Bob Barnard Track Engineering

No, I am not finally sick of cars, no one ever gets over that, but the last time I can recall ever being car sick was about eleven years old, until I got in a simulator that is. It seems Michael Schumacher and I have the same problem, simulators give us motion sickness. Now I have raced cars, flown in small planes across the heat of Australia's deserts, sailed boats and been on a Catamaran out to the Barrier Reef when everyone on board except four of us were sea sick, so this came as a great shock to me. Can anyone explain this phenomenon? After I designed the track here in Arizona the client bought a locally made simulator and they loaded the track layout. It worked great, but I could only do a few laps before feeling very disoriented and queasy. Not much of an inconvenience for me, but it must be a huge problem for Michael, everyone else has the car set up before they even get to the track and he starts from scratch.

There is the start of a nice article by Julian Ryder on Superbike Planet today about how Superbikes started.

http://superbikeplanet.com/2007/Nov/071119l.htm

It interested me as it talks of Steve McLaughlin, "motormouth" who was instrumental in the first World Championship. I happened to be in Geneva for a meeting of the FIM Management Council the day Steve was there to have the agreement with the FIM signed. Sitting in the lobby for most of the day with Steve was an education.

Joe Saward in his F1 blog today asks the question "why are the media publishing comments from Briatore and Symonds?" As two of the key figures in the "crashgate" debacle he believes that they should not be heard of again, let alone be involved in the sport, and cites numerous examples of life time bans from other sports. He asks if he is on his own with this view, so Joe, since you asked, no.

Is it just me or has the USGP announced three times now that they have started? We saw before the New Year machines on site, but that was only a soil sampling exercise and putting up silt fence.  Then we had a "photo op" the other day of Tavo driving some machine on site, started again. And now today we read that USGP is set to receive digging permission. Now I do not doubt they will get it done, but please quit the over hype, it does them no favors.

The judge in the Lotus case quickly disposed of the first hearing refusing Lotus Groups submission to throw the action out even before their lawyers said anything, and rather than let it drag on he has set it down for March 21, suggesting they sort themselves out before then. Nice one judge. Tony Fernandes is quoted as saying the good do always win. Not in my world Tony unfortunately, so good luck.

Sounds as if Force India are set to announce Paul Di Resta as a driver for 2011 tomorrow in Glasgow. Why else would you go to Glasgow? So, what now for Luizzi, and his contract?

Pat Symonds, yes the one I said should not be heard from, but is, suggests that F1 needs to do a lot more research on just how much overtaking it needs. Good point, I don't think F1 fans want a NASCAR type lead change every lap, and Lewis Hamilton did not seem to have too much trouble to pass people at most tracks this year, and how about Kobayashi, so perhaps it is attitude not the car? We certainly do not want to see manipulated races.

It's Kenny Roberts' birthday today, so happy birthday Kenny, and many more. I have only had the privilege of attending one of his New Year's and Birthday bashes, and it was quiet by the usual standards I guess. There may be no "beater" races, but I bet the cannon fires!

So the headline says that Rome Authorities "approve GP plans." Not so fast, the story actually says that they "are not opposed" and will continue to review the plans. Just a small distinction, but important. You've got to love headline writers. After the first test at Eastern Creek the screaming headline was "Track Unsafe!" Nowhere in the story did it say that and the writer of the piece just shrugged it off and said that was the headline writer, not him. Some responsible journalism there. And we all know most people just skim the headlines.

In a similar vein the Austin F1 track construction is not started just because a truck is taking soil samples and there a few pegs out there. Now I do not doubt that it will be built, they just do themselves a disservice with this sort of stuff, it smacks of what USF1 did with all the PR. Just get on with it, even if it makes no sense economically to me, you are obviously smarter.

Now we know why Michael Schumacher did not win the championship this year, he did not have a driving simulator! Well that's what Ross Brawn says. Funny Nico did not have a problem beating him without one? It is  a sad day when F1 is won by the team with the best simulator. As I have said, if the simulators are that good, and obviously the top teams ones are, then why not just run the races in cyberspace?

Happy New Year everyone and thanks for reading. See you in 2011!

At the recent track conference we had a session on how to make your circuit more energy efficient and truly green, and to look out for "greenwash," the BS that some people put out to make themselves look green. We see a lot of this in racing today, it is as if just because we are involved in a sport that runs on gasoline we have to apologize for it. The latest today from Infineon Raceway, Sears Point to me, and NASCAR, is that these heroes have planted 74 trees, a whole 74! Some forest that will be, and think of the carbon offsets, must be at least one lap by one car don't you think? My wife and I donate trees to people on special occasions or in their memory through the Arbor Day Foundation. We have over 700 planted so far, so come on NASCAR and Bruton Smith, get real. And to everyone else, think about donating to the Arbor Day and have a forest of memories growing, it is not expensive and a much better gift. You can actually go and see your trees if you wish.

It seems to be a day for stating the obvious. Graham Rahal wants to be at Ganassi for a long time. Really? What else are you going to say Graham, a couple of races will do me?

Tavo Hellmund says that Tilke knows his stuff. He sent the FIA  "all the civil engineering. It's a big book, a massive document. It's a blueprint for what the track is going to look like with all the cross-grading and everything." Not the cross-grading and everything, wow who would have thought. Tilke does not expect to have a problem with the FIA. I bet he doesn't after some of the stuff he gets away with like Turn 17 and the pit entry at Korea.

So the genie is out of the bottle, Genie Capital that is, and the worst kept secret is out. We now have two Team Lotus in F1, both with Renault engines and gold and black livery. Let's see Bob Varsha handle that lot. Neither side is going to back off obviously, so either the Malaysian Government, FIA, or the British High Court are going to have to decide this. Sad that it has come to this for such a great name.

Renault is also in the news with the settlement of the Piquet libel suit following the Singapore "crashgate" affair. What a miserable, cynical, exercise that was, and the architects of it are looking to stay in the sport. It is still unfathomable that a professional driver, however desperate to keep his drive, would do such a thing. Sad end to a promising career and a blot on a Champion's heritage. And the guy who won the race because of it still keeps the win! Same problem as Hockenheim this year. When is the FIA going to have the guts to take the result away when something like this happens?

So Dorna is now blaming the manufacturers for the loss of entries following the move to 800 cc MotoGP. ""The manufacturers wanted the 800cc class, so it was them causing the escalation of costs that, because of the (financial) crisis, forced them to take a step back. Now not all of them can maintain their commitments because of financial problems." As I have said for a very long time, the manufacturers should not be making the decisions about racing, they will make decisions based on what they want to sell, not what we want to watch, and they will leave whenever it suits them. Dorna also wants to look at new tracks outside Europe, like Abu Dhabi. Right, let us know how that works for you, and the riders. They want less races in Spain, so now we are going to have four in the Gulf States instead?  And let us not forget Austin. We have Laguna and Indy now, so which one of those are we going to lose?

I see that World Superbike is instigating a "Junior Trophy" based on 250cc machines. This is definitely back to the future, not necessarilly a bad thing, but what will it cost a rider?

So Patrick McNally is retiring. Most of you have probably never heard of Patrick or Allsport Management, but you have seen their work. For nearly thirty years Patrick has controlled the signage at F1 races, and he is a master at placement. David Campbell is going to take over and the rumor is David is being groomed to take over from Bernie. They are some mighty large shoes to fill David, good luck. That succession is likely to look like the "War of the Roses," the English dispute over the crown, not the movie.

Great story on Kenny Roberts on Superbike Planet http://superbikeplanet.com/2010/Dec/101207alancarter.htm. Kenny proves it is not a problem with the bike, and you have to think he could still do this today over a lap or two.

There are two related items today about the economics of staging an F1 race. Valencia it seems has had enough of subsidising Bernie with four years left to run on their contract. Bernie of course will not let them out of the contract so they are trying to find someone to take it over, which you would think would be easy with the number of countries who want one. If you cannot make it pay in an Alonso mad country like Spain where can you? It is costing them 30m euros, about $45m, to stage the race, including Bernie's fee, which must be a cut rate, and they are only recouping 10m euros from ticket sales, so they lose about $30m a year. Why could they not work this out before they did the deal?

On a similar note Alain Prost is frustrated that France does not have the political will to "buy" a GP. He knows they will lose 8m euros, even with a reduced fee from Bernie, and no government wants to spend that, on top of building a new track. Austin, are you listening? So if Alain could work it out beforehand why is Valencia surprised?

It seems there might be moves afoot to put Daniel Ricciardo into Buemi's seat at Torro Rosso. Not sure that is a great move for either party, one season in GP2 would probably be better for Daniel than being thrown in the deep end with a mid-field car. I know Vettel made the transition from Torro Rosso, but I would not like to bet my future on that happening again. Look at the Hulkenburg situation for a driver without a big personal sponsor.

Interesting that it has been announced that HKS, an architectural firm, has been added to Tilke for the Austin Track. Whatever you say about Tilke's tracks, his architecture has been good, so why bring in another architect?