Diary of a F1 weekend: Malaysia

So after an exciting Grand Prix weekend in Australia.
We hardly have time to blink before it's the turn of Malaysia and the start of another early morning race.

So expect blurred vision and tiredness throughout my weekend diary.

Thursday/Friday
2am

Hoorah. I am actually up ready for FP1 however it's fair to say I'm not feeling on top form.
I noticed that in the fly away races especially the back to back ones. My sleep patterns go completely awry.
Luckily I managed to stay awake for 45 minutes of FP1 before realising that I couldn't hang on.
So decided to go to bed and wake up instead for FP2.

Notes for FP1

• Karthikeyan gearbox decided to fail. 
• Hamilton should good pace to top the table
• Vettel showed that Red Bull didn't have the pace. 
• All the cars seemed to be close in terms of time. 
• #BOTTAS

Now instead of my alarm waking me up for FP2. It decided to let me sleep through.

So I missed all of FP2.
This is not the first time this has happened. Luckily I recorded FP2 for this very reason.

Notes for FP2

• More woe for Karthikeyan
• Vettel still struggling for pace in 10th
• Vergne and Ricciardo show their hand. Top ten placings for both. 
• Then Karthikeyan has some more woe thrown in. 
• Hamilton quickest again

Friday/Saturday

FP3.

Ahhh. So I missed all of FP3. 

This lately seems a F.F.F tradition. 

There is no excuse for this.

But of course I was up for Qualifying. (Because I'm good like that.)
And even though it was 5am and I had to go to Sheffield later in the day.
I managed to not sleep through it.
I think the pack of fig rolls I brought may of helped, along with the copious amounts of coffee.

Notes for Qualifying

• Bad starts for Heikki and Kimi with five place grid drops. 
• Massa still struggling for raw pace and dropping out in Q2
• Webber out qualifying Vettel again. 
• Schumacher qualifying in the top three.
• Hamilton and Button bagging a One-Two for Mclaren. 

Saturday/Sunday

Race day. 8am.

With my alarm clock actually waking me up. 

Even with the change of clocks. (Yes it gets lighter earlier but it meant a hour's less sleep. *Grumps*)

It was time to get my cup of coffee on the go, along with another pack of fig rolls. (I'm getting lardy because of this.)

Ready for another great race.

Now what I love about watching F1, is that comedy can come from nowhere.
Now I tweet has the race is on. So when 9 laps in the race the rain came down and the red flag came out.
So did best comedy moments.

All 50 minutes of non racing was filled with entertainment that consisted of Gazebo chat. 

Who had the best gazebo?

Who was doing the BBQ?

Why did HRT only have a Tesco carrier bag?

Then it turned into a scene from the Carry On films because we started perving on the wet drivers/team members. Ooo Matron. 

Then it came full circle back 2009 with a W.W.K.D.

Or the long version. 'What would Kimi do?'

We all secretly hoped he would get the ice cream back out. Sadly this was not to be. Even if Lotus did get the Ice Creams back out for him. 

Luckily the race did start back up again but under the safety car. 

When the safety car came back in. The fun could begin again.
And boy did it.
We had Button lose his front wing.
Then Vettel got a puncture. 

I may of had some micro naps between all of this going on.
But I managed to stay awake when the fight for the lead was between Ferrari and Sauber. (Words I didn't really expect to say this year.)

And even though Perez had a moment off track and couldn't catch Alonso back up.
It was worth me having Horner jiggly leg for.

It was pure racing at it's best.
F1 is definitely back and it has come back swinging. 

Notes for the race.

• Rain
• Red Flag
• Gazebo's are entertaining
• Grosjean failing in the race for the second week in a row. 
• Karthikeyan injuring several cars. 
• Pastor losing out on points on the last lap.
• Hamilton still not looking happy after another podium.
• Vettel coming up with a new insult system and raising a new finger. Twice.
• Button's brutal honesty
• The Perez and Alonso battle.

Today was a good day to be an F1 fan. 

Remember if you want to hear more of my F1 ramblings. You can also follow me on twitter @squiffany 

Let's put our fingers together.

Last weekend Vettel won the Championship title.
Last weekend I was hastily making plans to move house.

This week is my move, so for the last few days I have been clearing out my room and in a box under my bed.
Was some very interesting finds.
(Don't be so dirty minded by the way, it's all F1 related)

One find was a signed Jenson Button photo from his Williams days. No idea if the signature is even real but it's great to remember how baby face Jense used to be. (Bless his cottons)

The other find. Lead me on a thought path. 

In the box along with the Jenson photo was a pile of old F1 racing magazines from 2006/2007

And on the front of the October issue was this.

We now know this pose has Vettel finger.
But it definitely wasn't Vettel finger.
It was Alonso finger.

And this got me to wondering.
Who started this in F1?

Is it every World champion?
Or most race winners?

So I have created myself and my readers a small challenge.
I want to see how many F1 drivers have done the number one finger.
I will then compile a blog post with has many as I and you can find.

Now I may be slightly internet-less for a while.
But I still have twitter on my phone.
So if you see any Number one F1 poses. Then tweet me @squiffany with your best ones.

"It's like Where's Wally but worse"

Worst F1 fashion. Part One

So after much discussion.
The first post of worst F1 fashion is here.
The reason for the split of posts is quite simple.

It's because worst F1 fashion will continue to run and run. Mainly because Formula One drivers and bosses have no fashion taste, so I don't think this will be my last post on it.

So a few days ago I asked on people on Facebook and Twitter to name or show me the worst F1 fashion they could remember.
Some honest and strange requests appeared.
My personal favourite weird request was David Coulthard's chin.
(Sadly something nature gave him could not be in the list.)

These however were the more eye blinding choices.

Kimi Raikkonen
And the awful trucker hat.



David Coulthard
And the skinny white jeans.



Of course Eddie Jordan shirts were a popular choice.



Shower curtains and carpets are never safe when Eddie is about.

My personal choice is this monstrosity from Michael Schumacher.

Last time I checked the cowboy look was only seen in the westerns.

But the of course the winner of Worst F1 fashion. Part One is...
(Drum roll)

Flavio Briatore.

Warning: Your eyes may never recover from seeing Flavio's mailbag.
*Shivers*

I did sorry for the photographer who took this photo.
Mainly because they are now blind.

But then I remembered.
They inflicted this photo to the F1 world.
And for that I don't think they can be forgiven.

Got more Worst F1 fashion to share?
Message me on twitter at @squiffany or comment below.

Senna.

Last year I graduated from university with a degree in Film Studies.
In the last year I have done nothing with my degree at all.

Fast forward to June of this year and I went to see the Senna movie.
I was supposed to write a review on it soon after.
But life got in the way and at the time it seemed too late to write a blog post about it.

Then twitter reminded me that America and Australia still haven't been lucky enough to see the film yet.
So I think I have found my chance to do my review and remember why a degree in film could be still useful.


The review in brief is simple.
Senna was a beautiful, thought provoking and an emotional rollercoster
From hurt to anger. From love to war.
The Senna film had something else... as well something which most documentaries don't have.

A soul.

It showed you how a man who just drove a Formula One car actually... ticked.
It felt like you saw how the clogs of how Senna's mind worked.
Not only just through the voices of family, friends and colleagues but through his own words.

That was one of the biggest emotions for me.
Hearing Senna talk.

I didn't watch Formula One when Senna died. So hearing him talk for such a long period of time. Was strange because I felt like I knew him personally when I clearly didn't. That made the pain even more unbearable because you knew what was coming next.

It's wasn't just Senna's crash that draw the biggest silence in the cinema.
I have watched Formula One for thirteen years and I thought I pretty much youtube-d every Formula One crash.
Then I saw Martin Donnelly's crash for the first time.

There are no words for that.
At all.

In the cinema that needs to be seen to be believed.

This does take me neatly to the soundtrack, which was breathtaking. It matched the mood of all the destruction and emotion so well. It reminded me that a film could have so many layers and depth. If the Soundtrack doesn't win an Oscar come next year. I'll be shocked.

To me the film was perfect.
But of course the film has drawn some criticism for being biased. For not putting Alain Prost or Jean Marie Balestre side over more clearly and for forgetting talking heads of other characters in Senna's life like Michael Schumacher and Murray Walker.

But what people forget is two things. One. The film is only 90 minutes long. I have seen rough copies of the film at 145 minutes long and even that was amazing but the amount of footage that Asif Kapadia and his team have had to condense is mind blowing and a six hour documentary is not going cut it in the cinema.

I'm hoping for a directors cut on DVD instead, which I know would please a lot of fans.

Secondly time restrictions in the edit are going mean some people's Senna moments aren't going to be included even people F1 fans relate with Senna.
All that mattered were the major characters who were involved in Senna's life and career.

Of course it is going to be slightly bias.
It's about Senna.
The clue is in the title.

The Senna film. Did something no other Formula One film/documentary has ever done.
It appealed to everyone.
Because it didn't feel real.

The Senna movie felt like a fairy tale and people like Alain Prost and Jean Marie Balestre were the villians and Ayrton Senna was the hero trying to defeat them and he did defeat them.

It's just this story didn't have a happy ever after.

The finger that made me fall out of love with Sebastian Vettel.

My mum is a woman of many quotes.

Classic lines of advice such has...

"If you get attacked by a man, kick him in the bollocks and run"

and not forgetting

"Never trust a man with brown shoes"

One of my other pieces of mum advice is.

"Never be too cocky when your at the top, because there is always someone out there that is better then you."

That sentence seems extremely app when talking about Sebastian Vettel.

Now a couple of years ago I did like Seb. He was funny, loved talking to the media (A slight rarity in F1 these days) and he was pretty decent looking too (Always a win for a young female.)

At BMW there was no doubting his talent. This kid is special.

Then in the first half of his first full season at Toro Rosso. People forgot that at one point Sebastien Bourdais was actually a little bit better then him.

But all that changed at the infamous 2008 Monza race.

Where in a slightly poor Toro Rosso and in the rain to boot.

Vettel won his first race.

A star really was born and within the year was signed with Red Bull.

Now in 2009 Red Bull were still over shadowed by a better team. (In this case Brawn) and Vettel was to me still likeable but still had what I called the gift.

The gift to be quick, clever and above modest.

Then this time last year.

I fall out of love with Vettel.

Turkey 2010.

The infamous Team mate clash.

Now it wasn't the fact Vettel blamed Webber because drivers can only see what they see. Not like us with our TV's and multi camera angles.

It was the way he acted afterwards.

Like a spoilt brat.

Hugging Christian Horner and acting like my four year old nephew.

It was too much for me.

My love for him was dying.

The tipping point though came a few races later.

When the wins came at the end of last season. We started to see the Vettel finger.

This was all good at first. Every driver like to do a celebration when they win a race. In Fernando Alonso's championship year. He stood on his car and did a pose representing the country he won in.

That at least was a little different.

But Vettel and his finger are just bloody annoying and the radio message.

"That's what I'm talking about"

Actually sends my twitter mad every race weekend.

Because the one thing that bores an F1 fan to death is repetitiveness.

(We all remember the Michael Schumacher seasons.)

Sebastian Vettel now is that Repetitiveness.

Now some people are going to say I'm just jealous because he is winning all the time.

I promise you that's not the case.

Jenson Button won a stream of races last year and I still like the guy.

Jenson was smug... don't get me wrong there. But Jenson followed my mum's philosophy.

He knew there would always be someone better round the corner and in interviews he always says. "So-so did a great job today, we didn't"

A bit of humbleness doesn't hurt an F1 career.

So Mr Vettel.

You need to get a new celebration and listen to my mother.

Because she ain't ever wrong. Fact.

Like this rant/post. Click the follow button blog button on the right hand side. Or you can follow me on twitter @squiffany.

Diary of F1 weekend: Turkey

So Turkey this weekend.

One of the more interesting tracks. Mainly for the fact that if you say your going to the Turkish grand prix. Your easily spotted in the crowd because normally... there is no crowd.

But it's also the scene of the aftermath of a three week Formula One break.

So now I have bored you slightly with a bit of guff, here's my diary of an F1 weekend.

Friday.

Now I was at work on Friday afternoon but with FP1 on at 8am. My usual habit would be to watch FP1 and then miss FP2 to go to work but... on Friday night I was going out. So I spent my Friday morning trying to find my outfit and get everything prepared ready for the one hour timeslot I had to get dressed and back out the door in.

Although I did manage to see Vettel's crash in the rain though. Only because my twitter feed was ready prepared with a Vettel crash video. So I got to watch it on the bus. Mobile technology for the win there.

Saturday.

Again work made me miss qualifying but thanks to the red button. I watched it all just an hour later. So I wasn't as far behind as normal. Qualifying didn't throw up much really. The main news was that Kamui Kobayashi's car failed and so was at the back of the grid for the race. This piece of information alone made the anticipation of the Turkish race more exciting.

Because has anyone who watches F1 knows, Kamui Kobayashi is the master of the overtake and with 23 cars to overtake.

That's a race in itself, never mind the front runners of Red Bull and McLaren.

Sunday

So I'm off today and in even better news because the Turkish race is actually at a decent hour of 1pm. I actually get a lie in. Double result.

Like China three weeks ago. The Turkish GP was a great dry race. Lots of overtaking (Especially by Mr Kobayashi), team mate rivalry and dodgy pit stops (I'm talking to you Ferrari and McLaren)

The things that made the race personally great for me have to be.

• Martin Brundle talking Toblerone etiquette (I didn't even think there was any) with Sebastian Vettel pre race.
• EJ moaning that the overtaking because it was easy made the race dull. That man really needs new glasses or a nap.
• OQN and Petrov fighting for dominance in the Renault team
• The pit stop incidents. It just shows one small mistake can really cost you places
• And Michael Schumacher pretty much showing he is actually related to Ralf. Bad times.

So in two weeks we're off to Spain. Alonso country.

It's usually the place where all the upgrades come on to all the cars.

Can anyone make any improvements to really catch Vettel?

Who knows, but I know it's going to be unmissable.

Like this post. Then you can follow this blog. Just click on the right hand side of the page or you can follow me on twitter @squiffany

F1 Fitty of the week.

So time for another F1 fitty of the week.

Now no F1 fitty of the week would be complete with Britney.

No not that Britney.

I mean this Britney or to by his real name, Nico Rosberg.

Nico is half German, half Finnish and 100% beautiful.

Not only is Nico quite hot.

He is also very clever.

He can speak five different languages and before joining the world of motorsport was offered a place at imperial college London to study aerodynamics.

Pretty and clever. Win

Oh by the way.

He can drive an F1 car too and beat a seven time world Formula One champion whilst he is at it.