Marciello joins Sauber as test and reserve driver

Ferrari protege Raffaele Marciello has joined Sauber as test and reserve driver for the 2015 season, the Swiss team announced on Wednesday.

Marciello, 20, already has prior experience of Formula One machinery, having tested for Ferrari in Abu Dhabi in November.

The Italian will combine his new Sauber duties with a second full season in GP2, in which he won once and claimed four podiums en route to finishing eighth in the 2014 championship.

“I am really pleased to become a member of the Sauber F1 Team, which has a long tradition of building up excellent drivers," Marciello said.

"I really think that this is the best choice for my future career. I am also happy to compete for one more season in the GP2 Series, which, together with my new F1 role, will give me a very busy 2015 season. I want to thank the Ferrari Driver Academy for giving me this important opportunity, and now I really can’t wait to start delivering my best.”

Sauber, who have signed Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr as their race drivers for the 2015 season, said Marciello's role will include select Friday FP1 outings during the year.

“We are pleased to announce Raffaele as our test and reserve driver for the 2015 season," Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn said. "He proved his great talent in junior formulas, and his season in the European Formula 3 Championship with 13 wins and the title victory was particularly impressive. 

"We will give Raffaele the opportunity to become familiar with Formula One, which also includes him taking part in some free practice sessions on Friday. It’s great for our team to be part of his way to Formula One.”

Marciello has been a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy since 2011, when he scored two wins and six podiums in his rookie season in Italian Formula 3. He stepped up into the FIA European F3 championship the following season and was a title contender, before returning and storming to the title in 2013 - success which paved the way for his move into GP2 in 2014.

(source: f1.com)

Happy new year from F1-4-LIFE!

Today I am not talking about F1 I am just simply wishing all of you a happy new year!

This has been a good year for the blog and the Facebook page as well. I hope we will continue to grow to an even bigger F1 community in 2015.

Here are the last three things I wanna say this year:

1. Keep fighting Michael!
2. Keep fighting Jules!
3. Have a happy new year!

-AE

My latest order from DUKEVIDEO

I just ordered this Bluray-disc from dukevideo: 

http://www.dukevideo.com/prd3716N/F1-2014-Review-2-Disc-Blu-ray

I have been ordering tapes and discs from them for years. I highly recommend them and I do not get paid for saying this! :D I really mean it.

I shall make a small review (of the season review) when I have resived and watched it.

Finnish F1 drivers: Mika Salo

I started a series of Finnish F1 drivers earlier this month and I had to stop for a while because my computer broke and most of the stuff I had prepared were lost. Now I will continue with the next Finn after Mika Häkkinen who is the other Mika (Salo).

After a few years racing in Japan he made his first Formula One start at the penultimate round of the 1994 season in Japan for the ailing Lotus team. He was kept on for the season's finale in Australia. Following the collapse of Lotus following the end of the season, Salo moved to Tyrrell for 1995. He was to spend three years with the team, scoring points several times. In the 1997 Monaco Grand Prix he completed the whole (rain-shortened and -slowed) race without refuelling, taking fifth place ahead of the faster Giancarlo Fisichella as a result. Despite a promising 1998 with Arrows, he had no full-time drive in 1999.

Following an injury to BAR driver Ricardo Zonta, Salo took his place for three races whilst the Brazilian recovered. However a greater opportunity arose when Michael Schumacher broke his leg in a crash during the 1999 British Grand Prix. Salo was selected as his substitute to partner Eddie Irvine at Ferrari. In his second race in Ferrari at the 1999 German Grand Prix Salo led for part of the race and would have scored a Grand Prix win but team orders demanded that he give the lead to Irvine, who at the time was fighting for the championship with Mika Häkkinen. Following the race, Irvine handed his victory trophy over to Salo as a gesture of gratitude. He also finished third at Monza, ahead of Irvine.

Salo was back full-time in 2000 with Sauber, taking 11th in the championship, although he left the team at the end of the season to join the new Toyota team in preparation for its Formula One entry in 2002. He scored two points for Toyota in their first season, becoming the first driver since JJ Lehto at the 1993 South African Grand Prix to score points on a team's debut by finishing sixth at the 2002 Australian Grand Prix. He retired from Formula One at the end of 2002, after surprisingly getting fired from Toyota.

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.

My son's other F1 toys

I got a question earlier when I said that my son got another Formula One car for Christmas. It was a request actually asking if I could show a picture or some pictures of the other F1 toys my son has.

He has two more and I think it's probably enough for the moment. I don't wanna force the F1 stuff on him. If he becomes interested of the sport I will buy him more and maybe take him to see or test some karting. I started driving go-karts when I was about 7 years old if I remember correctly. My "teacher" was a Finnish Karting driver Mikael Santavirta and the club I joined was called Micro Monza. It was in Konala, Helsinki. Great memories... Maybe I could show some pictures some day.

But here are the pictures of the toys:

A friend of mine was cleaning his basement and found this. When I was at his place he gave it to me because I am such a F1 freak.

My wife's friend from her office gave our son this because she also knew that I like F1.

If you wanna send my son more toys then feel free to do that! :D

Red Bull retain Buemi as 2015 reserve driver

Red Bull Racing have re-signed Sebastien Buemi as the team’s reserve driver for the 2015 season. It will be the fifth year in the role for Buemi, who was recently crowned FIA World Endurance Champion alongside fellow ex-F1 racer Anthony Davidson.

“I’m very pleased to take on another season as reserve driver at Infiniti Red Bull Racing,” said Buemi. “It is like being part of the family now and I have a good working and personal relationship with everyone at the team. I’m looking forward to helping with the development of the RB11 in any way I can. It should be an exciting season and I’m delighted that I will be a part of it.”

Buemi’s first stint as Red Bull’s test driver came in 2008, when the young Swiss was rising through the junior ranks in preparation for a Formula One career. After three seasons of F1 racing with sister team Toro Rosso from 2009-2011, during which he contested 55 Grands Prix, Buemi returned to Red Bull as reserve in 2012. 

“We are delighted that Sebastien will once again act as our reserve driver,” commented Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. “He’s been closely associated with the team for some years now, we value his skills very highly and we have a great working relationship with him. His experience has proved invaluable over the years and it is great to have another world champion at the team.”

(source: f1.com)