Bob Barnard Track Engineering

There are a few realignments going on with the F1 teams. Williams announced that they are going to use Renault engines from next year, so Renault increases its hold on the F1 engine market, despite supposedly being down on power. Let's hope this improves the performance of the team. HRT's ownership and management just got cloudier, with a buyout of Carabantes by Thesan Capital, which is a venture capital group backed by Nomura Bank of Japan. They say they will move to base the team in Spain with the current Directors and Team in place. So presumably Colin Kolles is still on the outer. This all begs the question who really is minding the store and who owns it? And will it make any difference?

HRT's arch rival for being last, Marussia Virgin, has confirmed a technical tie up with McLaren Applied Technologies, so look for an improvement there and perhaps Mercedes engines? Cosworth are going to be left with HRT, so it is highly doubtful they are going to invest in a new for 2014 engine with just one customer.

Speaking of engines, Clive Pollock is reportedly going to push on with his proposed engine for 2014 despite the u-turn by the FIA, and Bernie is now threatening to sue the FIA if the 15,000 rpm limit impacts on the poor promoters and their ticket sales drop. Of course his concern is that the promoter will not then have the money to pay the fee to stage the race, but since when has that ever been a concern for him? Bernie is famous for not being fond of drivers in general, they are like buses, another one will be along shortly. That is why he has cleverly promoted F1 as a team sport and built Ferrari and McLaren etc as the stars. It also seemed that promoters enjoyed the same stature as drivers, as there is always someone else waiting to pay him to lose money whenever a promoter wakes up or runs out of it. Bernie has also been having a bit of a verbal spar with Williams CEO Adam Parr. Adam was crass enough to point out that sports such as NFL enjoy considerably larger TV fees and suggested Bernie could be doing better for them all on this front. Bernie of course then pointed out how well Adam was doing on the sponsorship front for Williams. Touche.

The leakage of top staff continues at the other Renault, which isn't, Lotus Renault, with designer Tim Densham reportedly heading for Ferrari. Is everything really well at Renault as Boullier continues to tell us?

I took a day off yesterday so have not commented on the racing. Lorenzo scored a great win at Mugello so perhaps the Championship will not be a Stoner/Honda procession after all. Simoncelli managed to finish a race while Rossi dragged his Ducati up to sixth. In Imola the Peugeots gained revenge for Le Mans with an easy win over the Audis

This is my last blog. Just kidding, but it is my last blog on Wordpress. I have revamped my personal web site where I always intended to base my blog, and it will be launched today. The link should not change, so you should go straight to it, but if not go to www.bobbarnardtrackengineering.com and go to the blog page. See you there.

So the FIA have come out now and limited the throttle opening for "off throttle" situations, i.e. braking, to be a maximum of 10% for Silverstone and the rest of the season. So does this rule out hot blown exhaust diffusers, or just severely restrict them , perhaps to the point that is not worth doing? For next season the whole concept is banned, told you so, and high exiting exhausts are back.

Bernie has leaped to Lewis' defence, he is in trouble now. Sunday probably saw Bernie's dream race except with sprinklers. Chicanes you can short cut and drivers biffing and barging on a skid pad. Why not just stage a demolition derby and be done with it?

It seems the Delta Wing car going to Le Mans next year has not gone down well with the sports car crowd, and why am I not surprised? I looked at the calendar to make sure it was not April 1st, but then again perhaps the French have that in June? Last time I looked sports cars had two seats, and I know they have stretched the friendship on that lately, or even for a long while, like the FISA suitcase if you are old enough to remember, but this does not even come close. Murphy the Bear had a good piece on it amongst other sports car related stories including the slow demise of the Panoz empire:

http://murphythebear.com/blog/index.php/2011/06/16/191-mottos-back-to-the-future-plying-phallus-disposing-of-an-empire-cheese/

Part of the Delta's attraction is of course it is "green," lightweight and a small turbo engine, just like F1 is supposed to have in 2013. Does not seem very likely right now, and Renault is rattling its' sabre saying it will pull out of F1 if it does not get a 4 cylinder turbo. They say it's parent, Nissan, is only there because they were promised one, and have brought in Infiniti to sponsor Red Bull because of it. Now I own and drive a great Infiniti, G35, 3.5 liter V6. I actually don't know if Infiniti make a car with a 4 cylinder, and there cannot be too many Nissans sold with one, so what's the problem? Let's do what Ferrari wants and build v6's. I do not know the numbers but here in the States it is probably the dominant configuration. Europe maybe not, and Renault is probably the driver for the 4 cylinder, not Nissan. Anyway, let them go if they want to, F1 has and will survive. Nature abhors a vacuum, so someone will fill the void and make some money.

Hot on the heels of the concerns raised about Lotus Renault finances there is a very interesting piece by Joe Saward today on the goings on behind the scenes.

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/

As I said, Tony Fernandes only has to wait this out. It also seems the question of drivers is far from over with Grosjean's name being mentioned despite a less than stellar performance last time out in F1, and a falling out between Kubica's manager and Lopez from GenII Capital.

Reports are coming in that the crane at the chicane in Monaco is to be moved so the run off can be moved back another 20 meters. The logic is that an accident there will bring out a red flag or safety car so there is no rush to move a car, but that is not necessarily true if it is down the escape road. Still, as often is the case it is a choice between less than perfect options. I forgot to comment on the removal of Maldanado's car in less than a lap last weekend, that's less then a minute from when the leaders were expected, so great job. If you read the comments my view on tires is "old fashioned'" but perhaps so am I and glad to be. At the Circuit Forum in Cologne last year Hubert Gramling, scientific adviser to the FIA Institute, proved that straw bales actually worked better, how old fashioned can you get! No one is suggesting going back to them as they of course catch fire and make a mess when you hit them, but it goes to show that not all new ideas are better. Remember when catch fences were all the rage, and then gravel, ploughed this way and that, and now we have asphalt everywhere.  Yes you can go under tires, but Perez was not so far from going under the Tecpro, especially if he went in nose first. Anyway, I am happy to spark debate and will publish all comments even if they disagree with me.

It seems that Rosberg is re-signing with Mercedes up to 2016. He must believe Ross Brawn when he says the 2012 car will be "excellent."

Someone not keen to extend a relationship seems to be Virgin who are reported to be looking to tie up with McLaren in a similar way as Force India. Sorry Nick Worth and Cosworth. Still, Cosworth look like picking up Lotus Renault next year. Lotus Cosworth? Now that has a familiar ring to it.

Bahrain's "state of emergency" is lifted today. Now what? The FIA says it will listen to the teams, who object to the calendar being extended but will not come out in public and say they do not want to go. Gutless.

The day after a long weekend of racing and not much stirring the blood. Lewis continues to dominate the news with some observers agreeing he was badly treated for trying to overtake on a track that is nearly impossible. Now the Station Hairpin, showing my age, was never on, the only move that worked there was Schumacher on Rosberg and as team mates they gave each other room. Lewis was never far enough alongside Massa to do it, and without the benefit of replay I do not think he was far enough alongside Maldanado to make it stick. His move on Schumacher earlier at that corner seemed to me to almost wheel to wheel and Michael had to let him have it. Whatever the circumstances his comments afterwards were totally out of order, as I think he has since realised, but the damage is done. He says he is not changing his approach and if he continues to be penalized he will quit F1, which is again a silly comment from one of the top drivers. Is he missing his father's steadying hand, or was that what caused the split?

Joe Saward has some interesting photos of the two passes at Ste-Devote:

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/8572/hamiltonmonaco2011t1.jpg

http://img857.imageshack.us/img857/3797/hamiltonmonacoturn1b.jpg

It's all just inches, but it looks to me that he was further alongside Michael, and not convinced that Maldanado moved over on Lewis, you'd have to look at Maldanado's previous laps to see what his usual line was.

Eric Boullier is playing down the stories of Lotus Renault's financial problems, saying all is well. He is telling Heidfeld that he needs to lift his game though. I must say I think we all expected more out of Nick, but perhaps this is why he was without a drive?

Bahrain has again come out and said they are ready to stage the race. You all know my thoughts on this, but read the BS on pit pass.

http://www.pitpass.com/43806-Bahrain-ready-and-waiting-to-host-2011-race

Great live streaming pictures and sound from SPEEDTV.com this morning. Wish I could watch all the F1 like this, no ads, no idiot commentary, maybe ALMS has something here. No picture break up or lock up, and the quality was better than cable. Two interesting sessions today with some big accidents, two at the chicane after the tunnel. Rosberg lost the back end under braking and took off over the speed bumps put into the center of the chicane, presumably installed to slow cars down that short cut it. Thankfully these were removed before qualifying as they actually only make it worse, as demonstrated . I for one did not expect to see Rosberg back out in quali, not that he was hurt, he missed the center island between the track and the run-off, but the car had substantial damage. Great job by the Mercedes team to have him not only back out but competitive. Perez was not so lucky in Q3, hitting the island side on, and thankfully he did, a head on would probably have him under the TECPRO barrier. The jury is still out on these compared to tires, and they cost many times more. For me they are too light, as we have seen already cars go under them. Perez will miss tomorrow's race but fortunately his injuries are relatively minor.

Unlike the two HRT cars who despite not turning a wheel in qualifying have been given the OK to race, and they did not even have to buy a starting spot! The Stewards in an unfathomable piece of generosity will let them race, despite being 6-7 seconds off the pace in practice. Now on another track that may be OK, but around here there is no place for sentiment, and no room to overtake. Let us hope that decision does not turn around and bite someone.

Perez's accident showed the absolute necessity to get out early and bank a lap in these short sessions. McLaren failed Lewis and now he is stuck down in seventh despite being fastest in Q2. As I suspected, no one tried to save tires, starting position is everything here. It will be interesting to see what McLaren's pit strategy will be to try and leapfrog Lewis up the field.

I commented the other day on the efficiency of the Monaco track team in repairing the asphalt, and it was in evidence again today. Most of these incidents would have taken lesser crews a long time to clean up, and in some cases may not have repaired in time to finish a session. Indy, NASCAR et al need to go there and see how they do it. As Michael Schumacher was crashing Thursday at Ste-Devote you could see the crane operator start up. Having said that the "crest" coming out of the tunnel seems to have contributed to a few accidents this weekend and needs addressing. Given their usual rapid response it is surprising it was not planed smoother during yesterday's quiet day.

In other news it seems the Lotus sponsored Renault team is in a spot of financial trouble. The Marussia money is not flowing and since Kubica's accident interest from new sponsors has all but disappeared. The Geni Capital deal was a novel one for starters, and Lotus Cars is another work in progress. maybe Tony Fernandes just needs to wait this out. Story is Renault is owed big time for engines and may be looking elsewhere for 2012, like Williams.

I did miss a race from my list yesterday. The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars were at Charlotte last night, but got rained out anyway. Rescheduled for tonight, but will only be live streamed. Kimi qualified 15th for the Nationwide race! Outqualified not only his mentor Kyle Busch but his car owner Joe Nemechek! Need to watch that tonight.

Ferrari have now expressed their concern at extending the calendar to accommodate Bahrain. Has no one the guts to come out and say they will not go? I for one will not watch it if it is reinstated and encourage others to do the same. That is the only message Bernie and his cohorts will understand. This would be almost the last straw for me and I hope many others about what has become of our sport.