Bob Barnard Track Engineering

In a headline that just struck me as funny Pirelli announced it was changing the shape of its tires in 2012. Oval or square? Neither of course, just the profile on the rears to get more contact, but it gave me a laugh.

The big news is that Gribkowsky has finally been charged over the sale of the F1 rights and his role in it and the bribe. Now depending on which web site you read Bernie has been charged, accused or named for his role in this. It seems Bernie and his Bambino Trust collectively earned $66.5 m for commissions, and then paid Gribkowsky $44 m for his role. Now the legality or otherwise of any of this is for a court to decide, but Bernie says he is not bothered about going to the German GP this weekend, so must feel confident. Whichever way this goes, $66.5 m is a lot of money to pay to anyone for assisting in a sale. I should be so lucky.

Montezemolo has announced that Massa will be there in 2012, so the options for drivers at the sharp end seem to be drying up. Red Bull appear to be keeping Mark, and where else would he go? Similarly Lewis appears to have no option but to stick it out with McLaren. Mercedes have Rosberg and probably Michael, although I would move him over for Di Resta for all his promotional value. Renault aka Lotus Cars should have Kubica back and Petrov has earned his seat. What of Toro Rosso? Ricciardo has not been put in HRT for the fun of it, and who knows what the new owners of HRT will do next year, they are already clearing house.

Murphy the Bear has a new column today and suggests Kolles moving to Williams aimed at an eventual Audi takeover of the team. All very complicated, but makes for a good read, and Kolles did get the R10's to run after Audi replaced them. The rest of the column is a pessimistic take on where ALMS is going, if anywhere. I had a good discussion with Tom Kjos who writes the Last Turn Club web site the other week about what we thought should be the path forward for sports car racing here in the US, but who would listen to us anyway?

Pit Pass has a resident cartoonist who has a good take on the Murdoch scandal:

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_gallery_image_display.php

For those of you that do not recognize them the three in the background are Briatore and Symonds of "crashgate" fame, and Mike Coughlan of "spygate."

In other news Alguersuari is looking for a poor qualifying so he can save his tires! Great way to go racing, maybe he will like the new shape? McLaren are denying Martin Whitmarsh is in trouble, usually a sure sign someone is on the way out, and are looking forward to having their blown exhaust back after loosing what they believe to have been nearly a second a lap at Silverstone. We shall see if they are competitive in Germany.