Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Sorry to have gone missing for a couple of days, my back has been playing up so lying low. One of the things that has come up and not commented on by the general media is the goings on in Austin over the Promoter. Here is the original story from Friday:

http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/Report-hints-US-GP-project-to-lose-promoter-Hellmund,30873.html

Joew Saward has followed this up with his own view on what is going on:

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/

This is about the fourth article so scroll down. Mind you the other articles are interesting. The Argentina track by Populous looks like a big kart track. Stick to football stadiums. Anyway Joe suggests Tavo might be looking to make more money consulting to other would be F1 race promoters. That says a lot about how much (or little) there is to be made in promoting one himself. I guess one day we will find out what is going on in Austin.

Joes first article on the Hamilton/Massa incident is responding to a number of web sites commenting on how Massa was told over the radio to "destroy" Hamilton's race by holding him up. Nothing wrong with that, except you would think Smedley would be encouraging Massa to go faster to stay in front, not slow down and keep Hamilton behind. Shows a lack of confidence in his driver. What is really the story here is the hypocrisy of Massa to complain of Hamilton's driving after the race! Adding insult to injury. And I find it amazing that in race after race I hear drivers in following cars being chastised for hitting the one in front, and yet at Spa Hamilton is in the wrong when Kobayashi hits his rear wheel!

The 14th annual Petit le Mans has been run, and who knows if we will have a 15th. Sebring is announced as a round of the WEC, but not the Petit? Scott Atherton did his usual "everything is getting better" speech but did not address the ALMS cars not being able to run in a WEC event. Has that been sorted? If it had you would think he would have mentioned it. And now we are "grandfathering" museum pieces like the V12 Aston Martin! Must be embarrassing for Aston that their 2011 car does not run but a collectors car finishes third!

ESPN3 coverage was very good except the ads were getting very old by the end of ten hours. A very eventful race. Not sure how they could edit that down to two hours, allowing for ads. I tuned in with 15 minutes to go and the race had ended, so the "highlights" were probably an hour at best. The major talking point was the Dumas crash, and I would like to know if he actually hit the front of the Porsche. Shades of Le Mans for me, stuck his nose in too far when the hole was closing. Now I am no fan of Montagny and the tactics of Peugeot, but Audi should know by now that they need to take no chances when passing them. Not sure why they had to start 53 cars? Do they need the entry fees that bad? Track density by FIA rule is 43, so 20% less and would have made life easier for the real competitors rather than those making up the numbers.

Over in Japan Honda managed to win its home MotoGP for a change in a crash fest. Stoner did well not to crash and recover to third behind Pedrosa and Lorenzo, so Casey still has a handy lead in the Championship. Rossi fell off at the second corner and took a few with him. Bit of a nightmare season for him and Ducati. Marquez failed to win the Moto2 class but still takes over the lead in the Championship from Bradl by one point.

Elsewhere lots of Championships were decided. Checa went out in style to clinch the WSBK, Tomszyk won the DTM title for Audi, Ceccon won the AutoGP title if anyone noticed or cared, Mehri won the Euro F3 title, Botolotti clinched the F2 title, and Peugeot took the inaugural, (and only?), ILMC Manufacturers Trophy. Dario Franchiti retook the lead in the Indycar championship with one race remaining.

In other news Tilke is the latest person to be trotted out to reassure us India will be "finished" on time. It is normal that the work is finished at the last minute he said, well most of it will be apparently. That may be true of a street course, but there is no excuse for a permanent facility. Bernie is due in court in Germany in November to testify in the Gribkowsky case, so perhaps we will learn what really went on.

Our old friend Luca has been very quiet lately. He could usually be counted on to provide some good ammunition for us bloggers, but he must be busy on his election campaign. His buddy has just resigned as General Secretary of FOTA among rumors he is also going into politics in Italy. So Luca says Domenicali has his full commitment, no he does not need Adrian Newey, even though he is "tired of losing the Championship at the last race." He likes the move to pay-for-view as long as their is a balance of free-to-air, I bet he does. Like Whitmarsh he is looking for F1 to move with the times and get on iPad etc.

Talking of Whitmarsh, he is trying to smooth out a potential problem with the Indian tax man who is likely to withold part of the teams income from the GP under Indian law. This has been simmering under the surface with the teams financial gurus trying to find a solution. Martin is playing down a boycott of the race, it does not need any more issues to deal with, but he says "you do not go to somewhere if you are going to be penalised." Our old friend Ron Walker from Melbourne must know how to solve that as I recall we had a similar potential problem with the Oz bike GP. Ron and his circuit mates are still carrying on about the new engine needing to be 18,000 rpm so it sounds right for the punters, or they will go elsewhere. Randy Bernard from Indycar just happens to be in Monza, but he has been meeting all sorts of people in the last year, and has Ron heard an Indycar?

Continuing the promoters theme our friends at Pit Pass, who I have said I suspect are close to Bernie, have floated the idea that with the demise of the Turkish GP F1 Group could be looking for another race to promote. Lo and behold Austin is suggested as a prime contender. I have always thought there is something or someone behind the Tavo thing, or am I a conspiracy theorist? Bernie used to promote a lot of races, but presumably worked out that this is a certain way to lose money. I guess if the Texas Government is paying the fee and Tavo's backers are building the track then promoting this race may not be such a risk. India and Poland, yes Poland, are other potential races mentioned. Apparently F1 Group has applied for the "Grand Prix of Poland" trademark. They had better pray that Kubica's upcoming time in the simulator or car is positive. We all hope it will be and it is great to hear he is recovered enough to start driving again in whatever form.

Red Bull pulled a surprise on the other teams by taking pole for tomorrow's race, well Vettel did, Mark was back in 5th after a less than stellar practice and qualifying. More KERS problems and an old engine, although Mark in his usual fashion refused to look for excuses. Hamilton and the team blinked in Q2 after setting a good time on the hard tires which would have seen him through and saved a set of options, but at the end of the session they put on the options to make sure of progressing. Should have stuck to their guns, but that is easy for me to say sitting at home. Vettel is running very little wing but still putting in great times through the fast corners, and has short geared the car which helps the drive out of corners but will put him in trouble for top speed if the others can get near him, a big if. So a different strategy which would presumably be ruled out if the teams have to nominate their eight ratios at the start of the season as that odd rule for 2014 states. More restrictions. Ferrari tried Massa towing Alonso around to try and get a good starting position for their home race, but ended up 4th behind the two McLarens. Tomorrow should be interesting with McLaren thinking they are in a good position, but don't they always.

Bottas secured the GP3 title with a win here, and Fillipi dominated the GP2 race but Grosjean already has the title and a possible F1 seat.

In Silverstone Peugeot went on to secure pole for tomorrow's race with the Audis second and fourth around the second Peugeot.The Rebellion is four seconds of the pole time, but only a second off the slowest Audi. All the petrol cars are within a second so that would be good to watch, if you can see it. Try http://tv.audi.com/#/01

Bit early for me and will clash with the GP. In GTE Pro the BMWs mugged the Ferraris with 1-2 in qualifying, with Porsche also strong. Pat Long put his GTE Am Porsche on pole, but it is hard to see Pat as an amateur.

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.

David Coulthard is a busy boy, not only driving his Red Bull at Austin he also visited Willow Springs out there in the Mojave Desert to coach Tom Cruise on how to drive an F1 car. What's next on his tour of rocky race tracks? And why Tom Cruise? This is of course the Red Bull marketing circus and not a test team, so I guess why not.

Word today is that work at the Austin track is stopped, and not just to let David drive around. Here is the story:

http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/Work-currently-stopped-at-2012-US-GP-venue,28472.html

Now I don't know about you but there looked like plenty to do around that track and I've never known a contractor to stop work because he is ahead of schedule, you never know what's coming tomorrow to delay you. Being ahead is money in the bank, which apparently is what Tavo does not have.

Honda is suggesting that the Japanese MotoGP could go to Suzuki for this year to avoid the situation of teams and riders not wanting to go to Motegi. It would suit me, Suzuka is a way better track, and as they said the 8 Hour is run there so what's the problem? This comes as it seems that not only is Rossi not wanting to go, the team doesn't either. As I already said, they can stay home and lose badly.

News that Bradley Smith is going to get a start with Tech 3 in MotoGP next year, so who is leaving? Colin Edwards is the obvious choice and he and Capirossi are looking for a ride in WSBK for next year. So instead of WSBK being a stepping stone to MotoGP, or an equal series, it is now the retirement league.

They are not the only ones likely looking for a ride. Nick Heidfeld looks like he will lose his to Bruno Senna as early as this weekend, and he is threatening to sue someone if that is the case, but he can hardly argue his performance justifies his retaining it. Not sure Bruno is the right choice though.

Talking of this weekend, the FIA has banned the use of DRS through Eau Rouge during practice and qualifying. Several drivers raised the potential risk, but why does it need the FIA to say don't use it? Surely the drivers can elect not to use it, or will some silly person try it like Luizzi? Eau Rouge is scary enough without trying without downforce.

Today we have video and photos of David Coulthard driving the Red Bull F1 car around the gravel pit called the Austin GP track. Glad i do not have to clean the dust and rocks out of that car. Now there was a planned Red Bull demo in the city as we have become used to, but apparently a filming permit was not forthcoming, the city must be right behind this! So we have seen Coulthard at a ranch with cowboys, a still photo in front of the Capitol building, and now at the track. Someone is working very hard to convince the sceptics or average American that this is going to be great, but so far as I have said before, it is like putting Frank Sinatra on in your local farmers barn. Why not put Travis Pastrana out there in his Red Bull rally car? 

Courtesy of ESPNF1 and Getty Images here is Turn Two.

http://en.espnf1.com/

 I particularly like the person crouched in the inside of the corner behind one plastic barrier, fat lot of use that would be, why not put him up on one of those high banks out of the way? And does this really want to make you go? Here is some video footage that gets better.

http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/Videos-Red-Bull-demo-at-the-Circuit-of-the-Americas,28426.html

Now I have done something like this at Eastern Creek with Dick Johnson's V8Supercar, but all the earthworks were done and most of the first layer of asphalt, the rest finished base course, so it actually looked like a race track.

The only other news on a slow Monday is Kimi possibly going to drive the Peugeot 908 at Le Mans next year. Kimi is currently still rallying his Citroen, which is part of the same group, so it makes sense and would be great to see. His interest in NASCAR seems to have all but disappeared.