Maldonator - The Movie

Oh my god...  As you know everybody's joking about Pastor Maldonado and his driving skills but this time somebody really made an effort to mock him.

Williams F1 Megafactories - Documentary HD

I am forced to re-upload this video because the previous documentary was not by Discovery's official YouTube channel and was erased for that reason.

David Coulthard and Valtteri Bottas driving

Funny video with Bottas and DC.

Wolff appointed Williams test driver

Williams have announced that Susie Wolff will step up to the position of official test driver for the 2015 season.

The British racer had previously held the title of development driver, a role which culminated in her becoming the first female driver to drive in a Grand Prix event for two decades when she took part in FP1 in Britain and Germany.

In her expanded new role Wolff, 31, will drive the Mercedes-powered FW37 in two FP1 sessions during 2015, as well as at two test days. She will also conduct extensive simulator testing to help aid development of the Williams’ 2015 and 2016 challengers.

Speaking about her new role Wolff said: “This is another step in the right direction for me. I am delighted Williams are recognising my progression, hard work and that it is performance that counts.

“Williams is at a very exciting stage in its history and we are moving into 2015 with fantastic momentum, I’m proud to be part of the team. I’ll be using my position to work closely with Felipe (Massa)and Valtteri (Bottas) to make sure that the FW37 builds on the strong performance shown by the FW36.”

Williams’ deputy team principal Claire Williams added: “We are delighted to have Susie continuing with the team next season in this new role. She continues to impress us with her strong technical knowledge, the feedback she delivers and the performance when she drives the car both on the track and in the simulator.

“She has steadily increased her time behind the wheel since she joined us in April 2012 and her appointment as official test driver was a natural progression. We have a very strong and stable driver line-up for 2015 and this will be a key asset as we look to build on a positive 2014 season.”

(source: f1.com)

2014 Italian Grand Prix preview

A picture from the old part of the track (the loop).

Are you ready for the Italian grand prix and the Monza track? This is one of the most legendary tracks in F1 history and it is also Ferrari's home grand prix.

Several Formula One legends have died on this track. The list is long so I shall mention just a few.

• In 1955 the Ferrari legend and two time world champion Alberto Ascari died here during a test session. 
• Wolfgang von Trips and 14 spectators were killed after he collided with Jim Clark in 1961. 
• Jochen Rindt was crowned as the Formula One world champion at the end of the 1970 season. Unfortunately he had passed away before that at Monza. The points were enough to make him the champion.
• The best Swedish F1 driver ever lived was Ronnie Peterson. He died in a hospital after a serious crash at the start of the 1978 Italian grand prix.

The Monza track has changed several times over the years. At first it looked like this:

This was in 1922-1933 before the F1 series even existed. The track was 10 kilometers with 4.5 kilometers in the loop and then 5.5 kilometers on the road track.

Later in 1935-1937 the track was changed and looked like this:

In 1950 the Formula One series started and Monza was the last race on the calendar. The race was won by Nino Farina even though Juan Manuel Fangio had been faster all weekend. Fangio got pole position and set the fastest lap of the race. Unfortunately he retired due to a gear box failure and Farina won the race and the first championship. The track was again different and it looked like this:

In 1955 it looked again like it did in the beginning (with the road- and loop-part). After 1969 the oval part was not used anymore and the track looked about the same it looks today.

The fastest lap on the combined track (in a race) was set in 1960 by the American F1 world champion Phill Hill. The record was 2.41.400 and the time was set with a Ferrari.

The fastest lap on the modern track (in a race) was set by Rubens Barrichello in 2004 and also with a Ferrari. The current record is 1.21.046 and the reason why it is so much faster is that "the loop" is no longer in use.

If we talk about wins then Michael Schumacher is the king of this track. He has won this race 5 times. From the current drivers the king would be Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso because they both have 2 wins from Monza.

Sebastian Vettel took his maiden victory in Monza back in 2008 with Toro Rosso. That was strange if you ask me! To win a race with the former Minardi now known as Toro Rosso.

This year I think the battler between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg will continue. Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas will be up there with them taking advantage of the situation.

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

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
3. Valtteri Bottas, Williams

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Surprise: Daniel Ricciardo will have a bad race for a change. I don't think this track is for him.

The bonus for the PREDICTORS LEAGUE: Who will be the last one to retire? My answer is Romain Grosjean, Lotus.

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 & MH. 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 puts Williams on top at Silverstone test

Felipe Massa set the pace on the first of two days of Formula One testing at Silverstone on Tuesday.

The Williams driver clocked a time of 1m 35.242s, just 0.006s quicker than Daniel Ricciardo's best lap for Red Bull.

“The car was very competitive during the race so today we have built on a very good platform,” reported Massa. “The test today was experimenting with some parts for future races as well as a little bit for next year. 

“The car felt really good, so we know we will go to Hockenheim with a good car. The programme went to plan today and we didn't have any rain so it was a very productive day.”

Championship leader Nico Rosberg was third fastest for Mercedes after a busy session in which the team focussed on aero testing, brake cooling evaluations and engine system checks, plus set-up work.

“It's so valuable to do these test days; over a race weekend it's rare to get two runs in the day that are the same as tyres are getting old and conditions change but here we can always use new tyres, so we can really do some setup work that we don't normally get to do,” explained Rosberg.

“It was very useful and we learned a lot today. We will be able to use this information going into the next race.”

Adrian Sutil tested some new aero parts on his way to fourth for Sauber and afterwards declared himself pleased with his day’s work: “It was a good day, as I was able to do a lot of laps. In the morning everything worked well except for a small issue with the powertrain, which we were able to solve quickly.

“We worked a lot with the medium and hard tyres in order to understand them better. Besides that, we also worked on the set-up to improve the balance of the car. In the afternoon we tried different set-ups. So far we cannot say which set-up worked the best, but all in all it was a good day during which we went through our planned programme. At the end of the day we did short runs with the soft tyres, which was also helpful.”

Marussia's Jules Bianchi, who will drive for Ferrari on Wednesday, completed the top five. The Frenchman spent the day doing development work for Pirelli, but his running was curtailed by a small fire underneath his MR03’s bodywork in the afternoon session. 

McLaren test and reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne, having his second run of the year in the MP4-29, was sixth fastest, just ahead of the Force India of Sergio Perez.

Jean-Eric Vergne clocked the eighth fastest time of the day, but after a productive morning his afternoon was compromised as Toro Rosso ran into technical problems whilst shaking down some new energy store batteries.

Pastor Maldonado was ninth fastest for Lotus, just ahead of the Ferrari of Pedro de la Rosa. Ferrari, like Marussia, focused purely on tyre development work for Pirelli on Tuesday, however the Spaniard’s running on prototype 2015 tyres was brought to a premature end by a coolant leak.

“It was great to be able to drive the actual car after so much work in the simulator, especially at a track like Silverstone,” said De la Rosa.

“I think today was very useful both for me and for the team. We worked a lot on race simulation, always running with a high fuel load, so as to understand as much as possible about the new tyres. We learned a lot and even if I can’t make a direct comparison to this year’s tyres, the feeling I got is that they do represent a step forward.”

Completing the timesheet was young British driver Will Stevens in the Caterham.

“I’ve done a lot of mileage already this year in the 2014 car but all in the simulator, so it was really good to be in the real car and to have a decent day at Silverstone,” he said.

“The morning session was a bit stop/start as we had a few software issues that needed fixing, but we still completed 71 laps by the time we stopped break and by then I was increasingly comfortable in the car.

“By the end of the day we’d completed 13 runs with a total of 95 laps and have a lot of data for the guys back at the factory to work through. I know the plan tomorrow for Julian and Rio is similar so hopefully we can have another productive day and leave Silverstone on a positive note. After my day today that’s exactly what I’m going to do!”

Testing concludes at Silverstone on Wednesday when Lotus will be demoing Pirelli's prototype 18-inch tyres.

Unofficial Tuesday times from Silverstone
1. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 35.242s, 42 laps
2. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 35.248s, 71 laps
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 35.573s, 89 laps
4. Adrian Sutil, Sauber, 1m 35.674s, 73 laps
5. Jules Bianchi, Marussia, 1m 36.148s, 108 laps
6. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, 1m 36.462s, 71 laps
7. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m 36.583s, 79 laps
8. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, 1m 36.688s, 28 laps
9. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 37.131s, 97 laps
10. Pedro de la Rosa, Ferrari, 1m 37.988s, 49 laps
11. Will Stevens, Caterham, 1m 40.627s, 95 laps

(source: f1.com)

Trailblazers - Formula One racing's fastest females

 

They may not be household names, but Maria-Teresa de Filippis, Lella Lombardi, Divina Galica, Desire Wilson and Giovanna Amati hold an important place in Formula One history as the only female drivers to have taken part in a world championship event.

But this exclusive club will grow by one this week when Williams development driver Susie Wolff takes part in FP1 at Silverstone. To mark the occasion, we remember the pioneering women in whose wheel tracks she'll be following…

Maria-Teresa de Filippis
As a youngster, the Naples-born De Filippis was more interested in horses than cars, and only began racing when she was 22 after her brothers bet that she wouldn't be able to drive fast. Having proved them wrong she quickly rose through the ranks to become the first woman to compete in a world championship Grand Prix. Her big break came in 1954 when, after finishing second in the Italian sportscar championship, she was hired by Maserati as a works driver. It wasn't until 1958 that De Filippis moved up to F1 racing, driving the same 250F machine with which her idol Juan Manual Fangio had won his fifth world title in 1957. She failed to qualify on her debut world championship appearance in Monaco (as did numerous others at the event, including a certain Bernie Ecclestone), but did make it onto the grid in Belgium where she finished a creditable tenth. Despite being warned by Fangio that she took too many risks behind the wheel, De Filippis qualified twice more that year, in Portugal and Italy, but hung up her helmet for good in 1959 following the death of team mate and friend Jean Behra in a sportscar race at AVUS.

Lella Lombardi
De Filippis may have been the first woman to drive in F1 competition, but fellow Italian Lella Lombardi was the first (and as yet only) woman to register on the F1 scoreboard. After impressing in Formula Three and, in particular, in Formula 5000, the 1975 season provided Lombardi with her first F1 race appearance (a year earlier she'd failed to qualify for the British Grand Prix), and she performed admirably for March. Scoring half a point by finishing sixth in the tragic, shortened Spanish Grand Prix was a huge achievement, as was her seventh place in Germany later that year. But unfortunately a lack of backing resulted in Lombardi losing her March drive in 1976 and, after a short-lived and fruitless stint with RAM, she faded from the F1 scene. Lombardi went on to race sportscars with some success, before sadly succumbing to cancer in 1992, aged 50.

Divina Galica
Divina Galica had an affinity for speed long before she stepped into a racing car. In 1964, at the age of 19, she made the first of three consecutive appearances for Great Britain at the Winter Olympics, competing in the not-for-the-fainthearted sport of downhill skiing. It was Galica's notoriety as an international skier that led to her being invited to take part in a celebrity saloon car race at Oulton Park in 1974, during which she demonstrated a genuine ability behind the wheel. Bitten by the racing bug, it wasn't too long before Galica had graduated to Formula Libre - a national championship for thoroughbred Grand Prix machinery and the like. To the surprise of many who doubted her ability to compete at such a level, Galica finished fourth in the 1964 championship driving a Surtees TS16 F1 car, but subsequent attempts to ride that wave of success into the Formula One world championship proved fruitless. She failed to qualify for the 1976 British Grand Prix and two years later - having switched to Hesketh machinery - made unsuccessful attempts to make the grid in Argentina and Brazil. Undeterred, Galica raced on and despite a return to skiing (during which time she made another Winter Olympic appearance and set a British record of 125mph on skis) she remains involved in motorsport to this day.

Desire Wilson
Unlike the other women on this list, South Africa-born Wilson has won a race in Formula One machinery, albeit in the short lived British Aurora F1 series and not in the world championship proper. That victory was achieved at Brands Hatch in 1980, a year in which she also took wins at Monza and Silverstone in the world sportscar championship and attracted the eye of John Macdonald, head of the RAM F1 team. Macdonald signed and entered Wilson for the 1980 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, but saddled with a year-old Williams FW07 (rather than the Wolf WR4 she'd won the Aurora series race with) she failed to qualify. When she did make it onto the F1 grid - driving a Tyrrell at her home Grand Prix in 1981, the on-going FISA-FOCA war meant that the race was classified as ‘non-championship'. That was a shame as Wilson performed well, moving up from 16th at the start to sixth before spinning out with gearbox issues. Sadly, despite impressing Ken Tyrrell, events would conspire to prevent Wilson from making any further F1 inroads. She went on to compete in various other series and still makes the odd appearance at historic meetings.

Giovanna Amati
Amati began racing in her youth, not long after being kidnapped by gangsters attempting to extort money from her wealthy parents. After attending a racing school she progressed slowly up the single-seater ladder with limited success, though 1986 did yield a sole win in Italian Formula Three. Then in 1991, after several years plugging away in F3000, Amati was handed an F1 test with Benetton. The following season, in what many claimed was a publicity stunt, the ailing Brabham team offered Amati a drive. However, after three disastrous attempts to qualify the admittedly bad BT60B, Amati was replaced by the up-and-coming Damon Hill. After her brief dalliance with F1 racing, Amati continued to compete in various categories and she remains the last woman to attempt to qualify for a world championship Grand Prix.

(source: f1.com)

Ayrton Senna - Journalists Special

More Ayrton Senna for you! I always watch everything I find on Senna.

AYRTON SENNA WEEK: Pre Season Interview 1994

This week has been great talking so much about Ayrton, my favorite driver in the whole world. It has also been sad that it has been 20 years. But the fact that it's 20 years after his death doesn't change a thing. It has always been sad without him!

Enjoy and interview filmed before his last season in 1994.

Williams announce title sponsorship deal with Martini

Earlier there were speculation that the car would look something like this if Martini and Williams would work together.

Williams’ cars will feature a revised, though not unfamiliar, white colour scheme this season following a new title sponsorship deal with Italian drinks firm Martini, which will see the team renamed as Williams Martini Racing.

The Grove-based squad, who ran their 2014 challenger, the Mercedes-powered FW36, with a ‘heritage blue’ livery during testing, revealed their new look at a special launch event in London on Thursday. 

This is the one you will see in Australia next week.

“We are thrilled to welcome Martini to the Williams family and officially launch Williams Martini Racing,” said Sir Frank Williams, founder and team principal.

“Williams and Martini share a rich history in the world of motorsport, and the values of our two brands and our shared passion for racing make this partnership a natural fit. It will be great to see the distinctive stripes of Martini Racing return to Formula One once again in unison with Williams.”

The Martini brand’s longstanding relationship with motorsport began in 1968 with the creation of Martini Racing and the company has previously sponsored Formula One teams including Brabham, Lotus and Ferrari.

“The decision to partner with Williams was a natural one for us as it provides an unparalleled opportunity for the Martini brand to connect with consumers through one of their lifestyle passions, Formula One racing,” said Andy Gibson, Chief Marketing Officer of Bacardi and President of Bacardi Global Brands, who oversees marketing for Martini.

“Williams Martini Racing provides a powerful, integrated marketing platform and delivers dynamic opportunities that will strengthen the Martini brand.”

The new-look Williams team will take to the track for the first time at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia next week, with their revised driver line-up of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas at the wheel.

(source: f1.com)

Comparing the 2014 teammates: Williams

In the last "comparing the teammates"-post I promised to compare the Williams drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas. 

Valtteri Bottas has been with the team for a few years already. First he was the testdriver and last year he got to be Pastor Maldonado's teammate who was driving for Williams at the time. 

Felipe Massa has just joined Williams so this is his first season with them. This is actually the first time Massa drives with a team that hasn't got a Ferrari engine. First he drove for Sauber and then Ferrari.

Previously I have written about the teammates of Ferrari, Lotus, Red Bull, Force India, Mercedes and Sauber.

If you haven't read them then just click on the links below:

http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2013/11/comparing-2014-teammates-scuderia.html
http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2013/12/comparing-2014-teammates-red-bull-racing.html
http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2013/12/comparing-2014-teammates-lotus.html
http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2013/12/comparing-2014-teammates-force-india.html
http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2014/02/comparing-2014-teammates-mercedes.html?spref=fb
http://f14life.blogspot.fi/2014/02/comparing-2014-teammates-sauber.html?spref=fb

I'll do this the same way as I've always done. So first the year, then the teammate and how the season went.

I'm gonna start with Felipe Massa because he got to Formula One first.

2002 - Nick Heidfeld. After Räikkönen got a seat at McLaren Peter Sauber signed Felipe Massa as Nick Heidfeld's teammate. Sauber said that Massa was even better than Räikkönen and was sure that everybody would see it. Unfortunately Massa didn't perform as good as Räikkönen a year before. Massa was 14th in the championship with 4 points. Heidfeld was 10th with 7.

2003 - Peter Sauber didn't want to continue Massa's contract because of "numerous mistakes" in 2002. Massa became Ferrari's test driver and later Sauber wanted him back for the 2004 season.

2004 - Giancarlo Fisichella. Massa had gotten better but this time he had a more experienced teammate against him. In the end Fisichella was higher up in the standings with 22 points and Massa had only 12.

2005 - Jaques Villeneuve. Now he had a former world champion driving with him. For the first time ever Massa was better than his teammate! The former world champion got 9 points and Massa got 11. This was not because of luck or bad luck. Massa was much better that season and got a seat at Ferrari for the next season.

2006 - Michael Schumacher. Schumi was fighting for the championship with Alonso. Massa was just the "junior teammate" who came to learn from the legend how it's done. Massa was 2nd in his first qulaifying with Ferrari right after Schumacher. Later on he started winning races and got better and better.

2007 - Kimi Räikkönen. The Iceman won his first race with Ferrari and 5 more races that same season. He also won the championship before Hamilton, Alonso and Massa. The brazilian said that 2008 was going to be his turn.

2008 - Kimi Räikkönen. This year Ferrari had a lot of technical problems. Massa retired 3 times and Räikkönen 5 times. Sometimes they had big problems even though they got to finish the race. Massa was more lucky than Räikkönen and was 2nd in the championship. It seemed for a while that he was the champion but Hamilton overtook Timo Glock on the last lap and won Massa by a single point. Anyways this was the second time he won his teammate in Formula One.

2009 - Kimi Räikkönen. This year the car was even worse. Räikkönen only won one single race for Ferrari and Massa had a serious accident in Hungary. He was replaced by Luca Badoer and later Giancarlo Fisichella who were not nearly as good as Massa. If you count Massa's, Badoer's and Fisichella's points together you get less points than Räikkönen got from the whole season.

2010 - Fernando Alonso. Alonso won him by 108 points with the new scoring system and was 2nd in the championship. He lost the championship in the last race when he got stuck behind Petrov. Massa was far behind in 6th place in the end of the season.

2011 - Fernando Alonso. Alonso's victory over Massa was even greater. 139 points more!

2012 - Fernando Alonso. Even more! 156 points, but Ferrari gave Felipe Massa one last chance to prove himself to the team.

2013 - Fernando Alonso. Alonso won Massa again very clearly which forced Ferrari to sign Kimi Räikkönen instead of Massa. They lost faith in him but wished him well.

Then it's Valtteri Bottas! The list is very short because he has driven only one season in Formula One.

2013 - Pastor Maldonado. He was expected to be better than Bottas but it wasn't so. Bottas got 4 points and Maldonado got 1. According to the Williams team Bottas seamed to be a more mature driver than Maldonado even though he was a rookie. Bottas also got a P3 in the Canadian qualifying session which was a big surprise. Williams had an awful car in 2013.

People are not going to agree with me on this one but I really think that Bottas has a chance of being better than Massa in 2014. Let's wait and see..

That was it for today and tomorrow I shall compare the Marussia drivers.

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)

Alain Prost Interview about Raikkonen and Alonso at Ferrari in 2014

Here is an interesting interview with Alain Prost talking about two champions in the same team.

He clearly has experience when we talk about this topic because he has been teammates with Lauda, Rosberg, Senna, Mansell...

After this we also get some words from Damon Hill.

2013 United States Grand Prix review

Vettel won again but the race was still interesting in many ways. The most interesting things for me were Räikkönen's replacement Heikki Kovalainen and the young rookie Valtteri Bottas.

Williams has had one of the worst season of the teams history. Pastor Maldonado has scored only one point this season and now Bottas was 8th at the USGP. That was good news not only for Williams but for the young Finn as well. He really showed that he is able to overtake when the car has what it takes to compete.

Right at the start he overtook Kovalainen and then later Esteban Gutierrez in a high speed chase.

I was very impressed with Bottas! And yes I have said many times that he is a pro driver waiting for his chance.

Have also promised that I will stop talking about him until he actually does something. That didn't take long when I made that promise in Abu Dhabi two weeks ago.

Heikki Kovalainen was a big disappointment right from the start, but when I heard that the problems was because of his KERS, front wing/lack of down force and tire temperatures I understood that it wasn't his fault. I really thought at first that he is a bit rusty but don't think so anymore. His speed in the practice sessions and qualifying was very similar to Kimi Räikkönen so it can't be that bad.

Even Davide Valsecchi who at first said that Kovalainen was a bad choice changed his mind about him.

It takes a racing driver to see how good Kovalainen was performing. But all in all I was still very disappointed with his results. I really wanted to see him higher up fighting with the other top drivers.

Both of the Ferrari's were very slow. Even Alonso had problems keeping Nico Hulkenberg behind him but that is also because Hulkenberg is an awesome driver and not just the lack of Ferrari's speed.

Then I thought that I should mention the name of Romain Grosjean who drove almost like Räikkönen would have driven. It was probably a big relief for Team Lotus when they weren't sure if their two drivers could bring same kind of points home as Räikkönen usually does.

Mika Salo asked Eric Boullier before the race if Grosjean could fight for 2nd place. Boullier answered right away by saying "No, no, no. The Red Bulls will be first and second". It seems that the result was a bit better than even he could have expected. At least when we talk about Grosjean. In Kovalainen's case everything was wrong. Even the first "normal" pit stop was 2 seconds slower than Grosjeans. What was taking so long guys?

And like I always do at the end of the reviews - Here are the guesses from the preview and the actual results:

Pole position: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull - CORRECT

Race:

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull - CORRECT
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - ONLY WRONG GUESS IN THE TOP3. LH WAS 4TH AND GROSJEAN WAS 2ND.
3. Mark Webber, Red Bull - CORRECT

Fastest lap: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull - CORRECT

Surprise: Heikki Kovalainen seems to be a mystery to many but I believe that he will be higher up than Grosjean. This guy is better than many may think. Keep an eye on him if you haven't already done that.

He has been good in the practice sessions so far and is performing stronger than his teammate.

He performed better in the long runs than Grosjean at the practice sessions but then after that everything started going downhill for the former Caterham pilot. I really hoped that he wouldn't retire from the race and he didn't but the problems that he had were almost the same thing.

The biggest surprise for me was the new speed found in the Williams cars. Unfortunately only Bottas could take advantage of the new setups. Maldonado was held up in the qualifying session by Max Chilton and Esteban Gutierrez. Maldonado's position was 18th when Bottas was 9th.

Maldonado had earlier even complained that Williams has been favoring Bottas and making his (Maldonado's) time there more difficult on purpose.

That is a stupid thing to say because Williams needs every point they can get. Valtteri Bottas said that he is going to fight for some more points next weekend at Interlagos. Let's hope that will happen.

Tomorrow I will post the 2013 Brazilian GP preview which is the last preview of the season.

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.