Bob Barnard Track Engineering

So, did Sir Frank get up this morning and decide that Adam was below Parr, just when the team looks like regaining some form? Patrick Head has left the team to go run the flywheel hybrid system development, and Sir Frank was supposedly stepping aside with Adam the heir apparent. Now he has gone, with all the usual bumf about "pursuing other interests" and "spending more time with the family." We all know what that all means, and it's effective immediately, don't bother to collect your things we will send them on. 

What surprised me was the lack of comment from F1 observers, just reprinting the press releases. No surmising what happened? One scenario is of course Adam and Frank just fell out, but over what, the family silver? I have a much more devious thought, Adam got a better offer, but what could be better than running an F1 team? Running the sport. David Cameron was brought in, apparently by CVC, to run Allsport after Patrick McNally retired, and was being seen as the logical successor to Bernie. But not to be, he left a few weeks ago. Is it just my suspicious mind that just when Bernie wants to float F1, and the lack of succession is seen as a problem by some, that the only man to have overseen a public flotation in F1 is now on the market?

I did turn on the Indycar race yesterday afternoon out of professional interest, and I have to agree with Allan McNish's comment that the 2012 cars look like overgrown karts. Never mind the ugly noses in F1, these are ugly. Why leave the front wheels unprotected if you are worried about interlocking wheels? Let's shroud them as well, and then we will be back to the streamlined Mercedes F1 car of the 50's.

Just when you thought the British courts had settled the Force India/Caterham IP rights case, think again. The judge did dismiss most of the case, but notably found that some small parts of the first Caterham, then Team Lotus, did originate from the wind tunnel Force India used. So now Force India is saying to the FIA, the guys that fined McLaren $100m for possibly infringing Ferrari's IP rights, that Caterham should suffer a similar fate. This is all getting nasty. Hopefully this time the FIA will tell Mallya to get over it, but VJ is pretty desperate these days.

Our patience usually. Here we are with withdrawal symptoms from a cold and dark winter with no racing and needing something to stir the blood. What do we get? Testing. Just to show how irrelevant testing is, yesterday Hulkenburg in the Force India is fastest, and Senna in the Williams is among the slowest. Today Maldanado sets the fastest time of the week, in the Williams, and Di Resta in the Force India is way off the pace!

While testing does not show us who is really quick, it does throw up who is in trouble. HRT are not here at all and Marussia are running last year's car. Nothing much changing there. Lotus have a real problem with their chassis design and called off this week's test after seven laps when Grosjean said the car felt strange. Back to the factory. Ferrari are not on the pace and Alonso is saying the car is hard to understand. Sound familiar?

Indycar is testing the "Car of Today", the DW12, on ovals, and the drivers believe the problems have been solved with the handling. Pity there will not be many ovals left for them to drive on.

Over in Jerez di Puniet on the Aprilia powered CRT is putting in some good times, about 0.3 secs a lap off the Ducatti of Hector Barbera, which is better than the 5 seconds Colin Edwards managed, but it is a Ducatti and not the Honda, so let's not get too excited. The Duke is better this year by the sound of it, but still not on the pace of the Hondas.

World Superbike kicks off its season at Phillip Island, and testing there has seen a fair share of injuries. Leon Haslam for one has had surgery and may not start. Let's wait and see if Checa can keep it going from last year. He has been quick in testing so far.

NASCAR has its Dual 125's today, so I guess you can say the season has started.

30 days to go for the F1 season to start, and Australia loses its major sponsor, DHL! Of course good old QANTAS will step in, for a lot less I bet, but the CEO says sponsorship, corporate, ticket sales are all up! And they forecast to only lose $56m this year! But it is better value for money than the tennis.

Bahrain continues to be a political "bun fight" with British politicians and peers of the realm taking opposing sides of "should we go or not." Joe Saward has booked his ticket so it sounds as though it is on. Bernie had better be right "that it is only a couple of kids in trouble with the police." Nice one as always Bernie.  Like the guys in Sao Paulo just wanting to sell Jenson Button a hat. 

Dan Wheldon died yesterday doing what he loved. Should he have died? We will probably never know, but unfortunately in racing there is always that risk, and fortunately it is rare these days due to the safety systems in place. Track designers like myself must never forget that death or traumatic injury will result if we get it wrong.

Joe Saward says we should avoid trying to analyse the accident , leave it to the accident analysis guys, and we will. There are comments however about whether they should have raced there, but is Las Vegas really any different to Texas? Remember when CART cancelled a race at Texas due to the speed and G Forces? But Indycar had already raced there this year without this sort of problem. Would it really have made a difference if they were doing 215 and not 225 mph? Were 34 cars too many, I doubt it. I do worry sometimes about the standard of drivers down the field in Indycar, and especially those that do not race full time.

I will only offer this observation. Speedway Motorsports, Bruton Smith's tracks, are the only ones I know that put the cable on the track side of the mesh on the catch fence. I would add that there are places on ISC owned tracks that have no mesh at all, and neither practice is one I would endorse.

So here we are again in lovely Korea, where nothing has changed, not even the weather. Friday practice took place in pouring rain with no one watching and the track as awful as last year. Nothing has been built of the new city, it is still a track in a swamp in the middle of nowhere. The teams must be wondering what are we doing here? It certainly cannot be promoting Korea, just one look at the place puts me off ever going.

The inevitable accident occurred at the pit exit, and now they all want it fixed. The time to fix it was after the last race! How could Tilke design the pit in and out this way, and how could the FIA approve it? I guess you could ask that about most of this track. So what is the solution for the pit exit you ask? Run it around the back of the run off? NO, put in lights. So when a driver is coming down the main straight at 180 mph plus he sees a nice white light telling him that someone is exiting the pits. So now what? Do not misjudge your braking, stop trying so hard? Really. I guess you could tell the guy exiting with a blue light to make sure he waits until the other car goes by, but that's about all. And this is the top class in racing. And we have not mentioned pit in yet.

Of course it is a rhetorical question to ask what we are doing here, making money for Bernie and CVC. 

The McLarens had it all their own way in the rain by over 1.8 seconds, and Hamilton put in a lot of laps around the same time so it was not a one-off quick lap. Saturday is supposed to be dry, so we will see who really has the set up. Forecast for Sunday anyone?

Stoner is having it all his own way at Phillip Island, despite complaining about the bumps in the track. Maybe the V8s are the problem. Lorenzo is running in third so unless he has a problem in the race it is unlikely Casey will wrap up the title here, which would have been nice for him and Oz. 

Toyota have announced they will be back at Le Mans next year with a hybrid LMP1 car! When I was there in 2008 Toyota had Dome running an LMP1 car which was obviously a test bed, run under the banner of a university if I recall. I was told quietly then that this was the basis of a hybrid car and it has taken four years to come to fruition. If it can give the diesels a run then we are in for great racing, shades of the late nineties when they last raced that fabulous prototype and nearly won.

Superleague has cancelled its Asian races after cancelling its South American rounds. I never understood the point of this series and maybe no one else can either. Indycar is going back to Detroit, courtesy of Roger Penske I presume, who along with his mate Chip Ganassi is highly critical of races outside the US, or Canada and Mexico anyway. As he says, their sponsors get nothing out of it and no one watches. Bit like taking V8Supercars overseas. It is only done for the check to the series promoter, just like Bernie. 

It struck me after posting yesterday's blog that "Unlimited Racing Championship" is actually a very odd name for a spec racing series. By it's very nature it is "limited" to what they give you. So who are they trying to fool?

Casey Stoner wasn't limited by anything in Spain, winning the MotoGP race at Aragon from team mate Pedrosa with Lorenzo keeping his title hopes faintly alive in third. Dovizioso is doing his chances for next year no good at all, crashing again early in the race. Capirossi dislocated his shoulder in a crash, time to hang the helmet up? Rossi finished an unhappy 10th. This can't all be the bike, his team mate and a privateer beat him again. The Moto2 race was a five way battle with Marquez finally breaking away while points leader Bradl slipped to 8th. His once seemingly unassailable lead is now down to 6 points.

In Motegi Dario Franchiti continued his bad run with a uncharacteristic move that resulted in a blocked track, damage to his car and a penalty. Team mate Dixon won the race from Will Power who takes over the lead in the Championship, but it is still anybody's title between Power and Franchiti.

At Laguna non-points scoring cars won the race and the GT Class. Last year's Aston driven by Fernandes returned to the ALMS as this year's car is worse than a dog, and won from Chris Dyson and Guy Smith after their sister car obeyed team orders and sat in the pits long enough for the Dyson car to pass them at the death. Just why the team sent Steven Kane out to chase down everyone in that last hour I don't know, it was pretty obvious to me that he should have just driven around at a pace not to trouble the number one car. That would have been a lot less obvious and insulting to the crowd, what there was of it. The hybrid Porsche 911 carried on from where it left off last time we saw it and put in a stellar performance. Should be fun to watch at the Petit. Now I am not a great fan of KERS, but the engineering in this car shows how it should be done. Risi had a "dry run" for a repeat performance of running out of fuel on the last lap as they did last year at the Petit, throwing away a race win for eligible cars to the Porsche of the Flying Lizards. As usual the GTs put on the best show.

I have no idea what happened with Grand Am at Mid Ohio as no one seems bothered to report on it, and I did not watch it.

Sunday's FR3.5 race was another thriller with American Alexander Rossi beating home Daniel Ricciardo with Vergne third. Canadian Championship leader and team mate of Vergne, Robert Wickens, had a bad day and the title now goes down to the last race with Wickens just two points clear of Vergne. As part of the show Grosjean and Prosts Senior and Junior drove F1 cars at this previous F1 circuit. A prelude to France having a GP back?