Calm Montmelo or how to make the tyres slightly thinner 🏎🚦🇪🇸

It is time to speak about Montmelo, my dear friends. Many people think that race in Barcelona is usually one of the most boring ones as it is hard to overtake here. Many drivers on the contrary think that it is one of the best circuits to check if the car's good enough as it has all the types of turns and straights. Anyways, Formula 1 is never boring, am I right?

1. One-two for Mercedes from the first line: predictable or not?

Valtteri loses the start - this is the first thing I wrote down in the race notes. Well, he lost the start but the car was so unbelievably good, softs and mediums worked just great and Seb possibly made a tactical mistake, so both Lewis and Valtteri could finish where they started. Moreover, not only Valtteri overcame Seb during his first pit-stop but Seb made the podium impossible for himself after changing from medium to the medium.

2. Crash-boy Roman

The start of the race is usually the trickiest thing in all the races but this time it was unusually tricky as Roman lost the car after Kevin's move and hit Pierre and Nico, so both became the victims of this misfortune. All three drivers were immediately out whilst others were to follow the safety car. Both Brandon and Sergey pitted under the SC but without any specific changes to their strategy as they had to pit secondly later anyways.

3. DNF time

The race wasn't specifically epic in terms of crashes and fights but it was epic in terms of how many cars were out for some reason. Unfortunately one of leaders Kimi became a victim of an engine fail twice this weekend, so he couldn't end the race. Another one who had great moments against Fernando in the beginning of the race, Esteban became a victim of right rear problem which cost him a few places on the grid firstly but also an engine problem later which made him to retire. Stoffel penalized with five seconds after the wrong move in the beginning also couldn't see the chequered flag. The last one to suffer DNF was Brendon as he stopped one lap before the finish without an obvious reason. It was added to his misfortune whilst FP3 where he crashed the car completely and couldn't even take part in quali.

4. Podium with killed wing

The one who had a tiny crash but managed not only to finish the race but to finish it on the podium was Max who pushed so much that hit his front wing and lost a part of it. He commented on the podium later that it didn't look nice but it was drivable anyways.

Max wasn't the only youngster impressed public in this race. Charles not only managed to bring points to the team, to show amazing performance in quali entering Q2 but also push and compete against Fernando and others on track. That was really amazing.

5. Spain is orangy-yellow

Fernando as the real homie not only brought the Spanish flag to take it out on the cooling lap but also showed his respect towards another Spaniard Carlos who did the same. Talking about surprises, another great one was both Haases in Q3 and for me, of course, the starting line of the grid for Mercedes.

Unfortunately there were negative moments as Lance ended up in a wall in all pre-race sessions including quali. Dani, Roman and Checo also ended up crashed each once during FP1 and FP2 whilst Kubica made his come back to F1 and managed to safely finish his FP.

Talking about tactics, it was all pretty obvious: supersofts didn't show any speed difference comparing to softs so almost the whole grid except few drivers decided to start the race on yellow tyres to later change onto the white ones. By the way, Pirelli made the tyres thinner as Mercedes asked to do it as asphalt in Barcelona was changed recently to the new one. The time records were beaten faster than you can imagine as the new track coverage in May made it possible. Rain didn't come to Montmelo, so the race was pretty calm. Probably that is all that I should have mention in the racing blog.

Thanks for reading and until Monaco!

Lewis on his knees while Ferrari on its worse again 🏎🏁🙌🏻

First of all let me appologise for the totally messed up schedule since the time difference is huge and physically I wasn't there while mentally I was.

Suzuka weekend was an interesting one. And, yes, I hope you have missed my blogs since I couldn't update you with Sepang one (it will go live just after this one). So let's get right into what happened in Japan.

1. Lewis on his knees

Let me take a moment to appreciate gratitude shown by Lewis after the race. Here I am not only talking about his words that he owns everything to the team as they were meticulous but mainly his after race actions. Yes, he just fell on his knees in front of his car and bowed his head. This moment became even more emotional since we've heard the team's radio at the very end of the race when Lewis' racing engineer said: "I think that was engine".

Yes, Lewis got some real problems at the very end of the race where he had an amazing start and a few good restarts (SC and VSC). Max who had such an amazing start with a few good moves as well could even overtake three-time World Champion if he had a few more laps. Red Bull number 33 definitely had better pace, I mean he had been regaining about 2 seconds from each of his final laps. Well, that is not a surprise since Mercedes has installed the fourth engine in Spa (X races ago) to keep burning the same amount of oil for more races than Ferrari.

By the way, Lewis added one more pole to his career statistics and finally made it on Suzuka (since it was the only track in current calendar where he had no poles yet). As well as he set a new track record here (1.27.319) which wasn't beaten since 2006 (Schumacher, yes) I bet. So Mercedes was lucky enough to bring their car back to life (they were even faster on softs than everyone on supersofts in FP3) and to get some really good points on the tracks no one expect them to while Ferrari were loosing more and more.

2. Ferrari on its worse

On the contrary, Ferrari problems became kind of a surprise for everyone. Third time in row. Who expected Seb not to fight against Lewis in all three asian races. After struggling almost the whole weekend and being fast just on Friday while everyone expected that the higher temperature must work better for the red cars Seb had to retire in the very beginning of the race having technical problems.

The sequence of misfortune for both Ferraris kept going after Kimi crushed in FP3 causing second red flags in a row and got the gearbox change and 5-position grid penalty. He also couldn't make a good start and even lost a few positions being out in a "spoon" turn at the beginning but at the end of the day managed to finish P5 still. Though it does't make sense at all since Ferrari is not fighting for Constructors Cup anymore being so far from Mercedes (145 points) and he is not an opponent for Lewis nor on the grid nor in the Championship.

Sadly for Seb the time when everyone expected problems for Mercedes became the time when Ferrari became the one to struggle the most.

3. Valtteri is back?

Yes, that is THE question. As Mercedes got their pace back (finally) at Suzuka being so weak in Singapore and Sepang (here I mean the condition and not the race points) and made the updates work (at least a few of them) Valtteri is still struggling to make it closer to his teammate. After Malaysia Valtteri had to admit that all the races after the summer break weren't his best time. Having such problems pilots usually start complaining about the car, the updates, the tyres, the team and whatever but Valtteri admitted that it was just his fault as his piloting style is not that much suitable for Mercedes and he needs to change it. Wow.

As Mercedes was back on top of FPs Valtteri managed not only to set the best time in FP3 (and in the race too) but to crush his car causing more red flags on Suzuka and got the 5-place grid penalty as well. So qualifying P2 and starting P7 Valtteri almost overtook Daniel at the very end of the race which smiley Australian described as "we were almost holding hands". But it wasn't a double podium for Mercedes while it was for Red Bull.

Although, Lewis again asked the team to put him in front of Valtteri as it was a few times throughout this season and Valtteri showed himself as a perfect team player nevertheless it was too obvious for everyone else. Here I must shortly mention close situation in Force India where Checo was not happy with Esteban in front and asked the team about overtaking. As he received the negative answer he claimed that youngster was too slow and had to pick up his pace. Just saying.

4. Bulls are getting stronger

From race to race we can see how Red Bulls climb higher. Firstly Christian Horner claimed that they are going to become closer to Ferrari at the end of the season but in fact they are closer to Mercedes now and better than Ferrari (no offends to any Ferrari fans). Double podium in Malaysia and double podium in Japan and we are getting used to see on the podium not just Daniel but Max as well - as a winner at Sepang and as a challenger to Lewis at Suzuka.

As Max was challenging Lewis and Daniel was challenged by Valtteri the team was happy enough with second race without DNFs for them and with Renault engine itself. Thanks God.

5. Carlos says goodbye to Toro Rosso while Jolyon says goodbye to Formula 1

While the main team becoming more and more stable Red Bull youth team Toro Rosso keeps undergoing some huge changes. After Daniil was replaced by debutant French driver Pierre at Sepang for both Malaysia and Japan another emotional announcement came by. Carlos who was about to go on loan to Renault next season is leaving the team right before Austin which means both Pierre and Daniil are to race in the United States. It also means that Jolyon is not staying in Formula 1 anymore as there is no any place in other teams (except William short list which Jolyon is not in).

Both these situations are emotional enough. Unfortunately the last race for their teams didn't end up well for both pilots as Carlos crushed his car twice this weekend: firstly in FP1 causing red flags and getting 20-position grid penalty and secondly in the race causing yellow flags and safety car and had to retire and Jolyon got 20-position grid penalty and finished just P12 not gaining any points. Farewell to Jolyon and good luck to Carlos and his new team in Austin.

6. What's more 

What is more about this weekend is that we saw very diverse rain conditions from normal on slicks to rainy on wets on Friday and back to normal on slicks on Saturday. As the whole FP2 was too rainy we saw just five pilots showing times on wets with HUGE aquaplaning for brave Esteban and Lance but many different boats on the pit-lane :)

We also were unfortunate enough to see Fernando going to the back of the grid at Honda home track getting 35-position penalty in front of amazing Japanese crowd. We were also unfortunate to see how Pierre, Lance, Marcus and Pascal were denied a chance to show better times and were out in Q3 after Roman crushed and caused red flags.

Still, we were fortunate to see Esteban making a great move and pretending to grab a podium for a while driving P3 after starting P6 which was amazing for the youngster. Marcus' crush, more yellow flags, virtual safety car, tough fight in the middle of the grid between Felipe, Kevin, Roman, Nico and Pierre, Nico's retirement because of the stuck DRS and Lance's retirement because of understear problems, curbs and edginess pushed hard - that what was the race about out of the Mercedes-Ferrari fight ruined by Red Bulls.

I hope you enjoyed this race as well as this blog. And, yes, Lewis might become a champion in Austin but let's talk about this later!

I will see you in my old-new blogpost on Sepang coming by. Stay tuned :)

Ferrari sandwich as a miracle for Lewis 🏎🌟🏁

What a weekend of a night race in eye catching Singapore. Three safety cars, eight retirements, wets, inters, slicks, tyre strategies, rain as a miracle for Lewis and Ferrari sandwich for Max. Let's get right into this!

1. Miracle for Lewis 

To say that this wasn't the best weekend for Mercedes means to say nothing. It was terrible. No pace, no chances for the win, nothing really from the leading team and everyone knew this from the very beginning. The team struggled from Friday till the end of Saturday. 

Quali made it not easy for both Lewis and Valtteri as well putting them into P5 and P6 which meant difficult start behind Ferraris and Red Bulls. They were hoping for the rain to mix all the rival's advantage and give the chance to be smarter and quicker and it happened.

But let me take a minute for Lewis' race start. Which was more than amazing. He has chosen the very safe way which helped him not just to overtake everyone at the very beginning but not to become a victim of what happened in front. As team radio claimed he had to bring car home in one piece. As a result - 60th career win, one more podium with a bottle of champagne for British superstar (who is going vegan by the way).

2. Ferrari sandwich 

What happened in front? Well, since it's been a few days from the race we have all the cards opened. Now we clearly know that the one to blame in this crush was Seb. In Ferrari's press release he claimed: "I had an average start and then I moved slightly to the left trying to defend my position from Max. Then I got bumped on one side as Kimi’s car hit me. I’m not sure what happened." As it is clear Seb thinks that nothing has changed for Max and Kimi after their retirements as they are not fighting for anything in the championship right now.

Perfect! So Seb has mistaken and the only person who suffered the most from this  stupid mistake was just himself. Round of applause for Mr. Sebastian Vettel who has beaten the track record in Q3 claiming his pole. 1:39:491 - this is how fast you can go on Marina Bay City Curcuit.

Rain made it quite difficult to beat the times further but it made different tyre strategies possible. The grid has divided into two sides: the ones who started the race on wets and the ones who started it on inters. Probably inters won as Lewis, Dani, Valtteri and those three (I mean Seb, Kimi and Max) in front used them and the other part had to pit and change into them later under safety cars. Slicks were in action after approximately 24 laps so Kevin was the first one to go for ultrasofts as he was fighting with everyone (especially Felipe) wheel to wheel. Carlos, by the way, was the only one to go for supersofts.

3. What podium is it for Daniel?

Wait a minute! I am trying to count as there were too many this season. Dani showed truly unbeatable pace on Friday leading both FPs, he was also good on Saturday but was beaten mostly by his teammate. After well done quali for both Red Bull cars starting the race P2 and P3 everyone thought that Max could finally make it to the podium. Max who had too many DNFs this season while Dani had too many podiums.

But once again. Max became a victim. Not a victim of engine or technical problems as he used to but a victim of that Ferrari sandwich made by Seb mostly. If you don't believe me - just look at this picture and you'll get it.

Although FIA has decided that it was a racing accident and no further action is about to happen here.

4. Retirement competition

Did you see all those jokes about full house DNF in Singapore? I mean Max, Daniil and Fernando. All three of top-DNF drivers this year were out in one single race almost at the very beginning.

Not only Max, Kimi and Seb but Fernando had also retired after that crush-start. Fernando tried to manage driving with his damaged car but couldn't and had to box in the very beginning. 

And, yes, Daniil ended up in a wall. Not super surprising but since his teammate Carlos finished the race P4 with his best career result ever Toro Rosso probably had some chances in Singapore. So Daniil should have been smarter in his pathway after overtaking Kevin but he wasn't.

The last and third safety car in this session was provoked by Marcus being turned in a very thick place after hitting the wall. Not to mention how much Lewis was unhappy with the last SC as he gained a lot of advantage and had to lose it all and fight again at restart. 

Two more DNFs happened in case of some technical and mechanical problems so both Renault and Haas had to lose an opportunity for some really good points as Nico and Kevin had to retire at the very end.

5. Turning point of the championship

Lewis said after the race that the rain was that miracle he needed so much and as soon as it started raining he knew he would win. At the same time Seb who was extremely happy on Saturday gaining probably an unexpected pole was quite sceptic of his own DNF. 

Lewis who was supposed to leave Singapore being the second left it with 28 points above his rival. And Valtteri who by the way risked his life as he couldn't drink in the race blame on the broken bottle is closer to Seb now but farther from his teammate. Ferrari who has not that many tracks left to their advantage  in this championship suffered from double DNF for the first time in its history and probably lost the Constructors cup and maybe even the championship to Mercedes.

6. Contract time 

Mostly important to mention that this weekend not only became the turning point of the championship battle but the turning point for the future as well. Mercedes confirmed Valtteri signing for 2018 as well as Force India confirmed Checo. 

McLaren finally divorced with Honda who goes to Toro Rosso now as well as Sainz "divorced" with Red Bull future going to Renault alongside Nico for 2018. Although his future is still up to Dr. Marco. Now it became clear that Jolyon is probably leaving F1 after an amazing race this weekend which makes the fact just sadder.

We are still not sure about what might happen to Sauber next year as well as Toro Rosso. But it's the question of few races now I must confirm. 

On this point I should close this controversial post and start waiting for Malaysia and more news coming. Stay tuned!

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.