What a race! Cosmic Baku in action 🎢🍾🏁

I've been thinking quite a lot before publishing this particular blogpost and here are a few reasons why. First of all I used to consider myself as a Mercedes fan. At least in previous posts. But I was so freaking happy to see that same podium on Sunday - so shame on me. Secondly I changed my mind in several ways during that Baku weekend starting from what I think about the "race" in general and finishing with picking my "to go" pilot for future. Aaaaand thirdly, yes, too much happened that weekend. So let me be sequential.

1. Podium

Hello, you, Formula 1 fans, have you been expecting that same podium before the race? Of course you have not. Honestly that has been surprising especially taking into consideration the fact that ABSOLUTELY UNEXPECTED stuff happened to both championship leaders Seb and Lewis. Probably we all have been waiting the battle of those two (which we ACTUALLY saw) maybe pushed by Red Bulls. 

Speaking about Red Bulls personally I expected them to BE in front especially after FP results on Friday but Max was mine "to go", definitely it wasn't Daniel who I expected to win so far.

2. Losers, winners and "underdogs"

That race in Baku actually divided the whole grid into three: losers, winners and "underdogs". Let me explain. It is obvious that F1 world was waiting for Ferrari and Mercedes to fight for the podium before all that crazy stuff happened. If not Seb versus Lewis, then there were options with Kimi and Valterri in action. 

The most unexpected thing in my opinion was Lewis extra pit-stop with team not fixing his headrest and Seb behaving just INADEQUATE clashing into Lewis twice (firstly accidentally and then definitely on purpose) and getting his 10 seconds stop and go punishment. Those I should call "losers" in this race. Unfortunately there were a few more of "losers" here in Baku: Max and his engine problems, Daniil and Jolyon with their early retirements, Felipe with mechanical issues, Kimi and Checo with unfortunate collisions. Did I forget anyone?

By winners here I want to mention those who unexpectedly brought some points to their teams. And the greatest of them was definitely Lance. We can only imagine how much did it mean for him to stand on the podium after a thought start of the season and all the criticism he got. I love saying this but yes I am happy for him gaining some real confidence. Except the podium rookie I should call "winners" those guys Kevin and Pascal finishing in top-10 and bringing points to their teams.

And the last but not the least are those who I personally called "underdogs". OK, they were not real underdogs from the very beginning. But who expected Daniel to win from 10th on the grid and 17th after early pit-stop and Valterri to finish the second after the crush with Kimi and being one lap down? I just wouldn't believe if you said you were.

3. Hamilton versus Vettel

Here we go. This topic has touched nearly everyone. Even those who were not that much into Formula 1 yet. The incident itself was quite normal (if we talking about race, men, speed, emotions). Don't get me wrong but that what could happened with EVERY pilot.

Yes, Lewis probably braked too quick so Seb clashed into him. Was that an accident? I suppose YES. What happened next? Seb went too emotional and hit Lewis. Did he do this on purpose? I am sure that YES. Was that all just emotions? Absolutely YES. He got his penalty and lost the leadership in the race, potential podium, some points. Was the penalty enough? I have no idea, it's all up to jury. Should he said he was at least sorry for unnecessary action? I suppose YES. But he didn't. Why? We'd better ask him. 

From aside it all looked like a completely stupid mistake which Seb did following his emotions and payed for it. Too much or not enough? I think there's no unbiased answer. We'd all love to hear his apologies but probably we won't. 

4. Team tactics

A few races ago (after Monaco) motorsport world was all about that incident happened in Ferrari. We all talked about if there was a team strategy or if there wasn't, if it was needed or if not. But after Azerbaijan I marked one team who definitely needs this "team strategy" thing. Hello, Force India, I'm talking about you.

Do you remember those things happened two weeks ago in Canada? When Esteban asked team to put him in front of Checo to try to overtake Dan and reach the podium. Do you remember what happened next? Checo asked team to let them "race" and Seb overtook them both. Boom! 

Here we are in Baku. What happened to Force Indias here? Yes, they collided. Why? I suppose that Esteban remembering the situation in Montreal (and their sincere talk with Checo after, of course) decided not to wait for team permission and just pushed. Fortunately he survived the race and Checo left. All I can say: KARMA. 

Overall it makes me think of the fact that this team needs to do something. I don't necessarily talk of picking "first" and "second" pilot but the fact that they need strategy considering the pace of each pilot, their tires condition and also opponents in front and behind is obvious. Just because we don't want to see both really good drivers crushing into their teammates every single time and ending the race when they decide to fight with other team for points, podium, whatever. 

5. Epic race

Yes, that was absolutely an epic race. Can you still remember how many crushes, overtakes, yellow flags, safety cars were there? I cannot. The only thing that really matters that all of this gave so much emotions to every person who had seen this. I hope this race not only gave you something to think about but also inspired you to love this sport a lot more.

The fact that it all just couldn't be planned makes me think that this race is the one you should rewatch when you want to see something worthy. Here you could see nearly everything even the "photo finish" from amazing Valterri which made me soooo happy. Famous "shoey" from Australian boy (poor Lance drinking from Daniel's shoe on his very first podium ever). Happiness, frustration, anger, hesitation, luck - EVERYTHING.

To sum it up I want to say that Baku race was so far the best I saw (I haven't seen so many - so even more lucky I am) and it gave me not only chills but the decision who I want to root for after Lewis retirement. And here I picked Esteban Ocon, just because he IS a really good driver. 

Equaling the king: what does it really means to get closer to Ayrton Senna 🇧🇷👑

It has been said so many words so I will be probably too late. But I am here not to talk about well-known facts. I am here to speak about emotions.

23 years ago on the May, 1st. Can you remember this day? Cause I just cannot. I was barely born that time. But I still know the story.

I remember myself falling in love with Formula 1. It happened not quite long ago. I also remember myself watching the documentary with an unknown for me title "Senna" which made me cry for literally 2 hours. Am I mad? No. I am just sincere. If I was born a few decades earlier I am sure the racer I would be rooting for would be Ayrton Senna. Amazing, beautiful, breathtaking, mysterios and quick. Really really quick. 

If you ever ask me who my favorite Formula 1 driver is I will probably ask you if you mean the one alive. Cause I now I have two options.

One more crazy weekend of mine went in Montreal. I mean I wasn’t there physically but my soul was. That Saturday I was sitting in a restaurant with a couple of my friends watching quali on my mobile phone. I literally cried out when Lewis (yes, my favorite racer alive) has beaten the lap record in Canada twice in a row and has finally taken his 65th pole position EQUALING Ayrton Senna. I probably frightened the whole place but that was unbelievable. You know the later story. Ayrton's family made a special gift to Lewis: race-worn helmet of a legend. Replica, yes. He wasn’t racing in it but still he worn it.

By the way, have you seen the record from the press conference while Michael Schumacher equaled Ayrton? He. Was. Crying. That is how you probably feel when you become so close to the legend.

What means even more is that Lewis has always been following Ayrton saying that Brazilial driver was main true inspiration for him. We can only imagine how much that really means to Ham. 

The thing is that probably no one will ever be greater than Senna, equaling him and even beating his records. Of course, there some of the greatest names in Formula 1 as Michael Schumacher, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Gilles Villeneuve, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso. But Senna will always stand out. Not just because he died on the track and not because he was the last one to sacrifice his life to make motorsport safer but because he was very very uncommonly special. He was just not from this world. And we will always adore him for that.

Perfect podium: Mercedes double and a little bit of Red Bull in Canada 🖤🏁

Mondays after the racing weekend are always a little bit sad as long as we have to wait for 11 (am I right?) days until the next racing weekend. But for me not this one. As a super happy Mercedes fan after a comfortable double win I just wanna tell my emotions on the whole race.

First of all, I should mention that there were too absolutely different sides of this race: first one is really calm and steady but still very happy for Lewis and Valterri and maybe Dan (not counting all the pressure) the second one is pretty frustrating and nervous for the rest of the grid. 

I won't talk too much about Lewis and Valterri as long as you will probably tell me to shut up about Mercedes team buuuuuut. The only thing I really want to mention is that from Friday to Sunday Mercedes struggled a lot with the tires temperature and the lap result shown by Lewis TWICE in quali means so much for everyone in love with F1 and the main reason is that the record hadn't been beaten since 2004. Can you imagine? 13 years, that's I think is more than a lot. The fact that this lap made a 65th Lewis' pole possible for him is even more meaningful. Equaling the record of one and only, amazing Ayrton Senna was just beautiful for Lewis. All the supporters just couldn't be happier. And I cannot mention that this double on the podium brought Mercedes back on the 1st place in team competition.

However, it wasn’t that good for the whole grid. Sainz who struggled a lot during Friday training session made a thing Felipe Massa should be so sad about. Hitting Roman Carlos just lost control and still at enormous speed hit Felipe who just was quite unlucky to be on that place at that very moment. Massa without understanding anything at all left young and rich (why should I mention this?) Lance the only Williams pilot in his first home race. Here I should say that EVERYONE, I'll repeat EVERYONE expected Lance to hit the Champions wall on his first lap and be out almost after 1 minute after he started. But NO WAY! This is what we all should be proud of. Lance not even finished the race but gained his first points this season being the 9th under the black and white flag.

Next thing that made me and probably some other neutral to Red Bull team people literally CRY. Max with his great great start was the second but had some kind of engine problems and was out of the race from the SECOND place. Thanks to Dan finishing on the podium and doing his shoeye thing though.

The whole Red Bull family except Dan was quite unlucky this weekend as long as FIA decided to punish Toro Rosso pilot Daniil twice in a row firstly making him go through the pit-lane and lately deciding on giving 10 extra seconds to his pit-stop which made him loose all positions gained. Unfortunately something bad happened to his wheel while pitting so he just couldn’t continue the race in case he already was too laps behind everyone. After the race Daniil would say in Russian: "FIA thinks we are fucking taxi drivers". Well, we cannot argue that the blame is on the jury that time. 

Unlike Toro Rosso united around injustice, Force India on the contrary has been divided into two. Before describing the whole situation I must say that personally for me Esteban IS the driver of the day since this was his first race ever on this track in real life and he WAS able to take the podium. I am just sure. Lap 50 (or something). The grid was like: HAM, BOT, RIC, PER, OCO, RAI, VET. Ocon's radio was on. Esteban asked for the chance to overtake Ricciardo switching with his partner Checo. Esteban's pace on newer tires was definitely better that Checo's. Both were in DRS-zone from their opponents. Checo's radio on with him saying: "I also want to try to overtake Dan, can you just give us the chance to race?" OKAAAAAY. How the hell he was going to overtake Dan first of all? And why he didn’t agree to switch with Ocon to give him a chance and not to give a chance to Seb to overtake both of them? The team offered this option. The most unfair thing is that they didn’t MAKE Scheco to give a chance to Esteban. That's the deal. I just couldn’t believe such decisions. I mean the lack of team's decisions.

And the last but not the least significant thing is Ferrari drivers losing so many points in this race. Some things about that are still very confusing. Not chanching the wing during the pace car is just first of them. Voting Seb the racer of the weekend? Okay, yes, he started the second, lost to Max, hell knows why pitted twice, went to the end of the grid and made it to the 4th place mostly because Checo was just mad. Do you really think he was the best? Personally I don’t. Nothing to say about Kimi really that time. The saddest moment is again his position where he HAD to let Seb in front and got some really bad problems after.

Well done, I hope you all liked the race as much as I did. It gave us a lot to think about and was really diverse in tactics and some other moments. See you soon, Formula 1 lovers. Azerbaijan, the land of mystery is coming.

Kimi under decision and Mercedes out of the podium in Monaco 🏎🏁

Well, lets begin with the fact I'm not Kimi fan as well as I'm not Ferrari fan at all. But Sunday Monaco's race made me so emotional on Kimi finishing the second and standing there on the podium with literally NO face that I decided on writing this and not how much I'm sad considering the fact that my Mercedes boys didn't see the podium this time. 

Okay, first of all I wanna say that quali went great for both Kimi and Seb as all the ones (3) I saw. And yes for numerous Kimi fans around the world starting from pole position for the first time since 2008 meant a lot. Anyway Saturday made me feel like hell after Vandorne crush and yellow flags on made Lewis finish at only Q2 (for the first time since 2008) and of course I (even knowing so little about Monaco GPs yet) understood that no win for him is coming. Especially on this track. But was quite happy for Valterri starting from the third place as far as I kept in mind his fenomenal start in Sochi 4 weeks ago. So I hoped. But no, not in Monaco. 

Before I say what I truly wanted to say I should mention that I really like both Seb and Kimi as human beings but the hysteria of everyone around me wanting Kimi to win has influenced my feelings alot. 

I can totally understand the Ferrari strategy in this particular race. Even the fact that they will always put Seb in front of Kimi considering the team's interests and the personal table where Seb is above Lewis after those six races. 

We always talk about Valterri's place in Mercedes comparing to Lewis and so on... But have never debated the fact that where we can definitely see the 1st and 2nd pilots IS Ferrari. So. Yes I do understand this. But isn't it just unfair for Kimi to trust his team in pit-stop timings, questions of using the tires and at the end of the day getting THIS?! Did you see his face during the podium thing? Did you hear how devastated he was during interview with Nico after all? Okay, congrats to Seb, happy for Ferrari winning here for first time for 16 years but couldn't they (I mean Ferrari) give Kimi and Seb the fair chance to fight and attach but not this "pit-game". 

Following the team interests we could see that no. After the race Seb would say: "The plan was that the first pilot will go to the pit first". First goes first. Easy strategy, right? But wasn't that obvious that Kimi WOULD be the first considering the track in Monaco. Please, if you think I'm mistaken go and listen to Kimi's interview after the race. Sad. Really really sad. 

Overall that race made feel so nasty if I can say like this since I've heard Max' reaction on Dani in front of him. THIS WAS NOT REDBULL STRATEGY. This was Dani's decision using both Max and Valterri pit stops to push. But what we've heard?! Have we ever heard this from anyone in Mercedes this season? Correct me if I'm wrong. I was also so unhappy on Checo being rude to someone not letting him in front and so on. Many small and dirty situations after which they will post cute photos together. But that is no help. With no personal attitude to Red Bull drivers I must say this was not great of Max. 

Here I will put my little thought as a girl rooting for Mercedes (never seeing Rosberg on the track by the way). No matter if Lewis is my favorite driver I'm rooting for the whole team. Not just because the cars are great to win but because of the culture inside and no accidents like today. In contrary Lewis starting on the 13th position said: "I hope Valterri WILL have a good race". Come on guys. This is how it should be.

The last thing I should mention is how much emotional this race made me feel in a bad way. Of course Pascal crushing and no radio for viewers at that very moment. I literally started crying remembering all the health problems he went through to make it to this season. Thanks GOD he is okay. 

So thanks to Dani for being on the podium (I told you I bring luck to the chosen ones), thanks Jason for being back (it does not matter that I never saw him racing before so I got a chance). Thanks to those who finished and Checo for the new lap record. Sad for Daniil after the episode with Checo again and other guys who were off during all the accidents. Sad for Force India this weekend cause I sympathized both guys so much. And thanks Monaco for being both beautiful and disgusting track during my first steps in Motorsport.

See you soon. I mean less than in two weeks. Canada's coming.