Pirelli confirm tyre allocation for Mexico City

Announcing their tyre nominations for the final four rounds of the 2015 season, Pirelli have confirmed that their medium and soft compounds will be used for Mexico’s return to the F1 calendar next month.

Pirelli’s simulation data has indicated these will be the best choice for the recently revamped Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, which will host the Formula 1 Gran Premio de Mexico 2015 on November 1.

The same compounds will be used for the preceding race in the United States on October 25, the allocation for the Circuit of The Americas in Austin being unchanged from last season.

The season’s penultimate round in Brazil will also have the medium and soft tyres, as in 2014. These should suit the hot conditions of Interlagos and provide a range of strategy options of between two and three pit stops for most teams.

Finally, Pirelli’s soft and supersoft compounds have been selected for Abu Dhabi: again, the same selection as 2014, on a smooth and varied circuit that the teams know well from previous testing.

At a glance - 2015 tyre compounds:

Australia - soft, medium
Malaysia - hard, medium
China - soft, medium
Bahrain - soft, medium
Spain - medium, hard
Monaco - supersoft, soft
Canada - supersoft, soft
Austria - supersoft, soft
Great Britain – medium, hard
Hungary – soft, medium
Belgium - soft, medium
Italy - soft, medium
Singapore - supersoft, soft
Japan - medium, hard
Russia - supersoft, soft
United States - soft, medium
Mexico - soft, medium
Brazil - soft, medium
Abu Dhabi - supersoft, soft

(source: f1.com)

Winners and Losers - Russia

A second consecutive constructors’ crown for Mercedes and a first 2015 podium for Sergio Perez made them definite winners in Sochi, while technical woes for Nico Rosberg and a late-race mauling for Valtteri Bottas put them among the losers. But what of the rest of the field? We take a team-by-team look back on Sunday’s 2015 Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix…


Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton, P1
Nico Rosberg, Retired lap 7, throttle

Losing Rosberg to a throttle problem on the seventh lap, after he had led confidently from the start, seemed like a serious blow to Mercedes’ hopes of cementing a second consecutive constructors’ world championship. But Hamilton controlled the race even with a rear wing problem which made his F1 W06 Hybrid behave a little oddly in the second half, and enabled Vettel to push him to the finish. It was his ninth win of the season, and brought him equal with Vettel’s career total of 42.

The podium celebrations were over, and Niki Lauda and Toto Wolff had rushed to the airport, when the stewards confirmed the 30s time penalty that dropped Raikkonen from fifth to eighth and took away six points from Ferrari’s score of 28. That meant that Mercedes had scored the three points more than the Scuderia that they needed to put things beyond reach with four races remaining, thus securing the title after all.


Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel, P2
Kimi Raikkonen, P8

After Vettel had won an intra-team battle with Raikkonen he was able to push hard enough to get the overcut on Bottas, whose tyres did not last as long. That set him up to push very hard on the soft tyre and to keep Hamilton honest as the Briton struggled with a rear wing problem. His strong second place lifted him to second in the drivers’ championship, following Rosberg’s misfortune. Raikkonen said he lacked straight-line speed and he spent a lot of time bottled up behind slower cars. His move on Bottas on the final lap was adjudged optimistic by the stewards, who gave him a 30s time penalty that dropped him from a battered fifth to eighth.


Force India

Sergio Perez, P3
Nico Hulkenberg, Retired lap 1, accident

Force India hoped for big things with sixth and seventh on the grid, but it all went wrong when Hulkenberg spun on cold tyres in Turn 2 on the opening lap. An opportunistic pit stop under the safety car on lap 12 set Perez up for a great run, however. The Mexican babied his tyres while keeping ahead of Ricciardo, Bottas and Raikkonen, until he succumbed to the latter pair on the final lap. After they collided, though, he regained a richly deserved podium place.


Williams

Felipe Massa, P4
Valtteri Bottas, P12

Williams so deserved a podium with Bottas, even though he had to pit much earlier from second place than either of the Ferraris which were chasing him. Held up in traffic as a result, he lost second to Vettel and was under heavy threat from Raikkonen right up until the final lap, when the elder Finn crashed into him and took him out. Massa, meanwhile, ran soft tyres at the start and was then flying on the supersofts towards the end, when he clawed his way to fourth after a strong performance. It was some consolation, but not much.


Red Bull

Daniil Kvyat, P5
Daniel Ricciardo, Retired lap 48, suspension

Kvyat thought he got everything out of his Red Bull on his way to a popular fifth in front of his home crowd, while Ricciardo’s was one of the performances of the race as, like Perez, he pitted on the 12th lap and then nursed his tyres all the way through to the 48th lap when he had to stop with suspension problems. Points were definitely on the cards.


Sauber

Felipe Nasr, P6
Marcus Ericsson, Retired lap 1, accident

Like Force India, Sauber lost a car on the opening lap when Ericsson could not avoid the stricken Hulkenberg. But Nasr drove a very strong race to take sixth, and give Sauber some much-needed points that put them even further out of McLaren’s reach.


Lotus

Pastor Maldonado, P7
Romain Grosjean, Retired lap 12, accident

Lotus lost Grosjean early when he got off line on the marbles in Turn 3 and crashed heavily, but fortunately without injury. Maldonado struggled in the latter half after switching the softs on which he had opted to start for the supersofts.


McLaren

Jenson Button, P9
Fernando Alonso, P11

For a while it seemed that McLaren had scored another double points finish, but then Alonso got dropped from 10th to 11th by a five-second penalty for disrespecting track limits in Turn 16. He had been beaten in open warfare by Button, who pushed as hard as he could in a car that was still fodder for any other on the straights.


Toro Rosso

Max Verstappen, P10
Carlos Sainz, Retired lap 46, brakes

Verstappen’s race was compromised right from the get-go when he was the innocent victim of Hulkenberg’s spin. He got tapped into the wall by the rotating Force India, puncturing his left-rear tyre and inflicting damage which hampered him to the finish. But the ray of light was 10th place after Alonso was penalised.

Sainz bravely insisted on racing and was as feisty as ever despite his 46g impact the previous morning. He was in the running for points when his brakes cried enough, and two spins sent him to the pits to retire. Like Bottas, he deserved better.


Marussia

Roberto Merhi, P13
Will Stevens, P14

Yet again Marussia got both cars home, Merhi was happy with his return to the cockpit, but Stevens was annoyed to lose position during the first safety-car period and then to flat-spot his tyres, requiring another stop, after the second.

(source: f1.com)

2015 Russian Grand Prix review

What a race! Did you guys enjoy it? I sure did even though I was disappointed for Valtteri Bottas' sake. He did very well but let's get back to that later. Now it's time to talk about the start!

Almost everybody got an ok start in the front but Kimi Räikkönen got a great start! He overtook both Sebastian Vettel and Bottas as well and got 3rd position. Nico Hulkenberg and Marcus Ericsson crashed into each other which meant that the safety car was deployed right away.

When Nico Rosberg got the information about the safety car in front he slowed down right away and made Lewis Hamilton and Räikkönen almost crash into him. What was that all about?! Stupid move and a big useless risk.

Max Verstappen also managed to get his rear tire smashed and had to pit. On the radio he didn't tell his pit crew right away what had happened or what he think they should do. He just started by saying sorry and coming up with excuses etc. Right there it was clear that we are dealing with a rookie. I mean come on. Focus on the race and save your talking to the end. It should have gone like this: "VES: I have a flat tire, I think I also have damage on the left blaablaablaa so check that out. My car has lost power so what should I do?" Maybe he will learn in the future if his father didn't already teach him.

After the safety car had left the track Bottas overtook Räikkönen right away for 3rd.

On lap 7 Hamilton and Bottas overtook Rosberg because he had something wrong with his throttle pedal. Then all of the drivers overtook him one by one when he tried to get to the pits. He got there eventually and had to retire. The problem was that the pedal stuck to the metal and didn't come up when he lifted his foot. Some car series have pedals with "hooks" so that you are able to lift the pedal manually if it fails. Unfortunately they don't have those in F1.

Then on lap 12 Romain Grosjean lost control of his car and smashed into the wall while trying to catch McLaren's Jenson Button. The safety car was deployed again.

When the race restarted Vettel overtook Räikkönen almost right away just like Bottas had done after the previous safety car. Vettel forced him of track though which was much more dangerous than Bottas' overtaking maneuver. Luckily he didn't crash into his teammate Räikkönen. The Finn complained on the radio that he has lost some speed on the straights. 

Lap 27 was the lap when Williams asked Bottas to pit. They took too long again and Bottas dropped from 2nd to 11th and was now stuck in traffic. Ferrari was smarter and waited for a few laps, and when it was time they also were 1.2 seconds faster than Williams, which made Vettel rice in front of Bottas. I have said a thousand times that Williams is killing Bottas with their slow pit crew and strategists.

Bottas has been with his team since 2011 (racing driver since 2013).

The funniest moment was on lap 34 when McLaren told Fernando Alonso on the radio that he is fighting Felipe Massa till the end. He replied "I love your sense of humor" and I laughed my ass off. Classic moment. I guess Alonso hasn't got any faith in his car yet. He said that they will be a top team next year though. Interesting...

Some people made jokes that Räikkönen was actually Pastor Maldonado dressed up as the Finn.

Let's go back to Bottas who I said we should keep an eye on in my preview. He managed to overtake 8 cars from 11th to 3rd place. The last overtake was on the last lap and he could already taste the podium finish. Then suddenly Räikkönen tried to overtake him with way too much speed and crashed into him. Bottas had to retire and Räikkönen dropped to 5th. He got a 30 second penalty for the crash and dropped to 8th in the final results.

Bottas was absolutely furious! Take a look:

Bottas said on the radio "what the fuck did he do?". Later he told the Finnish media also that he is still "fucking pissed off" and who can blame him?

The most positive thing was that Sergio Perez and Force India got a podium finish due to all this drama. A great day for them! Congratulations for the whole team from us all at F1-4-LIFE!

When they say "in your own language" in the press conference and your language is English #RussianGP #Vettel #Perez #PressConference
Posted by Lewis Hamilton on 11. lokakuuta 2015

The last thing are my predictions and the results:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Thank god I was wrong! It's so boring to see Hamilton on pole in every race. His teammate Rosberg got this pole!

Race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT.
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He retired from the race.
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - WRONG. He was 2nd and Sergio Perez was 3rd.

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Vettel was fastest this time.

Surprise: Keep an eye on Valtteri Bottas! - CORRECT! He did very well and almost got a podium if he hadn't been hit by Räikkönen.

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 AE, JT, MW, MH & JI. 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

2015 PREDICTORS LEAGUE standings after the Russian GP

1. Peter McLaren - 122 points

2. James Redman - 120 points

3. Leonardo Machado - 114 points 

4. Jonathan M Yountz - 109 points

5. Ryan Lane - 102 points

6. Larry Gallagher - 89 points

7. JT (F1-4-LIFE) - 75 points

8. AE (F1-4-LIFE) - 72 points

9. Shaun Magnano - 59 points

10. Rich Kewell - 53 points

11. MW (F1-4-LIFE) - 44 points

12. MH (F1-4-LIFE) - 40 points

13. JI (F1-4-LIFE) - 38 points

14. Tim Saunders - 36 points

15. Elliott Robson - 31 points

16. David Perry - 26 points

17. Dylan Curry - 24 points

18. Daniel Vanderburg - 23 points

18. Archie Donato - 23 points

18. Neil Marchant - 23 points

21. Abijith Kv - 18 points

21. Marcel Kircher - 18 points

23. Yõrt Martö - 13 points

24. Richard Gehl - 10 points

24. Chris Kemp - 10 points

24. Eric Lemens - 10 points

27. Rodrigo Gonzales - 8 points

27. Corey Lea - 8 points

27. Vitor Lobo - 8 points

30. Anthony Brian Ayrton Senna - 6 points

31. Todd Steinberg - 5 points

32. Белмин Aљоски - 3 points

32. Tom Maw - 3 points

32. Haresh Reddy - 3 points

32. Paul Beecham - 3 points

36. Steven Peli - 0 points

36. Daniel Kelleher - 0 points

36. Martin Hubbard - 0 points
36. Sharon Walmsley - 0 points

36. Alexandre Langlois - 0 points

We have had 40 different predictors this season.

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

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. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

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!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW, MH & JI. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

2015 Driver standings after the Russian GP

2015 Constructor standings after the Russian GP

2015 Russian Grand Prix - Race