Bob Barnard Track Engineering

You know who I mean, bullshit artists. Sorry for the expletive but BS does not quite convey the strength of feeling. You know who they are, they are all around us, at work and especially in motor sport.

In a not surprising move Dany Bahar has been "suspended" from his role of driving Lotus Car Group into the ground. Despite harrasing Joe Saward for saying what was obvious the inevitable has happened and proved Joe correct, and the rest of us with any common sense. I'm not picking on Dany, he is just the latest to be shown up. But do not fear, he will show up again somewhere, that is the nature of the bullshit artist. It is never their fault, and the fact is they have spent most of their time making sure they have that next job instead of doing the one they have. Just look at the guys who persuaded the regional government around the Nurburgring to let them turn that great track into a circus, for hundreds of millions, and who have now handed the problem of making that money back to the government after alienating most of the original clients of the track like Ron Simons. Of course one of these geniuses has already turned up somewhere else as a manager.

Who would hire them? Why other bullshit artists, that's how most of the people in charge got there in the first place, so why would they want someone who was going to tell them the truth instead of what they want to hear. Yes men are in vogue. Just look at one of our major series. Many years ago I was taken to a city in Oz by the local enthusiasts to meet the Mayor and to try and persuade him to spend the money he was going to spend on a street track on a permanent track so it could be used all year round. Total waste of time, he bought the bill-of-goods a bullshit artist had sold him, and when I pointed that out he said "Oh I know he's a crook, but he has great ideas!" What could I say? That person is still around.

So when Dany told us he was going to build five new models and went about spending money on sponsoring anything on four wheels did we believe it for a minute? No, but the owners did until they sold it to someone else who just maybe do not fall for the bullshit. The Indycar engine debacle has to rate up there with one of the greatest farces in motor sport, and to cap it off both cars using it were black flagged early in the Indy 500 as not being able to reach the minimum speed! Nice one. Oh how Colin Chapman must be turning in his grave over what has been done in his name. Not that he was not above pulling a fast one, but at least his cars won races.

It seems Wayne Gardner and I are on the same wavelength with respect to Indy and the MotoGP:

http://www.waynegardnerapproved.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp%3Bview=article&amp%3Bid=228%3Awaynes-weekly-65&amp%3Bcatid=62%3Awaynes-weekly&amp%3BItemid=514#.Tl2P1aTtZEY.facebook

He remarked on the "marbles" as well. Not sure what they did for the resurfacing, but one thing they did do is ignore advice. When we heard they intended to repave part of the track I contacted them to recommend they approach a good friend, Jarno Zaffelli, who had just completed a similar project at the Mugello Circuit in Italy with great results, but of course they ignored us. 

Toby Moody, writing an opinion piece for the Autosport web site suggests it would be a pity to lose the Indy MotoGP because they put on a good supporting show. Well I agree that it needs to be an "event," Adelaide in 1985 probably started that and I continued it with Phillip Island in 1989 and Laguna Seca in 1993, but unless the core of the event is worth watching then all the "show" in the world will not make it successful. It is what goes on on the race track that needs to be right for the rest to succeed, and that seems to be what's missing. People will travel miles and put up with muddy fields and cold weather to watch a race at The Island.

More news this morning about Lotus Renault's money woes, with David Richards of Prodrive reported to be looking at a rescue with a Belgian entrepreneur. 

Despite the summer break being over it is still quiet times, let's look forward to it revving up.

In an unfortunate headline "Maldanado vows to keep fighting." I would have thought he should keep his head down, I am not alone in thinking he should have been excluded for that move on Hamilton.

On the business scene the upcoming meeting of CVC shareholders promises to be interesting with some major investors wanting answers as to what CVC actually knew and why it has not done something about its management since all this broke?

The Qatar wealth fund has denied it is the likely investor in Silverstone while there are no shortage of rumors. Joe Saward says the deal is done but no one is saying, while the BRDC has told members that the deal will not be closed until later this year. They sold their soul to Bernie to keep the F1 GP and now they have to find someone else to pay the piper.

Following on my comments yesterday about Indy and the MotoGP there is news today that this was the last year of their contract and Indy is not sure it will be renewed. Laguna has a contract for the next two years and Austin has a contract from 2013. It is hard to imagine Indy makes any money on this after paying to rebuild the track for it and then repaving it.

Not much else exciting going on. Baltimore ALMS and Indycar race this coming weekend on the new street circuit, so that will be interesting to see how that works.

Hot on the heels of one of the best races we've seen comes the news that the track that produces such events is only going to be seen every other year. It is reported that Bernie is OK with Spa and a track in France, presumably Paul Ricard, alternating GP's after 2013. Now I don't mind Paul Ricard, but Spa it is not, and it is a travesty to lose the wolrd's best track from the calendar every other year. Let them alternate with Valencia! The Mediterranean GP. I know your tired of hearing it but why does it make sense to only lose money every other year?

Talking of losing tracks, do we think Laguna or Indy will miss out on the MotoGP when Austin has a race? Or does Dorna seriously think the US can maintain three GPs? The attendance at Indy was reported as 64,000 on race day, but it looked pretty sparse Friday and Saturday. It's hard to see Laguna missing out as the manufacturers are all in LA, but who knows, Dorna might like the bigger pay day from three classes.

Anyway, Casey Stoner won the MotoGP race by a country mile despite saying this was his least liked track, and added he could have gone quicker. Is it me or were there more "marbles" on that track than I have ever seen for a motorcycle race? At the end the "line" was about 6 feet wide. Interesting to see riders stopping due to what looked like tire problems, and mostly Ducatis. The headline writers were at it again stating the obvious, "Ducati Boss says they have to improve." Rossi had a terrible time of it and Hayden stopped with about four laps to go and then got on the bike and went out again, what was all that about? Spies recovered from a bad start to take third in front of Lorenzo, nice to see no team orders in MotoGP.

Nice to hear Robert Kubica has had his last operation, so let's hope all is as good as his management is saying and we will see him back on track.

Well I think the Stewards wimped out on that one. Five grid places for deliberately driving into someone? Joe Saward said it well, "less than severe given what happened." He should be excluded for at least this race. And Sir Frank should have the guts to fire him, deliberately damaging his car. I know he brings a lot of sponsorship, but also disrepute. How is Hamilton reprimanded? Why would he deliberately move right to hit Maldanado, or was it for the pass at the bus stop? That to me was clear cut, Maldanado was wallying around, slow, stayed right as if to give Lewis room and then when Lewis is alongside cuts back left, no problem for me. Has Maldanado been watching "Days of Thunder" too much? I can just see Sir Frank, "now I want you to go out and hit the safety car."

Vettel took pole from Lewis in his repaired McLaren at the last gasp, but tomorrow's race should be interesting. Button starting from 13th, Michael from the back after his loose wheel incident, lucky that was not at Eau Rouge, and Alonso down in 8th after an unhappy qualifying session. Senna drove well for his first drive on Pirelli's after a long absence and outqualified his team mate Petrov by over a second. Ricciardo needs to lift his game, over a second slower than Luizzi is not going to get him into Webber's seat. Mark has predictably re-signed for Red Bull for next year, so Daniel has another year to prove himself, but where? The new owners at HRT will want a Spaniard in at least one of the cars. Fortunately the Stewards waived the 107% rule and all cars will start, including Michael's three wheeler. Not sure what the point of having a 107% rule is if you are not going to enforce it. I can understand Michael, but the conditions were the same for everyone in that Q1 session.

Roman Grosjean predictably wrapped up the GP2 title after finishing third in the Saturday rain affected race, now let us see where he goes next year.

At Indianapolis for the MotoGP Casey Stoner is dominating practice despite being highly critical of the new track surface. It started out very slippery Friday morning and has improved as it cleaned up and has some rubber, but there are comments it is wearing tires very fast. "Most" of the bumps have gone, and Casey has this morning run the fastest lap around here, but still considers it his least liked track. Ben Spies is flying the Americans flag with second fastest, and Colin Edwards is inspired by home soil to be the quickest non-works bike. Lorenzo is not happy in seventh behind Colin, while the Ducati boys continue to struggle, Rossi being the quickest in eighth but over a second off the pace. Let's see what qualifying brings, although of course here in the US SPEED would rather show off-road racing or a chopper show than an actual MotoGP, so we won't see it.

Stories today that the BRDC, owners of Silverstone, are looking to lease the place out now they have spent all that money on it. A one hundred year lease term is suggested, although how anyone can predict what will happen in the next decade I don't know, let alone the next century. $400m is the asking price, so they can then spend all that on their grand scheme of hotels etc. So what does the lessee get, the track? And how does he make any money? I know it is only $4m a year, but then there is the interest or opportunity cost. The BRDC is not making money on the F1 GP at the moment, and I know the place runs all year, but then it costs money to run it all year. It was suggested Bernie might want it, but he know better than most that owning tracks and running races is not where the money is at, he makes his from the poor track owner, just ask him about how well Turkey is going. As I said before, do they not learn from history? Octagon went down this road and bought their way out of the deal, and the Nurburgring is currently in all sorts of trouble with their hotel/theme park/conference center development. Donnington should still be burned in everyone's memory, what a farce that was. Now Silverstone is not so remote as the Nurburgring, but it is not in the middle of Europe either.