Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Are Russian Virgins faster than British ones? I guess we will find out as Russian car maker Marussia Motors has bought a "major shareholding" in Sir Richard's toy. The Virgin name remains, probably for continuity of entry and the Concorde Agreement. So Sir Richard keeps the exposure, perhaps with a better car, and makes some money, something he is good at. So watch for a Russian driver coming soon to Virgin.

On a somewhat similar note Lotus, the Tony Fernandes one, has announced that next year it will switch to the JPS Black and Gold livery for their cars. In anticipation of losing the court case? Those cars were striking so I personally do not mind.

The "will he, won't he" goes on about Vettel helping Mark Webber, and he is not saying that he won't, but also is not saying he will. I guess if he decides on his own it is not team orders. Bernie continues his love affair with Abu Dhabi, and if someone paid me $40m a year and did everything I asked I'd be pretty happy too.

IRL seems set to at last have another manufacturer involved and the rumor is Chevy. That can only be good news for the League as I am sure the good ol' boys would rather watch a Chevy win than a Honda.

So, F1 practice Friday and perhaps our first indications of how this race is going to go. All the contenders believe their engines are good to go, so let's see a straight fight.

There can only be two stories today. Rossi rides the Ducati, which has Rossi fans lathering at the mouth. Could they really not have painted the bike red? Lot of discussion about how far off the pace he is, but it's November, so what does it matter. Vale will go off and have his operation and come back all new and refreshed, then we will see. Did Jeremy and all the Yamaha boys all just change shirts overnight as well? Sorry to hear Stu Shenton has been let go by Suzuki, he is too good to be walking the street, but then again aren't we all?

The other is Red Bull and team orders. The team owner says there will be no team orders, he would rather lose the championship than win it that way. Well said, but there are a couple of people asking if it were Vettel who was in front of the two on points would the answer still be the same? A few others have echoed my thoughts that Red Bull would rather Alonso have it than Mark Webber. Talking of Alonso, I would have thought he would have done well to keep his opinion to himself on team orders. No one commented on my questions as to team orders in motorcycle racing?

Murphy the Bear has his latest offering about the state of sportscar racing and the omission of the Petit from the Intercontinental Cup. I think we would all like to know what that is about, sanction fee, TV rights, dates? The TV schedule for the ALMS is whacko, I'll be watching on live steaming and listening to Radio Le Mans I think, if there is anything worth watching. Sounds as if the GT class will be the thing, even more than this year.

What is going on with the whole Lotus thing? Do the Lotus Group i.e. Proton and the Malaysian Gov't really dislike Tony Fernandes that much? Why would they sponsor the Renault team when by stopping the stupid fight over the name they can have the existing team running around with their name on it, or is it an embarrassment at the moment? That is likely to change, and with a Renault engine. As Mike Gascoyne said "If they want to advertise their road cars, why spend so much money on it?" he told Auto Motor und Sport. "With us, they could do it free of charge."

Then there is the rumor that Virgin might be bringing in Russian backers, Sir Richard's exit strategy?

There is action across the globe this weekend with F1 in Brazil and the first practice saw the usual suspects at the top of the time sheet, except for Ferrari. Is this just the normal Friday laid back approach? Massa apparently fought his set up all morning, when you would think he would be on top of this place from the get go, and Alonso stopped at the end of the session with engine problems. Ferrari said they were going to change it anyway before the second session. Really, that's a lot of work between practice sessions. Are they so short on miles they could not run one session on that next engine? Both cars are way off the pace, but we have seen this before.

Mark Webber used some choice Aussie language when asked about the team and Vettel. He said it was ******** obvious that the team emotionally supported Vettel, and Horner immediately emotionally hit back that both drivers had had equal treatment, not quite what Mark said. Can Mark really stay at Red Bull next season?

Responding to Bernie's "cripples" quote, Virgin Team Principle John Booth asked if Bernie said it " to embarrass Sir Richard Branson, one of the country's leading entrepreneurs?" I would have thought Sir Richard had embarrassed himself.

In Zuhai for the final round of the Intercontinental Cup the weather is bad, rain and fog, or is it smog? Oddly the second Peugeot is three seconds slower than its pace setting sister car, that's a lot on a short circuit like this. The two Audis split them, so we could be in for an interesting race, particularly as the weather is not supposed to get any better. It is the monsoon season, nice scheduling.

In sunny Spain Lorenzo leads the way after second practice just ahead of Casey Stoner. Colin Edwards is doing well so far, and Ben Spies is sixth despite his ankle problem. Rossi is not doing so well, sandbagging or just cruising to finish his time with Yamaha? Just perhaps Yamaha would rather the guy wins who is staying next year?

In Korea, for those of you that did not follow up that story, it seems $50m is unaccounted for during the development, and the Government would like KAVO to tell them where it went. It also seems that the "mobile" stands, I presume the temporary seats, do not meet code for the F3 race. Funny code that. The seats were OK for an F1 race, but not for an F3 race?

To all my English fans "Happy Guy Fawkes Day." Where is he when you need him?

Robert Kubica refuses to predict on how he will go in Brazil this weekend as he predicts it will be unpredictable. Aren't there a few too many "predictable" comments? Sounds as if rain is predicted, which is predictable in Brazil this time of year. I predict it will be interesting whatever the weather, it usually is. They have made the last turn safer by putting in a "soft" wall after a driver was killed there. That last turn and pit entry have always scared me, they need to change the track, not mess about with "soft" walls.

Bernie says that the three new teams have been an embarrassment this year, and should go away, except Lotus, and, as I have been saying, Bernie thinks maybe Sir Richard needs to tip bundle of money into Virgin, like Red Bull, or go away.

It looks like Chevrolet is going to win the World Touring Car Championship against the likes of BMW and SEAT (VW), and no, not with a Corvette or Camaro, with a sedan, the Cruze, that I do not see much here in the US, and I doubt most people here have ever heard of the WTCC. Well done GM, now tell the US about it.

Decent weekend of racing coming up with the Brazilian F1 GP, Intercontinental Cup from Zuhai, and Valencia for the MotoGP final round.

Getting sorted to go to the Professional Circuit Owners and Investors Forum in Cologne in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to meeting up with Dick Hahne, ex Daytona VP Operations, and now with Musco lighting, and some guys from England with a potential new series. Should be a great week.

Slow news day, I guess we will have to get used to this as we go into the winter break, but who knows, there may be more gossip then.

Portugal qualifying washed out. Phillip Island is not looking so bad now. It must rain a lot in Portugal, although I always thought of it as a dry country like Spain. I remember Senna's great win there in '85 when it was a washout.  So Lorenzo on pole by half a second and Hayden, Rossi and Stoner all close. I bet Pramac are glad they drafted Checa in to improve their performance, he is last and over 5 seconds off the pace. Who thinks that was a good move? There are only two races left with this one, what was the risk of giving some young guy a chance?

V8Supercars will not be returning to Bahrain next year with scheduling around other events as the reason, but I suspect since no one turned up to watch it may not be worth what the V8's were asking. Now Abu Dhabi is a stand alone race which cannot be a cheap exercise, so you wonder how long that will last, but I guess they have to put something on at this billion dollar mausoleum.

Peugeot ran a test hack at Monza to prepare for next year's Le Mans. Not sure I like the sharks fin, I know it is there for safety reasons, but it does not look right on what was surely one of the most beautiful sportscars ever built.

The driver silly season goes on, with Hulkenburg getting a big rap from Sir Frank Williams, just when he was about to get the axe for Maldanado. D'Ambrosio is rumored to be close to signing for Virgin, so who's out?