Bob Barnard Track Engineering

"The Korea International Circuit is ahead of schedule in its bid to host the country's inaugural grand prix, according to circuit official Kim Jae-ho."  I have heard some promoters spin before, but this post on ESPNF1 has to take the prize as the best! How can you be months behind on the inspection date required by the FIA and "be ahead?" Actually it gets worse. The paving which was supposed to have started Tuesday did not start until today, is now going to take three days and will be finished by Friday. These Koreans must have a different calendar than the rest of us. Now some of you may think I am picking on Korea, but I do this for a living, and it is criminal that they are both incompetent and appear to be getting cut a whole load of slack. I found out the hard way that if the powers that be know that you know how to do it they want it perfect, but if they know someone has no idea they will settle for what they can get. Life is not very fair sometimes. This Grand Prix is going to be a circus. As I have said many times, do not take your show to somewhere that does not allow it to put on anything other than it's best performance.

There is an article on Speed's web site by Marshall Pruett about how Grand Am is listening to its fans for a change, and making changes to the cars to make the series more interesting. Things like making the "greenhouse" on the Daytona Prototypes smaller, and the GT's changing to central nut wheels. Changing deckchairs on the Titanic is what comes to my mind, and he lost me completely about the possible DTM cars. Read it yourself and see if you can work it out?

VJ Mallya had a bad day in court. He originally won a decision in the English High Court over sponsors of the Spyker car that he bought to get into F1. They conflicted with his airline and brewery business which he stuck on the cars, so they pulled out. The High Court gave VJ a $4.7m payout for their leaving, but the Court of Appeal, disagreed. "both companies were contractually guaranteed the status as the team's most prominent sponsors, appeal judge Sir Bernard Rix ruled.

"In my judgment ... Force India rode roughshod over all these rights and protections." So VJ now has to pay it back. There have been rumors all year about Force India and money, this can only make matters worse.

Williams are losing sponsors at the end of this season, and have said that they are confident about replacing them. Their recent good form should help them , but it is suggested that a key figure in that good form, Nico Hulkenburg, could be out of a drive in favor of Maldanado who has a bag of money from a sponsor to bring. I know this is how F1 has run for years, but that does not make it right. What other sport can you buy your way onto the team? Not that Maldonado is not a good enough driver to get an F1 drive, but what happened to loyalty?

I hope Korean paving is good, in fact I hope it is the best in the world. If not we are in for a sorry weekend there. The track has released a communication that the track is 98-99% complete. That's good because the inspection is Monday. They go on to say: "The last crucial element is the top layer of surface asphalt, with other less important things likely to go unfinished."

"The inspection team may put first priority on safety and appropriateness of the race track ahead of other factors such as cleanliness and makeshift stands," Kim admitted.

Work on the final surface layer began on Tuesday(!) and will take six days -- exactly the time available until Charlie Whiting arrives at the venue direct from Suzuka.

"Before the inspection the only thing left to do is working on the surface of the track," Kim confirmed." Oh, is that all?

What has taken so long to start this? The most crucial element of any track is the surface, if it does not hold up then you have no race, ask the guys in Dallas, Montreal, Cleveland, or Spa back in 80's. Not sure why it will take six days, I have taken three on most tracks I've done, and I would have thought these guys would have arranged every ton of mix they can lay their hands on. Not that three days is going to make any difference now.

Sad to hear of the passing of Peter Warr, the Team Manager and Principal for the real Team Lotus. Responsible for guiding the team during those glory days. Let's hope the new Team Lotus, if that is what it is finally called, can match them.

Kimi has come out strongly condemning Renault for using his name in connection with a the second seat, he says he was never interested. So why did his management contact Renault? Playing games with rally teams. His name is linked to a move to Ford or the new Mini for next season. Let's hope whatever he drives he can keep on the road. So, who is driving for Renault? The silly season is back, although there are not many seats really free. It seems there will be one at Force India, but whether it is Sutil or Liuzzi we still do not know. HRT are playing games with who is driving in Japan this weekend, let alone next year. Must be great for the driver's mental preparation.

To mention mental preparation, the tension and concentration in Race Control during a race weekend is a high as the drivers. Having worked in a few, including F1, Le Mans, and MotoGP, I enjoyed the piece on how it works in today's ESPNF1 web page, check it out.

Thanks to those of you that are excited about reading my book, should I write it, which seems pretty inevitable but is a daunting task. Writing this blog every day is sometimes taxing, but at least with the book I do not have to worry about content. My main problem is what to leave out so I do not get sued!

I have commented often on the ongoing hydraulic problems that beset the new teams, and their seeming inability to get on top of it. Well Tony Fernandes has found the answer, buy the gearbox and hydraulics from Red Bull to go with the new Renault engine. Job done. As I have said recently Tony is a man who is committed to doing F1 right, despite his comments on blue flags, and with this combination, a stable team, and more announcements coming, it seems he will not have to worry about the flags for long. Now, if we could just get the name sorted.

So, 7-Eleven have pulled the plug on Tony Kanaan's car in the Andretti-Green stable. They have been with Tony and Andretti a long time. Is it the lack of results? They are staying with Danica who has no better results, but I guess she has other attributes. Who knows, other than their marketing chief, maybe it was just time for a change or the economy still is a problem. Tony is now looking for sponsors or another drive, either way not easy I would suspect.

On the home front, I have thought for a long time about writing my experiences, particularly the Adelaide F1 and Phillip Island sagas, but there is so much more with Sinatra at Sanctuary Cove, Daytona, Road Atlanta and other projects. I have been encouraged, mainly by my lovely wife Xan, to write a book, and have started a couple of times, only to become annoyed at the outcomes all over again, so I stop. I now find the time is likely to be available and I think I have the right attitude to do it. I've solicited advice from friends and acquaintances in the business, and the response so far is encouraging. I will keep you posted.

Potentially three good meetings this week for Sol Real, one this afternoon before our usual presentation, which looks like being accompanied by the usual thunderstorms. Amazing how that happens on Tuesdays.

Not much else going on, Japanese F1 GP and Malaysian MotoGp both on this weekend. Lorenzo can wrap up the motorcycle title by finishing tenth or better, which barring Rossi punting him off should be doable. Apparently the Yamaha management has taken a very dim view of last weekends events, enough so that Valentino is now likely to make Malaysia his last race, spit the dummy and go and get his shoulder fixed.

The F1 race is extremely unlikely to decide anything, other than maybe eliminate  one of the "gang of five." One thing is for sure though, being Suzuka it will be a good race.

It seems the two newest team owners in F1 know more than the powers that be that have been running the thing. Tony Fernandes has come out and said we should get rid of blue flags because it is slowing his cars down, and Sir Richard agrees with him. I think there a lot of things slowing their cars down, that is why they are seeing the blue flag. It cannot be the engine though as Williams is using the Cosworth to great effect. Cannot be the drivers, Glock, Trulli and Kovalainen are no slouches. Cannot be the tires, they are all the same, so it has to be the car. Fix the car, don't try and fix the sport. If there were no blue flags then presumably his drivers would be looking in the mirrors even more than they do now as they would have no other warning.

It seems everyone except Lorenzo enjoyed seeing the fight with Rossi, and more than a few took exception to Lorenzo's comments after. Personally I interpreted them as not bemoaning the forcefulness of Rossi, just that it should not be what a team mate does when the other rider is trying to win a Championship, which is not unreasonable. Bit like Vettel on Webber at Turkey. Once Lorenzo seals the Championship then it will be something to watch.

Alonso says he is ready for some pain in the four remaining races. Not quite sure what he was referring to other than perhaps a lot of extremely long hours and hard work for the team. Let's hope he does not expect physical pain. Looking forward to Suzuka, should be a cracking race, and the tension gets ramped up every race.

Also on next weekend, not that we get to see it here in the US, is the best touring car race in the world, Bathurst. If you have the chance be sure to watch. David Brabham is a glutton for punishment and after a ten hour race at Road Atlanta is heading to Bathurst for another one on an equally challenging track and, if possible, even more competitive cars!

It comes as no surprise that Sergio Perez will line-up alongside Kamui Kobayashi at Sauber next year in a new deal involving Mexican communications giant Telmex. Let's hope he gets a better chance to show his talent than most of the recent new boys, but Peter Sauber has demonstrated that in the past and has brought in some very good drivers, so good luck Sergio. Hopefully the Telmex sponsorship will move Sauber up the grid, it has not hurt Chip Ganassi in the Grand Am.

Curious that the second most important sportscar race is on and Autosport web page does not mention it, not even under the ALMS tag? We have Peugeot and Audi going head to head with two cars each, unlike Silverstone, and they covered that race. I know the ALMS is not seen as it once was. Quoting Gary Watkins in the September 6 Autosport, "The harsh truth is is that, despite the rhetoric from the series bosses, the ALMS is a pale imitation of its former self." As Gary says, "should Audi return and be joined by another big gun in LMP1, the ALMS can return to its former glory." That is what makes the absence of news from this weekend mystifying, we have just that scenario, and it has drawn the fans to the track by all accounts. Even SPEED has opted to show us all ten hours! Must not be a truck race on.

Practice is showing how close the race is going to be. Yes the Peugeots are fast, 204 mph at the end of the main straight, and lap times in the 1 min 8 seconds. Audi are about a second behind with the "young guys" car, who have less experience here than McNish and company. Maybe Audi know the race is not won in practice. In fact many teams opted to sit out the wet second practice to install their race set up and engine, saving the mechanics sleep last night. They commented that getting the race set up was more important than qualifying.

In LMP2 the Highcroft Honda is just in front of the Cytosport Porsche, and the GT2 class is its usual close run thing, but with the Patron Ferrari with its nose just in front. All drivers were commenting on the amount of traffic so the race is going to be fraught for the drivers and interesting for us. Luck and patience is going to determine who comes out on top, just ask Pirro.I liked Anthony Davidson's comment that Road Atlanta is a "proper mans track."

The Porsche Hybrid is performing extremely well, as you would expect from a car that almost won the Nurburgring 24 hours. Even though it is racing itself the comparison with the GT2 cars will be inevitable, and should it beat them, what then? Porsche are making statements about rejoining F1, and Audi staying with LMP1. It has been a long time since Porsche ran its own F1 car, without much success, but supplied engines to help McLaren win world championships in the mid eighties. It seems that is likely to be the way they will return, although probably not with McLaren. I think we can look forward to McLaren making their own engines when their deal with Mercedes runs out.

Talking of McLaren, Lewis says he will hold nothing back in Japan, that will be something to see! Look out world, I'm coming through. Poor Massa has finally been told what he already knew, he is there to help Alonso win the championship.

Over at MotoGP at Motegi, Pedrosa has helped Lorenzo win the championship by falling off and breaking his collarbone in two or three places, depending on what you read. He is out this weekend, so maybe they can plate it and get him back for later rounds, but what's the point? Valentino topped practice today and was surprised by the lack of shoulder pain and his speed. Let's hope he can keep it up and give us a race Sunday. Lorenzo only needs to cruise around, but if he is any sort of racer he will want to beat his team mate.