Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Those of us that live here in the US, and trust me I love to live here, have to suffer through the worst race coverage thanks to SPEED and now NBC. SPEED, aka "The NASCAR Channel and those things owned by NASCAR, "showed the Sebring 8 Hour yesterday. Yes I know it is a 12 hour race, but it seems they did not. Despite Bob Varsha promising we will not miss any of the action they promptly signed off and went to NASCAR practice, not a race, for an hour. They then came back for an afternoon of the usual "infomercials" for other shows on Fox stations, Michelin, Chevrolet, Mazda etc, broken up by the inane commentary. I say commentary, but it is actually huckstering for the series as the station has a vested interest in telling us this is the best racing on earth. How about some honest reporting, and oh yes, some silence so we can hear the cars?

I watched the F1 race via live streaming of Sky, and was delighted when their pit reporter just held his microphone out during a Ferrari pit stop so we could hear it, without the necessary female telling us they were putting on Pirelli tires. SPEED meanwhile left the 12 hour race at 7:30 PM, with three hours to go, and crossed to watch AMA Supercross. That tells me how sports car racing rates! They were to come back at 10:30 pm, and as the race started at 10:45 am we were to be treated to the last couple of laps and the podiums, or a taped delayed version once the result was known by anyone with a computer. Needless to say I did not bother. An endurance race is complex, and it is impossible to follow who is where in each class and on what strategy when the broadcast is so broken up and commentators so stupid. For some reason Radio Le Mans was not working.

Over at NBC, who are covering the F1 races this year, things are very similar. Practice and qualifying sessions were scheduled about an hour or so after the actual times they are going on. Do they think we are stupid? Don't answer that. They obviously think the average viewer is by what they show on Network TV. I cannot complain about their commentators as I did not watch NBC, but knowing Leigh Diffey is one of them is enough. Makes me cringe as an Aussie.

Now I know Nico is not Finish like his Father, but he does know how to finish a race off. There have been the doubters, but he has not been one of them, he just needed the right equipment, set up, and strategy. Congratulations Nico, great drive, but it did bring home the importance in today's era of deteriorating tires that being at the front is a huge advantage. We saw that last year with Vettel, although it was masked by a great car, but we also saw it with Button in Australia. Fighting through traffic after pit stops is quickly taking the edge off the tires, so qualifying at the front and getting there early is key.

Was anyone else surprised my the amount of "marbles" at this race, and so early on? Not something we saw at the end of last year, or at the first two races this year. Not great to see as it limits the overtaking options, although we did see a lot of that despite them.

What an excellent race though, and we are sure to see more of them. Mercedes have cured their tire problem it seems, in these temperatures anyway, but there is Lotus, Sauber, and yes Williams all showing signs they can compete. Now McLaren and Red Bull are going to be at the sharp end week after week, but surely Kimi is going to get in the mix soon, and Perez has also shown he can mix it. Who knows what Ferrari are going to do with that dog of a car. Sad to see Michael's race end that way, and I know I do not like him, but there you are. That's racing, ask Lewis after Malaysia and Jenson yesterday. Pit stops do have the ability to produce some different results. 

I loved our SPEED commentators carrying on about amazing it was that Mercedes won after 57 years! Well they did not race for 55 of them so what's the big deal? I suppose when Lotus win we will have the same carry on? Yes I had to suffer through a recorded SPEED coverage as when it was on I was on a plane coming home from a "Racing Goes Safer" conference in Long Beach where I continued my call for better track safety here in the US. If you have not gone on line and watched the Sky coverage and heard Alguersuari's comments then you are missing a lot, and David Hobbs misses most. Love David, but Jaime has current knowledge and what he can tell about what the driver and car is doing is amazing. An eye for detail I have always admired and wondered at in real racers.

I did watch part of the ALMS race live at Long Beach but cannot admit to being very excited by it. The GT's put on the usual show, but we miss the RISI Ferrari and the other overseas cars. Dyson has decided not to go to Le Mans due to the cost and not being able to raise more sponsorship or drivers who can pay. Sad for Rob and Chris, but an expensive experience if you are not competitive.

Watched part of the Indycar race, and let me say they do not look any better in the flesh. Ask Marco Andretti how well the new design of the cars works to prevent flying after riding over the rear wheels of another car. Waste of time and money come to mind? 

Finally Bahrain. Enough is being written about the situation without me adding my two bob's worth. Bernie and Jean Todt are getting rattled by the press pressure as they should. At least one team member had the courage to say they would not go for moral reasons, and got fired for their efforts which I think is outrageous. As I said, I for one will vote with my TV remote and will not be watching.

I settled down yesterday afternoon for a motorsport marathon with Bathurst live for seven hours followed by the Japanese F1 GP. Bottle of red, some cheese and salami and hamburgers for dinner, does it get much better?

Well unfortunately it did not thanks to SPEED and Channel Seven in Australia. It was the worst, or close to, race coverage I have ever been subjected to. If you read yesterday's blog you know I love this race, so it has to be bad if I give up at lap 67 and watch a movie! My Aussie friends were posting on Facebook their annoyance at the number of ads Channel Seven were putting in, about every two to three laps it seemed. To add insult to injury SPEED felt it necessary to go and interview anyone they could find in pit lane even when the race was back on. What on earth were SPEED trying to do? I know you build a following for a sport based on the heroes, but you actually have to watch the sport! I know they pander to the lowest common denominator when it comes to an audience, but this was insulting. Are they trying to capture NASCAR fans?

Now an endurance race is hard to follow at the best of times as strategies unfold over the course of hours, so only seeing snippets made it impossible to follow, so I gave up.

So at 11 pm we turned to Fromsportcom.com to watch the Japanese GP. We actually do put SPEED's coverage on in case the computer stream locks up, but they were still at Bathurst, and stayed long after the GP started. I think it was about lap fifteen by they time they started the race, so if you looked on a web site you knew who won long before you saw it. And no sense of urgency even when they went to the GP, they did the grid walk and all the intro graphics as if there was all day to see this. 

Fromsport did not have the usual BBC feed for some reason so we watched German Sky, and lo and behold their commentators did not feel the need to talk non-stop. We had periods when we could just watch and listen to the cars, please note SPEED.

So to the race. Vettel has been to the Schumacher school of racing with the move he made on Button at the start, and of course got away with it. He says he did not see Button. Well the pit exit lane is not the normal line for taking turn one so I can only presume he expected someone to come up the inside and moved to block him. In that event do you not think he should be looking up the inside instead of driving Button onto the grass? Vettel joked afterwards that having two wheels on the grass did not stop him passing Alonso in Monza, very funny. He said he was looking for Hamilton who started third and behind Vettel. If that was the case why move over and give him the race line? Sorry cannot buy this.

Hamilton and Massa had their by now required coming together at the chicane. Lewis said he did not see him, and was actually taking the normal race line from 130R to the chicane, so he did not purposely move over on him, and presumably the Stewards saw it that way too. Hamilton had a bad race while his team mate drove his usual calm and controlled race and jumped Vettel at the second pit stop and hung on despite pressure from Alonso at the end, but ran out of fuel as he went over the finish line. So he was in fuel save mode for a while there which let Alonso close on him, and then threw in the fastest race lap at the end just to show he could.

Anyway Vettel score enough points running third to close out the Drivers Championship, and Red Bull must win the Team prize if they have not already, although I saw no announcement of this. I'm afraid Vettel is one of those drivers I respect but do not like. It is hard to fathom how he can drive away from some of the best drivers in the world at the start of a race, is the car that good? If so how come he ends up third? It seems from the radio transmissions that Vettel and Webber were told near the end not to take any risks. I presume that means Seb do not risk passing Alonso, and Mark do try and not pass Vettel.

An entertaining race if not dramatic. Ricciardo beat his team mate, so job done for him. His companions in FR3.5 finished off their season by Robert Wickens taking the Championship despite being taken out on the first lap as his rival Vergne also failed to finish. Alexander Rossi ended up third in the Championship, so another big step for him. Someone in the States needs to get behind Alexander and make sure he has the right rides to make it all the way to F1, then we might see some interest here. Magnussen the younger followed up yesterday's win with a close second in the final British F3 race.

I was resigned to listening to the Spa 6 hour race this morning on Radio Le Mans, but thanks to Greg Sarni and his buddy I was told where to find a live stream of the race. It was on a web site I had not heard of, no surprise there, and I think it was a German TV feed, so listened to John Hindhaugh and his mates anyway. It is an amazing lack of vision on the part of TV stations in the US that races such as Spa, with the best cars in the world competing, on I think the best track, are not given any coverage whatsoever. We all know SPEED has gone the way of pandering to the lowest common denominator, i.e. NASCAR fan, but what about espn3.com who are streaming the ALMS series, and just about any sporting event on earth? Versus thinks it is a sports channel, and is there no one out there who can go back to where SPEED started and launch a channel for race fans? I know someone will say there is not an audience for it, but how did the original SPEED gather enough audience to make Fox want to buy it?

It makes no sense to me for the whole endurance race series not to be shown. It would be like showing one F1 race a season. Or one football match. How are you going to build or keep a fan base if you are not showing the whole series? Is SPEED covering Le Mans this year does anyone know?

More to the point this situation shows a complete lack of vision by the ALMS management. If your two key races that you promote, Sebring and Petit, are rounds of the Intercontinental Cup, the unofficial world sportscar championship, why on earth would you not do a deal for coverage of the other races in that series? You wonder why sports car racing is dying in the US. If the FI Teams think the series owner needs to do more to promote it, come and look at what is not happening here!

Peugeot won the Spa race by the way, a reverse of last year at Le Mans where they were fast and fragile, and Audi not quite as fast but luckier and reliable. Good race right through all the classes and down to the wire in most. Ferrari won the GT battle but BMW kept them honest, with Porsche in trouble. The winning Peugeot also won the "green challenge." And why not? As I have been saying, there is no need for another trophy, racing is about maximizing efficiency, so the winning car should by definition be the most efficient, especially if it is a diesel. Let's stop this pandering to the greenies and PC, or should I say BS.

Biaggi wrapped up pole at Monza with Checa still way off the pace. Troy Corser found some pace, or enthusiasm, to put himself on the front row, so tomorrow should be interesting.

Turkey threw up few surprises. I was not surprised the Red Bulls did not go out again in the final Q3 session. It was worth the very small risk one or two guys were going to pip them for the front row to have an extra set of tires. Not sure that this is F1, but it is today's reality. Rosberg followed up his China performance with third on the grid and the Mercedes crew are getting on top of the car set up. Williams lifted their game, but not soon enough to save Sam Michael and co, but Sam says he already has something lined up. Virgin's supposed corner turning upgrade left Glock behind the HRT! Nice going Nick. Lotus are clawing their way closer to getting out of Q1, and it will be fun to watch Kobayashi doing a "Webber" from the back tomorrow. He is a demon overtaker anyway, so watch your mirrors boys.

Well I joined Chairman Atherton's brave new world yesterday and watched the 12 hour on espn3.com. I have to admit to being a sceptic and was actually pleasantly surprised. After connecting my lap top to the TV via an HDMI cable which I already had, and some teething problems, it ran faultlessly all day. Could not use the lap top for anything else, but hey, I was watching the race. Not sure why some folks cannot get espn3.com? This is the first time I've been on it and it won't be the last. When I first connected my soccer team was being shown live.

The Radio Le Mans commentary added to the enjoyment, I turn the sound off on Speed and listen to these guys anyway so I was pleasantly surprised by it. The only jarring note were the required female and American in pit lane for the ABC highlights show presumably. When will they learn to keep their mouth shut unless there is something worth saying, and no we do not need to be told that the fuel goes in first at every stop. I particularly liked being told that the windscreens had to be cleaned because of the "daylight sunshine." That nightime sunshine can be deadly to. Mind you John Hindhaugh, the main man at Radio Le Mans has his Murray Walker moments. After a couple of hours of great racing John admitted he "could watch this all day." Well John it's a 12 hour race so your in luck. But I knew what he meant and love his passion and knowledge as we loved Murray's. Motor Sport had a great interview with Murray this month in which Murray said that commentators could not fake excitement or enthusiasm. Take note Lee Diffey, and no one could accuse Bob Varsha of faking either, Mr. Bland. I was amused by the number of comments on how hot it was. I guess if you come from the north of England it is, in which case do not come back in a couple of months time John.

To me it was more enjoyable watching this broadcast than Speed. Much less interruption for commercials, although the two we had got old very quickly. There were the inevitable "infomercials", but again these seemed less intrusive, perhaps because we were seeing so much of the race. Why oh Why does Atherton feel he has to talk to the commentators at every race, and who cares? Is it an insecurity complex? As I said before, Bernie never feels the need, nor Brian France. There were too many extended in-car camera shots, as good as they were, and static camera shots like the camera crew were on break, but this is nit-picking.

The race was a cracker, with three cars capable of winning down to the wire. Great to see Hughes de Chaunac's Oreca Team win it, and the tears in Hughes eyes are a testament to his passion for the sport despite the many years and great success he has had. Not to mention the incredible job done by Highcroft to finish second and nearly steal the race, in a petrol Honda that only turned a wheel a week ago. Well done Duncan, Brabs and the rest of the team, and on to Le Mans. Peugeot finished third in their new car, but both Peugeot and Audi ran into problems and each other, but let's not take anything away from Oreca and Highcroft, they were on the pace and not just lucky. Hard to see what the ALMS is going to do for LMP1 cars though, and the LMP2 were disappointing to say the least.

Not so the GT's who put on their usual performance with 5 or 6 cars running together most of the race. Well done Bobby Rahal and BMW, but we can expect the new Ferrari's to come back strong. Corvette avoided the debacles of last year to finish strong, so we are in for a stellar year, again. It is hard to accept, as the pit lane reporters seemed to do, that overseas professional teams did not know the rule book because it was their first time here. I'm sure Tony Dowe would not be making these mistakes wherever he went.

Corvette showed their in-car video display from the rear facing cameras which lead me to the question, why not build them into the wing mirrors?

The track played its part in the proceedings as is normal for Sebring. At what point do the bumps, that is a mild term to describe them, stop being "character" and become dangerous? We saw cars being destroyed thanks to Turn Seventeen particularly, and we were fortunate we did not see serious injury to Johannes van Overbook  when his Jaguar was tipped into the fence through no fault of his own. It is time Don dipped into his wallet and spent some money to maintain this place.

So, is the "game changer" a success? Well for me as an enthusiast and a professional involved in the sport it was actually an improvement, but how many average fans are going to go to the trouble to do this? OK, the next generation are being brought up on live streaming on handhelds, but are they interested in motorsport anyway? The evidence says not. Is a two hour highlights show on ABC today going to bring new viewers? Perhaps, the average sports fan is brought up on a diet of two or three hour games, so watching twelve hours is unlikely. The viewing figures will tell the story, but again, will the average fan think our sport unimportant if not worthy of live TV?

Elsewhere the MotoGP season is underway in Qatar in what should be a good race, at least for third as Julian Ryder said. C'mon Aussie! Bernie is up to his games again saying this could be the last F1 GP in Australia this week, he has to drop two races anyway to make way for Austin and Russia, so it may as well be Oz. Nice negotiating position. Vettel is making noises that if the drivers are not happy with the rules this year they may withdraw their labor. He needs to talk to the drivers who tried that on in South Africa a couple of decades ago. Bernie's position on drivers is like buses, there will be another one along soon.