Bob Barnard Track Engineering

You may think I've lost it, but the most interesting thing today is an article on paint drying.  If you go on the ESPN F1 site, en.espnf1.com, there is an article there about how McLaren save a couple of kilos in weight from the paint, while keeping the car looking fantastic. Presentation has always been Ron Dennis' thing, and how he got the Marlboro money and McLaren in the first place. He ran a F2 or F3 team back in the early eighties called Project 4. That is why the McLarens since he took over are all MP4's. While running on a very tight budget he always made sure the cars and team were all immaculately presented. Marlboro were sponsoring the McLaren team which was going through a slump, and put Ron and McLaren together in a sort of shotgun marriage, and as they say in the classics "that was the start of a beautiful friendship."

I have read before that Ron had the cars stripped of paint after each race rather than just repainted so that the weight does not increase, so when you read about what they do today it all makes sense. To me it is what makes F1 so incredible. The attention to every little detail is what adds up to success, and obviously costs lots of money.

That is apparently what the new boss at Renault F1 has found out. There are rumors of Renault buying back a larger share in the team now business is better and the team are obviously doing well, so the two stories add up to a possible outcome. Not really sure what a venture capital group was doing buying an F1 team anyway, except as a fun business for the manager. Yes the teams make money under Bernie's arrangement, but it is an expensive sport and high risk if you are not winning.

August was a busier month for the blog, despite the F1 hiatus, with nearly 3000 visits from 59 countries! Thank you all for reading and responding. It puts the pressure on me to keep finding interesting stories to comment on.