Sonny!!!!!

What's up?!

How's the trip planning?

How's the weather looking for the weekend?

PS(I have the miles ready for the airplane tickets for next year, now I have to see what can I do about the rest, I want to see Kimi driving in F1!).

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United States Grand Prix - Back to back in North America

The challenges of Austin

Maranello, 20 October – Scuderia Ferrari is getting ready to tackle back-to-back races in North America, with Texas the first port of call. Lorenzo Sassi, Chief Designer Power Unit, explains the most important aspects of the next race to ferrari.com. “The Austin track has three interesting facets: the first is what’s known as the power effect, or the importance the output from the power unit has on lap time, which is very high at this track. The second is energy management, because the long straights mean we have to ensure good energy recovery in order to maintain performance on those straights. Last, but by no means least, is the fact the track features many sections that rise and fall, which makes managing oil pressure critical. We expect fuel consumption to be less critical than in Sochi, but it’s still a parameter we will be monitoring carefully, because only when we take to the track on Friday and Saturday will we get a true picture of the situation. As for our development tokens, we still have four left and plenty of ideas on how to spend them, both on increasing power for this season and also looking ahead to 2016.”

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Surprise! Kimi and Valtteri will be in the press conference. How many shrugs will we see from Kimi?

Media likes their drama

I liked Kimi's answers in this press conference. He seemed relaxed and proud, anyway.

wow! it is warm and very, very wet there... probably no point watching anything related to F1 today (and some say tomorrow...)

Not exactly what I had in mind for this GP, but I guess it's better to do this sacrifice in order to beat Mercedes next year. Or so we all hope...

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US Grand Prix: Ferrari's Vettel and Raikkonen get engine penalties
By Lawrence Barretto Thursday, October 22nd 2015, 17:36 GMT

Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, Russian GP 2015, Sochi

Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen will take 10-place grid penalties for Sunday's United States Grand Prix after their Ferrari Formula 1 team chose to introduce an updated power unit.

It is understood Ferrari always planned to introduce a new engine for Austin as it will allow the Scuderia fresh engines for the remaining four races while working on development for its 2016 power unit as it bids to catch rival Mercedes.

As Vettel and Raikkonen have both used up their allocation of four engines this season, following an update at Monza last month, they will incur a penalty for taking the fifth.

"We will have the hit of 10 places penalty for a new engine at this event, but it has always been the plan," said Vettel.

"It's not a big secret, no surprise for us.

"The story is that this was always the plan for us to have the strongest engine available at every single point of the season.

"I think our engine guys have done a massive job, so this should not be understood as a downside. If anything this is very positive."

The decision over whether or not to take the new engine was complicated by the fact Vettel is still mathematically in with a chance of winning this year's drivers' championship.

The German is second in the standings, behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton, but is 66 points adrift with a maximum of 100 remaining.

But Vettel said the priority is improving the power unit, rather than focusing on his slim title chance.

"If you look at just this race isolated, it's not great news, but you have to look at the whole project, the whole season, and it was always the plan to have a fresh engine here until the end of the season," he added.

"The priority was always to have maximum power at every single race.

"That has been our plan and I think it worked very well so far.

"Obviously we have to take the hit here but we should take the positive which is that we were able to make big steps, rather than just [look at] the penalty."

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United States Grand Prix - “Quite a fun track”

Kimi hoping for fair weather to have a run

“This is quite a fun track, the weather has been promised to be pretty bad, but hopefully it will turn out ok so that we can get some running already tomorrow. Then we’ll see how the weekend will go. Regarding the use of a fifth engine, it’s part of our program. Since last winter, before the start of the season, we have had a plan that involves the turnover of five engines: we have been following this plan and we have been making progress. For sure we are going to fit it and this will imply a penalty, which is not an ideal situation, but without all these plans we would have not been progressing so well this year. We keep doing our things and moving forward to get where we want to be eventually next season. This year we’ll be looking at finishing the season in the best way we can; and then we’ll put all the effort into the next season”.

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Thankqs to KRS

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United States Grand Prix - A damp morning

Intermediate tyres the order of the day in Texas

Austin, 23 October – As expected, rain was a factor this morning at the Circuit of the Americas where the sixteenth round of the Formula 1 World Championship got underway. Quickest in first free practice on a track that had some standing water in parts, was Nico Rosberg who did a 1.53.989 in the Mercedes, ahead of the Red Bull duo of Daniil Kvyat (1.55.224) and Daniel Ricciardo (1.55.592). Sebastian Vettel was sixth in the Ferrari in 1.55.710. After an installation lap on Wet tyres, he switched to Intermediates for the rest of the session. It was the same programme for Kimi Raikkonen, who was eighth in 1.56.326, although he needed a short extra stop because of a sensor problem. The Ferrari men did just 10 laps, waiting for better conditions as puddles in places meant it was not possible to get a clean lap.


POS. DRIVER TEAM TIME

1. NICO ROSBERG. MERCEDES. 1:53.989
2. DANIIL KVYAT. RED BULL RACING 1:55.224
3. DANIEL RICCIARDO. RED BULL RACING. 1:55.592
4. CARLOS SAINZ. TORO ROSSO 1:55.667
5. LEWIS HAMILTON. MERCEDES. 1:55.693
6. SEBASTIAN VETTEL. FERRARI. 1:55.710
7. MAX VERSTAPPEN. TORO ROSSO. 1:55.969
8. KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN. FERRARI. 1:56.326
9. FERNANDO ALONSO. MCLAREN. 1:56.839
10. VALTTERI BOTTAS. WILLIAMS. 1:56.866

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10 place grid penalties + rain = I think they will fight with the Manor.

Not looking good for F1 race and poor Sonny

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Rain to Soak Formula One Grand Prix in Austin, Texas
Brian Lada
By Brian Lada, Meteorologist
October 23, 2015; 11:47 PM ET

People attending the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, should prepare to be soaked as bouts of heavy rain will bring wet conditions to the track through the first half of this weekend.
The Formula One event will face wet conditions this weekend at Austin's Circuit of the Americas.

Rain will be the heaviest during the first part of the weekend and should taper prior to the main race. However, delays or postponements earlier in the weekend could push back the entire schedule of events.
Unlike the stock cars that race in NASCAR, the Formula One cars are designed to race in wet conditions and have special tires that are designed for racing in the rain.
Some people believe that wet conditions can make a Formula One race more exciting and can give some drivers the edge over other drivers that are not as skilled on a wet track.
However, if the rain comes down hard enough, the track's drainage system might not be able to keep up with all of the rain, causing parts of the track to be inundated with water. This would lead to delays in the practice and qualifying sessions.
It is a real possibility that the rain could be too much for the track's drainage system to handle.

Fans in the stands on Saturday should make sure to bring a poncho or raincoat to stay dry, even if the seats are located under cover.
Gusty winds will blow some of the rain into the covered areas, soaking fans that would otherwise be protected from the rain.
Despite the rain departing by Sunday afternoon, gusty winds will still blow.
Not only will the rain affect the cars on the track, but also the cars in the parking lots.

Many of the parking lots at the Circuit of the Americas are made of dirt and gravel and will not fair well in the deluge of rain.
The conditions of the parking lots will deteriorate as the weekend progresses, being at their worst on Sunday for the race even after the rain departs.
People with smaller vehicles that cannot handle the mud might want to consider finding an alternate for of transportation to and from the track to avoid the risk of getting their vehicle stuck in the mud.

If postponements or lingering flooding issues from earlier in the weekend force Sunday's race to be postponed, it is likely to be held on Monday. No rain is in the forecast for Monday as some sunshine returns.

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And looking even worst for Mexico, category 5 hurricane! Strongest hurricane on record in the Western Hemisphere with 320 kms./h winds!

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Second free practice cancelled because of bad weather

Austin, 23 October – After some light rain this morning as the United States Grand Prix got underway with free practice 1, the afternoon session never took place at all. With the heavy rain, the marshals unable to work because of the proximity of lightning and then the medical helicopter grounded by the conditions, the race director cancelled the session. If the weather improves in the coming hours, then all the teams will try again tomorrow morning.

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United States Grand Prix - “Chances of an odd race”

Kimi: “It can go for or against you”

Kimi Raikkonen: “We cannot take very much from today’s free practice. This morning, we only did three timed laps because we wanted to save intermediate tires for the second session. We don’t have many sets of tires for the rain conditions and if we still expect more rain it’s better to keep them. It’s a difficult situation but it’s the same for everybody. At the moment we are just guessing, tomorrow we’ll see how it is and then what comes after that if we can’t drive. With this weather conditions there’s more gamble and more chances for odd races, it can go all for you or against you. It’s a shame for everybody, the spectators can’t see anything and we can’t drive because of the conditions. Hopefully we get the proper conditions at least on Sunday and we can do qualifying and race. We’ll try to make the right decisions. I’m sure we have the speed to recover at the start.”

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They started FP3! Even they told the fans to stay at home/in the hotels! Crazy!!!

Here some Kimi action....

https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/CSF6g_aWoAAUDqp.mp4

Qualy will start with a delay from 30 minutes. Sonny drove to the track and went home immediately. Big puddles next to the track, too bad weather to go even outside the car. He don´t think we will see the qualy today.

I´m so sorry for him and his friends. They pay the tickets. I hope the boys can make the best out of the time there

No quali so time to post some Kimi pictures

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