2016 Mexican GP - Drivers Press Conference

2016 Mexican Grand Prix preview

The F1 circus returned to Mexico last year and in my opinion it was a great track. But what happened at the race last year?

The start was good for most of the drivers in the top 10 (no big changes really). Only Sebastian Vettel had a big loss when he got a puncture and had to pit. He dropped to the back of course and had a long way to the front. His teammate Kimi Räikkönen overtook a lot of cars through the race and seemed to do better than Vettel. Until he had a rerun from Sochi with his fellow Finn Valtteri Bottas. This time Kimi was in front and Bottas behind, they collided and Kimi had to retire. Bottas didn't loose any positions like Kimi in Sochi and managed to stay 5th or 4th most of the time. 

Later on Vettel made a weird mistake and went off track into the barriers. Some say that the track wasn't good for Ferrari but I don't believe that. Kimi did better than Vettel in the race even though his car had been broken in many ways through the weekend. I say that the track wasn't good for Vettel (even though he got 3rd in qualifying).

Vettel's mistake brought out the safety car and several drivers pitted right after. Williams did a mistake again by not bringing in Bottas first. Well they did after the rest had pitted but Bottas could have done quicker laps with the new tires earlier. Now he was stuck behind Daniil Kvyat in 4th place. Luckily for Bottas he managed to overtake the Russian right after the safety car left the track and stayed 3rd till the end. So Bottas took back what he might have lost.

In front were the Mercedes drivers as usual but this time it was Nico Rosberg 1st and Lewis Hamilton 2nd. They stayed like that through the race and Lewis didn't really have a chance against Nico and it bugged him after the race. You could clearly see that even though he was already the 2015 world champion. Lewis just likes to win even though the championship was already decided.

Hamilton tried to pull a couple of tricks in the race though. Mercedes asked Rosberg to pit first and when it was Hamilton's turn he didn't pit. He said that he will drive the race till the end with his older tires. His engineer got a bit angry with Hamilton and told him to pit right away because his tires are getting cold by the pit box. Hamilton pitted and demanded to see proof that his pitstop wasn't just Mercedes way of securing a 1-2.

All in all a good race, great track and awesome fans! I loved how they had put the podium at the old baseball stadium so that most of the fans could see everything. I hope Mexico stays in the calendar for many years to come.

Now let's see my predictions for this years grand prix:

Pole position: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes

Race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull

Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes

Surprise: Sergio Perez and Felipe Massa might get good results here

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 and PM. 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

Drivers Report Back After The Race | US Grand Prix 2016

2016 American Grand Prix review

This must have been one of the most boring US Grand Prix's of my life. OK the 2005 race in Indianapolis was worse but just barely. I mean there was some good moments but why can't I really remember anything else than Gerard Butler drinking Red Bull out of Daniel Ricciardo's shoe? I had to watch the race again and made some notes.

First of all at the start we saw Ricciardo go between the Mercs once again which was nice. We also say Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen overtake Red Bull's Max Verstappen which was interesting. We saw a crash with Force India's Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg and Williams' Valtteri Bottas. The Finn dropped to the back and the Hulk had to retire from the race.

One of the most interesting things in the race was Verstappen arguing with his team about pitting earlier. Red Bull told him on the radio that they have to follow the strategy and use the tyres for the amount of laps that they have calculated. Verstappen said that he is not here to finish 4th but ironically he didn't finish the race at all due to some kind of technical faulty with the engine.

Before his retirement we also saw Verstappen pit too soon and surprised his whole team which cost a lot of time. At first I thought that was he pitting earlier because he wanted to or did he really hear his team tell him to pit? That's what Verstappen said on the radio after the pitstop! "Sorry I thought you told me to box" or something like that. I don't know but it was a disaster.

Now Ferrari had a chance take points with both cars when Red Bull only had one car on track (Ricciardo). They had a chance yes but they messed it all up with Räikkönen's pitstop. He got a green light from the team before the right rear tyre was on. He had to retire from the race. Very sad and unfortunate for the Finn because he has been in front of Sebastian Vettel this season in the points and dropped behind him now because of mistakes that he didn't even do. Räikkönen has had a better season than Vettel all together in my opinion.

Nico Rosberg had some luck when he pitted for the last time during the virtual safety car due to Verstappen's retirement. He gained an advantage on Ricciardo and got in front of him. Rosberg drove safely to the checkered flag and took 18 points. This will be enough for him for the last three races if he finishes 2nd in every race. If his teammate Lewis Hamilton wins every race it doesn't even matter because Rosberg will still win the championship. Hamilton must be nervous at this point.

What else? Oh yeah! McLaren had one of the best races after they got Honda engines. Jenson Button was 9th and Fernando Alonso was 5th! Great job guys! You deserve it... and more.

Now let's see my predictions and the results:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

Race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - CORRECT
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull - CORRECT

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Sebastian Vettel clocked the fastest lap at the end of the race.

Surprise: Keep an eye on Nico Hulkenberg. He has been pretty good in Austin with Sauber and Force India. - He retired right after the start so we never really saw his potential.

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 and PM. 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

2016 PREDICTORS LEAGUE standings after the United States GP

1. Larry Gallagher - 182 points

2. James Redman - 144 points

3. AE (F1-4-LIFE) - 121 points

4. PM (F1-4-LIFE) - 119 points

5. Darcy P. Lang - 68 points

6. JT (F1-4-LIFE) - 67 points

7. Leonardo Machado - 63 points

8. Vitor Lobo - 41 points

9. JI (F1-4-LIFE) - 15 points

10. Denis Borges Nastasi - 13 points

11. Dylan Curry - 3 points

(The ones who have not scored points are not on the list)

Come onboard in the next GP if you want to be a part of our league!

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 & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

2016 Driver Standings after the United States GP

2016 Constructors Standings after the United States GP