Bob Barnard Track Engineering

David Coulthard is a busy boy, not only driving his Red Bull at Austin he also visited Willow Springs out there in the Mojave Desert to coach Tom Cruise on how to drive an F1 car. What's next on his tour of rocky race tracks? And why Tom Cruise? This is of course the Red Bull marketing circus and not a test team, so I guess why not.

Word today is that work at the Austin track is stopped, and not just to let David drive around. Here is the story:

http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/Work-currently-stopped-at-2012-US-GP-venue,28472.html

Now I don't know about you but there looked like plenty to do around that track and I've never known a contractor to stop work because he is ahead of schedule, you never know what's coming tomorrow to delay you. Being ahead is money in the bank, which apparently is what Tavo does not have.

Honda is suggesting that the Japanese MotoGP could go to Suzuki for this year to avoid the situation of teams and riders not wanting to go to Motegi. It would suit me, Suzuka is a way better track, and as they said the 8 Hour is run there so what's the problem? This comes as it seems that not only is Rossi not wanting to go, the team doesn't either. As I already said, they can stay home and lose badly.

News that Bradley Smith is going to get a start with Tech 3 in MotoGP next year, so who is leaving? Colin Edwards is the obvious choice and he and Capirossi are looking for a ride in WSBK for next year. So instead of WSBK being a stepping stone to MotoGP, or an equal series, it is now the retirement league.

They are not the only ones likely looking for a ride. Nick Heidfeld looks like he will lose his to Bruno Senna as early as this weekend, and he is threatening to sue someone if that is the case, but he can hardly argue his performance justifies his retaining it. Not sure Bruno is the right choice though.

Talking of this weekend, the FIA has banned the use of DRS through Eau Rouge during practice and qualifying. Several drivers raised the potential risk, but why does it need the FIA to say don't use it? Surely the drivers can elect not to use it, or will some silly person try it like Luizzi? Eau Rouge is scary enough without trying without downforce.

Today we have video and photos of David Coulthard driving the Red Bull F1 car around the gravel pit called the Austin GP track. Glad i do not have to clean the dust and rocks out of that car. Now there was a planned Red Bull demo in the city as we have become used to, but apparently a filming permit was not forthcoming, the city must be right behind this! So we have seen Coulthard at a ranch with cowboys, a still photo in front of the Capitol building, and now at the track. Someone is working very hard to convince the sceptics or average American that this is going to be great, but so far as I have said before, it is like putting Frank Sinatra on in your local farmers barn. Why not put Travis Pastrana out there in his Red Bull rally car? 

Courtesy of ESPNF1 and Getty Images here is Turn Two.

http://en.espnf1.com/

 I particularly like the person crouched in the inside of the corner behind one plastic barrier, fat lot of use that would be, why not put him up on one of those high banks out of the way? And does this really want to make you go? Here is some video footage that gets better.

http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/Videos-Red-Bull-demo-at-the-Circuit-of-the-Americas,28426.html

Now I have done something like this at Eastern Creek with Dick Johnson's V8Supercar, but all the earthworks were done and most of the first layer of asphalt, the rest finished base course, so it actually looked like a race track.

The only other news on a slow Monday is Kimi possibly going to drive the Peugeot 908 at Le Mans next year. Kimi is currently still rallying his Citroen, which is part of the same group, so it makes sense and would be great to see. His interest in NASCAR seems to have all but disappeared.

Interesting qualifying session today in Hungary. Vettel's car was worked on all night, breaking the F1 curfew, as he was not happy with it, and was fast this morning in P3 and just pipped Hamilton for pole. Obviously the team did not work on Mark's car, he is stuck down in sixth behind the McLarens and Ferraris. I bet that feels good. Hamilton really pulled one out of the bag at the start of the Q3, having got there without using the super soft tire, and must look good for the race with that sort of speed on the prime. Strangely Lewis had a poor P3 and never did set a time on the super softs, complaining of brake problems. The durability of the super soft is questionable, so it should be an interesting race. Lewis will probably start on the dirty side of the track, so it will be tough to jump Vettel at the start, but who knows, Red Bull have not been great off the line lately.

Button showed a renewed pace here and his driving style should suit this place, with Massa out qualifying Alonso for the first time in a while. Contract time? Talking of that, Trulli has come alive and is now very happy with the power steering. Did they fix it or his attitude? Kovalainen did eventually out qualify him and was only about 0.3 seconds off the Toro Rosso of Buemi. Everyone qualified inside the 107%, which did not look likely earlier on, with HRT beating D'Ambrosio in the Virgin.

The fall out from the news of the Sky/BBC deal continues, but it seems the Concorde Agreement did not quite prevent Bernie from accepting a pay-for-view broadcaster as long as some of it was still "free-to-air." Of course the extra TV income helped the Teams get over their conscience about the poor viewers now having to pay 470 pounds to subscribe to Sky. That is a lot of money, and as one journalist points out you could actually buy a ticket to six GP's for that. A poll in Britain shows around 81% of readers on one sports reporter's web site would not pay the extra to watch F1. A major point still unclear is whether the BBC is going to show highlights of the races it does not cover live, or a delayed coverage. Whitmarsh says Bernie has told him that they will definitely show the whole race, but that is not what the BBC are saying. Bernie says the delayed coverage is better anyway as who wants to get up at 4 am to watch races? Well actually I have to Bernie, but it is nice of you to care. Who wants to watch a delayed race when in this day of Twitter and Facebook it is impossible not to know the result?

The delayed date for Austin is seen to have a couple of benefits other than the weather. As I said the other day the Texas Comptroller is only just considering the application for the $25m fee for Bernie, so moving the date back presumably delays when that is paid, if anyone has read the contract. The other is time to finish the track with buildings yet to start, the last we heard they had not been approved. I loved Nick Craw's comment after a recent visit, "a great deal of dirt has been moved."

Spa 24 hour just started and www.audi.tv.com has live streaming.

A great day for Australian sport! Cadel Evans is crowned as Tour de France winner and Casey Stoner wins the US MotoGP. Now if only Mark Webber could have converted pole position in Germany to a win we would have had a trifecta! But it was not to be, Lewis Hamilton and McLaren were not to be denied today, and as we saw in Silverstone, Lewis is back to his old self. Still going for it but without the rush of blood. A very good race to watch and I did not have to wait till noon to watch it thanks to live streaming. Vettel struggled and only took fourth on the last lap. So, is Red Bull vulnerable, or is this just a blip? Alonso carried on his Silverstone form and Massa had a good race, so it seems the Ferrari is back in the fight, although their performance on the hard tire is still suspect. Not sure about McLaren with Button struggling all weekend and finally retiring with a hydraulic problem.

Pirelli seem to be improving the durability of their tires, a lot less marbles to be seen, and the softs lasted well here today. A lot of overtaking and most of it not down to DRS or the tires thank goodness, just good racing. Our other Australian, Ricciardo, finished the race and beating Chandook in the Lotus, not too shabby.

Glock has re-signed with Virgin or Marussia or whatever they are, for another three years, so apart from the problem of not having many options, he must see some daylight at the end of the tunnel. Lotus Renault had a pretty bad day, while Sutil and Force India had a very good one. Poor di Resta was spun on the first corner by Heidfeld and was playing catch up all race. Heidfeld ended up being taken out by Buemi in dramatic fashion, for which Buemi has earned a five place penalty for the next race in Hungary.

Over in Laguna Casey Stoner played it cool for half the race and then took Pedrosa and Lorenzo in two passes that displayed his determination,skill, and guts. After Germany he needed to reassert himself, and he did emphatically.  Lorenzo showed his ability to ride through pain after a massive high side in practice Saturday morning to take pole and then finish second today. I would have given any money he would not ride after that strange accident that took place after the checker and while doing a practice start. 

Elsewhere I was able to watch Grand Am from New Jersey, ALMS from Mosport and Indycar from Edmonton thanks to multi-tasking. Apart from a professional interest all of these were underwhelming. Edmonton's revised track layout is worse than the original and these guys continue to drive into each other at every opportunity. Mosport appear to have repaired last year's damaged guard rail with the same round pine posts that are not to spec and caused the problem last year. Does no one ever learn? Hopefully the new owners will do what is necessary to upgrade the safety at this great layout.  

Going back to F1, it seems the teams were as surprised as I was over some of the rules for 2014 and are saying that they did not go through the correct channels to be approved. So maybe some sense will prevail. There is a suggestion that Bernie paid the money to Gribkowsky not because the lawyers fees would have been more, but the resulting loss from tax on the trust following a court challenge would have been substantial. That would presume that Bernie died before his wife had lived in the UK for less than 18 years, the time to gain residency. Now that is an argument, but given Bernie does not plan to die soon it is still hard to accept.

Although most of my blogs relate to the four wheel brigade my life has in fact been balanced between cars and motorcycles, promoting MotoGPs and working for King Kenny. Not much going on in the racing world except for a couple of items that caught my eye.

Mick Doohan enjoyed himself testing a V8Supercar yesterday, but said he did not see himself racing one. The piece commented on Troy Bayliss flirting with V8s after retiring, but there have been much more serious ex riders than that. Aaron Slight raced in the BTCC without a lot of success but acquitted himself OK, but Wayne Gardner has had a very good four wheel career, both in Australian V8s, Japan, and one appearance at Le Mans. I'm not sure the good ol' boys of the V8s gave Wayne much of a go, probably did not like him turning up with the Coke sponsorship and his own team instead of earning his stripes. But he had already done that on two wheels.

The other story unfolding at the moment is about our US series run by the Daytona Motorsports Group, DMG, and the Virginia International Raceway, VIR, which has staged a very successful round of the championship for ten years. It was announced the other day by DMG that VIR had turned down the contract for this year and cancelled the race which was scheduled for August. Now VIR has come out and said they were only given the contract in June after repeated requests for one since December last year. Obviously they did not like the terms, but as they say, even if they did the time left to organize and properly promote the race was ridiculous. I've been there as a promoter and the value of everything is drastically reduced if you do not have time to properly leverage it. All is not well with this once great series with top riders sitting on the sidelines or going to the British series for lack of money and interest continues to fall. A death spiral. As I said to someone when told of this, bikes no one wants to watch with riders no one knows.

On a final note it is a bit amusing that Team Lotus has bought Red Bull's KERS unit for next year. Do they not watch the race and see the problems RB has had? I know they are using the same drive train but seriously. This is the same team that still cannot get Trulli's power steering to work.