Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Let us spare a thought for all those who have given their lives and continue to serve to protect our freedom. As we have graphically seen in the Arab world, and especially in Syria, how precious it is and how people are willing to sacrifice their lives to get it for others. I am grateful to have been born at a place and time that has not asked me to make that sacrifice.

So to Abu Dhabi and the F1 race. I did not watch it I confess, I am ploughing through thousands of pages of evidence in a fatal accident to develop an opinion, and it will not be pretty. So I have to go on the reports which have Hamilton and Button quickest, but it is only Friday. Rosberg is doing his usual trick of being amongst the slowest. You would think that signing a contract extension with Mercedes would have sparked him up. So the driver market is slowly being set, but there are a bunch of young hopefuls including Canadian Robert Wickens who drove this morning hoping to impress. 

Alonso and Vettel found the fence at Turn One during the second session. I think I have remarked before how no one had hit the wall here in two GPs, which indicated to me that the drivers were not real happy with the proximity of them and like a street track were keeping a bit in hand. Not so today it seems.

Talking of street tracks, it seems the promoter of Baltimore cannot pay his bills. Despite a very good crowd it cost more to stage the race than they paid to see it. A lesson for New Jersey where the fee is many multiples of what Indycar and ALMS would have asked. They did not have a sponsor you will respond. And how much would that be? It makes no difference, in F1 you don't get the money, Bernie does.

Bernie has finished his time in court and jetted down to Abu Dhabi. There is a lot more to come in this case, none of what Bernie says make sense, especially the arch deal maker being shaken down by a banker. 

Seems Mallya's airline is in big trouble, can't pay its gas bill or leases on planes, and the share price going down faster than his Force India cars. Sorry Sahara Force India.

So now we know what the proposed changes are to Abu Dhabi to make it more overtaking "friendly." They start with the 5-6 chicane before the Turn 7 hairpin. Now Turn 7 looks like the Adelaide hairpin which is a key overtaking spot, in Adelaide. But what do we do in A-D? We put great big grandstands around it so there is no run-off. Solution? Put in a chicane before you arrive there. That kills the whole deal, so what are we going to do? Widen it. OK, making it wider gives some options for up-and-under, but not sure of this obsession with making corners wider. Adelaide is 40 feet and works just fine. Have cars got wider? Not that I know of. It is like a friend suggested Phillip Island needed to be wider. Have motorcycles become wider since Gardner, Rainey et al put on those great races in '89 and '90? Perhaps these guys need to give lessons if the current crop cannot pass on a 40 feet wide pavement.

Then there is the off-camber corner after the Turn 9 hairpin that they are going to turn into a "banked" corner. Now I always thought adverse camber, or off-camber corners were a no-no anyway and could not work out why they were built at A-D anyway. Lastly there is 13-14 they are going to turn into a sweeper for "better flow" at the end of the lap. Oh goody.

Bernie received an open letter from the opposition in Bahrain telling him to stay away until basic human rights are in place. That could take a while. Meanwhile Bernie says he would rather retire than work for people he does not like, presumably Rupert Murdoch and Carlos Slim. But I thought F1 was not for sale? Part of the CVC empire is not doing so well. Pit Pass web site tells us that the hospitality arm lost money again last year despite charging $4500 per head for the privilege of using it for the weekend! Must be serving some great champagne.

Back to the racing. Christian Horner is said to be re-evaluating the benefit of qualifying given Mark Webber's great drive in China. He is probably not alone, and I heard the Radio Le Mans boys talking about just this last week. It is another NASCAR type situation where your qualifying position does not really matter as long as you stay out of trouble. So, the fight might be to see who can go slowest in Q1 so you miss out but conserve your tires. Reminds me of a slow bicycle race. Or do the three sessions on one set of hards? Doesn't sound like F1 to me.

Well that was fun, not. Web site and blog hacked this morning so late in writing this up.

We keep hearing that the DRS wing is going to make overtaking easy in Malaysia, but it is raining. Even if intermediates are on the car the wing cannot be moved, so it has to be totally dry for us to see if it works better than Oz. With less than twelve hours to first practice there is little to stir the emotions.

It seems the financial writers are no better at working out what is going on with F1 finances than I am. Pit Pass web site points out that the increase in the gross income does not jibe with the extra that should have been generated by the addition of Canada and Korea, so it would seem the race fees went down last year for all, or some. Pit Pass promises to give us the real story soon. There are stories that the teams are going to push for a 75% share of the gross in the next Concorde Agreement due shortly. That will put a dent into an already bad situation for CVC.

Jean Todt is cranking up the rhetoric. My friend Allen Petrich actually may have hit on what he is up to, make the F1 name so devalued that the 100 year rights are not worth having, and the FIA can start another Championship. Jean was talking down the audience numbers today, saying no one is watching because the tracks are boring and racing is bad. Pushing the 1.6 l Turbo down Bernie's throat could also be part of the plot. Does anyone know what GP2 is going to run when that happens? Is GP2 going to stick with the current engines, and will they be more powerful? I see that Renault has come out and said that they are increasing fuel usage due to the need to keep feeding the exhaust driven diffuser, about 10% more per race. That's really green isn't it?

Abu Dhabi is also looking to make changes to the track layout to help overtaking, and make it suitable for MotoGP. That is not going to be easy, but who do they have doing it? Why Mr. Tilke of course. Now, isn't it the definition of stupid to do something the same way twice and expect a different outcome?

Casey Stoner continued his domination of testing in Malaysia with all the top Hondas under the track record. Yamahas made up places 5-7 with Edwards again in the mix with his factory team compatriots. Ducati is "sandbagging" really well if that is what they are doing, filling the 11-14th slots, Rossi being the quickest of them and nearly two seconds off the pace. Even the Suzuki is faster.

Back in Europe Valencia is now denying asking for a reduction in fees for the GP, and did not address the rumor that they have not paid for last year yet. The Minister also said he was not aware of other races pushing for a fee reduction. Why even raise these issues unless there is something to them?

Bernie is pushing for Bahrain to join Abu Dhabi and Brazil at the end of the season in back to back to back weekends of fly-away races. Not something the teams have done and a bit of a nightmare for them, especially if we have a situation like last year. Bernie obviously would like his fee. In the meantime he is not winning any friends with his comments in the new book about other personalities such as Jean Todt and Sir Richard Branson. Why would you say those things to a writer? Does he think he is invulnerable and can say what he likes? It seems so at times. It reminds me of when Kenny Roberts was running his team. On a slow news day journos would get a comment from Kenny as he was always good for something to stir things up, but never in this fashion.

If the Canadians are worried about the Renault JPS livery what are they going to say about the Williams Rothmans throwback?

Lord Paul Drayson has given up on ALMS for "greener" pastures, i.e. electric racing. His car will be missed if not Lord Paul, and good luck, I hope you have enough extension cord for your "zero emissions" vehicle. How much longer do we have to put up with this BS? He of all people should know that at the moment he is just moving the emissions elsewhere.  What now ALMS?

Glock is saying that the new Virgin is a second or more off the pace of the Lotus due to a problem with the rear wing. Nick Worth just needs to fix it apparently, oh if it were that easy. Presumably "I don't need a wind tunnel" Worth would have fixed it already if it was that easy, and just maybe a wind tunnel may have shown the problem.

On the home front it has been a busy and exciting week. More expert witness work, an overseas contact for a track, and a positive response on a major project I am trying to initiate here in the US. Hopefully I can tell you all about it in the next week or so.

So Bernie is being Mr. Nice Guy and forgoing the fee from the King of Bahrain for the cancelled race. The King is getting the "Royal Treatment." Bernie is apparently trying to reschedule the race and Abu Dhabi has come out and said it's OK with Bahrain sharing the limelight at the end of the season, so if things settle down that is probably the best option. Bernie's other side is being exposed in the new book on his life, "No Angel," so the King should be happy that his right side is on show at the moment.

Not much else going on. MotoGP testing continued in Malaysia with the Hondas 1-2-3, and Rossi missing with a cold. Spies and Lorenzo followed up the Hondas, while the sponsored Yamaha second team, how does that happen, were next up with Colin Edwards.

Kolles is still saying the HRT will beat the Virgin and Lotus this year and Luizzi says he is not paying for the privilege of trying. Not sure what Kolles is on, but it must be good. Trulli says that the Pirelli's not only wear faster, but their characteristics change suddenly from understeer to oversteer, while Massa loves them. Who ever said ask a driver's opinion? Trulli also comes out against the constant rule changes in F1, costs too much and us poor fans cannot keep up. Lot of truth in what he says.

Some interesting comments on the Crash.Net web site from a lawyer on "force majeur" clauses after the Bahrain cancellation. A force majeur clause is meant to cover unforeseeable events such as earthquakes, and there is an argument that going to places with potential unstable political situations it is entirely foreseeable that one day there will be a problem. But I suppose you could use the same argument about staging races in earthquake prone regions.