F1 Treasures XIII

I said that I was going to visit some other Finnish flea markets this week and this is what I found. Not entirely F1 stuff but every item has something F1 related in it.

I have talked earlier about "Ruutulippu" but if you don't remember or haven't read about it then here's a few words about it:

Ruutulippu means checkered flag in Finnish and it's a TV program in Finland. They also publish a book every year about Finnish motorsports. Every year there's a lot about F1 but in the early 90's it was more about Rally because Finland's Juha Kankkunen did quite well back then. He won 4 world championships.

Here's the first book. Juha Kankkunen on the cover and this is from 1993. It cost only 3 euro and late I noticed that there's Juha Kankkunen's autograph on the cover!! WOW!!

The second book is from 2010 and it was 1 euro.

Inside the book there was a DVD. The disc has various nostalgic moments from the TV show.

The third book is also from 2010 but it is another version of the previous book. This book was given only to VM (Vauhdinmaailma = The world of speed) subscribers. This also cost me only 1 euro.

I thought that people wouldn't be interested of these kind of posts so I stopped doing these. Later I got feedback from none Finnish readers asking me to do more of these. I understand that it might be interesting to know more about Finnish motorsport culture so this is probably why some of you wanted more.

Next time when I go to a flea market I will definitely look for more F1 stuff. I'll keep you posted if I find anything.

The Front Line Full Documentary

I am uploading this again because the previous video was erased from YouTube. Enjoy!

F1 Treasures XII

Today I went to a few second hand stores and found a Mika Häkkinen book. I actually have this as an "audio book" on CD but this real book cost me only 1 euro so why not?

The book is about Mika's life after F1 and that he almost returned to the sport. I like the book.

Then I found a Formula One car for my son... OK! it was for me!

Then I got some more Lotus deodorant from Lidl and they were 2,50 each.

That's it for today. I will check out more flea markets and second hand stores this week for more F1 stuff. I'll get back to you guys tomorrow!

Comparing the 2015 teammates: Force India

Force India has decided to stick with the same drivers as in 2014 and they are a good pair in my opinion.

Hülkenberg has always been a good driver and in my opinion he is one of the best drivers in Formula One. Perez on the other hand is a driver who is a bit off sometimes but is capable of scoring some very good points for him and his team. Perez was good at Sauber but at McLaren he couldn't beat his world champion teammate Jenson Button. Last year he got a podium but lost to Hülkenberg in points.

The comparing starts here and I will begin with Sergio Perez. First the year, then the former teammate and how the season went.

2011 - Kamui Kobayashi. Perez started his career with a very good and hungry teammate. Kobayashi was said to be a rising star but for some reason he isn't driving in F1 anymore.
The first season in F1 wasn't that good for Perez. Kobayashi got double the amount of points than Perez. Sauber was also a very weak team that year which didn't really give him a chance to show any skills.

2012 - Kamui Kobayashi. This time the Sauber was working much better than the year before and even Perez was driving better. He won Kobayashi with 6 points (66-60) and even got three podium finishes. The 2012 Malaysian GP was the best race ever for Perez. He almost won the race but got second place in the end fighting with the two time world champion Fernando Alonso. People were talking that Perez was going to replace Massa at Ferrari. In the end Perez got a contract with McLaren after Lewis Hamilton wanted to leave.

2013 - Jenson Button. Now it was time for Perez to show his real potential but he failed. Jenson Button was not an easy man to beat. Perez lost 73-49 in points and lost also his seat at McLaren to the newbie Kevin Magnussen. Not a good year for McLaren and not for Perez either. 

2014 - Nico Hülkenberg. I will talk about him when I have compared his teammates first.

Let's take a look at the German superstar Nico Hülkenberg. Some say that if Kimi Räikkönen would have stayed with Lotus Hülkenberg would have joined Ferrari for sure.

2010 - Rubens Barrichello. The only season that Hülkenberg has lost to his teammate. As a rookie he got only half of the points that Barrichello got. But then on the other hand Hülkenberg retired twice more than Barrichello. The young rookie from Germany also shocked everybody by taking pole position in Brazil with a car that wasn't good enough for that.

2011 - This year he lost his seat when Williams needed a pay driver and signed Pastor Maldonado. Hülkenberg would have gotten a seat for sure in another team but Williams notified him so late that all of the seats were already taken.

2012 - Paul di Resta. Hülkenberg was back again and showed his teammate who's boss with the points 63-46. Hülkenberg was now a driver that every team was keeping an eye on. McLaren could have signed him for 2013 but thought that his 2014 teammate (Sergio Perez) was a better choice. An interesting question was in the air: If they would have signed Hülkenberg instead of Perez would they have signed Magnussen for 2014? We will never know and only wonder.

2013 - Esteban Gutierrez. This was a pretty obvious victory for Hülkenberg because he got over 8 times more points than his teammate. The points were 51-6! What a difference! Sauber were happy enough to keep him for one more season though. Hülkenberg was good enough to say that he wasn't happy with the car and returned to Force India who were glad to take him back.

2014 - Sergio Perez. He got Force India's first podium since 2009 but Hülkenberg won him in points and being more consistent. 

If I would take a guess I would say that Perez will lose this time too because "the Hulk" is a very tough teammate to beat.

Comparing the 2015 drivers: Williams

Today we shall talk about the two Williams drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa. 

Valtteri Bottas has been with the team for a few years. First he was the test driver / reserve driver and then for the past two years he has been one of the racing drivers. 

Felipe Massa joined Williams before last season so he should be used to the team by now.

OK guys.. 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.

2014 - Valtteri Bottas. I'll talk about him after I have compared Valtteri's previous teammates.

Here we go! It's Valtteri Bottas' turn. The list is very short because he has driven only two season's in Formula One (as a racing driver).

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.

2014 - Felipe Massa. He was also expected to be better than Bottas but he wasn't. He drove better than he did at Ferrari but it wasn't enough against Bottas. The points were 186-134 between them and Bottas took six podiums and Massa "only" three.

Last year I said: "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". I was right and I am sure that he will beat Massa this year also. I like Massa but he has to do better in 2015 to beat Bottas. He is very though.

Comparing the 2015 teammates: Lotus

Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado side by side and head to head again. Some say it will be a disaster and some say that these two guys can bring a lot of points to Lotus in 2015. Personally I think that Grosjean will be better than his teammate even though Maldonado is a race winner.

Let's begin comparing! I'll start with Romain Grosjean. First I will write the year and then the teammate and how it went.

2009 - Fernando Alonso. Grosjean replaced Nelson Piquet Jr. because Flavio Briatore wasn't satisfied with his results. Grosjean on the other hand didn't do that much better. He had even worse results and didn't get a seat for 2010. Alonso won him in every race he finished.

2012 - Kimi Räikkönen. Grosjean got a second chance and was now better than in 2009. He had just won the GP2 series and was hungry for good results. But unfortunately for Grosjean's sake Kimi Räikkönen mopped the floor with him. Grosjean got 96 points and Räikkönen 207. Over twice the amount more than Grosjean. Only Alonso and Räikkönen got twice as much as their teammates in 2012. Was it because they were so good or because their teammates were just that bad? You be the judge.

2013 - Kimi Räikkönen and Heikki Kovalainen. Kovalainen drove in two races but it was pretty clear that he was a bit rusty or he had very bad luck. Grosjean won Kovalainen in the first race but in the second he retired. Räikkönen on the other hand won Grosjean in 11 races and would have won more but retired twice and didn't race in the last two races. Even though Räikkönen was again better it didn't mean that Grosjean had a bad season. Compared to 2012 it was a great year and he got better all the time. I wish him well and good luck.

2014 - Pastor Maldonado. I will compare these two when I have gone through Maldonado's teammates.

Then Pastor Maldonado...

2011 - Rubens Barrichello. Maldonado lost because he got 1 point and Barrichello got 4. Not a good year for Williams.

2012 - Bruno Senna. The only time that Maldonado actually was better than his teammate. He even won a race for Williams so 2012 was much better for them.

2013 - Valtteri Bottas. 2011 all over again but this time he lost to a rookie. 4 points to Bottas and only 1 to Maldonado. He stated to the media that even though he lost to Bottas it was his best season ever. He made it very clear that Bottas is not a regular rookie but a professional with just a little experience.

2014 - Romain Grosjean. Maldonado lost to his teammate 8-2 in points and we could also see clearly that Grosjean is nowadays a pretty good driver. Maldonado on the other hand is driving like an amateur. I don't know what has happened to him but he used to be much better. I am pretty sure that Grosjean will be better than Maldonado in 2015.

If you have any questions about the 2015 season's teammates or anything else then sen me a message to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or comment.

First impressions - team by team testing analysis from Jerez

After an intense period of development, a new crop of Formula One cars made their highly anticipated on-track debuts at Jerez this week. 

From rookie debuts to surprise performances, and from reliability issues to promising early pace, we take a team-by-team look at all of the action from an intriguing opening session in Spain… 

Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen, 1m 20.841s, 200 laps
Sebastian Vettel, 1m 20.984s, 149 laps
Taken in isolation, Ferrari had the best of Jerez: fastest on three of the four days, they also emerged with the two quickest times and the fourth highest lap total.

However, there are obvious notes of caution - Kimi Raikkonen was fastest on the opening day of testing last year, for example, but that turned out to be a prelude to the team’s worst season for more than two decades. But Raikkonen himself summed up the new optimistic mood at Ferrari, saying the SF15-T was “definitely an improvement” on last year’s F14 T and talking of progress in every department. New team mate Vettel was similarly happy with the Scuderia’s early headway.

Such verdicts will certainly be welcome for the Italian team after the low of 2014 - and ultimately mean more than the Finn’s outright best time, which came on Pirelli’s soft rubber. Ferrari are certainly not getting carried away, even hinting at the likelihood of Mercedes still being the benchmark. But after a winter of discontent, the hope is that real progress has been made, and that they can reign in some of Mercedes’ advantage. On both fronts, Jerez offered cause for optimism.

Sauber
Felipe Nasr, 1m 21.545s, 197 laps
Marcus Ericsson, 1m 22.019s, 185 laps
Sauber arrived at the year’s first test with a neatly packaged new car, a distinctive new colour scheme and an all-new driver line-up. They left with some headline-grabbing times and a renewed sense of hope, having gone some way towards banishing the memories of a torrid 2014 campaign.  

But whilst the C34 seems to be a significant improvement on the troublesome C33 - thanks in part to improvements made by Ferrari in the power unit department - few people expect Sauber to be quite so high up the timesheets when the real racing begins. 

The Swiss team have shied away from the notion that they were doing low-fuel ‘glory runs’, though it must be said that Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson both set their best times on the softer rubber. But take nothing away from Sauber - all the early signs point to them moving firmly in the right direction. 

Mercedes
Nico Rosberg, 1m 21.982s, 308 laps
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 22.172s, 208 laps
They might not have set any headline lap times over four days at Jerez, but there was no concealing the fact Mercedes remain the class of the field.

The team focused almost exclusively on reliability, which proved their only Achilles’ heel in an otherwise totally dominant campaign last year. The results were emphatic, as Rosberg and Hamilton racked up a staggering 516 laps in total. No other team broke 400.

More important was how Mercedes focused their run plans. Where other teams alternated fast laps with ‘charge’ laps - to get full power in their ERS - Mercedes’ preference was for long runs with little fluctuation between laps. The length of these runs suggested the team were using heavy fuel loads; the unerring consistency suggested that performance was very low down on the priority list.

So while other teams may have gone faster, Mercedes went further and learned more - and all while already having the best platform on which to base their 2015 car. An ominous start then - at least as far as their rivals are concerned...

Williams
Felipe Massa, 1m 22.276s, 144 laps
Valtteri Bottas, 1m 22.319s, 134 laps
One of the bedrocks of Williams’ resurgent 2014 campaign was a trouble-free pre-season, and the Grove-based team made a similarly strong start in Jerez. Between them Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa completed 278 laps, and though they never cracked the top end of the timing sheets, there was a clear sense that Williams, like rivals Mercedes, were keeping their powder dry. 

Williams are being understandably coy about their chances in 2015, but chief test and support engineer Rod Nelson admitted the team were ‘very happy’ with the evolutionary FW37’s first runs in Spain, describing the new car as a ‘reliable package that is straight forward to work with.’

Massa and Bottas were similarly pleased with the new machine’s potential, the former describing the FW37 as ‘another step forward from where we left the FW36’. The team thus head to the second pre-season test in Barcelona quietly confident, safe in the knowledge that there’s still much more performance to come from the new car.

Toro Rosso
Max Verstappen, 1m 22.553s, 170 laps
Carlos Sainz Junior, 1m 23.187s, 183 laps
With two rookies making up the youngest driver pairing in Formula One history, mileage was the key requirement for Toro Rosso at Jerez. Both Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr delivered on that front, as Toro Rosso clocked up more laps than any team other than Mercedes and Sauber.

The four days were therefore an exercise in the solid rather than the spectacular, but even so team principal Franz Tost saw enough to be encouraged about the team’s prospects.

“We had four profitable days testing, during which both our drivers managed to complete a high mileage,” he reflected. “That meant we were able to learn a lot about our car. If the team and drivers can keep this momentum going in the remaining two tests, then we will be very well prepared by the time we get to the first race of the season in Melbourne.”

That said, the test wasn’t without issues, including concerns about power unit reliability. Only when the Renault unit is running at maximum will we know if Toro Rosso can match their bullish pre-season target of finishing fifth in 2015.

Lotus
Pastor Maldonado, 1m 22.713s, 137 laps
Romain Grosjean, 1m 23.802s, 53 laps
Lotus arrived at Jerez hoping to extinguish memories of a dismal 2014, and while the car was one day late, the following three days hinted that major strides have been made.

For starters, the switch from Renault to Mercedes power appeared to pay dividends. A total of 190 laps spoke volumes for the reliability of the new system - which was particularly welcome given the team achieved just 111 laps in total over the first eight days of the 2014 pre-season.

“The team has made very good progress if you consider where we were this time last year,” was Romain Grosjean’s verdict. “Both the power unit and the chassis are going in the right direction. It’s a very good start and I’m a happy driver.”

It is too early to say just how competitive Lotus can be, of course. But where last year the team were listless, now they have a clear sense of progress and direction - and optimism is flowing as a result.

Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo, 1m 23.338s, 84 laps 
Daniil Kvyat, 1m 23.975s, 82 laps
Twelve months ago Red Bull endured a catastrophic start to what would ultimately prove to be an enormously challenging pre-season test programme. In context, this year’s beginning was considerably more positive, even if a variety of technical niggles prevented the Milton Keynes team from completing as many laps with the RB11 as they would have liked.  

“We did lose track time over the four days and that’s always frustrating, as you inevitably have to scratch some things off the ‘to do’ list, but the major items were covered so I would say we’re leaving Jerez in pretty decent shape,” commented Red Bull’s head of race engineering Guillaume Rocquelin.

Having encountered ERS and battery issues, it remains to be seen as to whether Renault have indeed made the big step forward with their power unit that Red Bull crave. What’s certainly true is that having focused exclusively on medium and long runs in Jerez, there’s plenty more speed to come from the package.  

McLaren
Jenson Button, 1m 27.660s, 41 laps
Fernando Alonso, 1m 35.553s, 38 laps
With a brand-new car and power unit combination to bed in, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button quite rightly predicted a steep learning curve ahead of the Jerez test - and that’s exactly what they got. Together the duo managed just 79 laps and a handful of unrepresentative lap times as McLaren and new power unit supplier Honda ran into early teething problems. 

“We’d anticipated there would be issues - this is a test, after all,” said Honda motorsport chief Yasuhisa Arai, “but the difficulties we faced here were more than we’d expected, so we weren’t able to get the running time we’d ideally wanted.” 

But despite the obvious frustrations of spending more time in the garage than out on the race track, it wasn’t all bad news for the revived combination. McLaren say that they were able to ascertain that the main car architecture worked as planned, and they also managed to do a reasonable amount of encouraging aero work.  

Clearly, there’s an enormous mountain to climb between now and the first race to bring McLaren up to a decent competitive level, but Arai insists that spirits inside the squad remain high: “There’s now an incredible amount of positivity within the organisation,” he commented. “We’ll return to the track in Barcelona - with some modifications - and will be stronger at the next two tests.”

(source: f1.com)