Bob Barnard Track Engineering

IMSA has announced changes to the way it runs events following the debacle at Sebring. All seems a bit like changing deckchairs on the Titanic to me.

Changes coming to IMSA Race Control include the following:

- Enforcement of an IMSA rule requiring the display of the car’s number on its in-car cameras. So why was it not enforced before?

- Upgraded video review equipment to high definition (HD). Really, in this day and age.

- A new system for cross-checking cars and drivers involved in on-track incidents. Now there's and idea before you ping someone with a drive through which ruins their race.

- Addition of a third driver advisor to work alongside the IMSA Race Director and two driver advisors to assist with evaluating responsibility in incidents and other on-track situations. So three driver "advisors."That could well be four different opinions. How about just asking the marshals at that post?

IMSA also is adjusting its full-course caution procedures to maximize green-flag running time. Changes to the procedures, which will be confirmed by IMSA Rule Book bulletins, are as follows:

- At events where there is only one prototype class in a race, the pits will be opened for that class when the field is packed up and while GT cars are still performing the Pass-Around procedure. This change will expedite the full-course caution process by a full lap. So how many events only have one class, and we still wait for the safety car to "pack" the field up. At Le Mans and in F1 the pits do not close, so what's the deal here in the US? Yes some cars get caught, but that's the luck of the game, and closing the pits does not prevent this.

- The “Lap-Down Wave-By” procedure – which provides a strategic opportunity for cars a lap or more behind to gain a lap back by staying on course while leaders make pit stops – will be more limited in its application. There will be no Lap-Down Wave-By in races less than two hours and 30 minutes in length. For races between two-and-a-half hours through six hours, the Lap-Down Wave-By will be used only once in any 90-minute period after 60 minutes from the start of a race. No Lap-Down Wave-By will be used in the last 30 minutes of a race. I can see waiving cars by that have got between the pace car and the leader, but why all the others? Another NASCAR hangover? Lap down cars can still gain a lap back without closing the pits if they choose to stay out. All this is getting so complicated with different rules for different races what's the poor spectator going to know?

- Efforts also will be made to use “Debris Yellows” where a situation is likely to involve the simple removal of debris or the flat-tow of a stopped car to a safe location. A Debris Yellow includes the Pass-Around procedure, but the pits remain closed until the race is restarted. So who decides where the situation is simple, and we still have the wave around. In most countries these are covered by a waved yellow at the part of the course involved. Le Mans is changing its procedures with in car lights, which I presume we have anyway.

I don't see much here that is going to see more racing.

On a completely different subject I was watching the world business report on Al Jazeera last night and saw a piece about Australia losing more jobs. GM, Ford and Toyota have all given notice to stop manufacturing, and now Philip Morris is to stop making fags. No big loss to me, but to the workers it is. BP also announced it is closing a refinery. Australia will then have four, and another is expected to close because the refinery in Singapore can make six times the amount Australia's can! Last time I looked Singapore did not have any oil. In fact it has little of any natural resources, but somehow can continue to grow. Amazing. It is cheaper to ship their crude to Singapore and then bring it back as gas etc? Well I guess they ship their iron ore and coal overseas and then buy it back as cars etc. What happens when a situation arises that Singapore is no longer an ally, or Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, decides it does not like Oz anymore?

Could it be that between the environmental controls, carbon tax, 17% leave loadings, long service leave, and 38 hour work weeks Oz has priced itself out of being competitive? Over governed and over regulated.

So Dietrich Mateschitz does not like the new F1 cars, not real F1. How would he know, he's only been around a few years. Last year it was the tires, so we had to change. Ask Force India how that worked for them? We all know how it worked for Red Bull. Boring. Now he wants the rules changed again, after one race. He now has an F1 race in Austria, when the rest of Europe is losing races. France who invented this stuff does not have one. What next? Will he want tracks changed to suit his car, or the calendar arranged to suit his marketing program? Because this is all it is to him.

When people tell me we should go to Bahrain and Sochi because F1 is a sport I have to laugh and say open your eyes. With CVC, Bernie and guys like Dietrich Mateschitz it is about money and marketing. I believe for most of the paddock it still is about the sport. Ron Dennis and Franks Williams have been involved most of my lifetime, and yes made money, but it is still about the sport. Enzo Ferrari sold road cars to subsidize his racing, he did not race just to sell cars.

I for one believe we would all be better off without this bully and his teams, and his money. F1 existed long before he turned up, and will exist long after he has gone off to some new marketing ploy. Him and Helmut Marko, and yes take Seb with you. We would have had some good races the last few years without you.

And as I said a few days ago, if he does not like the way F1 is run then go and start your own. F1 does not exist to suit you.