Bob Barnard Track Engineering

I am surprised at the lack of response to yesterday's blog, but for you guys in Australia the Mercedes World Drive is headed your way after the US leg, so check the map above.

Bernie's World Tour continues to grow would be stop overs with Croatia the latest to throw it's hat in the ring with a $420m track, to be built by Mr. Tilke of course. Do these would be track owners not read comments like Sir Jackie Stewart and now Martin Whitmarsh on Herman's tracks?  And these guys must know something about high finance that I do not. How do you invest $420m in a venture where the main event loses money every year? Even as a promotion surely you can find something a bit cheaper to put on, or just buy loads of air time. So who is going off the calendar to make way for this one? In a twist, there are protests in the streets of the capital this last weekend, so now we are having protests before we even get a race to cancel.

Martin Whitmarsh was also asked about McLaren building its own F1 engine, and he declined to rule it out. I would have thought that this was a totally logical step now they have divested the Mercedes ownership and started building its own road supercar and engine. McLaren clearly want to take on Ferrari, so their own engine is a necessary step.

There is an interesting news item on Autosport today about the winner of this year's USTCC getting a drive in the WTCC. Now I have not heard of a US Touring Car Championship since the year I first got to the US in 1997, so they have been keeping this a very big secret. Why would the WTCC team up with this unknown series and not the SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge, or either of the GT series which do after all run BMW's and other "Touring Cars?"

F1 testing resumes tomorrow or Wednesday, depending on which team you are in, and supposedly we will get some better picture of how the Pirelli's will perform. Hamilton is the latest driver to come out about how they "will make F1 slow." Melbourne will be interesting, or maybe not?

The season has not started yet and the amount of words being written about Pirelli tires rather than the cars is not right. When you have a single tire supplier the tires should not be a factor, but it seems that this year they will be the main factor. There is a great piece on pitpass website about the huge balls of rubber that are accumulating on the track, and being thrown over the debris fence! Catch one of these in your helmet and you will know it.

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=43040

Now Martin Whitmarsh has come out and said the drivers should shut up about it, that being the tire supplier is a "thankless task," but Pirelli wanted the task. Whitmarsh is one of those who go on about the sport being relevant and more environmentally friendly. What's environmentally friendly about using masses of tires every race, when we know the tire manufacturer could make one that lasts the weekend? And what is relevant about a tire that lasts 40 or 50 kilometers? Us average motorists would like to see 40,000 k out of a set thank you, that is what is "relevant." If you need pit stops to make the racing exciting, as NASCAR seems to do, then there is something wrong with your sport.

That goes right along with the sprinkler idea. London's Daily Telegraph offers up even more ideas for Bernie to spice things up.

There is a great saying in Australia to describe a stupid situation, "All we need is a tent and elephants and we would have a circus." This is what F1 has been called, and is well on the way to being a real one. More "F1 Figures" have come out in favor of sprinklers. Let's think about this. The reason rain effected races are interesting is usually the unpredictability of it, look at Spa. Now if it becomes "predictable" that Bernie is going to turn the taps on sometime in the race do you not think the geniuses in F1 teams will work out how to make it all "predictable" again?

Good old Luca di Montezemolo has sounded off again about the current F1 rules. Steering wheels like "martians." You have to love him. He gets my vote for being the next Ringmaster of the circus, but he probably has his eyes on a bigger tent.

Not to be outdone Indycar has some ideas of its own to spice up the show. Guest drivers for the last race did not even rate a comment from me, but I have seen what happens when you start distorting races with offers of large amounts of prize money and it is usually a demolition derby. You had better hope the Championship is not being decided at that race with a bunch of ring-ins out there having their own race and "devil take the hindmost." Now we are to split the Texas race into two races for double the fun. We all know people watch the start and the finish, so now they have to tune in twice. But just for real fun let's just pick grid spots out of a hat. Why waste time on qualifying at any races? It would be greener, especially if you used recycled paper.

Very good news on Sir Jackie, we need his common sense around for a while yet.

Joe Saward followed up where I left off on Bernie's idea of purposely engineering wet races. Encouraged no doubt by Pirelli coming out in support of the idea Joe has really said it all in today's blog on how desperate F1 is becoming.

Check it out at http://joesaward.wordpress.com/

I said Bernie should retire gracefully but Joe suggests he goes off to Las Vegas instead, but he tried that once didn't he? I really like the Ferrari tank though.

Mid-Ohio has finally been sold to Kim Green and his partner Kevin Savoree. Kim is an Australian who has lived and raced here in the US for a long time, most recently partnering with Michael Andretti in the IRL team and race promotions like St Petersburg until Michael kept the team and Kim took the promotions arm. I wish him luck with it, it is a tough sell making money from spectator races as we just have seen at Jerez.

Times are tough for other promoters too, with Korea severely reducing ticket prices to try and fill seats, and Singapore giving large early purchase discounts. Now the prices we are talking about would make the average NASCAR fan have a heart attack, $200 plus, with the most expensive $400. Korea is offering a 50% discount if you buy your ticket this month. Now they are saying they had 80,000 there last year, so doing the math at say an average of $300 a ticket that is $24m. Now Bernie's fee is north of $30m, probably more like $40m, so how do you make money on that? Halving the price even if it doubles the attendance only gets you back to square one. And Austin is going to make money?

Sad to hear that Aston Martin is not going to debut it's LMP1 car at Sebring this year. With Audi saving their new car for later that means Peugeot should have it all their own way, in theory.

Sorry to hear about Sir Jackie Stewart's health problems and hope he makes a full recovery.

And sorry the blog is late. I had an appointment this morning to go and look at some land for a track. Interesting and has potential, so we will see what sort of deal there is to be done.

That's Bernie's latest idea to spice up the show. You never know if he is winding us up or is serious, but I fear he is serious most times these days. So, short cuts at corners did not get a vote and he does not think the wings will work, so let's install sprinklers at tracks and then turn them on with a couple of minutes notice, just for a little while to mix up the order. Why stop there? Why not just turn them on at one corner unannounced, that would really make it interesting. Better still, we could make some money with those viewer texts to choose when to do it or where. This really is getting to be a circus and it is time the Ringmaster retired gracefully.

It seems we do not need rain to spice up the show, the top drivers are now all saying it will be a circus thanks to Pirelli anyway. Three or four stops for tires and a huge drop off in performance that even Jenson Button will not be able to manage. If you read about the World Supersport race at Phillip Island you will know that the Pirelli's had punctures, almost unheard of in motorcycle racing these days.

Bernie is also saying that the Bahrain race needs to be rescheduled before the first GP which is just 25 days away. Mid-season break seems to be favorite, but who's to say the problems will go away by then?

Proton, the parent of the Lotus Cars Group, the sponsors of Renault, are being subject to doubts over the foray by their sibling into F1. Their share price is dropping and the forecast profitability of the Lotus Group questioned. What happens if they lose the court case against the "other" Lotus. All of this smacks of Dany Bahar's ego.