Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Welcome to the new home for my blog, always presuming you have found it and I am not just talking to myself! I hope you like the new web site, a lot of the same information, but a lot easier to post and update information.

Sorry to start on a slow news day. The only significant thing I read is that Mansell and Villeneuve have both come out and advised Lewis Hamilton not to jump ship. This after a Daily Mail article yesterday said Lewis had an escape clause in his contract if McLaren did not win the drivers and constructors championship, neither of which look likely. As they both have experience of leaving a winning team and careers that took a nosedive after, although Mansell's time at Ferrari wasn't all bad, they are telling Lewis to stick with the team who have groomed and supported him and still do. Hard to do when you are getting beat, but probably good advice in the long term.

Let's look forward to Silverstone this weekend and the non-blown exhaust cars, and see where that all falls out. I have an answer to my question on whether we have had two Australians in one F1 race before, and my great buddy Bill Crouch has done the research and we have. Alan Jones and Vern Schuppan in Austria in 1997, Alan winning in a Shadow and Vern 16th in a Surtees. Another good friend, past Australian Sprint Car Champ Skip Jackson, who is an avid F1 follower still thinks Perkins and Jones shared a track at one time. True or false?