2014 British Grand Prix review

Some of you readers said that it was a boring race but I disagree. Silverstone has many times showed us that the track is not only a classic but gives us interesting races.

Right at the start my eyes was on the two Ferraris and two Williams's. Kimi Räikkönen overtook several cars including his teammate Fernando Alonso. Felipe Massa had a terrible start and dropped to 21st. Valtteri Bottas start was awesome! He jumped to 9th position.

Kimi was fighting very aggressively and when Alonso came next to him he went off right away. Then when he tried to come back on track he lost control of the car and had a 47G crash. That is a very hard crash! Felipe Massa was at the wrong place at the wrong time and got hit by Kimi's car.

The first thing Kimi asked on the radio was "is Felipe ok?" and Massa asked Williams the same thing about Kimi. Two former teammates still caring for each other. That's nice.

Then they fixed the barrier for 1 hour! What the hell was that?! In Monaco they fix barriers in 5 minutes! A bit weird if you ask me. Didn't they practice situations like this or what was the problem? At least we got news from Ferrari that Kimi is OK.

Then after 1 hour they continued racing and the McLarens were 2nd and 3rd at best but what happened then? Why couldn't they hold the positions? It was almost like they had vanished from the race. OK it was probably hard to keep up with Hamilton and Bottas who were extremely fast. Button was 4th in the end so it was the best possible result for McLaren I guess.

Mercedes had technical problems again and Nico Rosberg retired. Lewis Hamilton got 25 points more than Rosberg from Silverstone. Just what he and the rest of us fans needed. I am happy that the championship is not getting boring! But who would have won if Rosberg would have finished the race? I am not answering that!

What else happened? Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel had a nice battle for positions but why did they have to complain and cry so much about every single move they did? Is it because they are both used to be the number 1 driver in the team and get grumpy when the better driver doesn't let you pass? I don't know the answer to that, I was just saying.

Everybody was so interested of the Alonso vs. Vettel battle that nobody noticed that Daniel Ricciardo was higher up and kicked both of their asses again! Bottas and Ricciardo are the future of F1 so get used to those two being on the podium.

And now here are my predictions and the actual results:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. It was the other Mercedes.

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He retired and Valtteri Bottas was 2nd.
3. Felipe Massa, Williams - WRONG. He retired right after the start and Daniel Ricciardo was 3rd.

Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. It was the other Mercedes again.

Surprise: Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber. He will get his best result of the season! - WRONG. He retired so we will never find out.

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. 

THIS TIME YOU ALSO GET BONUS POINTS! PREDICT POLE POSITION AND FASTEST LAP CORRECTLY TO EARN 2 EXTRA POINTS! 

That's it for today and if you want to send me feedback then email me: f14lifeblog@gmail.com

2014 British Grand Prix preview

Hey there F1 fans! It's going great with the blog and the Facebook page at the moment. F1-4-LIFE got some help from Sauber F1 Team. Fans asked us questions about F1 teams and Sauber gave us some really good answers to share with the Facebook readers. F1-4-LIFE has also reached 5000 likes which is much more than I would have imagined when I started this almost a year ago.

Sorry, that had nothing to do with the Grand Prix but I had to say something. Now let's get on with the preview!

Nino Farina in his Alfa Romeo. Silverstone 1950.

Silverstone is one of the most legendary F1 tracks in the calendar. Did you know that the whole F1 series started back in 1950 at Silverstone? That's why this circuit is so important!

In the first GP Giuseppe "Nino" Farina won from pole position also setting the fastest lap of the race (1'50.600). The current lap record is from last year by Mark Webber 1'33.401. The track has changed several times so it's hard to compare.

Last year Nico Rosberg won with Mercedes. This year Mercedes is the best team so who might stop him? Maybe Lewis Hamilton? Most likely! He started from pole position last year and I am pretty sure he will again this year. Only this time he will stay in front! He really wants to win in front of his home crowd which gives him more motivation.

On the other hand Lewis Hamilton usually breaks under pressure. He is able to keep cool but when he says to himself "I have to win!" he usually messes up. Even Murray Walker thinks Nico Rosberg might win the championship this year because Hamilton can't focus enough when it gets serious. I also believe that Nico Rosberg will be champion this year. (Some of you have asked me who will win this year and there's my answer)

I do hope that Hamilton wins this weekend because I want them to fight till the end for every single point. If this year gets boring like it was with Vettel then I must come up with something else to do. I can't watch another Vettel-season! I watched the Schumacher dominance also from 2000-2004 and that was boring as hell! 

I want more seasons like 2005-2008. Those were good seasons!

The best thing this weekend would be two Mercs crashing or something like that. I want something else already! Not another Mercedes 1-2. But sorry guys.. it will be another Mercedes 1-2. Trust me. MERCEDES 1ST AND 2ND!

Oh and make sure to watch the first practice session! Susie Wolff is driving F1 for the first time on TV (Live).

Here are my predictions:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
3. Felipe Massa, Williams

Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes

Surprise: Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber. He will get his best result of the season!

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. 

THIS TIME YOU ALSO GET BONUS POINTS! PREDICT POLE POSITION AND FASTEST LAP CORRECTLY TO EARN 2 EXTRA POINTS! 

That's it for today and if you want to send me feedback then email me: f14lifeblog@gmail.com

F1 Magazines

When I travel or just like to read a magazine it's always Formula One related. The picture above shows just a few that I found lying around my house. In the middle there's a huge stack of F1 Racing (all of the 2012 issues and some from 2013). 

I used to subscribe to F1 Racing but not anymore. Now I just buy them from a store if I manage to find an issue. It's hard to find the magazine if you don't live in London for example. When I was there I saw them in every supermarket. But in other countries you have to look for them in bookstores for instance. 

I remember when I read my first F1 Racing magazine in 1997. An issue was accidentally delivered to my house and I couldn't resist. I was a teenager with no money so when could I ever read a magazine like that? 

I don't remember what they were talking about in that issue but I bet it had to do with, Villeneuve, Hill, Schumacher and Häkkinen. Back then everything was about them. Just like today it's all about Vettel, Räikkönen, Alonso, Hamilton and Button.

There is a few Finnish Formula One magazines as well. Actually they are bonus issues that you can buy together with other newspapers. In the Scandinavian countries there isn't really any F1 magazines so basically I bought everything there was.

It's not very hard to guess which magazines are from Finland. Finns who don't follow Formula One at all know who Kimi is and that's why he is on the covers. Some people hate motor sports but they might just be interested of Kimi Räikkönen.

I have found some magazines in Finland about motor racing in general but not a single one that would be just for F1 fans. If I am wrong then please send me a message. I like to read in finnish as well and not only in english.

All in all I prefer magazines more than reading from the internet. Sitting in front of the computer hurts my eyes sometimes when reading a magazine is relaxing. You can sit in your favorite chair or just chill on the sofa.

That's what I'm gonna do right now! See ya!