eye on Felipe Massa - I think Lance Stroll had a better race.

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. A table will be posted up every race weekend.

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 JT, AE, MW, MH, JI and PM. 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

FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO HEINEKEN D'ITALIA 2017 - RACE RESULT

FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO HEINEKEN D'ITALIA 2017 - QUALIFYING