Jerez: Day 4

Williams’ Felipe Massa set the pace at Jerez on Friday, as the opening pre-season test of 2014 drew to an intriguing close.

The Brazilian was one of seven drivers - six of them using Mercedes or Ferrari power - to complete more than 50 laps of the Spanish circuit, but once again all three Renault-powered teams were forced to cut their running short because of technical issues.

Running got underway in wet conditions, but that didn’t deter all of the runners from going out on track. Nico Rosberg quickly worked his way up to a race simulation run (which included three pitstops) in Mercedes’ F1 W05 and by lunchtime the German had accumulated 91 laps. 

The times ramped up in the dry afternoon session, with morning pacesetter Fernando Alonso initially keeping Ferrari at the top of the timesheets. The Spaniard’s time was soon eclipsed by his former team mate, Felipe Massa, who appeared more than comfortable at the wheel of Williams’ Mercedes-powered FW36, improving several times before the chequered flag appeared.

“It wasn't a great day because it was raining, but we completed some laps in the wet conditions which was interesting to understand how the car behaves in wet, with the tyres and new power unit,” Massa explained. 

“We managed to do many more laps today than we have in the last three days which is important. Today we didn't have any issues with the car which I think is also another step forward. We now need to concentrate and prepare with an aim to do more laps per day in Bahrain. 

“Overall, I'm happy with my first days with Williams and I'm pleased with what I have seen in the team this week. For sure it is important to be competitive, but testing is testing, and we now need to look to prepare for Bahrain and then towards the first race, which is the most important thing.”

Massa and Alonso finished the day with impressive lap tallies (86 and 115 respectively), as well as first and second places on the timesheets. Just behind the leading duo was new Force India test driver Daniel Juncadella who had an impressive first run in the VJM07.

McLaren rookie Kevin Magnussen, who was fourth fastest on the day, completed five fewer laps than mileage leader Alonso and was responsible for two red flag stoppages during the session. The Dane spun at the chicane, and just before the end of the session he crashed at Turn 10.

The fifth and sixth fastest times were clocked by Lewis Hamilton, who’d taken over the Mercedes from Rosberg at lunch, and Jules Bianchi who enjoyed his maiden outing in Marussia’s MR03. 

“The car feels great to drive and I’m pleased that I was able to achieve some good mileage,” the Frenchman said. 

“You always want more, of course, but there is a lot to work through and understand, so we have to be patient and go through the programme in the right way, especially as we have had damp conditions to contend with also. 

“At the end, once we were happy with the systems work, it was nice to put the slicks on and start putting some laps together. It is early days but we were quite happy with the pace in the conditions and for our programme. Not a bad start.”

Elsewhere, Adrian Sutil followed up his spin on Thursday with another one on Friday, bringing out the red flags when he lost the rear end of his Sauber C33 at the chicane and became beached in the gravel. He ended up seventh on the timesheets, just ahead of Rosberg.

The final three times on the board were taken Renault runners - Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi, Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. 

“We were working through a number of different engine maps and were definitely making progress but just after lunch we had another engine problem which meant we had to stop,” explained Kobayashi. 

Joining the Japanese driver in the pits was Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian having completed just seven laps before pulling in for the day.

“It's been a very difficult test,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner as his squad packed up having completed just 21 laps in four days in the new RB10. 

“We have had numerous Renault issues as well as chassis cooling issues, which have affected our progress. However, despite the lack of mileage, what we have managed to learn shows that the problems should be solvable for the next test in Bahrain. 

“Part of the purpose of this early test was to learn about any issues ahead of the start of the season and there will now be a lot of focus on the dyno over the next few weeks.”

From Jerez, the teams will now head back to their respective factories to consolidate their findings and prepare for the second pre-season test, which takes place in Bahrain on February 19-22.

Unofficial Friday test times from Jerez:
1. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 28.229s, 86 laps
2. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1m 29.145s, 115 laps
3. Daniel Juncadella, Force India, 1m 29.457s, 81 laps
4. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 1m 30.806s, 110 laps
5. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 30.822s, 41 laps
6. Jules Bianchi, Marussia, 1m 32.222s, 25 laps
7. Adrian Sutil, Sauber, 1m 36.571s, 69 laps
8. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 36.951s 91 laps
9. Kamui Kobayashi, Caterham, 1m 43.193s, 54 laps
10. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1m 44.016s, 9 laps
11. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 45.374s, 7 laps

(source: f1.com)

What is going on in F1 right now?

Have anyone else noticed how much is going on right now in this sport?

I'm going to talk about issues regarding:

• Kimi Räikkönen
• Ferrari and Lotus
• Kimi's replacement
• Nico Hülkenberg and Pastor Maldonado
• Heikki Kovalainen
• Team Williams and the drivers
• McLaren and Sergio Perez

At first Lotus and Räikkönen were fighting about money. Then Kimi decided not to race because of his back pains. Some people speculated that he was lying but I don't believe in that. Back pain is the biggest problem with older F1 drivers. Everyone has had back pains, even Alonso has the same problem but not as bad.

The Iceman was sure that he would have surgery after the 2013 season, but after visiting Ferrari's factory he had a discussion with Luca di Montezemolo. Suddenly he decided to have surgery before the end of the season. My first reaction was that did Luca effect Kimi's decision to have surgery earlier? Who knows?

Luca di Montezemolo has stated that he knew nothing about Kimi's plans but thought that it was a good idea to have surgery now so that he would be in better condition before the 2014 season.

Some even speculated that Kimi helped Ferrari (his next team) by skipping the last races with Lotus so that Ferrari would have one team less to fight against. True or not but I think it will help them and hurt Lotus much more.

Some said that Lotus saved money when they don't have to pay Räikkönen for more points, but the truth is that Lotus also gets money depending on their position in the constructors championship.

Kimi could have secured the 3rd spot for Lotus or even the 2nd! They would have got much more money with that.

The team that is 2nd in the standings gets so much money that they can afford to pay their motors for the next season and maybe even the drivers salary. Now they will probably be 4th and they will loose millions of dollars.

Grosjean can't help them alone with this situation. They need a driver like Kimi or they can't keep up the good pace. So this is the part where we can start talking about Kimi's replacement.

At first everybody was sure that Valsecchi would get a shot and I understand why, he is the reserve driver. The only problem is that he has never competed in a Formula One race and they need points like hell right now. They don't have time for Valsecchi to develop when there is two races to go.

Team Lotus needs somebody that is experienced and available. Now who could that be?

First there was Nico Hulkenberg that could probably drive for Lotus next year. He said no. WHY?!?

He hasn't got his salary either from Sauber who also has money issues just like Lotus so he could leave any time he wants. Still he decides to stay with Sauber. Maybe he got nervous and thought that if he fails with Lotus in the two remaining races he looses his seat at Lotus next year? Just a theory so don't hate me for that comment. It was just a thought and maybe a stupid one.

Then there was Pastor Maldonado who's sponsors have failed to support Williams. He could have probably left right away as well but didn't. Was he also afraid or did his money truly run out? Lotus would have needed Maldonado's money also so he could have had a chance next year as well, but now it doesn't look good. We shall wait and see.

Some people said that Buemi could jump in the Lotus. I don't understand that because he works for Red Bull as the number 3 driver and they don't wanna send him anywhere. Trust me they don't.

After all these choices we come to a man who has beaten all his teammates in his career except Lewis Hamilton at McLaren, which was in his words the most difficult time of his career mentally. He has won the race of champions beating Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Loeb and many others. He almost won the first ever GP2 series with a car that wasn't even the best. This man is a GP winner but didn't get a seat this year when Caterham ran out of money. He is Heikki Kovalainen and Lotus chose him.

Heikki Kovalainen after winning the Race of Champions

This is Heikki's last chance to show everybody that he still has what it takes to be in this series. If he fails then everything is over for him and he can start doing something else. I wish him luck.

Team Williams is next on the list. They decided to kick out Pastor Maldonado when he can't support the team financially anymore. He even stated to the press that the team only wanted his money. Sad but if he has problems to beat Valtteri Bottas who is a total rookie then he isn't probably what Williams needs.

Valtteri Bottas on the other hand has only just started his career and has a great mentor to help him.. Mika Häkkinen.

The new driver for the team is Felipe Massa who has found his motivation again. He is not the number two driver anymore but the leader of the team! He will bring Williams back to the top. Just watch out for the young boy Bottas. He is waiting for the right moment to attack the top drivers on the track.

McLaren has had problems this year and are kicking out Sergio Perez. He had a chance but they wanted more from the young driver. Perez himself has stated that McLaren is a chaotic team with no order and that they are not fair.

Former F1 driver Jan Magnussen's son Kevin is probably going to replace Perez. They have actually said it already but no names have been written down on any contracts. So everything is still possible.

Now I have written more than I would wanna read so it's best to stop here.

If you have questions or wanna leave a comment please do.

2013 Singapore Grand Prix Review

I would have to say that the heros of Singapore were Räikkönen and Alonso. A super start from Alonso and a great consistent race from Räikkönen.

It seemed that Vettel was unbeatable with his Red Bull, Alonso was the best of the rest and Räikkönen got the best possible result with the Lotus.

I already said on the F1 4 LIFE Facebook page that I must give some respect to Räikkönen for finishing third even though he had back pains, no KERS, a car that can't win races, started from 13th place and gets no money from driving. I can't wait to see what kind of results he can get with a Ferrari.

Statistically Räikkönen was more successful than Alonso at Ferrari but let's see what happens next year.

The race was a big disappointment for Grosjean. I really hoped that he could get some good results finally. Lotus could be happy though when Räikkönen saved the situation with the podium.

The other disappointment was Mark Webber's retirement. He had driven well but what can you do if the car doesn't last till the end. Funny how it always happens to Webber and not Vettel. What is he doing wrong or is the reason something else? Who knows?

Let's take a look at my guesses and the actual results. Here are my guesses:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton

The Top 3 on Sunday

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
2. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
3. Felipe Massa, Ferrari

Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Lotus

Surprise: Felipe Massa, Ferrari

And then the actual results:

Pole position: Sebastian Vettel

The Top 3 on Sunday

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
2. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
3. Kimi Räikkönen, Lotus

Fastest lap: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull

The surprise was supposed to be Massa and he did surprise by being faster than Alonso in qualifying. The real surprise was probably Räikkönen. I know he is a superb driver but I had no clue that he would be on the podium.

The TOP3 was 2 right out of 3. I said that Kimi would do the fastest lap but instead he was third. I had too much fate in Hamilton and Massa so you could say that they let me down. I hope that Massa will drive in a good team next year because at this point it could be even possible that he doesn't get a F1 seat at all.

2013 Singapore Grand Prix Preview

Singapore

This weekend will be interesting on so many levels! A lot has happened after the Italian Grand Prix. Kimi has signed with Ferrari, Massa is leaving and stated that he will not help Alonso anymore, Luca di Montezemolo on the otherhand said that he will. Who knows what will happen.

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.

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.

Last year the Singapore Grand Prix was the race were I knew that Vettel is going to be the champion again in 2012 and it seems that he will be in 2013 as well. Let's hope next year will be more interesting.

This year the "drama" might just spice up the grid a bit. Massa doesn't care about helping Alonso anymore, Hulkenberg and a few others are really trying to show their skills to keep their F1 seats or to get a better ones.

Lotus is checking out Massa at the moment and there he has one more reason to show everybody that he is still fast. The media had just asked him "Are you faster than Alonso?" He laughed and said "YES". I hope Massa will step up this weekend and show the world that he is still a super driver.

And now what I think will happen this weekend:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton

The Top 3 on Sunday

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
2. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
3. Felipe Massa, Ferrari

Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Lotus

Surprise: Felipe Massa, Ferrari

What's gonna happen with Felipe Massa?

Everybody knows that Ferrari has given new chances to Felipe year after year. But this year might just be the last. They always ask him to step up his game and then he does for a few races and then the same careful Massa without motivation comes back. Are they just scaring him again to get better results or are they for real this time?

Massa used to be an awesome driver when he was with Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen.
It might be because with them he wasn't the number two driver. The Ferrari team let him win and fight and he didn't have to listen to "....is faster than you" (if you didn't understand what I meant then you can ask me in the comment section).

Now he knows that he can't be the champion because of his "status" at Ferrari. Who would have motivation after that? And why does this happen mostly to Brazilian drivers? Remember Rubens Barrichello's time as Schumacher's teammate?

I felt so sorry for him when he had to give his victory to Schumacher. Mika Salo had to give his victory to Eddie Irvine as well in 1999 but Barrichello seems so sympathetic and nice! He didn't deserve to be treated like that race after race. Poor guy..

Now I just feel sad when Massa clearly is a sympathetic guy just like his friend Barrichello. Hope he steps up his game for good this time and really shows Alonso that he still is a good driver!

Remember in 2007 when Massa and Alonso were fighting for the victory on the last laps at Nürburgring? Massa had been phenomenal but unfortunately for his sake Alonso pushed his McLaren into Massa's Ferrari almost taking him out of the race. Alonso won the race and still gave Massa a hard time for driving like an amateur. Massa was furious and Alonso admitted that maybe it was his own fault. I respected Alonso for admitting it at the press conference but I also felt bad for Massa.

The year 2007 was pretty good for him in the other races as well. He won three races, he was four times second and three times third. His teammate Kimi Räikkönen on the other hand won six races, he was twice second, four times third and won the championship.

In 2008 the luck was on Massa's side. Räikkönen retired five times that season which gave Massa a small advantage. He won six races just like Räikkönen the year before but lost to Hamilton by only one point. He thought at first that he was the champion and cheered. Then he realized that Hamilton had overtaken Glock on the last lap and got that extra point. If it would have been a tie Massa would have been the champion because he had six victories and Hamilton only five. Massa cried his eyes out..
In my opinion he can still be happy that he has come closer to win a championship with Ferrari than Alonso.

2009 was a bad year for Ferrari and for some reason they blamed the drivers Massa and Räikkönen at first for not finishing high enough. Later they realized that their car was not as good as it used to be.
They won only one race (Räikkönen in Spa) and the worst thing was that Massa got injured badly in Hungary.

During the qualifying session of the Hungarian grand prix a suspension spring flew from Barrichello's car on the track and through Massa's helmet to his head. After that he crashed into the barriers and spent a week in a hospital.

Massa came back in 2010 but it seemed that his speed was a bit lost from time to time. He got only 5 podiums and almost won a race. That race killed his motivation for good. Massa's race engineer said on the radio "Fernando is faster than you" and meant that Massa should let Alonso pass him (team orders were illegal in 2010). He could have won that race for sure if he wouldn't have heard that message. Ferrari got a penalty for that but the next year team orders were legal.

After that they have even changed Massa's gearbox only to lift Alonso higher up on the grid (if you change the gearbox you get penalized). So I understand that he doesn't have motivation anymore.

Let's just hope that some other team want's Massa if Ferrari doesn't and that he finds his motivation again. Because I really like Massa! Not my favorite driver but I wish him all the best. Stay strong!

Let's talk a bit more about the rumors

Earlier I wrote about the summer break rumors. So of course there is more! So what else is there that I didn't already talk about? I shall list them below in no particular order and start talking.

1. Lotus finance problems and Infinity Racing coming to the rescue.
2. Bernie Ecclestone gave Lotus money from his own pocket.
3. Pastor Maldonado will join Lotus next year and bring money with him.
4. Lotus took a step forward, got some new parts and they will dominate the rest of the season.
5. Alonso is going back to his old team which is called Lotus nowadays.
6. F1 will not go to Russia next year after all?
7. The Indian GP is also out?
8. Räikkönen's news about going back to Ferrari was just a negotiation tactic.
9. Vettel is moving to Ferrari.
10. Kovalainen's comeback.
11. Sauber's money issues.

Lotus wants to keep Räikkönen for the next season and it sounds very realistic that he would stay. Let's think about the reasons again: less PR and more time for himself, he is clearly the king of the team and the car can fight for high positions. But for how long? What if they don't have enough money?

The Lotus team has said in many interviews that they have everything under control but why doesn't Räikkönen get his salary in time or at all? Why are they promising him money that they clearly don't have?

Räikkönen has been nice enough to let them pay him later. Last year he admitted that he got his salary eventually but very late. They have gotten a lot of sponsors but still the money isn't enough. Now they will probably get Infinity Racing to help them out. I really hope so for their sake because if they don't then they can kiss Räikkönen good bye. I don't think that he likes to wait for his money all the time and listen to their promises that they can't keep.

Maybe Infinity Racing comes to the rescue and wants to buy half of the team? Maybe Lotus will be some day known as Infinity Racing? It wouldn't be a big surprise for me.

I read from a German F1 site called Motorsport-Total that last season they (Lotus) got help from non other than Bernie Ecclestone himself. He paid their debts from his own pocket just to keep them in the series. The problems are much worse than expected. It might even happen that Kimi makes a contract with Lotus but they can't even participate next year because of the finance problems. 

Don't be a fool Kimi! Please go ahed and choose Red Bull. They have the best car and so much money that they own two F1 teams and one F1 track! No other team can say the same.

If Kimi would decide to go to Red Bull anyway then Lotus has a backup plan - pay drivers!

Pastor Maldonado doesn't want to stay at Williams if the car is this bad. I mean the last year's car was faster than this year's. Usually the next car is faster than the older one.

Kobayashi, Kovalainen and Maldonado are the biggest candidates to join Lotus according to some papers and magazines. In my opinion they are not taking Kovalainen cause he doesn't have any sponsors that bring money to the team like Maldonado. Actually Kobayashi doesn't have sponsors either but he has money that he collected from his fans. I heard that he got about 1 million dollars and Maldonado's sponsors have more so that gives the advantage back to Maldonado. Let's wait and see what happens.

Some people (including the Lotus team) believe that Lotus is going to start winning races from now on. Grosjean even said that his maiden victory is just around the corner. I think that Kimi might win one or two races this year but they will not win the championship. It will be Sebastian Vettel again which would be very boring.

If Lotus becomes better and Ferrari doesn't then guess who would be interested to go back to his old team? Mr. Fernando Alonso Diaz of course.. or so the rumor says. Maybe if he gets canned from Ferrari but I don't believe this.

Some people say that Kovalainen has been negotiating with Ferrari. Actually he did last year but Ferrari decided to give Massa another chance. Have they negotiated further? Who knows? Kovalainen and Alonso used to be on the same team back in 2006 when Kovalainen was the test driver for Renault. They came along very well and are now friends. It would be nice to see him at Ferrari but I don't believe this either. He will probably replace van der Garde at Caterham next year and that's it.

If you wanna know more about Ferrari then the newest rumor is that Kimi's "Ferrari deal" was just a negotiation tactic. I think it was Kimi's own managers who started spreading this rumor. Or maybe Ferrari spread this rumor themselves to keep Alonso on his toes. You never know.

Vettel is moving to Ferrari. Nobody believed this right? Why would he change to a weaker team?

Sounds a bit stupid but did you know that Schumacher switched to Ferrari in 1996 even though he was in a winning car? He won 2 championships with Benetton and went to Ferrari even though they didn't have the same speed as his old team. Michael Schumacher predicted that this team is going to be good again in the future and he was so right about that. The team had won their last championship in 1979 and Michael won with them in the year 2000. It took 4 years but it was worth it because he won 5 championships in a row.

What else is there to talk about? The Indian GP running out of money but they will be back in 2015.

The Russian GP is also in the papers right now. They say that they are fighting for money and may not even get to host the GP. I think that they are going to sort it all out. No problems there.

Sauber is now also having money issues even though Gutierrez is bringing money in to the team.

It looks like they are forced to sell a part of the team or everything. We shall wait and see what happens with all of these things I just rambled about..

Flavio Briatore's big mouth

Flavio Briatore has been opening his mouth to the media again. For example he is saying that Alonso has no reason to switch teams.
-Didn't Alonso just say that he needs a car like the others (Red Bull)?! To me that's a big reason. Alonso is a racing driver and he wants to win! He isn't winning with Ferrari at the moment.

Then he said that Alonso has a contract with Ferrari so it's impossible to break that.
-Tell that to Kimi Räikkönen! Santander paid Ferrari in the end of 2009 to kick Kimi out of the team so that Alonso could drive for them. Did he forget this? And Briatore is not the best person to talk about rules when he is the one usually breaking them. If you want an example then the "crashgate" incident in 2008 is probably a good one.

Briatore also said that Ferrari and Alonso are a winning combination and that he could drive as anybody's teammate.
-When is the last time Ferrari won anything? He is also third in the points which is worse than last year. Even Lotus and Mercedes are better than Ferrari at the moment.

And if Alonso could drive as anybody's teammate then why did he demand that they kick Kimi out instead of Massa in 2009? It was obvious for a lot of people that Alonso wanted the better one to leave. And what about 2007 when Alonso had problems with Hamilton? Briatore is talking so much gibberish that I am starting to think he is senile. Maybe Alonso should talk for himself and not this guy.

Briatore also said that Alonso is the new Senna.
-I understand that he probably meant that Alonso is good but comparing him to Senna? Why? There is not so much same about them. In my opinion Alonso is more like Prost than Senna.

Earlier Briatore said that if he had a team with one bad driver he would get an even worse driver to be his number two man in the team.
-This is probably the stupidest thing I have ever heard in the Formula One circles. Why would anybody want a bad driver to have an even worse teammate? That makes no sense!
If it was up to me then I would get a better driver and let the first driver to be the number two man.

Briatore is a very weird and crazy individual but that's probably why we enjoy seeing him so much.
He is very entertaining and unfortunately that's the only thing he is right now.. just entertaining and nothing else.

In my opinion it was a good penalty to ban him from this sport (after "crashgate") but still in a weird way I miss him. He was so many years a part of this sport that it feels like something is missing.

Sometimes you just have to except the truth that times change and there is nothing you can do about it anymore.

F1 rumors are always a part of the summer break

Every year when the summer break starts the rumors can be heard everywhere.
So what are the biggest rumors this summer?

Before the summer break everybody were talking about Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Räikkönen fighting for the Red Bull seat which was very realistic. Red Bull even said that they are the only choices.

Now the rumors are far from realistic but maybe some of them have a little bit truth in them. Let's begin.

This year I have heard that Kimi has been connected to Red Bull, Ferrari and Lotus. It would be stupid to even say any other teams cause Kimi wouldn't be interested. So they are saying that Lotus has money issues, Red Bull is not sure if they want two champions in the same team and Ferrari wants Kimi back but he doesn't like Luca di Montezemolo that much anymore. Some even say that Kimi already has a contract with Ferrari.

The Ferrari news came this week and every day I have heard something new about this. The situation right know looks like this:

• Ferrari got angry with Alonso when he criticized the car/team. Just like Prost did in the early 90's.
• Alonso's manager has been talking to Red Bull. 
• Ferrari has also heard that Alonso has in fact talked with Red Bull several times in 2008 and 2009 and Red Bull refused to take him. I can talk more about that later.
• Alonso's motivation is not the same as last year because he wants a car like Red Bull. He actually said that the best birthday present would be "to have a car like the other drivers".
• 2010 and 2012 could have been easy for Alonso when he had such a big lead in the points but he somehow lost it all even though it look like a sure thing. Ferrari isn't happy.
• Kimi on the other hand is the driver who was the underdog but still won the drivers world championship in 2007. In fact Alonso was the man that Kimi won that year and now they have the "loser" driving for them.
• Ferrari never wanted to get rid of Kimi in 2009. I mean why would they kick out Kimi in the middle of the contract who won a championship for them instead of Felipe Massa? Santander and Alonso wanted Kimi out of the team cause he was a bigger threat and still is.
• Now the Ferrari team is realizing that Alonso not winning championships is not worth it even though Santander is paying for it all.
• Alonso had an agreement with Ferrari over 10 years ago when he drove for Minardi that some day he would drive for them (Ferrari). They had planned how and what would happen before that. Alonso didn't do what they asked him to and got a deal with Renault and then with McLaren. Ferrari felt backstabbed and now they think that Alonso is not a team player.
• The rumors also say that Massa is going to leave and he is being replaced by Hulkenberg, Kobayashi or Kovalainen.

That was everything I remember hearing this week about Ferrari. Almost everything is probably bulls**t but there can still be a bit truth in the mix.

The Red Bull and Alonso news started when his manager went to see them (like I said earlier). I also mentioned earlier that Alonso had talked to Red Bull already in 2008 about the 2009 season. He asked for a lot of money and promised to make them a winning team. They refused to pay him and got Vettel from Toro Rosso instead. Then they became competitive without Alonso and he gave them a new offer. Less money and he wants to switch teams in the middle of the 2009 season. They refused again.

Alonso is famous of arguing with his teams so maybe Red Bull didn't want him because of that?

• When Alonso was about to leave Renault he accused them of sabotage cause he made a deal with McLaren.
• At McLaren he said that they made him the number two driver and that the rookie Hamilton was number one. He also sabotaged Hamilton's qualifying on purpose in Hungary.
• Then he went back to Renault and at the same time looked for other F1 seats.
• Let's not forget the "crashgate" incident which ruined the career of Nelson Piquet jr. The argument was: did Alonso know about it or not? Alonso denied everything and his bosses Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds took the blame. See a video about it from this link.

The stupidest rumor yet was when Lewis Hamilton's father Anthony was talking to someone at Red Bull. Then people started saying that Hamilton is switching from Mercedes to Red Bull. Later I heard that Lewis was going to Ferrari.. Apparently he had said that every driver wants to drive for Ferrari at least ones. Hamilton's father had also been to Maranello??

Let's just stop before this gets to much out of hand shall we...

The Hungarian Grand Prix's second practice session

1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:21.264		34
2	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:21.308	0.044	42
3	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:21.417	0.153	40
4	3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:21.426	0.162	34
5	4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:21.544	0.280	37
6	10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:21.802	0.538	42
7	9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:21.991	0.727	40
8	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:22.011	0.747	32
9	5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:22.180	0.916	41
10	15	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:22.304	1.040	41
11	14	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:22.526	1.262	39
12	6	Sergio Perez	McLaren-Mercedes	1:22.529	1.265	37
13	16	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1:22.781	1.517	36
14	12	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:22.837	1.573	42
15	11	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	1:22.841	1.577	39
16	18	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Ferrari	1:23.369	2.105	34
17	19	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	1:23.411	2.147	41
18	17	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Renault	1:23.646	2.382	34
19	20	Charles Pic	Caterham-Renault	1:24.325	3.061	38
20	21	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham-Renault	1:25.065	3.801	36
21	22	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Cosworth	1:25.143	3.879	39
22	23	Max Chilton	Marussia-Cosworth	1:26.647	5.383	33