F1 TREASURES XI

I haven't done this in a while but here goes.. 

Got my 2014 season review today and it's a double bluray! It took under two weeks to come from the UK to Finland. Just as long as I am willing to wait. Well.. actually when it's F1 I can wait for a year if I have to!

I will write something about the review when I have watched it. It's over 5 hours long so I don't have time to watch it right now.

Later today I bought myself a Lotus deodorant :D It was only 2 euros so why not?

I will try to post more often what I find from stores, flea markets etc. (F1 related items). Haven't had much time for stuff like this lately and some of you have requested me to do these more.

Tomorrow I will post PART 2 of Kimi Räikkönen in the "Finnish F1 drivers" -series.

2014 Monaco Grand Prix preview

Monaco, the most legendary track in Formula One. It starts on Thursday because Friday is usually a day of. There is no real explanation but some say that drivers celebrate in Monaco on Thursday so it wouldn't be ok to drive the next day. Maybe there is some other explanation nowadays? I don't know.

Monaco hosted their first F1 Grand Prix in 1950. It was also the second F1 race ever driven. Back then it was just sick how many laps they drove! 100 laps and it took over 3 hours!! Monaco has hosted GP's also before the F1 series started. The first race was in 1929.

The first F1 race in Monaco was won by Juan Manuel Fangio who started from pole and also set the fastest lap of the race. 9 cars crashed on the first lap and one car on the second. Only 7 cars finished the race and Fangio was much faster than everybody else! Alberto Ascari was 2nd 1 lap behind, Louis Chiron was 3rd 2 laps behind, Raymond Sommer 4th 3 laps behind, Prince Bira 5th 5 laps behind, Bob Gerard 6th 6 laps behind and Johnny Claes 7th also 6 laps behind.

The next time they held an official GP in Monaco was in 1955 and it has been a part of the calendar since that year.

In 1959 Monaco was the first race of the season and Jack Brabham won the race. He passed away today so I thought it was nice to mention him as well. He was such a super driver! Had his own team and won a championship with it. Who else has done that?

Monaco started the F1 season many times after 1959 but when they wanted more races in the calendar they had to fit in other races before it. The race in Monaco has always been in May.

I could talk about Monaco for days so let's stop here about the history and move on to statistics instead. Maybe I'll talk a bit about history as well.. can't control myself when it's Monaco we are talking about.

Most wins in Monaco: Ayrton Senna, 6 wins. 1984-1993 the Monaco GP was only won by Ayrton Senna or Alain Prost. Senna could have probably won in 1984 if the race wouldn't have been stopped. In 1988 he led the race almost 1 minute over Prost but made a mistake when McLaren told him several times to slow down.

Most wins by constructor - McLaren, 15 wins. Senna 5 times, Prost 4 times, Mika Häkkinen, Kimi Räikkönen, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton once and David Coulthard 2 times.

The fastest lap in Monaco is 1:14.439 and it was set by Michael Schumacher in 2004.

The track length is 3.340km and they are lapping it 78 times.

Then it's time for my predictions. Yes I know that I haven't talked much about this years race but I'll focus on this year when the race is over. If you want to hear opinions etc. ask me.

Pole position: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes

The race:

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
3. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari

Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes

Surprise: Sergio Perez has pushed hard in Monaco but failed almost every time. Maybe he will succeed this year?

Remember to 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 JT, AE & MW. 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

2014 Chinese Grand Prix preview

First of all happy 10th anniversary for the Chinese Grand Prix! 

The first event back in 2004 ended with Rubens Barrichello taking the checkered flag as the race winner followed by Jenson Button and Kimi Räikkönen.
Michael Schumacher had spun off the track in qualifying and didn't set a time. He started from the pit lane and was 12th in the race.

Then in 2005 Renault was the best car so the podium had the two Renaults in front (Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella) and Kimi Räikkönen was best of the rest in third.

The next year in 2006 the same thing - Renault was the best car but what is this? The Renaults were 2nd and 3rd and the winner was Michael Schumacher! Well.. the 2nd best car was Ferrari so it wasn't that strange.

My favorite race in China was probably in 2007. McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton had been the favorites for the championship and in this race something else happened. Their luck changed and the black horse (also known as the Iceman) started breathing down their necks. Hamilton made a mistake and then...



Kimi won the race! He really needed that victory. Alonso was 2nd in his McLaren, Felipe Massa was third in his Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel was 4th in his Toro Rosso which was his best result at that point and here's his reaction...



In 2008 Hamilton didn't make a mistake and won the race followed by the two Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen.

The year after that it was all about Brawn GP and Red Bull started showing some improvement as well.  In this race Sebastian Vettel took the first win ever for Red Bull and Mark Webber was 2nd which made it a perfect day for them. Jenson Button was 3rd after winning the two previous races.

In 2010 Red Bull were very hungry after they barely lost to Brawn in 2009. They wanted to win more than ever but the man who had switched teams from Brawn to McLaren (Jenson Button) won the race! His teammate Lewis Hamilton was 2nd and Nico Rosberg was 3rd.

Then in 2011 it was the other McLaren, Lewis Hamilton who won the race. This time the Red Bull's were right behind in 2nd and 3rd.

In 2012 Lewis Hamilton's current teammate Nico Rosberg took his maiden victory in Shanghai followed by Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton was on the podium in 2013 as well but in 3rd. Just Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen were in front of him.

It seems that the most successful drivers at Shanghai are Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Räikkönen, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel.. oh and Nico Rosberg too! So the champions and a future champion perhaps.

Then it's time for my guesses as usual but this time it's a bit different. We started a predictors league on the Facebook page as some of you may know so I am forced to give you the same top3 answer as I gave earlier. Pole position, fastest lap and surprise is not in the game but I will continue posting those predictions as well.

If you don't know what I am talking about then check out this link: http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2014/04/we-have-made-this-season-more.html

Please join the league because it's more fun to predict these results together and not just me doing it alone. You will see that this is actually very difficult even though Mercedes is by far the best team.

OK so let's do this!

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

The race:

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull

Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes

Surprise: Nico Hülkenberg, Force India

That was it for today. Tomorrow I will post everything about the press conferences.

2014 FORMULA 1 GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX - RACE RESULTS

1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	57	1:39:42.743	2	25
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	57	+1.0 secs	1	18
3	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	57	+24.0 secs	4	15
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	57	+24.4 secs	13	12
5	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	57	+28.6 secs	11	10
6	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	57	+29.8 secs	10	8
7	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	57	+31.2 secs	7	6
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	57	+31.8 secs	3	4
9	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	57	+32.5 secs	9	2
10	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	57	+33.4 secs	5	1
11	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	57	+41.3 secs	12
12	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	57	+43.1 secs	16
13	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	57	+59.9 secs	21
14	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	57	+62.8 secs	17
15	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	57	+87.9 secs	18
16	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	56	+1 Lap	19
17	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	55	+2 Laps	6
Ret	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	40	+17 Laps	8
Ret	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	39	Accident	15
Ret	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	33	+24 Laps	20
Ret	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	18	+39 Laps	14
Ret	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	17	+40 Laps	22

2014 Australian Grand Prix review

Wow! what a race! Someone could say it was boring cause Rosberg dominated the race. If you look at the rest of the field it was actually very interesting if you ask me.

Right after the start Nico Rosberg overtook his teammate Lewis Hamilton like a flying bullet.
I said earlier in a post that these new regulations might fit Rosberg better than Hamilton. It's hard to say because Hamilton had more technical issues but anyways I believe this will be Rosberg's season and not Hamilton's. Nico's father Keke won the championship in 1982 and Nico knows that he's as good as his father was.

Keke Rosberg

The next thing I wanted to mention was Kamui Kobayashi's crash in the first corner. He hit Massa and Kimi Räikkönen's tyre but Kimi managed to continue the race. He had some problems with his tyres but according to Pirelli it was because of the weather... funny explanation when nobody else had problems with them.

Kamui Kobayashi

Massa was furious and said that Kobayashi's crash was just like Grosjean's move in Spa 2012. I guess he overreacted just a bit.

Caterham stated that the crash was not Kobayashi's fault because the car had faulty brakes.

The other Caterham broke down later and Marcus Ericsson was forced to retire his first race. Sad because he didn't drive that much in the practice sessions either. Caterham had a lot of problems and I believe that they have even more issues than they are telling us.

Hamilton and Vettel were forced to retire early in the race which was good in a way. I am sure that Vettel retiring was a positive thing to many fans. Hamilton being the favorite for the championship also retiring makes the series more interesting.

Daniel Ricciardo

A big surprise was Daniel Ricciardo's pace in the race. Compared to Vettel he was just flying!
Red Bull was just awful in the winter testings so were did this speed come from?
In the end we know why though. Vettel's car was legal and he retired and Ricciardo's was not so he was disqualified. Who knows what will happen with them this year. I guess they might take podiums and maybe a win this year but nothing else. On the other hand I shouldn't underestimate Adrian Newey.

Lotus was a big disappointment. I knew they had problems but didn't realize that they would be fighting for positions with the Marussias and Caterhams. That was just laughable! Then they both retired. Maldonado said that moving to Lotus was the best decision he ever made but seeing how well his former teammate Valtteri Bottas was driving... I guess he doesn't think so anymore.

Valtteri Bottas was one of the biggest stars in the race! The guy just overtook car after car until he was behind Alonso. He was less than 1 second behind Alonso so he could have used DRS on him but didn't. You might wonder why and the truth is that Bottas had problems with his DRS. If everything would have worked like it was supposed to then I don't know how high he would have risen in the race.

Valtteri Bottas

Then there was his small unfortunate accident when he touched the wall. He dropped to last place and started everything all over again by overtaking car after car and showing everybody what he is made of.  No wonder Mika Häkkinen and Toto Wolff have both taken him under their wing and getting him where he is today. Phenomenal driver! He is going to be one of my biggest favorites this year.

Then I got two new favorites drivers for this season! Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat. These guys were already showing experienced drivers that they are rookies to be reckoned with. 

Magnussen was 2nd after Ricciardo was excluded from the race and Kvyat was 9th in a Toro Rosso. Is Toro Rosso getting better or did Kvyat make the car look better than it really was?

Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen

Kevin Magnussen made his father Jan proud by getting a better result in his first race than he got in his whole F1 career. Jan Magnussen was supposed to be a star but liked to smoke and drink a bit too much.

Nico Hülkenberg drove a great race again and gave Fernando Alonso a very hard time. It almost seemed that the Force India was better than Ferrari or if it wasn't I guess Hülkenberg just drove better than Alonso in Melbourne.

Alonso and Räikkönen were 5th and 6th at best in the race. After the pitstop (were they came in at the same time) Kimi was forced to drop a couple of places. That was a bit frustrating for him.

On track Kimi had brake and tyre issues and lost his position to Bottas two times. Let's hope that this season will be fair and not just technical problems. Räikkönen had a couple of good seasons with Lotus so it's a bit weird that suddenly it all comes collapsing down at Ferrari. 

Kimi Räikkönen

Alonso said that Räikkönen might be the fastest driver in F1 and that there are a few others that say the same. He believes that Räikkönen didn't really feel good in the car this weekend and that the problems were probably not because of him.

One more thing before I start comparing my guesses: POOR RICCIARDO! I REALLY FEEL SORRY FOR THE GUY. He seems to be a great guy and clearly the happiest Formula One driver ever.
He was giggling in the car when he got 2nd place and the team said that they can hear his smile through the radio. He must have been devastated when they disqualified him.

So now it's time for the guesses!

Pole position: Felipe Massa - It's hard to say at this point who is taking poles etc. but this time I was totally wrong. Lewis Hamilton took pole with his Mercedes.

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - Retired the race but could have easily taken 2nd place behind Rosberg.
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - Rosberg was one position higher up.
3. Felipe Massa, Williams - Retired the race right in the beginning. Williams was very fast so it could have happened I'll give you that.

Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen - with those tyres and brakings no chance! Nico Rosberg was fastest and only Valtteri Bottas had chances to beat that lap time.

Surprise: Marussia! - Yes they were surprisingly bad! I thought that they would have done better but they started by having problems before the lights even went out at the start. In the tests they had shown some improvement though.

That's all for this time and I'll do my next preview and review when we move to Malaysia in two weeks!