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Results for 'Expert' F1 2007 Season Predictions

Follow-up to 'Expert' F1 2007 Season Predictions from nathanielho :: blog

Sorry this is over a year late!

I can confirm that the 2007 Winner was Rich! Followed by Paul in second place and myself in third.

2009 Predictions coming soon!

: 22 Mar 2009 17:18 |  Tags: General Motorsport |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

F1 Drivers' Favourite Words

Kovalainen: "maximum"

Alonso: "maximum"

Massa: "for sure" or "I did a great lap"

Montoya: "for sure" and "that's racing!"

Trulli: "for sure"

Heidfeld: "Fewwawis"

Webber: "mate"

DC: "conditions"

Button: "the car's just not fast enough"

Michael Schumacher: "optimum"

Hamilton: "team"

Raikkonen: "I was having a..."

: 14 Sep 2008 15:03 |  Tags: F1 Motorsport |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Race of Champions 2007

The Race of Champions always sounded like an awesome concept. Put the best drivers of different motorsport disciplines in one stadium and pitch them against each other in equal machinery to find out who is the best! The past few years it has been in the Stadt de France, and this year it came to Wembley. So naturally we had to go (plus a few of us were getting the shakes from motorsport withdrawal symptoms during the off season period).

: 20 Dec 2007 21:56 |  Tags: Cars Friends General Motorsport |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

British Grand Prix 2007

I wasn't originally planning on going to the British GP at all until John suggested it. John thought it would be a nice weekend out for the boys. We decided would get a ticket for Paul for his birthday (he's very greatful to all his contributors). Unfortunately, it wasn't the surprise I hoped it would be... and it was all my fault. I had totally lost track of who I could and could not tell, and I made the smooth move telling the birthday boy!

Me (to Paul): "...I was talking to Rich's friend yesterday, turns out he's a F1 fan too and I asked him if he wanted to come to the Grand Prix with us."
Paul: "Huh? What do you mean [going to the Grand Prix]?"
Me: [Expletives]

Saturday

John and Paul went on Friday, to scout the best locations whilst watching Free Practice. We all stayed at Rich's house in Milton Keynes which meant we were very close to the circuit. We set ourselves down at Copse, a corner that I like a lot in a Stockholm syndrome way - it tried to kill me once before. We had contemplated getting a Kangaroo TV, but I thought the big TV right next to us would do just fine. Battling with the wire fence (and the back of people's heads) all weekend, I struggled to get decent pictures. One thing that always strikes you when you've not seen F1 cars in real life for a while is the noise! I'm sure the V10's used to be so powerful it felt like it was changing your heartbeat just from the sound waves.

Qualifying was quite good. I could make out what was going on quite well. Kimi's lap was good and I was surprised he came top despite his wiggle out of Luffield. That was bettered only by Hamilton who had smashed it with a 1min 19.997. The crowd just errupted in jubilation.

We tried to watch the GP2 qualifying after that but we just got bored. Thankfully there were many other things we could do. Like retail therapy: John got himself a nice orange Spyker cap. (Unfortunately, Christijan Albers doesn't drive for them anymore) and Rich got himself a McLaren cap but purposely made sure it wasn't Hamilton version (he thinks he's overhyped).

We popped down the the BMW Sauber Pit Lane Park, which was full of fun activities. Unfortunately we missed the donut making. John and Paul were lucky enough to see Mansell down there on Friday.

Sunday 

We did not want to get out of bed, but we made it there at 6.15am. There were a lot of people around, even the ice-cream vendors were open for business. Down at Copse we'd only managed to get the last row to set up our chairs. Then we all peeled off on walkabouts before the circus show started. As always there was the Red Arrows performance - spectacular aerobatics as usual.

The F1 race was good. Naturally we all expected (as opposed to 'hoped') Hamilton to win. Which unfortunately didn't happen. Kimi Raikkonen won, and once again I felt indifferent - only 12 months ago I would have loved it if he had won, but I dislike red cars more than I like Raikkonen. 

I have never ever seen so many people walk around in the same F1 T-shirt in the same way that football fans do. 100,000 people turned up on Sunday, and I'm sure you could say 50% of them were wearing Vodafone McLaren T-shirts. Amazing. But not as amazing as being able to leave the circuit directly after the race and not hit any traffic! Well done to the organisers. Hopefully Hamilton will win it next year.

Gallery

: 10 Jul 2007 22:33 |  Tags: Cars F1 Motorsport Racing |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Vegi–Curious Motorsport

Follow-up to Vegi–Curious from nathanielho :: blog

Ben Wood puts the Warwick 2006 Formula Student car on a vegetarian diet...

• Runs on E85 - with alcohol extracted from wheat as opposed to nasty sugar cane (therefore less pesticides needed). Will be converted to run on E100.
• More BHP/tonne than a Ferrari Enzo
  
• Biodegradable body
• Biodegradable lubrication oils
• Potato tyres are surprisingly long lasting
  
• The whole car is 90% biodegradeable or recyclable
• Tree-hugging race car that MOVES.

: 29 Apr 2007 14:50 |  Tags: General Motorsport |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Ralf Schumacher Quote

Good article on R Schumacher in F1 Racing this month. They said the problem is that he’s the high and mighty boss man, and therefore if anything’s wrong, its just the car. He’s got Schumacher as a surname, therefore he doesn’t need to adapt his driving style. It must be the car, its always the car.

Ralf Schumacher [talking to Louise Goodman]:

There’s too much understeer [from the car]... I can’t get it set up to my liking.

Martin Brundle:

You’re turning in too early, son!

: 14 Apr 2007 13:48 |  Tags: F1 Motorsport |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Impressed

Look away now if you haven’t seen the GP yet.

That was an impressive performance by McLaren in the Malaysian GP. Its a shame we didn’t see much evidence of Alonso asserting his authority. And of course Hamilton was very good again. When I was impatiently thinking: duck down the outside of the 2 Ferraris at the start into turn 1, he did the kept his head down and did the right thing and stayed on the inside. I was actually expecting him to finish 5th. Would have been a very pleasing result.

Heidi was in very good form. Confirming Paul’s prediction about BMW becoming one of the top teams. The drivers lose 4kg from just sweating in the swealtering Sepang heat. Massa probably cried another 2kg on top of that: Too many schoolboy errors.

And the Honda World F1 car should just stay in the garage if it wants to be green. Save the petrol burning. Its slow, so its going to be at the back anyway. Its the Jaguar R3 nightmare again.

: 08 Apr 2007 10:21 |  Tags: F1 Motorsport |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Programmed to dislike red cars

Last weekend we had just broken up for the Easter holidays. The flat had planned for a while to go to the Corinne Bailey Rae concert at the Birmingham Carling Apollo. The evening was quite pleasant, and everyone had a great time.

After we got back home, the boys stayed up til 5am watching the first race of the Formula 1 2007 season. We’ve been pretty excited for a while, with Schumacher gone it there is a lot of new talent on the grid. With retrospect, it now seems like it was a good time for Schumacher to have retired – unfortunately as a Ferrari Ambassador, he’s been forced to drive ugly Fiat vans on TV adverts – very uncool.

Finally the UK has a hero in the form of Lewis Hamilton. As you can see from our “Expert F1 Predictions” most of us expect Button to not win at all this year. Hamilton would have been impressive even if he came 8th and managed to stay within 0.2secs of Alonso, and I hope he continues to perform well under pressure. He seems to be unfazed by it all which is excellent. (Heikki Kovalainen on the other hand, seemed to make the rookie mistakes, which he is of course more than entitled to do). The race itself was interesting but uneventful, with only Coulthard’s unorthodox overtaking manourve providing some excitment. He decided to park his car on top of Alex Wurz.

Now I’ve always been a Kimi Raikkonen fan. The dude is fast, fearless, and I bet the Top Gear’s Stig is a mould of him. But when he crossed the line first in his Ferrari, I just felt indifferent. However much I like him, I couldn’t like the fact that a red Ferrari had won. The impulse of the latter was stronger. Paul said it was because I’ve been programmed to dislike Ferraris for the last ten years!

: 20 Mar 2007 13:43 |  Tags: Concerts F1 Friends General Motorsport |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

'Expert' F1 2007 Season Predictions

Immortalised forever for public ridicule!

1pt per correct prediction. Lets see how wrong we’ll be…

: 16 Mar 2007 16:52 |  Tags: General Motorsport |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Michael Schumacher's Ferrari Career in Pictures

The Legendary Michael Schumacher Special Portfolio

*Warning: Despite Herr Schumacher being a legend. Anybody who used to love to hate him (such as me) may find excessive picture viewing quite sickening.*

: 19 Dec 2006 12:36 |  Tags: Cars F1 Motorsport Motorsports |  Comments (6) |  Close comments |  Report a problem