Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Well despite all the suggestions that Red Bull had it wrong with gear selection Vettel won again. There seemed nothing wrong with his top end speed, driving passed Alonso to reclaim first place in a very ballsy move around the outside of the Curva Grande, two wheels on the grass. Alonso and Schumacher did Vettel a huge favor by firstly Alonso jumping past Hamilton and Vettel off the line, and then Lewis falling asleep at the restart after the safety car and letting Michael past. Lewis was probably the only one with the pace to bother Vettel today, but was trapped forever behind a vintage Schumacher who had to be told by Ross Brawn to stop weaving around before Charlie and the FIA did. I know he is fighting for position, but he goes beyond what is reasonable. Always has and gets away with it, whereas other unnamed drivers get called up to the Stewards. 

Lewis showed incredible patience during all this, to his detriment, while Button showed again that he has some grit this year. Mark Webber can't take a trick. You cannot believe his team did not tell him his wing was stuck under the car during the time it took to drive from the first chicane to the Parabolica, and how did he actually make it that far? So a good race which at times made me think the boys had all gone a little bit crazy with some of the moves, especially the first few laps. Luizzi's excursion down the grass was like watching a bowling alley, but he only made a spare. Team mate Riccardo's weekend carried on as it started, the car going into anti-stall at the start and taking 18 minutes to get right before joining the race. Daniel finished by so far back he did not complete enough laps to qualify.

Great to see the fans enjoying the race so much, even if Ferrari did not win. Tracks in America need to look at where they put the winners rostrum so that the fans can see it, and get near it. Too often it is tucked away in a paddock purely for TV and sponsors. Just look at Le Mans and Monza guys and see how it should be done. One of the many things Montezemolo has talked about this weekend is to make sure fans can afford to go to a race, not price it more than an around the world air fare. Of course that comes back to Bernie's promoters fees. Luca also went on again about teams running three cars or selling cars to lower teams so that we don't have the second class citizens running around 4-5 seconds off the pace. A bit like the old days in MotoGP when we had several teams with competitive bikes, and this is after all how Toro Rosso have survived and grown, so maybe not such a bad idea. He is continuing his concern that aerodynamics play too big a part in the cars these days, and how limiting testing forces too much reliance on simulation. As David Coulthard said during the BBC coverage, simulation will get you in the ball park, but you cannot simulate the real thing. That's why we run the race.

Tony Fernandes echoed Eddie Jordan's comments that the three new teams need to lift their game, no more excuses. Sounds like heads will roll at Team Lotus, or is that Caterham, if next year is not better. Having said that he has re-hired Jarno Trulli. What is that saying about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? So the seats are being filled. Red Bull is set, McLaren is unlikely to change even if no one is rushing to sign Button's option, Ferrari are probably set, Massa doing just enough lately, Mercedes have re-signed Rosberg and Michael wants to continue, Force India might replace Sutil with Hulkenburg and keep di Resta, Williams will keep Maldanado and A.N.Other who can bring some money, Sauber are keeping their two. Toro Rosso have new investors/sponsors/owners so look for a Spanish driver there, like Alguersuari, and Ricciardo? HRT also have new owners and will want a Spanish driver, and Luizzi probably has not done enough to stay on, so an opening for two new boys. Virgin will keep Glock and perhaps D'Ambrosio, with Lotus sticking with their two. That leaves Renault, where Petrov will keep his seat and we have to wait to see what Kubica can do.

So maybe three or four seats available. Grosjean seems destined for one of them, and then we have Bianchi, Vergne and some of the other GP2 brigade of hopefulls.

Thankfully Bernie has played down the chances of an Iran F1 GP, there being others in the queue already. Notice he did not say never.

Now some of my readers have suggested that my blog is late because I went back to sleep after the F1 race. Not at all, the second half of the Silverstone 6 hour was live streaming on Audi TV so we watched that. Made for a good morning, and now we have football. Peugeot won comfortably from Audi, but only after one of their cars and one Audi were both delayed early on and fought back through the field, but could not stop a petrol car from coming in third. The petrol cars had a good race between them as predicted, with the result coming down to who needed fuel at the end. The GTE Pro and Am classes both provided great racing, with the Ferraris coming out on top in Pro, and Porsche in the Am. Porsche had a good weekend, but the BMWs failed to live up to their qualifying form, but coming back in the latter half of the race to finish fourth in Pro. Audi pulled off one of their by now expected quick change acts, replacing the rear bodywork, wing, and undertray in just over a minute!    

 

Our old friend Luca has been very quiet lately. He could usually be counted on to provide some good ammunition for us bloggers, but he must be busy on his election campaign. His buddy has just resigned as General Secretary of FOTA among rumors he is also going into politics in Italy. So Luca says Domenicali has his full commitment, no he does not need Adrian Newey, even though he is "tired of losing the Championship at the last race." He likes the move to pay-for-view as long as their is a balance of free-to-air, I bet he does. Like Whitmarsh he is looking for F1 to move with the times and get on iPad etc.

Talking of Whitmarsh, he is trying to smooth out a potential problem with the Indian tax man who is likely to withold part of the teams income from the GP under Indian law. This has been simmering under the surface with the teams financial gurus trying to find a solution. Martin is playing down a boycott of the race, it does not need any more issues to deal with, but he says "you do not go to somewhere if you are going to be penalised." Our old friend Ron Walker from Melbourne must know how to solve that as I recall we had a similar potential problem with the Oz bike GP. Ron and his circuit mates are still carrying on about the new engine needing to be 18,000 rpm so it sounds right for the punters, or they will go elsewhere. Randy Bernard from Indycar just happens to be in Monza, but he has been meeting all sorts of people in the last year, and has Ron heard an Indycar?

Continuing the promoters theme our friends at Pit Pass, who I have said I suspect are close to Bernie, have floated the idea that with the demise of the Turkish GP F1 Group could be looking for another race to promote. Lo and behold Austin is suggested as a prime contender. I have always thought there is something or someone behind the Tavo thing, or am I a conspiracy theorist? Bernie used to promote a lot of races, but presumably worked out that this is a certain way to lose money. I guess if the Texas Government is paying the fee and Tavo's backers are building the track then promoting this race may not be such a risk. India and Poland, yes Poland, are other potential races mentioned. Apparently F1 Group has applied for the "Grand Prix of Poland" trademark. They had better pray that Kubica's upcoming time in the simulator or car is positive. We all hope it will be and it is great to hear he is recovered enough to start driving again in whatever form.

Red Bull pulled a surprise on the other teams by taking pole for tomorrow's race, well Vettel did, Mark was back in 5th after a less than stellar practice and qualifying. More KERS problems and an old engine, although Mark in his usual fashion refused to look for excuses. Hamilton and the team blinked in Q2 after setting a good time on the hard tires which would have seen him through and saved a set of options, but at the end of the session they put on the options to make sure of progressing. Should have stuck to their guns, but that is easy for me to say sitting at home. Vettel is running very little wing but still putting in great times through the fast corners, and has short geared the car which helps the drive out of corners but will put him in trouble for top speed if the others can get near him, a big if. So a different strategy which would presumably be ruled out if the teams have to nominate their eight ratios at the start of the season as that odd rule for 2014 states. More restrictions. Ferrari tried Massa towing Alonso around to try and get a good starting position for their home race, but ended up 4th behind the two McLarens. Tomorrow should be interesting with McLaren thinking they are in a good position, but don't they always.

Bottas secured the GP3 title with a win here, and Fillipi dominated the GP2 race but Grosjean already has the title and a possible F1 seat.

In Silverstone Peugeot went on to secure pole for tomorrow's race with the Audis second and fourth around the second Peugeot.The Rebellion is four seconds of the pole time, but only a second off the slowest Audi. All the petrol cars are within a second so that would be good to watch, if you can see it. Try http://tv.audi.com/#/01

Bit early for me and will clash with the GP. In GTE Pro the BMWs mugged the Ferraris with 1-2 in qualifying, with Porsche also strong. Pat Long put his GTE Am Porsche on pole, but it is hard to see Pat as an amateur.

I like Monza. It is crazy fast with chicanes as interruptions, and some great corners we don't see too many other places. The Parabolica and Curva Grande, and I like the combination of the two Lesmos, something I have wanted to replicate. It shows you do not need a lot of corners to make a great track, in fact less is more so to speak. Too often we see corners put in for the sake of it.

Nothing seems to slow down the Red Bulls. Going on this afternoon's times they are going to dominate again, much to the Tifosi's disgust. McLaren seemed somewhere this morning, but Ferrari are trailing with Massa faster of the two again. On the option tire and low fuel the times look quite equal, but when they were out on race fuel loads the Red Bulls looked a second a lap in hand. Still, early yet and we will see what Saturday brings.

At Silverstone we have the Intercontinental Cup for Le Mans cars this weekend. Peugeot snuck in a fast lap to top the timesheet ahead of the two Audis, so not much has changed there. What is interesting is the Rebellion driven by Jani and Prost the younger are less than a second off the fast time. Given the breaks the petrol cars have in the race they could cause an upset. Again let's see if they can continue this tomorrow. Ferrari look to have it all their own way in GT Pro, with America's Tracy Krohn doing well in the GT Am ranks. There is an amateur who takes his racing very seriously.

Going back to F1, Pirelli have asked the FIA to get involved to enforce the camber limits following the issues at Spa, particularly with Red Bull. Not that they became a problem, Red Bull won, no one blew a tire, so what's the problem? How many more parameters of the car design and set up are the FIA going to proscribe? The safety of the drivers is a concern for everyone of course, no less for the team involved, so why the need for the FIA to set the limit? What else that the teams do with set up, wing size or angle, brake cooling etc, are they going to limit? And before anyone writes in I know they set parameters for most of these, but the team can still go for an extreme set up within that. The tires are just the most visible. Trulli is still going off about his steering, how about making that a standard part too! Where is the line between competition between the teams designers and engineers and spec racing? Indycar anyone?

Now before you all write and tell me that is old news, this is the next generation. Wayne's two sons, Luca and Remy. This was their first time at a track where their World Champion father won the first Australian MotoGP back in '89, and Luca won one race in the rain and finished second in four others. Nice going. Remy had a bit more torrid time of it but still managed two seconds, two thirds and a fifth. Great future for these two I think, but Dad needs to lift his game as a mechanic. Still, Wayne did beat them when they took time out to go kart racing. The boys loved the Island, who wouldn't, and cannot wait to go back.

Over in Italy at Monza, another great track, the cream rose to the top with Ricciardo leading Alexander Rossi home in the second race. I loved the teams explanation why there were "loose bolts," apparently not just one but all of them. The rule only says "tight," but not how tight. Classic motor racing, if you do not define it with a torque value how tight is tight? He did not win the argument though.

A lot is being made about News Corp not being allowed to buy F1 because it will have a conflict of interest, being a media company. How short the memories are. How did all this get started? When Bernie decided to make a bunch of money and sell it to the Kirsch Media Group out of Germany. That's right, the Kirsch MEDIA Group. So what has changed in the last twenty years? If it was good enough then why not for Rupert and Co? I'm sure Rupert can put in place enough cut-outs, like Bernie and the boys have now, to put a fire wall between the company owning F1 and Sky. And why are they only carrying on about Sky? What about Fox and Speed in the US, and all the other stations he owns. We pay for Speed via the cable here in the US, so define "free to air."

Casey won at Le Mans, no surprise there, but Rossi third? That was largely thanks to Simoncelli and Pedrosa coming together and Lorenzo having a bad day, but the Ducati seems to be coming good. The Simoncelli incident earned him a ride through penalty, which has sparked a lot of debate on-line as to who was at fault here. I have not seen anything but the stills, and it does look like Simo did not leave him much room, unlike what we saw at Turkey last week, and he is making a habit of this and making himself very unpopular with his fellow riders. The Tech3 boys did not manage to repeat their qualifying form, and Spies was down in sixth. Marquez finally learned how to keep a four stroke upright and won his first Moto2 race, so look out everyone else if he repeats his form from the 125's.

Rockenfeller won his first DTM race, and about time. It is hard to believe that with all else he has won he has had to wait this long for a good car. Let's hope Grand-Am can bring this series here in 2013. Talking of Grand-Am the race from Virginia started with an hour behind the pace car for rain. Someone finally beat Ganassi and Co, but given how easily Pruit caught the lead car on the last lap I wonder if that was not a set up to try and make the series more interesting. $25,000 reward was posted by Grand-Am for anyone beating Ganassi which received more press than anything else they have done.

Kevin Magnessun won the third F3 race of the weekend at Snetterton after finishing ninth in the second "reverse grid" race with fastest lap of the race.

Bernie made a surprise visit to the reopening of the Austrian track owned by Red Bull magnate, Mateschitz, and told him that even though "Didi" does not want an F1 race, he should have one. Didi probably knows what it will cost him.

To follow up my piece on why we do not see great races and series from around the world I have asked a series of friends questions on the reasons and costs. Chet Burks who's company produces many motorsport race coverages told me the obvious, that the audience is not big enough for the big channels. But here we are, Sunday afternoon prime time and we have two hours of World Superbike on. Now Gill Cambell from Laguna told me the other week she thought there were no more than 65,000 fans for MotoGP in the US, so one would suspect a similar number for Superbike. Don't tell me there are not more than that for races like the Spa 6 hour that ran yesterday. I would suspect that the F1 audience would crossover to endurance given the similar high tech of the cars. So how is Superbike on TV? Someone like Honda or Yamaha must be paying for it I suspect. Pity Peugeot do not sell cars here, and Audi do not seem too bothered it is not shown.

Just for fun I logged on to MotorsTV, an English channel which does show all those great series we do not see. It goes to most of Europe, and I know there all sorts of rights issues, but surely someone can do something similar here, or just buy the MotorsTV feed? But I am just a simple track builder, what would I know?

Good racing from Turkey. Lots of overtaking, not quite sure if that is what I want to see the way it is happening, but you have to be impressed by how clean the boys kept it. A few biffs and barges, but basically everyone making room. Lee Diffey carrying on about a record number of pit stops. Personally I do not tune in to watch pit stops, it is about racing not stopping and parking. Sorry to harp on it but if overtaking and pit stops are the measure of great racing watch an endurance race! Not sure how many passes there are a lap, and yes there are cars of different performance out there, but each pass has to be judged just right. Back to F1, it is good to see Ferrari and Mercedes so competitive, makes for more interesting races. Also interesting to see Bridgestone advertising during the race. They worked out you do not need to supply the tires to get coverage, especially when the tires of your competitor are wearing out so fast. Ambush marketing anybody?

Speaking of Superbike, good racing from Monza. As with Turkey you get good racing on fast tracks.