Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Sorry to have gone missing for a couple of days, my back has been playing up so lying low. One of the things that has come up and not commented on by the general media is the goings on in Austin over the Promoter. Here is the original story from Friday:

http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/Report-hints-US-GP-project-to-lose-promoter-Hellmund,30873.html

Joew Saward has followed this up with his own view on what is going on:

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/

This is about the fourth article so scroll down. Mind you the other articles are interesting. The Argentina track by Populous looks like a big kart track. Stick to football stadiums. Anyway Joe suggests Tavo might be looking to make more money consulting to other would be F1 race promoters. That says a lot about how much (or little) there is to be made in promoting one himself. I guess one day we will find out what is going on in Austin.

Joes first article on the Hamilton/Massa incident is responding to a number of web sites commenting on how Massa was told over the radio to "destroy" Hamilton's race by holding him up. Nothing wrong with that, except you would think Smedley would be encouraging Massa to go faster to stay in front, not slow down and keep Hamilton behind. Shows a lack of confidence in his driver. What is really the story here is the hypocrisy of Massa to complain of Hamilton's driving after the race! Adding insult to injury. And I find it amazing that in race after race I hear drivers in following cars being chastised for hitting the one in front, and yet at Spa Hamilton is in the wrong when Kobayashi hits his rear wheel!

The 14th annual Petit le Mans has been run, and who knows if we will have a 15th. Sebring is announced as a round of the WEC, but not the Petit? Scott Atherton did his usual "everything is getting better" speech but did not address the ALMS cars not being able to run in a WEC event. Has that been sorted? If it had you would think he would have mentioned it. And now we are "grandfathering" museum pieces like the V12 Aston Martin! Must be embarrassing for Aston that their 2011 car does not run but a collectors car finishes third!

ESPN3 coverage was very good except the ads were getting very old by the end of ten hours. A very eventful race. Not sure how they could edit that down to two hours, allowing for ads. I tuned in with 15 minutes to go and the race had ended, so the "highlights" were probably an hour at best. The major talking point was the Dumas crash, and I would like to know if he actually hit the front of the Porsche. Shades of Le Mans for me, stuck his nose in too far when the hole was closing. Now I am no fan of Montagny and the tactics of Peugeot, but Audi should know by now that they need to take no chances when passing them. Not sure why they had to start 53 cars? Do they need the entry fees that bad? Track density by FIA rule is 43, so 20% less and would have made life easier for the real competitors rather than those making up the numbers.

Over in Japan Honda managed to win its home MotoGP for a change in a crash fest. Stoner did well not to crash and recover to third behind Pedrosa and Lorenzo, so Casey still has a handy lead in the Championship. Rossi fell off at the second corner and took a few with him. Bit of a nightmare season for him and Ducati. Marquez failed to win the Moto2 class but still takes over the lead in the Championship from Bradl by one point.

Elsewhere lots of Championships were decided. Checa went out in style to clinch the WSBK, Tomszyk won the DTM title for Audi, Ceccon won the AutoGP title if anyone noticed or cared, Mehri won the Euro F3 title, Botolotti clinched the F2 title, and Peugeot took the inaugural, (and only?), ILMC Manufacturers Trophy. Dario Franchiti retook the lead in the Indycar championship with one race remaining.

In other news Tilke is the latest person to be trotted out to reassure us India will be "finished" on time. It is normal that the work is finished at the last minute he said, well most of it will be apparently. That may be true of a street course, but there is no excuse for a permanent facility. Bernie is due in court in Germany in November to testify in the Gribkowsky case, so perhaps we will learn what really went on.

Well despite all the suggestions that Red Bull had it wrong with gear selection Vettel won again. There seemed nothing wrong with his top end speed, driving passed Alonso to reclaim first place in a very ballsy move around the outside of the Curva Grande, two wheels on the grass. Alonso and Schumacher did Vettel a huge favor by firstly Alonso jumping past Hamilton and Vettel off the line, and then Lewis falling asleep at the restart after the safety car and letting Michael past. Lewis was probably the only one with the pace to bother Vettel today, but was trapped forever behind a vintage Schumacher who had to be told by Ross Brawn to stop weaving around before Charlie and the FIA did. I know he is fighting for position, but he goes beyond what is reasonable. Always has and gets away with it, whereas other unnamed drivers get called up to the Stewards. 

Lewis showed incredible patience during all this, to his detriment, while Button showed again that he has some grit this year. Mark Webber can't take a trick. You cannot believe his team did not tell him his wing was stuck under the car during the time it took to drive from the first chicane to the Parabolica, and how did he actually make it that far? So a good race which at times made me think the boys had all gone a little bit crazy with some of the moves, especially the first few laps. Luizzi's excursion down the grass was like watching a bowling alley, but he only made a spare. Team mate Riccardo's weekend carried on as it started, the car going into anti-stall at the start and taking 18 minutes to get right before joining the race. Daniel finished by so far back he did not complete enough laps to qualify.

Great to see the fans enjoying the race so much, even if Ferrari did not win. Tracks in America need to look at where they put the winners rostrum so that the fans can see it, and get near it. Too often it is tucked away in a paddock purely for TV and sponsors. Just look at Le Mans and Monza guys and see how it should be done. One of the many things Montezemolo has talked about this weekend is to make sure fans can afford to go to a race, not price it more than an around the world air fare. Of course that comes back to Bernie's promoters fees. Luca also went on again about teams running three cars or selling cars to lower teams so that we don't have the second class citizens running around 4-5 seconds off the pace. A bit like the old days in MotoGP when we had several teams with competitive bikes, and this is after all how Toro Rosso have survived and grown, so maybe not such a bad idea. He is continuing his concern that aerodynamics play too big a part in the cars these days, and how limiting testing forces too much reliance on simulation. As David Coulthard said during the BBC coverage, simulation will get you in the ball park, but you cannot simulate the real thing. That's why we run the race.

Tony Fernandes echoed Eddie Jordan's comments that the three new teams need to lift their game, no more excuses. Sounds like heads will roll at Team Lotus, or is that Caterham, if next year is not better. Having said that he has re-hired Jarno Trulli. What is that saying about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? So the seats are being filled. Red Bull is set, McLaren is unlikely to change even if no one is rushing to sign Button's option, Ferrari are probably set, Massa doing just enough lately, Mercedes have re-signed Rosberg and Michael wants to continue, Force India might replace Sutil with Hulkenburg and keep di Resta, Williams will keep Maldanado and A.N.Other who can bring some money, Sauber are keeping their two. Toro Rosso have new investors/sponsors/owners so look for a Spanish driver there, like Alguersuari, and Ricciardo? HRT also have new owners and will want a Spanish driver, and Luizzi probably has not done enough to stay on, so an opening for two new boys. Virgin will keep Glock and perhaps D'Ambrosio, with Lotus sticking with their two. That leaves Renault, where Petrov will keep his seat and we have to wait to see what Kubica can do.

So maybe three or four seats available. Grosjean seems destined for one of them, and then we have Bianchi, Vergne and some of the other GP2 brigade of hopefulls.

Thankfully Bernie has played down the chances of an Iran F1 GP, there being others in the queue already. Notice he did not say never.

Now some of my readers have suggested that my blog is late because I went back to sleep after the F1 race. Not at all, the second half of the Silverstone 6 hour was live streaming on Audi TV so we watched that. Made for a good morning, and now we have football. Peugeot won comfortably from Audi, but only after one of their cars and one Audi were both delayed early on and fought back through the field, but could not stop a petrol car from coming in third. The petrol cars had a good race between them as predicted, with the result coming down to who needed fuel at the end. The GTE Pro and Am classes both provided great racing, with the Ferraris coming out on top in Pro, and Porsche in the Am. Porsche had a good weekend, but the BMWs failed to live up to their qualifying form, but coming back in the latter half of the race to finish fourth in Pro. Audi pulled off one of their by now expected quick change acts, replacing the rear bodywork, wing, and undertray in just over a minute!    

 

Our old friend Luca has been very quiet lately. He could usually be counted on to provide some good ammunition for us bloggers, but he must be busy on his election campaign. His buddy has just resigned as General Secretary of FOTA among rumors he is also going into politics in Italy. So Luca says Domenicali has his full commitment, no he does not need Adrian Newey, even though he is "tired of losing the Championship at the last race." He likes the move to pay-for-view as long as their is a balance of free-to-air, I bet he does. Like Whitmarsh he is looking for F1 to move with the times and get on iPad etc.

Talking of Whitmarsh, he is trying to smooth out a potential problem with the Indian tax man who is likely to withold part of the teams income from the GP under Indian law. This has been simmering under the surface with the teams financial gurus trying to find a solution. Martin is playing down a boycott of the race, it does not need any more issues to deal with, but he says "you do not go to somewhere if you are going to be penalised." Our old friend Ron Walker from Melbourne must know how to solve that as I recall we had a similar potential problem with the Oz bike GP. Ron and his circuit mates are still carrying on about the new engine needing to be 18,000 rpm so it sounds right for the punters, or they will go elsewhere. Randy Bernard from Indycar just happens to be in Monza, but he has been meeting all sorts of people in the last year, and has Ron heard an Indycar?

Continuing the promoters theme our friends at Pit Pass, who I have said I suspect are close to Bernie, have floated the idea that with the demise of the Turkish GP F1 Group could be looking for another race to promote. Lo and behold Austin is suggested as a prime contender. I have always thought there is something or someone behind the Tavo thing, or am I a conspiracy theorist? Bernie used to promote a lot of races, but presumably worked out that this is a certain way to lose money. I guess if the Texas Government is paying the fee and Tavo's backers are building the track then promoting this race may not be such a risk. India and Poland, yes Poland, are other potential races mentioned. Apparently F1 Group has applied for the "Grand Prix of Poland" trademark. They had better pray that Kubica's upcoming time in the simulator or car is positive. We all hope it will be and it is great to hear he is recovered enough to start driving again in whatever form.

Red Bull pulled a surprise on the other teams by taking pole for tomorrow's race, well Vettel did, Mark was back in 5th after a less than stellar practice and qualifying. More KERS problems and an old engine, although Mark in his usual fashion refused to look for excuses. Hamilton and the team blinked in Q2 after setting a good time on the hard tires which would have seen him through and saved a set of options, but at the end of the session they put on the options to make sure of progressing. Should have stuck to their guns, but that is easy for me to say sitting at home. Vettel is running very little wing but still putting in great times through the fast corners, and has short geared the car which helps the drive out of corners but will put him in trouble for top speed if the others can get near him, a big if. So a different strategy which would presumably be ruled out if the teams have to nominate their eight ratios at the start of the season as that odd rule for 2014 states. More restrictions. Ferrari tried Massa towing Alonso around to try and get a good starting position for their home race, but ended up 4th behind the two McLarens. Tomorrow should be interesting with McLaren thinking they are in a good position, but don't they always.

Bottas secured the GP3 title with a win here, and Fillipi dominated the GP2 race but Grosjean already has the title and a possible F1 seat.

In Silverstone Peugeot went on to secure pole for tomorrow's race with the Audis second and fourth around the second Peugeot.The Rebellion is four seconds of the pole time, but only a second off the slowest Audi. All the petrol cars are within a second so that would be good to watch, if you can see it. Try http://tv.audi.com/#/01

Bit early for me and will clash with the GP. In GTE Pro the BMWs mugged the Ferraris with 1-2 in qualifying, with Porsche also strong. Pat Long put his GTE Am Porsche on pole, but it is hard to see Pat as an amateur.

In a headline that just struck me as funny Pirelli announced it was changing the shape of its tires in 2012. Oval or square? Neither of course, just the profile on the rears to get more contact, but it gave me a laugh.

The big news is that Gribkowsky has finally been charged over the sale of the F1 rights and his role in it and the bribe. Now depending on which web site you read Bernie has been charged, accused or named for his role in this. It seems Bernie and his Bambino Trust collectively earned $66.5 m for commissions, and then paid Gribkowsky $44 m for his role. Now the legality or otherwise of any of this is for a court to decide, but Bernie says he is not bothered about going to the German GP this weekend, so must feel confident. Whichever way this goes, $66.5 m is a lot of money to pay to anyone for assisting in a sale. I should be so lucky.

Montezemolo has announced that Massa will be there in 2012, so the options for drivers at the sharp end seem to be drying up. Red Bull appear to be keeping Mark, and where else would he go? Similarly Lewis appears to have no option but to stick it out with McLaren. Mercedes have Rosberg and probably Michael, although I would move him over for Di Resta for all his promotional value. Renault aka Lotus Cars should have Kubica back and Petrov has earned his seat. What of Toro Rosso? Ricciardo has not been put in HRT for the fun of it, and who knows what the new owners of HRT will do next year, they are already clearing house.

Murphy the Bear has a new column today and suggests Kolles moving to Williams aimed at an eventual Audi takeover of the team. All very complicated, but makes for a good read, and Kolles did get the R10's to run after Audi replaced them. The rest of the column is a pessimistic take on where ALMS is going, if anywhere. I had a good discussion with Tom Kjos who writes the Last Turn Club web site the other week about what we thought should be the path forward for sports car racing here in the US, but who would listen to us anyway?

Pit Pass has a resident cartoonist who has a good take on the Murdoch scandal:

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_gallery_image_display.php

For those of you that do not recognize them the three in the background are Briatore and Symonds of "crashgate" fame, and Mike Coughlan of "spygate."

In other news Alguersuari is looking for a poor qualifying so he can save his tires! Great way to go racing, maybe he will like the new shape? McLaren are denying Martin Whitmarsh is in trouble, usually a sure sign someone is on the way out, and are looking forward to having their blown exhaust back after loosing what they believe to have been nearly a second a lap at Silverstone. We shall see if they are competitive in Germany.

 

 

There are a few realignments going on with the F1 teams. Williams announced that they are going to use Renault engines from next year, so Renault increases its hold on the F1 engine market, despite supposedly being down on power. Let's hope this improves the performance of the team. HRT's ownership and management just got cloudier, with a buyout of Carabantes by Thesan Capital, which is a venture capital group backed by Nomura Bank of Japan. They say they will move to base the team in Spain with the current Directors and Team in place. So presumably Colin Kolles is still on the outer. This all begs the question who really is minding the store and who owns it? And will it make any difference?

HRT's arch rival for being last, Marussia Virgin, has confirmed a technical tie up with McLaren Applied Technologies, so look for an improvement there and perhaps Mercedes engines? Cosworth are going to be left with HRT, so it is highly doubtful they are going to invest in a new for 2014 engine with just one customer.

Speaking of engines, Clive Pollock is reportedly going to push on with his proposed engine for 2014 despite the u-turn by the FIA, and Bernie is now threatening to sue the FIA if the 15,000 rpm limit impacts on the poor promoters and their ticket sales drop. Of course his concern is that the promoter will not then have the money to pay the fee to stage the race, but since when has that ever been a concern for him? Bernie is famous for not being fond of drivers in general, they are like buses, another one will be along shortly. That is why he has cleverly promoted F1 as a team sport and built Ferrari and McLaren etc as the stars. It also seemed that promoters enjoyed the same stature as drivers, as there is always someone else waiting to pay him to lose money whenever a promoter wakes up or runs out of it. Bernie has also been having a bit of a verbal spar with Williams CEO Adam Parr. Adam was crass enough to point out that sports such as NFL enjoy considerably larger TV fees and suggested Bernie could be doing better for them all on this front. Bernie of course then pointed out how well Adam was doing on the sponsorship front for Williams. Touche.

The leakage of top staff continues at the other Renault, which isn't, Lotus Renault, with designer Tim Densham reportedly heading for Ferrari. Is everything really well at Renault as Boullier continues to tell us?

I took a day off yesterday so have not commented on the racing. Lorenzo scored a great win at Mugello so perhaps the Championship will not be a Stoner/Honda procession after all. Simoncelli managed to finish a race while Rossi dragged his Ducati up to sixth. In Imola the Peugeots gained revenge for Le Mans with an easy win over the Audis

This is my last blog. Just kidding, but it is my last blog on Wordpress. I have revamped my personal web site where I always intended to base my blog, and it will be launched today. The link should not change, so you should go straight to it, but if not go to www.bobbarnardtrackengineering.com and go to the blog page. See you there.