Today there will be no post. If you are wondering why, it is because F1 driver Jules Bianchi died 3 days ago after a Crash at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix. He was in a coma for nine months. I ask you to pay respects to him and never forget how dangerous F1 can be.
Hello F1 fans! Welcome to my Flashback Fridays post. It is when I write about great F1 races from the past. Today we will be looking at the 1993 European Grand Prix.
It was only the third race of the season and it looked like Williams would dominate. Just like last year. In fact, for this race, it was a Williams front row. The pole sitter, Alan Prost had out qualified the cars on the second row (Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna) by one and a half seconds.
The race started in rainy conditions. At the start of the race, Senna lost a place, dropping him to fifth. That did not matter to him at all. By the end of the first lap he was in first place!
There was a little bit of drama when Karl Wendlinger, the driver who passed Senna at the start had a collision on the first lap. A little further into the race, the track got drier and most of the drivers changed to dry weather tyres.
But soon it rained again! Michael Schumacher spun off because of the sudden rainfall. This also caused most of the front runners to change back to wet weather tyres. But not Senna. He made the right decision, because it dried up again! This caused the Williams drivers to change tyres again! By the end of the race Alan Prost had made 7 pitstops! He recovered to finish third after Rubens Barrichello retired from the race.
After that Senna ran away with the race to win by over a minute over Damon Hill. Alan Prost finished third despite pitting 7 times. It is one thing to win in the best car. To win in a car that is nowhere its opennent’s cars is something only the true champions can achieve. This is another example that shows that he is the best racing driver that ever lived. It was truly a great and entertaining race. Bye!
Fact of the day: Ayrton Senna set the fastest lap o the race even though he drove into the pit lane on that lap!
Hello F1 fans! Welcome to another post! Today we will be talking about an unforgettable rivalry. Alan Prost and Ayrton Senna. It is said to be the biggest rivalry in Formula One history. They won 7 championships combined.
Prost: left Senna: Right
In the 1988 Formula 1 season, they were teammates in McLaren. At the beginning of the season, Prost welcomed Senna. However, their relationship crumbled after the 1988 Portuguese Grand Prix, when Prost accused Senna of forcing him into the wall.
At the end of the season, Senna narrowly won the world championship at the Japanese Grand Prix. Together, they dominated the whole season. Senna won 8 races and Prost won 7. From then on, they barely had any relationship. They wanted to destroy each other on the race track.
The 1989 season was similar to the season before, with McLaren dominating. Now they never spoke to each other. There was a lot of tension between them. At the Japanese Grand Prix it was Senna on 60 points, Prost 76 points. Senna had to win the race to keep the season alive to the last race in Australia.
Senna was on pole position, Prost was second on the grid. At the start of the race, Prost made a better start and led into the first corner. It stayed like that until lap 46 when Senna tried a passing maneuver on Prost, but ended up colliding with him. Senna’s car survived the crash, but was disqualified for getting a push from the marshals to start his engine again. In the end, Prost won the world championship.
Hello F1 fans! Welcome to my latest Flashback Fridays post. It is when I look back at great F1 races from the past. Today we will be looking back at the 1988 Japanese Grand Prix.
It was Ayrton Senna’s childhood dream to win a Formula One World Championship. He had visualized what it would be like ever since he was 4 years old. Now was his best chance yet.
Senna was on pole position. Behind him was championship rival Alan Prost. At the start of the race, Senna stalled his Mclaren which dropped him to sixteenth place. However Senna’s extreme determination motivated him to drive better than he ever had before. By the second lap he was back to ninth place. After the drivers had completed the fourth lap Senna was in fourth place!
However, Prost in first place was still ahead by a comfortable margin over Senna. Then his favorite thing happened: it stared to rain. Senna would have to drive like mad to catch him. That is what he did. Near the end of the race he passed Prost while he was delayed with traffic from the lapped cars.
At the end of the race, Senna did just enough to win his first of 3 championships in Formula One. I honestly think he was the best driver to ever race in F1. His commitment to winning was way bigger than any other F1 driver.
It was so sad he died. At least he died doing what he loved most: Formula One.
I hope you enjoyed my post and I will see you on Sunday. Bye!
Fact of the day: Michael Schumacher is the best F1 driver statistically with 91 wins and 7 world titles.
Hello F1 fans! Yesterday was the 2015 British Grand Prix. It was full of surprises especially near the end of the race when it started to rain. Also when Felipe Massa made a great start passing both Mercedes. The crowd was one of the loudest F1 crowds I have ever scene. Every time Lewis Hamilton made a good pass, the crowd went wild.
On pole position was Lewis Hamilton. Second on the grid was Nico Rosberg. The second row was occupied by the two Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa. They impressively out-qualified the two Ferraris, who are usually third and fourth on the grid. When the race started the two Mercedes had a terrible start while Felipe Massa and Valterri Bottas both made great starts.
Hamilton managed to pass both Williams, while Rosberg did not get past them until lap 36 out of 52. The Ferraris were no where near the pace of the top 4 cars. Throughout the whole race, everyone feared it was going to rain. That is exactly what happened. It caused a lot of confusion. I did not care because it was fun to watch. Some teams thought it would rain in 5 minutes, some people thought it would be very light. Even some teams thought the rain would not come at all! Kimi Raikkonen put on the wet weather tyres too early. When the rain came his tyres were already ripped to shreds!
On the other hand, Sebastian Vettel made a pit-stop at the perfect time. For most of the race he was alone in sixth, but at the end of the race he found himself on the podium in third place! This shows how the race can be won or lost in the pits. In the end Hamilton won his home grand prix, Rosberg was second and Vettel was third. It was the sixth time this season the drivers have been on the podium together.
I hope you enjoyed my post and I will write a post next Friday for another F1 flashback. Bye!
Fact of the day: Maggots corner is one of the fastest corners in the world with cars reaching speeds of up to 290 kph! Almost as fast as the Porche 911 turbo! And it is on a corner!
Hello F1 fans! Welcome to my Flashback Fridays post. In case you don’t know, Flashback Fridays is when I write about great F1 races from the past. Today we will be looking at the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix. The 1976 Formula One Season was a duel between James Hunt and Niki Lauda. They were both equally fast but had very different personalities. Lauda was the smart technical driver while Hunt partied as hard as he drove. 7 weeks before this race, Lauda had a terrible accident at the German Grand Prix. The crash caused him to miss the Austrian and Dutch Grand Prix.
Hunt: left Lauda: right
The race was staged in terrible conditions with heavy rain. As the race started the spray produced by the cars reduced visibility. This caused Niki Lauda to retire from the race. I think the reason why he retired is because the bad crash he had in Germany was in similar conditions. He was not ready to take the risk. Lots of cars spun and crashed. It was like driving on an ice rink. Only 11 out of 27 cars managed to finish.
However, as the race progressed, the track got drier. This caused James Hunt’s wet weather tyres to overheat which forced him to pit. After a slightly slow pitstop, he found himself in fifth place. He needed to finish third or better to win the Championship. With 6 laps to go, James Hunt made his charge for the title. Everyone Thought it was over. However, he soon proved everyone wrong by passing Alan Jones and Clay Regazzoni to win the Championship by only one point.
I hope you enjoy my post and I will see you tomorrow for the British Grand Prix. Bye!
Fact of the day: Niki Lauda holds the record for the most years between Championships. He won Championships 7 years apart in 1977 and 1984.
Hello F1 fans! Welcome to my Flashback Fridays post. Every Friday I look back at great F1 races from the past. Today we will be looking at the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix. Williams Driver Nigel Mansell had dominated the first 5 races of the season and was doing the same in this race. He was 30 seconds ahead of second place Ayrton Senna with 7 laps to go. As Mansell was entering the tunnel, he punctured his left rear tyre which forced him to pit. When he came out, he found himself in second place 7 seconds behind Senna. Though it did not take him long to catch up to Senna. For 3 laps Mansell tried everything to get past him. Even this was not enough to get past the 3 time world champion. In the end Senna won by only 2 tenths of a second.
Hello F1 fans! Welcome to part 2 of my post called Saturday Qualifying. This was when all the cars were getting timed to determine the grid positions for each car. I was really excited because it was about 2 years since I last went to a race. I really wanted to hear the sound of the new hybrid F1 cars. The truth is, they weren’t very loud like the last few years. I hope in future years they are louder.
Here is a view from my grandstand.
I was very surprised because my favorite driver, Sebastian Vettel was out in the first qualifying session! It is weird because every time I come to a race he never does well. I did not know he was out, until after qualifying when they announced it on the big screen. However, I did not let that ruin my weekend. Happily Sebastian drove one of his best races despite qualifying eighteenth.
Hamilton had pole position with a time of 1:14.393 and Rosberg close behind with a time of 1:14.702 setting up a great race for Sunday.
I hope you enjoyed my post and look forward to my next post: My F1 Experience as a Ten Year Old Part 3: The Race.
Bye!
Fact of the day: If you heard one of the engineers tell the drivers ‘lift and coast’ that means step off the gas pedal before breaking. This saves fuel.
Note: I will be making a new post day called Flashback Fridays. So be on the lookout of posts coming on Fridays!
Hello F1 fans. I recently wen’t to the Montreal Grand Prix. Exactly 7 years after I attended the same race as a 3 year old. So here is: My F1 Experience as a Ten Year Old!
On Thursday I got access to a pit walk. So I could see all the mechanics work on the cars and I was even able to get an interview with a few of them.
These are the two Tyre compounds available for the event. The red ones are called the Super-Soft Tyre or the Option Tyre. The advantage of this tyre is it is very fast and has a lot of grip but is not very durable. The yellow tyre is called the Soft Tyre or Prime Tyre. The advantage of the Soft Tyre is it is slightly more durable than the Super-Soft but is slower and less grippy. Which would you choose?
Here is an interview with one of the team members.
NOTE: There is also a Medium Tyre in F1. However, the tyre company decided not to bring it to the event.
This is where all the technical stuff goes on. For example the times, car information and all the things that separates first place from second place.
Hey guys! Just want too tell you that my goal is to have 1000 viewers in the month of June. Hope we make it!
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