Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Going on that is. The Indycar race was concluded this morning, still raining and crashing, and did anyone watch? The "who's buying F1 and will anyone stop them" saga continues. The latest is Ferrari being involved, possibly as part of the News Group takeover. Now that would give Montezemolo a way to kill the small engine. Is this a team takeover by the back door? Not sure how the other teams would feel about Ferrari being part owner, but it would probably be no different than when they had a secret veto.

Simoncelli blames cold tires for his crash. Why would his be any different to all the others? Didn't he expect his tires to be cold on the first lap?

Still nothing definite on the Bahrain GP despite the deadline passing. Bernie is desperate to run this race. It cannot just be the money.

Fuel for thought. My Wife Xan has been following the McLaren trucks on their way to Turkey for the GP on facebook. This morning Xan raised the question of just how much diesel that is taking, and times that by all the other trucks headed there. Puts the amount of gas used in a race in some perspective.

And here is the US Indycar series dragging itself off to Brazil only to have the race stopped for rain after a lot of accidents. Did I mention another debacle? Like Bernie just chasing the money. This is not going to solve their problems. There is talk of a second race down there next year, oh goody. Why not just move all of the series to South America if that is where the money is, we can just tune in and watch on Versus, if we get it, or care. Interesting that Sears Point is talking to the World Touring Car Championship, WTCC, about a race next year. Not such a bad idea given that the Chevy Cruze is competitive, but not sure US audiences are ready for WTCC. WTCC goes to some odd tracks around the world so Sears won't seem so bad.

Estoril has been run and won, well done Pedrosa, shoulder surgery obviously did the trick. Making for an interesting Championship. I was going to say Ben Spies disappointed again, but it was a crew member who caused the problem this time, so we'll suspend judgement. Interesting that IRTA has 16 new teams applying for next season. Where are all those machines, and more importantly money, coming from. I know the rules are changing but that hardly seems to be sufficient reason for this. Let's see how many actually make the grid. The "claiming rule" is back. I know the US grew up on this stuff, but it just seems foreign to me in this day and age. Like going back to amateur hour.

I loved the report from Bahrain that "day-to-day life is improving under the State of National Safety." Aka a State of Emergency, how all dictators have maintained power through history. Let's ask the average Joe if he thinks his day-to-day life is improving. I think we know that answer from the open letter to Bernie. Today is May 1st, has anyone heard any news from the FIA?

Colin Chapman would have been proud. Sir Stirling Moss said that the front uprights were always on the margin, so both Lotus Renaults failing in the same way in first practice in Malaysia is totally consistent with the real Lotus legend.

Webber has bounced back from his slower than expected form in Oz, leading both sessions, but with the McLarens hot on his heels. Who knows who had what fuel load though, and I hope the Ferraris were working on set up because they are a long way off the time so far. There are some big gaps to the bulk of the field who are all two-three seconds off. The other Lotus continues to disappoint, and the sight of the HRT leaving the pits trailing a plume of oil smoke sums up their day. They are seven seconds off the pace so far, right on the bubble of not qualifying again.

Tire feel and wear is apparently totally different to Australia. At one point in the first session Button went out and immediately radioed in to ask if there was something wrong at the back of the car as he had no rear grip! Pirelli believe that anyone starting on the softs will only get eight laps out of them, and between the potential rain and the tires Button is expecting "mayhem." Well they wanted to make the races more interesting, or as Michael said, "a lottery." Not sure that is what I tune in to watch.

Following on from yesterday's piece on fuel consumption going up with the exhaust driven diffuser, it seems the Red Bulls are very marginal on fuel. We saw Mark pull into pit out as soon as he crossed the finish line in Australia, and it is now apparent he did not think he had the fuel to do the warm down lap. The Red Bulls also only did one lap prior to the start, so they are cutting it fine. They are running the KERS system at the moment, but it sounded to me like it was not working for Vettel in first practice. Whatever was wrong he was not running well and finished well down the order. It is reported that they will make a decision to run it or not, but by their own admission they need it here. A chink in the armor? The others can only hope as McLaren think Red Bull are still keeping half a second up their sleeve.

We have Indycar and Grand-Am at Barber Motorsport Park this weekend. Another Chip Ganassi benefit?

Having traveled the world for 65 years I have finally succumbed to allergies here in Phoenix, so until the drugs kick in this will be short and sweet. Not that there is much to talk about, everyone trying to make the best out of the Melbourne race, or find out what went wrong in the case of Mark Webber. They are going to strip the car and try and find the reason, but Mark is man enough to say it could just have been him.

The Indycar star drivers are complaining about the double file restarts resulting in too many accidents. Well you are the ones driving the car dummy! And Kimi is now going to join Juan Pablo in NASCAR having had his fun in rallying. He certainly knows how to crash and will have plenty of practice here.

There is a saying, "there are lies, damn lies, and statistics!" One of my favorites is "my heads in the oven and my feet are in the fridge, but on average I feel pretty good." If you look at the F1 race fast laps you see that Massa set the fastest lap in the race followed by Alonso. If you did not see the race you would perhaps assume they won, but Massa had a dreadful time and Domenicalli is "dissatisfied and disappointed" at their performance and is heading back to Italy to look for more downforce. Just shows that being fast over one lap does not win races.

Everyone, including Pirelli, are trying to work out how Perez did the race on one stop. Is his driving style that different, smoother than Button's? Perhaps it was the illegal rear wing. It was not as if he was stooging around at the back, his fastest race lap was quicker than Petrov and Hamilton.

The FIA, aka Charlie Whiting, admitted that the DRS system did not really add anything to overtaking, but blamed the short straight and fast corner onto the straight. Now the last corner is the second of a left/right combination that I would not have thought that fast, especially if you compare the situation at Monza. The logic is that in a fast corner the car following cannot get close enough to effect a pass at the end of the straight, but where do we see passing at Monza? At the end of the straight which follows the parabolica, a scary fast corner. Malaysia will tell us, the corner leading on to the main straight is very slow and the straight longer, but then again it might rain.

Dario Franchitti won an accident marred Indycar race at St Petersberg, despite being last in practice the other day. Perhaps being at the back is a good place to be at an Indycar start. I have asked before and will do so again, why take your show to a place that does not show it off to its full potential? Perhaps Indycar fans just want the crashes? After all Paul Tracy still has a drive.

Montoya failed to convert his pole speed into a race win yet again, another example of one lap speed not getting the job done, which I guess we see in NASCAR most of the time. I saw the last few laps while at an Aussie mates place for a barbie, no not a doll, and was probably the best piece of the race to watch.

David Brabham had a difficult first FIA GT Championship baptism, but showed good pace in practice in the Nissan. Personally I can't see a future for this series, especially when you look at the quality of racing in GT2.