Top 10 list of my favourite 2017 Formula 1 cars!

Yep, let's go for an a bit different approach for a blogpost today. I already announced on Twitter (and I guess kind of also in the last post) that I want to talk about the new cars. And first of all to start of generally: They look good! I really like the look of them! A lot of discussions are going on about some technical specifications like the return of the shark fin or the T-wing. Most often they get a lot of criticism but I do like them if they are done right, but I guess you're going to understand my opinion better once I go more into detail in the list. Oh and one more thing: I'm an absolute tech-noob, so I'll  rate the cars in terms of looks and aesthetics, with the for me personally most appealing one on P1. Alright, that should be enough of my rambling, let's go!

Number 10: Williams Martini Racing

This might come as a surprise for some, especially because a lot of people like the Martini-look of the car but I mean, really? This is going to be the 4th year in a row, where they will have the exact same livery. I know that the sponsors have a lot to say when it comes to how their brand is presented on the car but would it be too hard to change the design at least a bit? Let's go for a bit more blue or red? Rearrange the shapes? Or try something completely new? In addition to their really boring decision I'll have to criticise that specific shark fin. Too huge, no specific shape, looks like it's been added just at the end and not fitting at all. Sorry Williams, but you have to step up your game and not just rely on your overpowered Mercedes engine!

Number 9: Sahara Force India

As far as I can see, many people would agree with me to place that car quite close to the back of an "aesthetics list", at least from which I read from people on Twitter or also motorsport journalists. The colour isn't appealing at all. They went from some grey and black in 2016 to almost completely grey in 2017. And from my point of view, grey is just boring. The orange swipe on the sidepot or the green stripe on the bargeboard doesn't help that at all. 

Furthermore, let's talk about those very interesting aerodynamic additions. The nose is just.... strange. Those nostrils look completely wrong this year, whilst they were kind of okay in 2016, when they were coloured in a way, that they stop at a certain point. This year that passage is black and everything seems open. Moreover I have the feeling they have become even bigger. Meh. The shark fin is quite the same as the one on the Williams car and also here it looks unfinished. Couldn't they have added a bit of orange and green on that part of the car at least? Or give it an a bit more appealing shape? Fact is, they could do so much more with their livery, but just don't seem to want that. Oh, and I almost forgot that utterly ugly bump at the front suspension. I understand the thought of them to be fastest for the case active suspension gets introduced, but it really doesn't look great. 

Number 8: Red Bull Racing

I already can hear the outcry for my decision to put the ever so bulletproof Red Bull so low in the list, but please let me explain! First of all, the now following cars are from my point of view really good looking ones, and extremely close to each other in terms of look. But I had to order them in some kind of way, and if I take a look at my criteria, Red Bull has to be the lowest one. First of all, the livery. I like the matt look and I know they can't do too much with their livery. But still it is a fact that it is repetitive. They also pretty much didn't change it in comparison to last year. Furthermore, there's the shark fin. At least, to start of positive, it's not too big. But whyyyy has it to be black?! Just give it the matt blue/purple look that also the rest of the car has or extend the Bull onto it. Play a bit more with Red and Yellow or at least just give it an a bit more appealing shape. Really, it's not that hard! But I want to end on a positive note: The "vacuum cleaner" like Front Wing seems to me as a good idea that doesn't ruin the aesthetics of the car. But as it is Red Bull, I guess some of my criticised points are going to change until the first race of the season. So my list might change during the season and their car could take a huge step up.

Number 7: Sauber F1 Team

That is one good livery I'll have to admit! I really like this one to be honest! What a great idea to replace the cartoonish yellow with gold, just makes it look a lot more mature. Also the addition of white seems very fitting to me. My only problem with that car is once again the shark fin, and this problem is the same Red Bull has with theirs: the colour. Once again: WHYYYYY HAS IT TO BE BLACK?! I really don't see the point of that. Just make it blue or white here, you don't even need to change the shape of it, because that seems completely fine to me. It's not even to big so it is a much bigger shame than at the Red Bull car, because they did aesthetically more things right than the Austrian team.

Number 6: Renault Sport F1 Team

It was really hard for me to place that car in my list, because it feels so inbetween for me... Generally, I like everything about it but then there are also things which seem wrong to me. The problem is, that I just can't tell what those things are! That's also the reason why I just placed it kind of in the middle of my list. Maybe I should start with the livery, which is already an image for my feeling of inbetweenness. I like the yellow at the front and at the rear wing, and I also do not have a problem with the black, but the change from yellow to black seems just too abrupt for me personally. At least I can say that they are the first team on my list, that knows how to make a shark fin look good. It doesn't seem just added, but planned from the start. The colour is fitting to the rest of the car, it's not too big and also has an appealing shape. And much more I can't say about that one. Feels kind of strange to be honest that I can't really explain why it is right here in my list....

Number 5: Mercedes AMG F1 Team

Also that decision a lot of people might not understand. I guess for many of you, this is one of the best looking ones, maybe especially because it's one of two teams, that didn't go for the upturned nose or also at least tried to make no use of a shark fin, but which got eventually introduced during testing as well.Don't get me wrong, it looks great, especially with all those details on the side pot and the bargeboards, those are absolutely awesome! But their interpretation of a T- Wing just isn't for my liking. I know they are called the "Silver Arrows" and therefore just have to be silver/grey. But I like very colourful cars, that's a personal thing and I can understand you if you disagree with me in that point. But well, that's the reason why the maybe most successful car of 2017 is only at P5 in my list.

Number 4: McLaren

ORAAAAAAAANGE!
Erm... sorry, but I just wanted to imitate the typical Twitter talk before the release of that car. And yes, it's nice that it features a lot of orange, it's great to have a bright colour in the field. But as I already stated, I like bright and shiny cars and for my liking there's still too much black in it. Nobody would have got the idea that the orange at the back of the car should be the typical McLaren "swoosh". Or did you recognize it? I definitely didn't. But at least they used their shark fin well in terms of the livery, only the shape of it could be a bit better, but oh well it's orange so let's put it a bit further up in the list. Or shouldn't I do that? Hm..... give me your opinion!

Number 3: Haas F1 Team

Well, those guys kind of surprised me with their look for that season! As far as I can see, they made the completely right decision to change the white from last season to an a bit more jetfighter grey, just adds to the aggresiveness. Furthermore, they have with a huge margin the best looking shark fin of the whole field. Finally a team which starts to use different shapes and colours! Really great job from the team! I also spot the use of a bit more red, especially at the front part of the car, which is nice as well. All in all, a good looking car!

Number 2: Scuderia Ferrari

I know I might be a bit biased with that one, because if you didn't know yet, I'm a huge Sebastian Vettel fan and therefore also rooting for Ferrari, but could you please have a look at those sidepots! Wow! That shape is really innovative AND looking absolutely awesome! Also the use of all those little winglets is giving it a kind of aggressiveness, which reminds me a bit of the 2008 contenders. Okay in terms of the livery there's not too much to discuss. The Ferrari red is just iconic and they can't go wrong with that one. Also the shark fin looks well integrated and the colours fitting. I particularly like the italian flag on it. And they were the first team to introduce the T- wing as a part of the shark fin, which is in my opinion the best decision to put it there. A lot of you will disagree in that point as well, I already know that, but for me personally it just feels fitting. Let's just hope it will perform just as good as it looks....

Number 1: Scuderia Toro Rosso

No discussions: THIS is the livery of the season! Sorry McLaren, even your orange can't beat that...
The combination of that blue and red.... perfect! As well as the Silver Bulls and font on the rear and front wing. All seems to be in the right place. And they make use of bright colours.... Finally! Nobody is going to mix them up with Red Bull ever again! Makes me say it was worth to wait ten years to finally make a change in their colour scheme. Also the aerodynamics just look right. No upturned nose, a small sharkfin with a great shape.... It's an absolute beauty!


And this was my list of my favourite 2017 F1 cars! What is your list looking at the same criteria as I did? Post it into the comments, I'm keen on learning your opinions on that topic! You can also vote at the right side in the poll for your favourite F1 car of 2017 if you want! Thanks for reading! :)

Off season happenings! Driver market - Farewell Manor - Liberty Media takeover

Okay, first of all, I have to apologize to you. It should be over a month once I release this post, since the last one came out. Fact is: F1 is important, but university is just a bit more important. I think most of you will understand that :) Yeah exams kept me quite occupied with revising and I finished half of them already, but still I have to revise a lot, so I'm already sorry to say that this post might be a one-off for some time as well. But now, let's talk a bit about F1, shall we?
Oh well, a LOT of stuff happened during that month. But let's start with the beginning: The driver changes. The most important of those transfers is definetly the move of Bottas from Williams to Mercedes, who actually got bought out by the Silver Arrows and even changed Paddy Lowe as a part of the deal with Williams. So it seems like they really want to have him.... Or do they? In fact, he only got a 1 year contract and yeah I know they said:" We want to give him a longer contract, once he performs!" But we all should know that what is said in F1 is not always the truth. Of course they could be honest here, but let's look at their opportunities for next season: Drivers like Alonso or Vettel are going to be without a contract (yet) and those two seem to be definetly more attractive than Valterri (as bad as it sounds). Yes I know, I already wrote about how unlikely it would be to draft in Alonso, because of let's say his past with Hamilton. But who says that they actually want to keep Hamilton? Almost everyone, and why? Because he has a contract. But why shouldn't he go for a shock retirement just like Rosberg did? What if Mercedes won't perform next season and Hamilton is fed up with the team? And again, all of that is being unlikely and remains to be seen.
Much more realistic seems the Vettel deal, who is OBVIOUSLY (hehe) fed up with Ferrari, or at least was that in 2016. And we all know that Mercedes really wants to have a German driver. So we should never say never to that.
To sum this up: Bottas seems to be the savest decision Mercedes could make for 2017. From my point of view, it isn't a really interesting or hype generating move, but the smartest they could do. Let's see, maybe he'll surprise me and actually play Hamilton into the ground.
Connected to this transfer, we have the comeback of Felipe Massa to Williams, who retired at the end of 2016 and now is back in a cockpit for 2017...... Okay okay, you might could already read out of that, that this seems rather awkward to me... Don't get me wrong, I am happy that we'll keep Felipe for one more season in the paddock but.... After such a nice send off he got in Brazil and Abu Dhabi, it just feels wrong to come back so soon. But Williams should have made a save choice, just like Mercedes did. They need an experienced driver and also someone, who could be a kind of mentor for a rookie like Lance Stroll.
And then, there's also Pascal Wehrlein. And if you ask me, I hold the view that Mercedes have let their own protégée down a bit. Sauber, who'll compete with 2016 Ferrari engines in 2017 are not likely to be more competitive than they were last season. We saw how much that affected Toro Rosso, especially at the end of the season. It just feels like a further step back from him, which seems unfair to me, because he performed really well at Manor by even scoring his point in Austria. And I know, that his attitude doesn't seem to be the best, but still if his own big supporter lets him down.... I would be a bit sore if I would be him....
Talking about the former Manor driver, we tackle another important point of the last month. Manor had to go into administration and is set to leave F1, although they started to look very promising after 2016. It's an absolute shame to lose an as sympathic team as Manor was. They went through so many highs and lows, which is also partly visible in all of their name changes, and now it's all over. I just wanted to thank the team for all the great moments it delivered to us fans. I guess every F1 fan will remember Jules Bianchi's 9th place in Monaco, and how happy the team and Jules were with that result. But also Wehrlein's point last season in Austria was definitely a high. I almost forgot that they already went before the 2015 season into administration, which is also the reason why they had to compete the whole season with a 2014 car. In all of the races they were about 4 seconds slower than the rest of the pack, but also that created a lot of funny moments and I guess that there were still a lot of people cheering for the team. All of those moments are history now and all I can say now is: Thanks for the ride! It was a lot of fun!
But there's hope, that we won't have to face sad moments like this particular one anymore in the future, because also politically and economically, a lot has changed since I was away. Connected to Liberty Media's takeover of Formula 1, good old Bernie has to leave his position as the patriarch of Formula 1. His position got taken by Chase Carey, who looks with his facial hair maybe not to confidence-inspiring, at least that's my impression of him, but already started to convince me by the first decisions he made. The most important of those was to take Ross Brawn into his team to "make Formula 1 great again." For those who don't know who Ross Brawn is, I just can say: everything. And by that, I mean almost everything  he only slightly touched in terms of F1 became successful. The two points for which he is most known is on the one hand the era together with Michael Schumacher, especially as a strategist at Ferrari, and on the other hand when he took over the Honda team after the 2008 season and making his rebranded BrawnGP car in 2009 to a championship winning one. If somebody could make the sport attractive again, it is him. Therefore, my hopes are very high that he will make good decisions in the future.
Alright, so those are the major points I wanted to ramble about a bit. Of course there are a lot more minor ones, like the livery speculations at McLaren (FK YES FINALLY COLOUR! :D ) plus their changing of the name of next years car. But maybe we should wait about some of them, once we can be sure that everything is actually true. Thanks for reading and I hope I'll find the time to do these posts more regularly in the future!

Is it worth to attend a Formula 1 race?

Now Christmas is over and I can imagine that lots of you received some good money. You might ask yourself now what you should do with it. If you're an F1 fan and actually living in a country or even close to a track where a race is hosted (in contradiction to me :( ) you might contemplate about attending that particular race. But of course, a ticket for a F1 race weekend is quite expensive and possibly comes close to burst the limits of your Christmas budget. So, it's a hard decision whether you should attend the race or not. Regarding myself, I attended a F1 race for the first time in 2016, the German GP in Hockenheim and if you're asking yourself such a question as you've already read in the title of the blogpost, I could give you some help with the following.

Okay, first of all, I have to be honest: I didn't have to make that decision. It was my birthday present for my 18th birthday and my wish to attend the race weekend at Hockenheim. So, I can't really talk about how I made that decision, only give you some of my impressions.

But now, to answer the question straightaway from my point of view: Yes! You should watch F1 live! Definitely. Yes I know, to get the experience of a race weekend at a publicly widespreaded motorsport event, such as MotoGP or in particular Formula 1 is always very expensive, especially if you also have to pay for a hotel, because you're living quite far away from the track. That was also the case for me last summer. But there is a way to get at least the tickets a bit cheaper than they cost usual. The only thing to do is quite easy: Buy the tickets as early as possible, because there are usually early bird discounts on them. That's not the only advantage of booking early: You also have the chance to get the best seats, which are most often if you book too late already sold. So think fast! To give you an example, I am still thinking about attending the MotoGP German GP next year and if I get the tickets before the end of January, which means about 5 months before the race, I could save about 9 - 19 €, depending on the grandstand I choose. Considering the full prize, that's maybe not toooo much, but at least something and from my point of view worth it if you're really sure that you want to be at the race. See it that way, it would at least be the lunch "for free" at the race :)

Another tip would be to search yourself a grandstand from which you can see a quite huge part of the track. If you even can afford yourself the indulgence of chosing the track where you want to watch the race, take one where you have the chance to see a huge part of the track. Brazil would be a good example, where you can see almost the whole track from one of the grandstands. Also in Silverstone there are parts of the track, where u can see the cars for a long time, such as in the "Luffield", "Club" or "Village" section. Or as it was in my case, but won't be for you in 2017 because we won't have a race there, Hockenheim is a good venue to watch a race. The situation of the grandstands on that track makes it quite easy for you to chose the right seats. Most of them are around the Motodrom, where you can watch the same car for about 30 seconds straight, and it was also the place where I had my seat, on the inner grandstand before the "Sachskurve". The only disadvantage of getting your place in one of those sections is, that you won't be able to see the cars at highspeed. If you want to have that, go for the main grandstand next to the start-finish straight. But the tickets there are usually more expensive than in the sections I described beforehand, with the only advantage that you can watch the race start live. So I would recommend one of the slower sections. 

Furthermore, choose a section of the grandstand, where you have a huge canvas in sight. Watching the cars roar past you is pretty nice, but still, I guess you want to see more of the race than the bit of it you see in your section, especially at the start of the race or also in Quali and training sessions, when the cars are either closely packed or not too frequently in front of you. Therefore, you want to have a big television screen, where all the sessions are shown, just like they are in TV. When I was at Hockenheim, I didn't have the best place in that case. There was a telescreen in front of me, the only problem was, that it was quite far away, which means that I could not see too much on it. Still, it was good to have one to see at least some of the action, which happened at other parts of the track. To sum this up: Choose yourself a seat, where a telescreen is right in front of you.
Moreover, you have to keep in mind, that if you buy tickets you're not only paying to see the Formula 1 sessions, but also a certain framework programme, which could be different at some tracks. Again, if you can afford the indulgence of choosing the track you want, I recommend you to choose one, where also the GP2, and maybe also a GP3 race is hosted. In the best case, there is also a Porsche Supercup race as well. I had the luck that all 3 competitions were hosted in Hockenheim last season, and it was definitely a part of the experience I got, already because you got to hear some V8 engine sounds by the GP2 machines, which F1 doesn't deliver anymore these days. I don't really know what other tracks are doing, which are not hosting races of the smaller categories, but I'm sure that they are doing something special as well. The problem is, those events might not be specific about motorsport, so if you're going to see racing, I recommend a track which hosts at least GP2 as well.
Alright, now those are the tips I can give you if you've already decided to go and watch a race live. For those who couldn't decide yet, because many say "F1 is boring" or "It's just too expensive, I can see more of it on TV anyways", just give it a go, if you're really a Formula 1 fan! The latter may be right, but those are never going to get that special feeling, a vibe a true F1 fan is only going to get at the race track.
First of all, there are the fans. Many people from all around the world are coming to support their specific drivers. Of course, there are most likely to be fellow countrymen if you're going to F1 in your country, but there are always going to be international fans. In the case of the German GP, there were a lot of Dutch people, obviously due to the whole Max Verstappen hype. And they were also the most visible. The whole Dutch flags and orange colours everywhere just couldn't be overlooked. The way especially those people supported their driver was very special and really interesting to see! Moreover, there were a lot of British fans. After Hamilton's win, they started to sing the British national anthem. What a great moment that was! But also the support of the German fans, especially focusing on Sebastian Vettel was awesome. Every lap he came around our grandstand, people stood up and cheered for him. And yep, I did that too :)
Apart from that, the formation lap was also a great moment. I had the luck to sit on a grandstand, where the people formed during the national anthem and the formation lap a gigantic German flag. It just gave me goosebumps, when all the cars drove past us, kind of in the calm before the storm, and we all were holding up our sheets of paper to form the flag. I'm sure, It's a moment I'll never forget in my life.
Finally, after the race, you'll have the chance to go on the track. If you're placed quite close to the podium, which is most likely at the start - finish straight, I recommend you to be as qucik as possible on track, so you can see as much of it as you can. I wasn't too close to that, so I couldn't watch it. Still, you can have some fun on the track after the race. Be sure to take some of the tire grains with you, they are a great souvenir! :) But be careful, they might be still a bit hot and formable. If you're lucky and search a bit for it, you might find some carbon fibre tiles as well. You will be surprised how light they are!

Here are two pieces of rubber and the carbon fibre tile I found at the track. I made the photo on my desk at home, that's the reason for the white background :)

Even if you're not able to watch the podium ceremony, you should still do a walk to the start - finish straight. At most of the tracks they will allow you to climb onto the pit wall to have a look into the pit lane. I did that as well, and could watch the Ferrari crew during they packed up their stuff. It's really interesting to see all the front wings laying next to the boxes as well. Again if you're lucky, you'll maybe even see some TV crews doing interviews. I had the luck to wacth how Toto Wolff got interviewed. So as you can see, the moments after the race are a great experience for itself that you definitely shouldn't miss!
I hope I gave you enough examples of what a great experience a F1 race is and help some of you with the decision whether to watch F1 live or not. Of course, no one is going to guarantee you a very exciting race, there were always races in F1 with not too much action, but what I can guarantee you is, that the experience of just being there is something you won't forget too quick, no matter how good or bad the race was. And I can say that, because the German GP this year was a quite average one. Still, it's something I would always attend again, if I had the chance.
Thanks again for reading and I would really like to know if you ever attended a race, if so, which season it was, at which track you were and also how much you liked it. Moreover, it would be interesting to know if I could help you a bit with that post. Just write all of that into the comments!

Georg

The future of the F1 race calendar --- Are we running out of tracks?!

2016 was the season with the most F1 races ever. The cars drove at 21 venues all around the world, which was nice for many F1 fans, because we had through that a lot of back to back race weekends and could see even more of the on track action. But in 2017 the lights are only going out on 20 occasions. Lately, there haven't been too many good news about some venues which hosted F1 races in 2016 and will host them in 2017 again.
First of all, there's the worst case scenario in the form of the German Grand Prix. After just one year back in the calendar, Hockenheim couldn't agree on a contract for 2017. Many people see that as an entire end of the German GP, but if you ask me, that isn't the case. The German GP itself has a contract until 2018, which means the race is most likely to come back next year. Furthermore, it wouldn't be the Hockenheimring to host the German F1 race next year, it would be the Nürburgring. But due to financial problems, there won't be a race too soon or maybe even never again, which is quite sad, because that track is a classic one and should be a part of F1 just like Monza, Silverstone or Monaco are. What I want to say with that is that Hockenheim never really wanted a race in 2017 because they wouldn't have one and it is not envidaged in their plans. When I was at the race this year, the fans were told to hopefully be seen again in 2018. They never talked about a 2017. And so there isn't one. The real problem is, that the problems don't end with that. Yes, there is the contract until 2018 and yes I'm sure that there will be a race in 2018, but what after that? Is Hockenheim or Germany itself even interested in renewing the contract? I pretty much start to doubt that, because the track itself made over the last few years it hosted F1 only financial losses, due to the lack of fans visting the track during a F1 weekend. And for me as a German that's sad to see. And I really understand what they mean with "lack of fans". They didn't even open all grandstands and had to put huge ad banners above them to cover them and don't show the not existing interest in F1 in a country, from which the reigning Constructors champions are. And at the grandstands that were opened were so many empty seats, especially during the Friday and Saturday sessions. So it's not surprising that the track can't gain anything out of the race, so why should they continue it? It's just a shame, but let's see what will happen in the future.
Moreover there are some tracks on the calendar which seem to really want to have a F1 race, but are a bit shaky because of the infrastructure. The venues I mean with that are the Canadian and the Brazilian GP, another two classic tracks. Luckily, those two could convince Bernie and the FOM to have a race next season. But now, they really need to sort out the encountered problems, or we are going to lose another two phenomenal circuits.
And finally, there are the countries which don't even want to have a race anymore, which are the Singapore and the Malaysian GP. The reason both venues are giving for their loss of interest in a F1 race is, just like it is in Germany, the loss of fans and by that the lose of money, which makes me even more nervous about the German GP to just ring down the curtain after 2018. If they are not going to renew their contract, next years Singapore GP is going to be the last one and with that we will lose the place, where the first F1 night race was hosted in 2008. Malaysia still has its contract until 2018, so we are going to be there at least for the next two seasons again.
On the plus side, we had also some good news in the last weeks. In 2008, we didn't only have the first Singapore GP, but also the last French GP to date. But that is going to change in 2018, when we will be back there, but not at Magny Cours, where it was hosted the last time and which was an absolute great track from my point of view, but sadly also had a huge infrastructure problem. In 2018, the French GP will be hosted in Le Castellet, at the Circuit Paul Ricard, which hosted the French GP already between 1971 and 1990. So as we can see, F1 is finally returning to a historical place, which is always agood thing.
But what if  THAT "worst case scenario" actually happens? First of all, let me describe how it would look in my eyes: It would mean, that the German, Canadian, Brazilian, Singapore and Malaysian GP would leave F1 and only the French GP rejoin until the end of 2018. So, we would make minus of 4 tracks and only have 16 races left in the F1 calendar. That's the least amount of races since 2003. There wouldn't be a need of back to back weekends and that means by far more boring Sundays for us fans, But let's stay realistic, that is really a worst case scenario, because the Canadian and Brazilian GP are most likely to stay, so we shouldn't think too much about that (or should we?)
But what I really want to think of, is the possible return of some classic F1 tracks, and maybe also some newcomers to the sport, just in case all of the named tracks are actually going to drop off. Honestly spoken, I never was the biggest fan of the Malaysian GP and I wouldn't really mind to stop racing there, if there would be a fitting replacement. The track I'd really love to see back on the calendar is Imola!
Yes, I know we already have an Italian race on the calendar with Monza and I really hope it's never going to be dropped, because it is a true classic and we need that track. But why shouldn't we have two races in a country, if the fans, the country and the people who are responsible for the track  really want it? Just call it the San Marinio GP just like it was before, and everyone would be fine with it. MotoGP is still doing that excessively. We are having 4 races in Spain (The, surprise, Spanish GP, Catalunya GP, Aragon GP and Valencia GP) and also 2 races in Italy, also in form of a San Marino GP. The Reason for that are the huge fan bases because the most competitive drivers are coming from these countries. If F1 would adapt that concept, we would need to have at least 3 races in Germany but instead we are getting nothing for the next season. The Italian fans in F1 are very passionate, and I'm sure a race in Imola would be a sellout.
As already mentioned, Germany is not getting one race next season, although we are having at this point 3 confirmed drivers (but surely 4 once Wehrlein gets a contract somewhere) we Germans won't have the chance to see them live at home. And my question is, why not look out for other tracks in Germany instead of the Nürburgring and Hockenheim? Don't get me wrong, I really do love both tracks and think they should be part of the calendar too, but they are having their financial problems and seem to have lost interest in F1. Two tracks that came into my mind are the Sachsenring and The EuroSpeedway Lausitz.
First of all, let's talk about the more unrealistic one: The Sachsenring. It's pro's would be that it attracts almost the most amount of fans in the whole MotoGP season, which would mean that it seems possible, that also a lot of motorsport fans would attend a F1 race there. So, from the financial point of view, it should be pretty save. And I'll be honest: I'm living really close to that track, I could drive home after every day visiting it, so maybe I'm a bit too much dreaming here, because we also need to look at the con's: It's not build for F1 cars. It's quite narrow and short, which means that it would need a whole expansion to host an F1 race that is most unlikely to happen, again because of the finances. I mean where should that money come from?
But well, we still have the Lausitzring. It's a huge complex, that can hold a lot of fans, there are different layouts which could be used and the interest of fans should be there too. Furthermore, also the traffic connection shouldn't be too bad, so why not?
Alright to finish this off, I don't really think that we are going to run out of tracks in F1. I hold the view there are many countries interested in having a race, and the ones who really want one are going to get it. Maybe not according to the wishes I gave you here, but oh well at least Imola shouldn't be completely unrealistic. Anyways, thanks for reading again! Which track would you like to see in the F1 calendar? Write me your wishes into the comments, I'm really interested in those!

Georg

Formula 1 2017! --- A new era, a new dominator? --- Hopes and expectations

The title might could indicate to you, that I didn't like the 2016 F1 season, but the opposite is the case! What we have seen that year was one of the best seasons of this aerodynamic era, which started back in 2009. If I had to rank it, I would put it right behind 2010 and 2012, so it stands especially out of the new engine era, which started in 2014. And I think most of us will agree, that 2014 and 2015 were some of the worst seasons that Formula 1 ever threw at us. The biggest reason for that is, that we had one huge dominator, that couldn't be beaten by another team, unless they did huge mistakes. Mercedes were just too strong over the last 3 seasons, which gave us too many boring races, which most of the fans couldn't handle with. Some might argue, that Red Bull had the same dominance, when Vettel won 4 championships in a row. But that dominance wasn't as strong as the one of Mercedes from 2014-2016. Outstanding is the 2012 season, where we had 8 different winners throughout the season, with 7 different ones right at the beginning (and even Maldonado winning!). In the current engine era, we had an "impressive" amount of 4 different winners in a season as a record. And that was 2016. Still, that sounds quite lame, doesn't it? In addition to that, many of the rule changes in 2014 just ruined a lot the fans liked so much about Formula 1. We'll just need to talk about the engine sound. When I was at Hockenheim that season, I didn't even need to think about a noise protection during the F1 sessions. Then, I watched a GP2 session. The second class. And the sound was awesome. Without a noise protection I honestly spoken could not have watched it. I have to admit, that I think that's quite embarassing for, what calls itself "The premier competition in motorsport".
But what now? An F1 era finds an end and a new one will start. Again with one huge dominator? Possibly yes, hopefully not. And then there is the question, who will it be? For me personally, that is one of the most difficult questions to answer at the moment in Formula 1, because it could be anyone! The most obvious choices would be Mercedes, which just continue their run, or Red Bull, who were almost everytime good, when there was an aerodynamic change, due to their great aerodynamics department. And in addition to that the fact that they don't have to focus on engine building. Then, there's also Ferrari. And my heart is bleeding that I have to say this as a Vettel fan, but my head says that they won't compete for the championship again next season. Of course, my heart wants that to happen, but I hold the view that there are too many problerms within the team and their boss, who is too impatient and creates by that too much pressure on the team,which is just counter productive. But oh well, I'll just hope for the best and think positive!
And those were the obvious choices every F1 fan would give you if they got asked who will be the most competitive in 2017. But my list of possibilities doesn't end here. For me, there are also McLaren and Renault, who could get at least a chance to sneak closer to the top 3 and be candidates for at least cheeky podiums. You may ask why exactly those two backrunners from 2016? Well, if we look at McLaren, they had one of the best chassis already this year. Their only problem was the underperforming Honda engine, which got at least better since their comeback in 2014. In an era, which focuses more on the chassis and not on the engine, they could become (finally!) a good challenger again. Also, they will have a huge talent and one of the best drivers on the grid behind their two steering wheels. Moreover, there is Renault, which may seem even more unrealistic for some of you, and maybe it actually is. But think about it. We have a manufacturer team, which started 2016 with a car, which was built for a completely different engine. And the engine they fitted at the start of the season was far from as good as the Mercedes engine would have been. But as we have seen with Red Bull, who also drove (and will drive next season again) with a rebranded Renault engine, and could even win 2 races that season, they improved immensely fast their engine power. And even though it won't be as good as the Mercedes engine, again we have the factor, that aerodynamics will be more important than engine power next season, which all over again could give them a boost. And they won't have a problem with development, because as a manufacturer team, there are not going to be any cutbacks with the money.
And what if there's not only one team,which will dominate the whole season? The best case scenario would be, if 2 teams, maybe even 3, could challenge with at least one driver for the 2017 world drivers championship. We didn't have that since 2012 and as already stated, 2012 was awesome. This is one of my biggest hopes I have for the upcoming season.
Another hope is, that the cars will look like a real racing machine again! Don't get me wrong on this one, the cars since 2014 already looked at least quite fine, but they can't be compared to the beasts we had from about 2005 to 2008. Oh yeah, especially the 2008 cars were impressive in terms of look, just like F1 should be. Aggressive and loud and fast. Well, that already includes two attributes that the cars weren't during the last seasons. I won't complain about their speed, that was absolutely fine and for me personally already enough. Faster cars don't mean better racing. But I won't criticize next years cars now by the fact, that they are going to be faster with their much bigger tires. And by that, we come already to one of the points, which the cars from the last aero era lacked. Aggressiveness. I still can remember back in 2009, when I saw the new revealed cars for the first time, I just said:"Wow, they look bad! What did they do with the rear wing, that's horrible!" And I'm honest here, those were at least analogous my words back then, when I was 11 years old. Even in that age I realized, what harm F1 did to themselves back then. And from 2009 ongoing, we saw that huge decline in views F1 got, which just proves me in my statement.
But the 2017 cars want to make it better again. The rear wing is lower again, similar to how it was before 2009. For me personally, one of the best changes they could have thought of! In addition to that, there are the wider tires, which I already spoke about. Not only that they will make the cars faster, they also just look sick. Already only these two changes are going to make the cars look so much better in comparison to the ones we had lately, and this is a fact that gets me hyped for the next season! Oh and yeah, there is still the sound thing I mentioned. Well, that won't change for next season but let us be happy with what is given to us for now.
In conclusion to that topic, I just can hope that some of my expectations will become reality and that we are going to have an exciting Formula 1 season next year. For now, we have to look forward to the car presentations and first tests in Barcelona and I can tell you, I am more than just keen on those! Thanks for reading and leave a comment about your expectations, which team will be the dominant one in 2017 and how you like the technical changes for the next year. To read more of my motorsport and especially F1 related posts, just subscribe to the blog!

Georg

How I "met" Michael Schumacher on vacation

Sounds strange, doesn't it? But I'm telling you a story that really happened. Yes, I met Michael Schumacher. Kind of. But before we come to that, I have to tell you a bit more about the circumstances. First of all, I need to remember as much of the story as I can, because it's obviously a long time ago, let's see how much I can put together again.

So, the whole story takes place back in 2005, which means I was 6 years old. My parents, some friends of them and I went to France. A classical summer vacation at the Côte d' Azur. We had a nice cottage with a pool and all, so most of the vacation was great. Most of it? Yeah, for the ones of you who already visited southern France along the Côte d' Azur in summer will know, that the traffic jam reaches another level of insanity. For those who never were there, here's an example: The town we lived in is located right at the sea. Still, we had to drive a few kilometres, should be about 10, from our house to the beach. If I can remember right (which is quite hard for me, as I already stated, so I might exaggerate here) it almost took us about 30 to 45 minutes to get to the beach, and for that, we didn't even need to leave the town!

Well, of course you're not on a holiday to only chill out at the pool or at the beach. So we did travel around a bit to see some of the cities there, as well as Nice, St. Tropez and, to make that whole story a bit more F1 related, also Monaco! As you can already imagine by now, a lot of those travels were connected with a lot of traffic jams. You needed to plan about 2 hours for the trip to somewhere, and also 2 hours to get back home. As I said, just insane. The same story applied obviously also to the Monaco trip. But right there it was even worse than everything else we witnessed before. We didn't even park somewhere, because the possibility for that wasn't given, so what we did instead was (oh lucky me!) to try and drive around the F1 track! And that's quite hard, needless to say that the boundaries of the track are not build up on a normal day in Monte Carlo. Still, we managed to do that quite well, although I can remember we left the track unwittingly one or two times, but surprisngly always found a way back on it. I still have pictures in my head how we drove along the start finish straight and also passed through the tunnel, which was a really nice feeling, although we could obviously not do that at high speed like a race car, because.... well.... do I really have to tell you more about traffic jams?
But now, let's come to the story the headline is all about. I included that whole Monaco thing on the one hand, because that's an F1 blog and also gives a nice story which wouldn't be long enough for an own post and on the other hand, because it's also connected to the whole story, . But how? Well, the friends of my parents also had a son, who's even younger than me and was about 3 years old at that time. And in that age, he also already was a Michael Schumacher fan and got a Ferrari shirt bought in Monaco (he and his parents found somehow somewhere a parking lot, still don't know how the've done that, maybe they parked on a yacht or so). I as well tended to wear always a whole Michael Schumacher outfit (Ferrari shirt and trousers) during that holiday. One day, somebody of my parents (can't quite remember who) read somewhere that Michael Schumacher was having a vacation as well at the Côte d' Azur. When I heard that, of course I thought in my childish naivity, that we would somehow see him, but which was of course completely unrealistic. Or was it?
Some days after those news, we did another trip to one of the smaller cities in southern France. Therefore, we easily could find a parking lot this time and surprisingly there were almost no cars driving on the street. I was wearing my whole Michael Schumacher outfit again on that day. It was lunchtime, so we searched for a restaurant and walked along that street. Then, a cyclist appeared on the street, dressed in wine-red and drove slowly into our direction. When he was at our height, he got slowlier and looked at us, especially at me and the son of our friend. That friend is the father of that son and he looked that man into the face, stood there a moment quite astonished and than shouted excited: "That's him! That's Michael Schumacher!" After he shouted that, the cyclist started to pedal faster again and drove further past us. I also was so astonished by that, I didn't even really noticed what happened right in that moment, all I can really remember is looking after him driving away. When I asked my father about that whole story later, who also looked Michael into the face, he said he grinned after our friend shouted those "That's him!" words, and had a Ferrari backpack on his back. But I'm not to sure if that really was the case, that was nothing that I really looked for.
But yeah, that's how I met Michael Schumacher, at least kind of. I guess the reason why he drove so slowly past us, was because I wore that whole outfit with his name written big on my T-Shirt, as well as the son of our friend, who wore his Ferrari shirt as well. That would at least also explain why he grinned at us (and of course also that he got recognized). And well, why he drove away after we recognized him is also understandable. I wouldn't like to spent time either with crazy German fans during my holiday, that he obviously had, just like we heard earlier during our vacation in the news. Maybe he was also a bit startled by that shout, because it was a really loud and excited one. Some of you might think, that it's quite sad that he didn't stop and had a little chat with us and today I also think a bit so, especially because he got his really bad injury now and nobody really knows how it stands about him. But hey, as I already mentioned, on the other hand it's more than understandable for me, because it was his holiday. And I really think he was a bit shocked :D
Well, that was an a bit more private story about my experiences with Formula 1. If you had any similar experiences like I had there, or even met Michael in person too (maybe also talked to him), just write that into the comments, I'm keen on learning about that! If you want to hear more stories and about my opinions about Formula 1, just subscribe to the blog, I'll try to get out at least one post per week. Thanks for reading!

Georg

#KeepFightingMichael

Rosberg retires! A bad decision? --- The Replacement Question

The news dropped like a bomb yesterday. The reigning World Drivers Champion Nico Rosberg will leave Formula 1 and with that one of the most coveted cockpits the sport has to give. Therefore, he won't defend his title next season, which was highly criticized by a lot of F1 fans and experts. But did he really make a bad decision to retire?

If you ask me: No. He did the right thing. To be insulted as a "coward" and even worse by many, because he wants to have more time with his family, don't even seem to know how hard the business of Formula 1 really is. Travelling all around the world is of course a dream of many, and even gain money by that by driving a car for a weekend around a track may be a dream as well for some, but they seem to forget, that all of those drivers only have a few weeks during the whole season, they can come home and spend time with their families. Rosberg just became a father last year, and I hold the view he noticed, that he couldn't be there for his daughter just as much as he wanted to be. 

Furthermore, F1 might not be as physically demanding as it was ten or twenty or thirty years ago, but the fact is that Rosberg definitely had to deal with a lot of psychological attacks, which found their peaks in Abu Dhabi, as we all could see last weekend. Hamilton tried to back him into his opponents, so he would lose position or even cause a crash with them, so he could take away his fourth World Drivers Trophy. Having some immensely fast drivers like Verstappen (who might still need a bit more experience and didn't use the cleanest moves in the past) and Sebastian Vettel, who had a blast through the field on fresher tires, can really have an impact on your psyche, which most of the people (and maybe even drivers in Formula 1) just couldn't stand. In addition to that, his direct opponent Hamilton used a lot of allusions in press conferences (where he sat right next to him) and interviews  to make him feel unworthy and "not good enough". And not only in the finale he had to deal with that pressure. He already had lost 2 championships to his teammate, which almost could come close to a humiliation if he would have lost 3 times in a row. Therefore, he had to deal with that pressure to finally turn the tide throughout the whole season. And don't let us forget: It was the longest season Formula 1 ever had, so there was much to lose throughout the season. It must have been the greatest relief of his life, when he finally crossed that finish line in Abu Dhabi. And as far as I can see, he just doesn't want to have that pressure ever again in his life, which maybe could be even bigger next year, if he had to defend his title against a highly motivated Hamilton and maybe other drivers, who could get cars which are closer to the top in 2017 than that season (Ricciardo? Verstappen? Vettel? Somebody completely else?) I can definitely understand, why he doesn't want to have that again next season and also, why should he? He accomplished everything you can in Formula 1 and achieved his big childhood dream. 

And don't let us forget: He's not the first driver to not take a ride in the following season as a reigning champion. Nigel Mansell, who just like him drove an overpowered car back in 1992, decided against a contract in Formula 1 and took the opportunity to start in Indy car in 1993. Okay okay, he wanted to have another challenge (and even accomplished that by winning it in the same year he joined!) and didn't leave because of his family, BUT he definitely didn't get as much headwind as Rosberg got for his decision to not defend the title.

To conclude that topic, I just can say that a more than worthy champion leaves Formula 1 on a high, the highest you can get, and hope that we still will see him from time to time around the track as a visitor.

But now, we should pose the really important question: Who is going to replace him at Mercedes? If you ask me, I would put my money on Pascal Wehrlein, and that for a good reason. He is the teams protegee, got by the help of them into F1 and already won the DTM (German Touring Cars championship) and proved himself by that to be a great champion. Fun fact to that: the people also told him that he shouldn't leave the DTM because he should defend his title, just like Rosberg is getting told right now. Interesting huh? But I'm getting sidetracked again. Pascal Wehrlein also already approved his talent by scoring a point in one of the slowest cars on the grid in F1. Some might argue, that he's still too young to join such a big team as Mercedes is. What I can tell those people, is to look at Max Verstappen. In comparison to Wehrlein, he started in a midfield team and therefore had much better opportunities to score good results and show more of his talent than Wehrlein. Moreover, he also joined a big team after only one season in Formula 1 (and four races), which was capable of scoring wins in 2016. And he did that in his first race in the Red Bull. In my opinion, Pascal could easily achieve the same if he would get the chance, and I hold the view that he will be announced soon. But still, we should take a look at other opportunities Mercedes could take.

Many people threw the name Fernando Alonso into the hat, and I can see their point. He is a 2 times world champion, and is seen by many to be the best driver on the grid. He had a lot of frustration in the last seasons, where he lost two times a title with Ferrari and finally had to switch to a completely underperforming McLaren team ("GP2 engine! Argh!" :D). Thus, he must be craving to finally be in a good car again, which could win him a title and Mercedes could deliver him that. but there's one reason why he won't go to them. And that is Hamilton. When they were team mates in 2007, they got themselves into such an intense internal team war, that both of them lost the title. So, I'm sure that he won't want to relive something like that again.

As a Vettel fan, obviously (you see what I did there?) I have to throw his name into the ring. And also he would have good reasons to leave Ferrari. They kind of stagnated after 2015 and even fell behind Red Bull in 2016, which is just not good enough for him as a 4 times drivers champion. We heard a lot of his frustration over the team radio in 2016, which found it's peak in Mexico. But I hold the view, that he is still too obsessed wtih taking Ferrari back to the top, just like his idol Michael Schumacher did. Still, I see a higher chance that he will get that Mercedes seat next year than Alonso has.

And of course, we still need to take both Red Bull drivers into account. But I honestly hold the view that neither of them has too much interest to join Mercedes, because the Red Bull car could be even better than the Mercedes next season, with all the aero changes coming up.

And maybe, we also should consider some complete outsiders like Bottas. Why shouldn't they take him? But yeah, I also can't find a good reason why Mercedes should do that so.... let's forget about that quickly again. (Or shouldn't we?)

With all those speculations, I only can say that I'm very keen on learning who will take the Mercedes seat next season and hope that we are going to find out soon. Thanks again for reading and if you have any own speculations or opinions on who could replace Nico, just post them into the comments! I would be happy to learn about some other perspectives on that topic!

Georg