Bob Barnard Track Engineering

A bit of silliness to start the day, not much else going on. Teams in China for the F1 GP, and Glock is worried that the Virgin may not qualify here. He is even suggesting that the quick teams might use the softs in Q1 just to make sure. He obviously is not feeling the love.

Red Bull reportedly not sure about using KERS here, again, and there is even a suggestion that the radio message to Vettel in Malaysia to turn his off was just mischief as he did not slow down. Not that he was really trying being a second a lap slower than the fastest lap set by team mate Webber. Mark shared some Australian vernacular with reporters in China who dared to suggest he was playing Eddie Irvine to Schumacher. Nice one Mark.

Pirelli are defending the amount of "marbles" on the track from their tires, saying it is normal for tires to wear and put rubber on the track. Yes but it usually goes on the surface to help grip, not roll up in big balls to be thrown around. There is no evidence of tracks "rubbering in" as they used to. There is a piece in Motor Sport this week where Franchiti went to the F1 test to see his cousin Paul di Resta and witnessed a trial start. Loads of wheelspin and tire smoke, but when the car had gone no black marks on the road!

In the same edition Nigel Roebuck has a great article on politics in sport and the Bahrain situation. As I said Bernie cannot say F1 has nothing to do with politics when politicians are voting to pay most of his fees. Despite mutterings from the Crown Prince that things have settled down there and we can think about a new date, read Pit Pass web site,

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=43353

This makes for salutary reading.

Rumors circulating that all is not well at Williams, how can it be, share price dropping with their finishing places. Sam Michael is nominated as the scapegoat. There are also mutterings about Mercedes, and Montezemolo cannot be happy over at Ferrari. Jean Todt apparently paid a visit to Ferrari Wednesday, trying to shut them up about the engine I would guess.

This weekend we have the F1 race from China and the World Superbike from the "cathedral," Assen, ALMS and Indycar at Long Beach, although the lack of news on that is deafening. Remember when Long Beach was as big as Indy?

Well the Malaysian GP has been run and won, and I do not know how I feel about it. Vettel and Red Bull could get as boring as Schumacher. You have to admire them, they find a way to win even when the KERS does not work, but I will show my bias when I say it does not thrill me. Pirelli say their tires made for an interesting race, but call me a purist, but I don't find this fun to watch. As Michael said, this is a lottery, and he should know, he seemed more off than on.

The rain stayed away, but teased everyone to add to the lottery, and the DRS did work on occasions, but not always, so not sure about that either. We saw a lot of overtaking at other points around the track, mainly Turn 15, which tells me it is more about the track than messing about with the car. The slow cars seemed to stay out of the way, so well done, and Lotus actually did OK, so maybe we will see them mixing it in the mid-field. Williams had a terrible day, one to forget, while we ponder what would Kubica be doing with that Renault? Very odd steering column failure on the Petrov car, but then he did get very airborne thanks to the hump in the run-off. Not good.

So in all a dissatisfying race for me, but not really sure why. Lewis probably feels the same, and what was Alonso thinking? The pace of the Ferraris in the race was surprising, and Massa seems to have recovered his speed and determination. Mercedes are in trouble.

Bernie is reportedly trying to get the teams to oppose the 2013 engine, and Malaysia is pondering whether to renew after 2015. At least there was a crowd today, it was empty for Friday and Saturday which must be disheartening for the drivers, and the organizers.

Chip Ganassi did not quite sweep Barber, but won the Grand-Am race of course, and finished second and third in the Indycar. Not too shabby.

So now we get reports of practice and qualifying from Paul Ricard LMS, and guess what, the Autosport story is about the Aston! Apparently it was there yesterday, just had engine trouble and did not run. Not that it is setting the world alight when it ran, six seconds off the pace and down with the LMP2 cars. Now it is brand new, but compare their debut with the Honda HPD at Sebring. The AF Corse Ferrari carried on where it left off at Sebring by topping the GTE standings, GT2 to most of us. The Rebellion Lola Toyota was fastest for your information, but it is close among the four, yes four, LMP1 cars.

If you thought I was being pessimistic about ALMS yesterday you need to read two excellent articles on Last Turn Club,

http://lastturnclub.com

Qualifying in Jerez for MotoGP was predictable with Stoner in front of Pedrosa, but only just. Perdosa is not likely to last the distance at a pace to worry Stoner, but Lorenzo is lurking right there, and Spies has found something to be fourth, but crashed. Valentino's good run came to an end with a crash and he ended up twelth. How many more times can he afford to crash before he says enough? Young Bradl took the pole again for Moto2, but there are 40 machines on the grid and the top 28 are covered by 2 seconds, should be some race.

Let us all wish Nicolas Hamilton well in his race debut in the Clio Cup at Brands Hatch this weekend, with big brother flying in to watch. As most will know Nicolas has Cerebral Palsey so is an example to us all to never let adversity stop us from achieving our ambitions.

So Bob Varsha, "how do ya like them apples?" Kimi is confirmed for NASCAR trucks in Kyle Busch's team no less! No mention of the Gillette connection now. Nothing like starting in a top team with a good teacher. I think Kyle and Kimi will get on well. Even I might watch that.

To follow on my personal news I am in the process of forming of a unique motorsport service for would-be and existing track owners, team owners and car collectors. I have invited some of the world's best and most experienced individuals and companies to join with me to offer a one-stop ability to provide a complete range of services from feasibility through design and construction, operations and maintenance, vehicle preparation, storage and detailing, team management, school operations, food and beverage, ticketing and credentials, race series and race direction and event management. You name it I have the people, currently a total of thirty, all known to me personally and among the best, if not the best, in their field. Any or all will be available to collaborate on a project, conduct due diligence, inspect facilities and conduct operational and financial reviews.

There is so little news the web sites are making it up with the excuse it is April Fools Day. What are they going to do tomorrow? What is not a joke is the announcement that the Victorian Government is going to audit this years race. I would have thought they would have audited every years race. Ron Walker says he is confident it will show they did not lose more than last year, and he hopes a bit less. I'm sure the good people of Victoria are glad to know that they only tipped in about the same $50m as last year, and not more!

It's good to see that the DTM have dropped that crazy street race in Shanghai as the last round of their series, both because the track was awful, and second, why would you end your major Championship half way around the world? Send the TV signal instead if you want to sell cars there.

In what must be an April Fools joke there is reported to be ongoing discussions to put Bahrain back on the calendar. I'm sure we could squeeze in Libya while we are in the area.

In Jerez the Stoner/Pedrosa/Honda show goes on where they left off in Qatar, swapping fast times in the two practice sessions. Lorenzo managed to get himself up to third in the second session, and Valentino is showing much better form in the sense of grid placings, but is still a long way off the time of Stoner. Ben Spies seems strangely off the boil.

You would not think the LMS race is on at Paul Ricard, or whatever you want to call it today. The only news I see is from Guy Smith's Linkedin. Still, I suppose if Audi and Peugeot are not there, nor the Aston, then why bother? Is this how ALMS is going to go?

On a final note this "fools day" Bob Varsha believes it is a "joke" that Kimi is going to race in NASCAR. The only joke is you Bob

No not the kind you peddle, the business, economic, civilization rise and fall kind. I know this sounds all esoteric but bear with me. I think I have commented before on how "developing" countries are discovering motorsport and us "developed," or overdeveloped some would say, countries are struggling to keep the viewers attention. I receive lots of approaches from would be track owners, both here in the States and overseas, but not the south of France unfortunately. Here in the US, apart from Tavo over there in Austin, would-be owners have limited budgets and are afraid of committing to proceed. Not so in those developing countries where money seems easy to spend, like Croatia's F1 track. They are going to spend $450m in a country of  1.5 m people with an average wage of $17,500. I know it is close to other borders, but does this really make sense? Obviously it does to them.

I am supposed to be overseas now, but the bureaucrats cannot get a vise issued in less than two weeks, and this weekend I have had approaches from a Middle East and Far Eastern country about developments that include not only tracks but major tourist infrastructure. So what is going on? Well, the Bob Barnard theory is we are seeing a cycle where interest grows, just as economies and civilizations, and then peaks and falls down the back slope. I see the US particularly on the back slope in respect of motorsport. Just as Rome ended up consumed by "bread and circuses" so the young generation are consumed by virtual sports, fantasy leagues etc. In developing countries the opposite is happening, new found disposable income is letting them discover how much fun motor racing is. I went to Taiwan a long time ago to advise on a track and was told the children do not want to work all the time like their ancestors, they want time for fun and were basically racing on the streets.

So, am I in the wrong country? Not really, I like it here and still believe there is life in the sport, it is just changing to participation by rich guys in their Ferraris and Porsches on Country Club tracks. When you look at most racing in this country that is what is going on anyway.

Talking of developing countries, Casey Stoner won the Qatar MotoGP from Lorenzo on the Yamaha and a whole lot of Hondas. When I saw a photo of Casey out in front my first reaction was it was him and daylight, but of course it was moonlight. So we know the Hondas are the real deal and the Yamaha cannot be ruled out so we should have a good year. The Ducati was where we expected, and I know his shoulder is still a problem, but Jeremy and Vale need to get something sorted on that bike.

The debate over the Sebring live streaming coverage continues, check out the piece on Last Turn Club that echoed my thoughts that if it is not on live TV it cannot be important. It seems that the ABC "highlight" package either was not shown in some places or lived down to expectations. Can someone explain why some ISP's do not provide access to espn3.com? It will be interesting to see how many cars actually start at Long Beach now we are back to the ALMS, not many I suspect. I loved Duncan Dayton's comment that Sebring was a test for them and it was good of the other 55 cars to turn up! It is pretty amazing how that car ran faultlessly. Think back to last year with a "sorted" car. From my memory they had a bunch of problems, mainly electrical. As Pagenaud said, he'd better watch out for the Highcroft car at Le Mans where he will be back in the Peugeot.

The Lotus naming row is in court with things getting murkier by the moment with David Hunt now saying his deal with Tony Fernandes was not completed. Good luck to the Judge sorting this lot out. I'd tell them both not to use the name and to get on with it.

McLaren are going into this weekend with a revamped exhaust and floor in an attempt to find another second. Not a good way to start a season, but if anyone can do it they should be able to.