Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Don't often find anything interesting to write about Indy Car, but the announcement that they are going to trim the funding scheme from 24 to 22 cars "in a move aimed at boosting the quality of the field" has caught my eye. You are going to stop paying $1.2m a car to the bottom two teams to improve the quality? And you do not expect the size of the field to reduce, so presumably those two cars are going to have "pay for ride" drivers to make up the loss. That will improve the quality. Randy speaks with fork tongue methinks, he just wants to save $2.4m. Maybe he got this Bull from his previous job, which he is somehow still listed as holding.

It seems the American motorcycle world is in need of some financial assistance with comments today about the number of good riders without a ride for 2011. "Hopefully, this is the bottom," said one team owner of the current situation. What is going to change to make it the bottom?

Not much else to report, 100 days to the start of 2011 F1 season, hang in there. V8Supercars at Homebush in Sydney this weekend, is this the last race of 2010? Still, gives me time to finish the book, Chapter Nine under way, back in Oz after the '93 USGP.

So Mark Webber is Australia's top earning sportsman, displacing Greg Norman from top spot. I would hope so, how long is it since Greg really played apart from cameos? Greg has been very smart and is making lots from developments, so he should be in the business section. Nice to see Mark being rewarded for years of effort, and he did it without a big sponsor backing too. I like Bernie's comment that Enzo would have loved Mark and Mark would surely have been a Ferrari driver back in Enzo's day, and a World Champion by now.

Maldonado has been confirmed as the second driver at Williams, probably the worst kept secret of this silly season. Let's hope he can live up to his GP2 winner status and his sponsors checkbook. The other seats remain open on the FIA entry list for 2011, so we still have some interest in who's going where. Lotus is still listed which the Team says is due to the public's positive response to Tony Fernandes Team, and it seems the Malaysian Government who owns the Proton/Lotus car group has told them to chill it on the public fight over the name. As Mike Gascoyne said, why are they fighting us, they are getting the exposure for free? I guess Lotus Cars has intentions of their own in F1, they seem to want to be in everything else. This smacks of overreaching, if large companies like Renault, Toyota and BMW cannot do it, then why try?

Bernie now blames Max for the poor showing of the new teams by bringing them in on the pretext that costs will be capped. But Bernie is happy for them to stay,"provided they don't walk around with begging bowls, it's good to have them."

Alonso thinks his margin over poor Massa shows how much better he is this year. Still had to get his team to ask Massa to move over in Germany though didn't he?

The Petit Le Mans is now on the Intercontinental Cup Calendar for 2011 on October 1st. So, was that just a negotiating ploy? I am personally glad to see it included as I was very much involved in the inaugural race when there was no ALMS, and it deserves to be on the calendar. To me it is a better race than Sebring.

Luca di Montezemolo, Mr. Ferrari, is concerned that the rules for 2011 are still somewhat open to interpretation, particularly in respect to the movable rear wing. Patrick Head warned recently that the latter innovation is "not set in stone," and that is my understanding, so when is that going to be clarified?

It seems the Olympic Commission is concerned about the planned staging of the first Russian F1 race the same year as the Winter Games in Sochi. They question whether you can run two such events in one city in the same year, but I would have thought that many of the facilities, especially temporary stands for instance, could work for both and save money.

I trust all my American friends had a great Thanksgiving, I certainly did. Spent it with Aussie mate also from Adelaide and we watched the movie made of the set up for the first Adelaide F1 GP that I recently managed to obtain a copy of.

It is sort out time for the remaining seats in F1 next year, so let's look at who's where and who might be. McLaren is set with Hamilton and Button, and it looks like despite everything Webber and Vettel will be back at Red Bull. Christain Horner is tipping Mark for the title, so he must think he will be back. Ferrari will have Alonso, but is Massa safe? Who is available that is a better #2 to Alonso? Kubica and Webber have been mentioned, but neither look like moving and would not want to be a number 2 anyway. Mercedes has Nico, and maybe Michael. He says he likes the Pirelli's, and I don't think his ego is going to let him give up that easily. If they wanted a German driver there is Hulkenburg or Heidfeld, or even Glock, that would do as good a job or better, but Michael's name is great marketing for Mercedes. Renault has Kubica and looks like it might keep Petrov. The car is improving all the time so Kubica will stay, and Petrov did well at the end of the season, and with the Russian connection it seems smart to keep him. Force India is likely to keep Sutil, another German that Mercedes could take, but it seems Liuizzi might be replaced by Hulkenburg which would be a smart move.

Williams are retaining Barrichello, how long can this man go on, and I presume Maldonando with his sponsorship, although that is not announced.  Torro Rosso has given a big hint that Buemi is not coming back and could make room for Ricciardo. When was the last time Australia had two F1 drivers? Answers on a postcard please. Sauber has Mr. Overtaking, "I do not see the other cars" Kobayashi and the young Mexican driver Perez. Lotus, or whoever, will have Trulli and Kovalainen back, but the other two new teams are still up in the air. Glock will probably stay at Virgin, or whatever it is next year, with just maybe a Russian partner, Aleshin. HRT will take whoever has a big check book, and will anybody care?

So the GP2 winner may again not find an F1 seat, and drivers are bypassing it from FR3.5 and GP3 etc. Far from being a stepping stone it is becoming a support series for F1 for drivers that are not quite good enough.

On a final note, Bernie was mugged entering his home last night. Some journalists are unkind enough to repeat Bernie's comments after the attempted muggings in Sao Paulo, "They look for victims, they look for anyone who looks like a soft touch and not too bright," Bernie said in Sao Paulo. "People who look a bit soft and simple, they will always have a go at." I cannot for one moment subscribe to Bernie being "a soft touch and not too bright" so it seems no one is safe.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the US, so probably will not write a blog, not that there is much to comment on today. Hendrick is changing his crew chiefs for three of his teams in NASCAR, except Jimmie Johnson of course. Smacks of deckchairs on the Titanic, but I guess he knows his business and different personalities can make a better team. Earnhardt Jr. is a curious case. We know he can drive so why is he running around at the back when a sister car is winning the Championship? I'm sure if the answer was simple Rick Hendrick would have done it, but I cannot imagine it is just a change of crew chief.

Mario Theissen is stepping down as BMW's motorsport chief, and I don't know about you but I'm not sure he achieved much for them. Is he retiring or going somewhere else, the press release did not say.

Torro Rosso say they have a long hard winter in front of them to stay ahead of Lotus and Virgin. I guess you can say that for all the teams. I agree that Lotus, in whatever name, could challenge them, but not sure that Virgin, or whatever they are called next year, can make a big step.

Kobayashi says he intends to make no mistakes next year. I for one hope he does as he is actually going for it, not just driving around, and as we have seen with Hamilton, that will lead to mistakes, but it also leads to some exciting races like Kobayashi ran at Suzuka.

So, to all my American friends, Happy Thanksgiving!