Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Both are in the motorsport headlines today. The hot rumor going around is that Rupert Murdoch, that other Australian, is going to buy F1 from CVC with the help of the Mexican Billionaire Slim. Now Bernie is denying this vehemently which probably means it is true. Slim is involved with Sauber and Perez and his son is an FIA Senator, so deeply into motorsport, particularly F1.  Rupert's Fox owns SPEED, Sky etc and shows the F1 events, so owning it is going to make some sense. The general impression seems to be that even if this is not true there is something going on and people are leaking stories to help in whatever negotiation is going on. Meanwhile the Gribkowsky investigation continues.

Meanwhile the Texas Senate voted not to provide $25m to subsidize the Austin F1 race on the basis that money would pay for a lot of teachers. There are suggestions that the lower house will reinstate the money, but then it will have to be reconciled with the Senate so good luck Tavo. There are signs Governments are waking up that they are subsidizing multi-millionaires. The latest is Germany where elections have given the "greens" a greater say and control, and while they do not mind F1 cars running around in Germany, they do not see they should pay for the privilege. Bahrain is still in turmoil even though the US news at least has forgotten it, but the British papers have not, and with two weeks to the reschedule deadline they hope the FIA are taking notice.

No blog yesterday as I was traveling again to promote my new consulting service, Motorsport Services International. We have a group of world class individuals and companies that cover the complete range of racing activities from track design through construction and operation, insurance, merchandise, food and beverage, and car and motorcycle preparation and management. A one-stop-shop for anything you might need and did not know where to find it.

Well wasn't that interesting! Like chinese checkers with everyone passing and re-passing and not knowing how it was going to play out. Everyone seems to have enjoyed it, but I found it tough to follow. A number of factors played into that. I did not watch it live, midnight Saturday night here and we were off on a road trip early Sunday, hence no blog. So taped it as SPEED are not letting us record to disc, so quality is bad and graphics unreadable. Finally watched it in bed at 8pm last night after a couple of glasses of red, so not fully on top of my game. Lastly we have Mr. Varsha and co. doing the commentary, and I bet Coulthard and Brundle kept their viewers better informed.

Anyway, I think I am not feeling happy because I don't just want to be entertained, I want to understand what is happening and watch it unfold. To do that now it seems I need to be watching the timing screen and doing a lap chart while trying to watch the race. Doesn't sound much fun to me. Joe Saward said after Malaysia that following the race is not hard because he does a lap chart, but that's his job, not his entertainment. I am struggling to find a comparison. At the moment NASCAR is the closest where who changed how many tires when seems to decide the race. It would be like watching a soccer match where you can sub the players like basketball, and you take Ronaldo off for a spell and then bring him back at the end when the defence is knackered. Probably just me prattling on as an old purist.

Great result for Lewis, and even more amazing for Webber. He did avoid the problems of being in amongst the back end of the grid and drove a great race. "Just doing my job" he says in true Mark fashion. As it seemed in practice the Mercedes are lifting their game, but Ferrari are in trouble. Strangely it is Massa that is handling it better. It is telling when you see the fastest race laps that Trulli in the Lotus was quicker than Alonso! Very good for Lotus, finally beat a mid field team on pace. Pretty amazing that there was only one DNF and that was for a wheel not being put on correctly. There was the same amount of marbles as we will now become used to, but drivers are going out there anyway, especially Webber, it did not seem to faze him. It was interesting that there was probably more overtaking away from the DRS zone than in it, the combination of KERS and tires are having more effect.

Montezemolo says the Ferrari form is totally unacceptable, and in a speech like he was practicing for being President, he said, ""This cannot and must not be the team's level," he said. "It's a very delicate moment. I expect our engineers to act with determination and know-how, unleashing the maximum of their capacity to improve the performance of the car in a short time. I want Ferrari to be at the level that both we and our fans demand it should be." Rah, Rah.

Peter Geran responded to my comments on attendance in China and how it is now a major market for manufacturers, but I believe that has happened in spite of the GP, not because of it. Rumors continue this morning about the Indian F1 track not being finished. Here we go again.

Over in Assen the Checa show hit a speed bump in the first race with Rea winning on the Honda, but normal service resumed in the second race and Carlos now has a handy lead in the Championship. BMW fared better in the race than practice, but that's not saying much. Good to see young Australian Mark Aitchison finish tenth in the first race, his best finish in his rookie season on not the most competitive machine.

I caught a few minutes of the Long Beach ALMS race at odd times on live streaming, and there always seemed to be a caution out. Very sad race. Why not just run a GT Championship and get the other cars out of the way for them?

Hello everyone, missed you yesterday but I was at an event in San Diego, driving a Lamborghini Superleggera and Aston Rapide. All very nice and not on a track.

So Vettel is on pole again and by a big margin, but why did he sit in the car so long after qualifying? Webber's qualifying was a complete disaster, and going by the last two races he is going to have trouble staying out of trouble and moving up the field, especially if the KERS is not working and the car is now in parc ferme. Hard to see how the McLarens are going to beat Vettel on this pace unless he has a problem. Rosberg looked good through practice and qualifying, as did Michael, which is encouraging, it would be good to see Nico up there and challenging. The Ferraris are way off the pace again, but can they repeat their Malaysian trick in the race? Lewis played it canny and kept a set of softs for the race to avoid last weeks problems. I discovered the problem with my recording the sessions, SPEED are coding the broadcast so it can't be recorded on DVD, VCR works OK but of course the quality sucks. Does anyone else have this problem?

Still on F1, it seems that HRT have found enough pace to avoid the nasty 107% rule, so long as Vettel does not feel like turning it on in Q1. Pirelli came out prior to the event to say that the cooler conditions should result in fewer "marbles." Well not from what I saw after just 15 minutes of Q1 when presumably they were mostly using the hard tire.

Alexander Rossi won the FR3.5 race at Motorland Aragon, onward and upward. He has joined the Lotus, the Malaysian one's young driver group. That court case is supposed to have a verdict handed down this week.

The ALMS race is at Long Beach with two, yes 2, LMP cars, four of the spec series challenge cars and then the GTs. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Scott Tucker's two LMP2 cars did not set a qualifying time so will they race? There are really only 16 cars that should be out there aside of the grid fillers. Thank goodness for GT. Not that you can watch it anyway.

Montezemolo has continued his war of words with a warning Ferrari will stay in F1 as long as it is not "artificial" which he considers it currently is, mentioning that in 2012 the Concorde Agreement runs out. Pit Pass also has a piece about Mercedes and a breakaway series, which PP believes is never going to happen. Bernie has been to have a nice chat with the German Authorities and all seems to be well apparently, but Pit Pass has more on this. They have some very good sources or excellent researchers. Go to http://pitpass.com

David Coulthard stated the obvious, China is not interested in F1, and Malya said of India getting interested it was like playing cricket in Italy. Nice one.

Checa again took pole at the Assen WSBK round, with the BMWs surprisingly off the pace.

A bit of silliness to start the day, not much else going on. Teams in China for the F1 GP, and Glock is worried that the Virgin may not qualify here. He is even suggesting that the quick teams might use the softs in Q1 just to make sure. He obviously is not feeling the love.

Red Bull reportedly not sure about using KERS here, again, and there is even a suggestion that the radio message to Vettel in Malaysia to turn his off was just mischief as he did not slow down. Not that he was really trying being a second a lap slower than the fastest lap set by team mate Webber. Mark shared some Australian vernacular with reporters in China who dared to suggest he was playing Eddie Irvine to Schumacher. Nice one Mark.

Pirelli are defending the amount of "marbles" on the track from their tires, saying it is normal for tires to wear and put rubber on the track. Yes but it usually goes on the surface to help grip, not roll up in big balls to be thrown around. There is no evidence of tracks "rubbering in" as they used to. There is a piece in Motor Sport this week where Franchiti went to the F1 test to see his cousin Paul di Resta and witnessed a trial start. Loads of wheelspin and tire smoke, but when the car had gone no black marks on the road!

In the same edition Nigel Roebuck has a great article on politics in sport and the Bahrain situation. As I said Bernie cannot say F1 has nothing to do with politics when politicians are voting to pay most of his fees. Despite mutterings from the Crown Prince that things have settled down there and we can think about a new date, read Pit Pass web site,

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=43353

This makes for salutary reading.

Rumors circulating that all is not well at Williams, how can it be, share price dropping with their finishing places. Sam Michael is nominated as the scapegoat. There are also mutterings about Mercedes, and Montezemolo cannot be happy over at Ferrari. Jean Todt apparently paid a visit to Ferrari Wednesday, trying to shut them up about the engine I would guess.

This weekend we have the F1 race from China and the World Superbike from the "cathedral," Assen, ALMS and Indycar at Long Beach, although the lack of news on that is deafening. Remember when Long Beach was as big as Indy?

It used to be that a "Grand Prix" was THE motorsport event of the year in a particular country, and each country was supposed to only have one such event. Now we know Bernie has got around that with F1, and here in the US you can and do call anything a Grand Prix, totally devaluing the name. Dorna is not only emulating Bernie but has gone straight passed him in the search for the mighty dollar with now three races in the US and four in Spain. Half the World Championship is run in two countries? Italy only has two, which is surprising given the popularity of Rossi. Can the US support three GP's given the lack of interest in the National Series? There are suggestions that Indy is in trouble, but at least they run a real GP with all three classes. Laguna only pays for the top class to come, and I know it will upset a lot of motorcyclists who see this place as the Phillip Island or Assen of the US, but might they just be the one to go?

"Circuit of the Americas?" Sounds like it should be in Costa Rica or Bolivia. Setting some high standards for this track, let's hope it delivers. I staged an event in Australia back in '88 with Frank Sinatra and Whitney Houston in two concerts, and a whole range of top sportsmen and women over five days. We were silly enough to call it "The Ultimate Event," which it was and still is, but the media spent six months trying to convince the public it wasn't. Hard to fight that. Still Tavo and the boys seem to be in a honeymoon phase. India has done something similar, naming the circuit "Buddh International Circuit," invoking a connection to Buddah.

Bernie is not letting up on the engine debate, and Jean Todt is learning that just because someone voted for it they can change their mind. This is F1, they will do what they think is best for their team now. Bernie has a powerful ally in Montezemolo who continues to agitate for larger engines, a move away from too much aero, and a return to testing. Once he is President of Italy with Alonso as his Prime Minister then it will get interesting.

My buddy Allen Petrich asks a good question. Why are teams allowed to charge the KERS system before the start of the race? You cannot use the DRS wing for the first two laps, why I do not know, but let's be consistent, and avoid situations like Webber's, or the disadvantage at the start to the small teams that cannot afford it. Or is this all part of the "lottery" that F1 has become?