Bob Barnard Track Engineering

The Race Director, Paul Butler, who I know and respect, but have not seen him in that role personally, and the Medical Chief have both defended their decisions not to red flag the race yesterday. I know from personal experience the pressures in Race Control during an event, split second decisions that have to be lived with later. I accept that they acted in what they saw as the best interests of all the riders, just disagree that they were the right ones. The doctor said that it was safer to get Tomizawa off the track so the medics could work without bikes going by, well if you red flagged it then that would have been the case. Paul said that he kept the race going as the track was cleared quickly. I think that is the point that most of us watching were appalled about, they literally dragged those poor guys off the track, dropping Tomizawa in their haste. I know that if you asked the other riders and the spectators at home and at the track, they would rather have the delay than watch that again.

We now learn that Tomizawa had a cardiac arrest out on the track, hardly the story that was being given out to the commentators and the teams. This is where you get the feeling that "the show must go on." Not sure I would have cancelled the MotoGP race, but I might have stopped the Moto2 right there.

It's nice to read that the makers of helmets and other rider protection continue to work on improvements to prevent this type of injury. The accident itself is almost certainly unavoidable, a rider can lose the front end, or the rear as in this case, and in a pack is impossible to miss for the guys behind. Helmets are amazing already, look at Massa's survival last year, and the leathers and body armor get better all the time. I hope that something can be found to protect riders in this situation, but it is hard to see how that is possible without making them heavier or bulkier, so more dangerous than the problem we have now.

I'm not sure what Tilke is saying when he says that his track designs "will be more on the 'edge' in the future in a bid to help promote better racing and more excitement." To me it sounds as if he is going to make them less safe, but that cannot be, surely? After designing all the GP tracks for the last decade how is it he says he now knows how to make them more exciting? He defends his designs by saying he has to work to factors such as land availability, local geography and the budget that track owners are willing to put forward. Well duh! Those are the factors every designer, architect or engineer faces every day. I've never noticed the budget being a restraint for Herman, and the land and topography neither. He says that the extent of run off is dictated by the FIA, and he is correct that it moves the spectator away from the action, but I think the criticisms are about the lack of action, not that it is too far away. Apparently Bernie is giving him more rein to make the tracks interesting , and giving him some good ideas. I'm sure we all look forward to seeing them.