Bob Barnard Track Engineering

We have news today of the tragic bombing in Delhi, a reminder that Bahrain is not the only F1 track located in a state of unrest. Chandook assures us that sporting events have not been targets and this is in the next State, but it is the Delhi circuit. It's splitting hairs a bit to say it is otherwise, like saying the Oval is not in London. Let us hope Chandook is right.

And so we go on to Iran which is to have an F1 circuit! I was contacted by email one Sunday a few months ago to be asked if I was interested in working on it, and politely declined. It seems my friends at Apex have no such qualms about going there, but I bet the teams have, at whatever level. A columnist was unkind enough to say that if the money was right Bernie would go anywhere. Bernie would probably point out that they organized things well in Iran. I have come to a time in my life when I no longer feel the need to go places and do things just for money, however short of a supply it might be in at the time. 

I guess you could say that almost every country F1 goes to has its share of risk. Britain had the IRA and Spain ETA, neither of which chose to target a race. Even the US has had the Unibomber and of course 9/11 is almost on us. Germany had the Munich Olympics, and most of Europe has had its share of terrorists, so what is safe? A relative term I guess.

Joe Saward addresses the new date for Austin in November. Now I was thinking of the clash with the NFL, but Joe reminds us that the NASCAR final race is that weekend this year, and they are unlikely to move it for F1. It is true that whatever date you pick here in the US you are fighting NASCAR, and probably baseball and basketball, so November is as good as any I guess. Not sure there is a crossover crowd for NASCAR and F1 like Joe suggests for the Indy 500 and Charlotte 600, so running the Austin race to avoid the clash of television times probably is not worthwhile. Tavo and the boys should only care about who turns up in person and that is unlikely to be influenced by NASCAR, more likely college football.