Bob Barnard Track Engineering

If you do not read the "Wired" magazine you should. It has fascinating articles over wide ranging subjects every month, and it will keep you abreast of developments in the "wireless" world. This month is a long feature on "auto" mobiles, cars that drive themselves. It seems a lot of progress has been made in this and it believes that by 2020 these will be common. It describes the host of features that cars like Mercedes already have to make driving safer, but it also raises some interesting legal issues. If the car is stopped for speeding who gets the ticket? And if it crashes is the manufacturer liable not the "driver" or rather passenger? Will you actually need a drivers license to sit in one if you are not actually "driving." The list is endless. As one who's computer has crashed within the last twelve months, and Mrs Barnard's had a hissy fit last week and did not want to start, can we be sure that the ECU will work when you need it?

Back where drivers still drive the Daytona 24 hour was run and won by Mike Shank Racing with Ford power, as was the Starworks runner up and the other Mike Shank car was third, so Ford swept the podium. As did Porsche in the GT class, no Mazdas to embarrass anyone today. I must admit that the Corvette DPs that debuted this year actually looked half decent, pity they did not race as good as they looked. 

In other news the Adrian Sutil trial is in session, verdict expected tomorrow, and Bahrain is still having trouble quietening the natives as it approaches the first anniversary of the demonstrations.

No sooner had Lotus, nearly wrote Renault there, announced the mass damping, or anti dive, brake system apparently OK'd by the FIA, when the same FIA have come out and said it is probably not legal. As I read it they are saying you could be protested for using it, so don't. Saves all the other teams from spending lots of money to all end up the same.

And money, or the lack of it, is what is worrying Bernie. He sees the European problems causing teams, and presumably promoters, to be squeezed for cash. He continues to talk to Valencia, and the likely outcome is a sharing of the GP with Barcelona, but as I said before, I don't see how that helps except you only lose half as much. Bernie has no such doubts about Bahrain though, they still have plenty to donate to CVC, but not to their staff it seems. The news that the sacked staff were reinstated fell a bit flat when most said no thanks seeing as how they were not going to be back paid for the time they were off.

Daytona 24 hour, sorry The Rolex, is coming up this weekend, the traditional start of the new season if you do not count the Dakar or the Monte Carlo Rally. Lots of interesting cars and drivers this year, with some ALMS crossover like the Risi team.

Talking of interesting cars and drivers, Kimi was in action in a 2010 Renault at the permanent Valencia circuit today to get his eye back in before the real testing starts. No times were released, not that they would give us any idea as no one else tests there. Kimi is reported to say that getting used to the Pirelli tires was his only concern. 

Last but not least, Austin has started to release news on the ticketing for this years race. According to Geoff Moore, chief marketing and sales officer for Circuit of The Americas. "In order to effectively manage the demand, we have created a two-stage ticketing process to help fans better understand the opportunities available. We want every fan to get the ticket that is right and affordable for them. In this first stage, we are showing off the incredible entertainment experience our main grandstand offers."

It had better be incredible, as they are copying a page from the basketball world and selling "seat licenses." To those unused to this term you can buy the right to buy tickets for events. That's right, you do not get to go sit in your personal seat unless you now buy a ticket. And what is this going to cost you ask? $1000-5000 per seat license, to buy the right to buy a ticket. There are only 9000 of these for lucky people with more money than sense, which I am sure there will be. And you thought 480 Euros was expensive at Spa?

Just when we have a World Endurance Championship back one of the key players decides to quit! Peugeot say they are stopping to concentrate on their brand launches, but I do not buy that for a minute. What better place to showcase your brands? Are they afraid that the ACO might finally get the equivalence formula correct? After such a successful season it is hard to believe they won't think they can be competitive next year. It is also hard to think that Toyota is scaring them off, they have a hybrid of their own. Can't wait to see what emerges out of this. Presumably Audi is still in, they ran a long time as the only car to beat, and they have the new car being tested already. I for one will miss those gorgeous 908s.

Elsewhere the big news is New Jersey appoints a President and COO, so something is finally being seen to happen. Damon Hill has come out and endorsed the Bahrain F1 GP being staged, and he has been there to see for himself, so what he says must be taken seriously. The track recently reinstated those staff "fired" early last year, and there are steps being taken to democratize the place. Now we have to see if the opposition agrees.

At the same time the Nurburgring announces 100 jobs cut from the staff, how many do they have for goodness sake? No wonder they are losing money. They hope to stage a GP in 2013. Bernie has been off for a little private meeting with the Valencia President about their race fees, and presumably the sharing of the race with Barcelona. No wonder Bernie is pushing to have Bahrain back.

So the boys from Texas have sent Bernie a check for $35m for next years race fee, $10m more than Tavo's deal. So where is Tavo in all this? Good money after bad. The Track President says ticket interest is strong, it had better be, but what are the ticket prices? Nothing on the web site to say, but if it is what Americans are used to paying it will probably just cover the extra fee, let alone running the event and paying back on the track construction.

Austin is not alone, The World Motorsport Council confirmed the 2012 calendar with Austin, Bahrain and Korea, so let's see which of these actually make it. Lots of little adjustments to the sporting code governing F1.

Joe Saward has a great blog today, so log on and have a read: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/

The driver "silly season" is closing. Lotus, i.e. Renault, has Raikkonen but Petrov looks in trouble. Trulli could make way for Ricciardo as he does not have a seat for 2012 yet. Pic is in at Marussia with Timo Glock. No one is safe at Sahara Force India or Toro Rosso. HRT has Pedro de la Rosa and an empty seat. Williams have an empty seat, so who will go there if Rubens doesn't get to stay? Lots of good drivers with no seat, including Grosjean. 

Finally getting some sense of order in my life. The trip to Orlando for the Professional Circuit Owners Convention went much better than Germany, great speakers and great information to a quality audience. Finally unpacking the house but still waiting for a load of our stuff to be delivered that National failed to fit on the truck!

FOTA seems to have imploded while I was away, Bernie is laughing all the way to the bank over this. Bernie got control in the first place by telling the teams association, of which he was a member through owning Brabham, to let him do the deals. Have they such short memories? As I always say, do not fight over the last piece of pie, make a bigger one.

I have commented over the last few months about the problems at Lotus Renault or whoever they are, and the stories continue about Lotus Cars and their funding needs. So we have an under funded team whose ownership is unclear being sponsored by a car maker owned by a Malaysian car company and spending money like there is no tomorrow.

So what do we hear now? The apparent owner of Lotus Renault, Genii Capital, is going to buy into Lotus Cars with possibly a majority position. Sort of reminds me of a snake swallowing its other end. I think they deserve each other.

This is part of a situation where teams will have to get approval for changing their name, which is a very big deal as the dole out of money from the Concorde Agreement is to the team that had the name when it raced. So if Team Lotus wants to become Caterham Tony risks losing the money he earned this year, which has been the stumbling block for resolving the Lotus name argument. Tony was willing to give it up if he was recompensed by Lotus Renault for that loss. HRT is in a similar position, but it is hard to see that they have much coming from the Agreement the way they have performed. So we have the prospect of three teams wanting a name change, and Bernie is really the one who has the say, and apparently he is eager to start the discussion. I bet he is, in this sort of deal there is only going to be one winner, Bernie.

Over in Suzuka we have Vettel on pole again by the slimmest of margins over Button who has been on it all weekend. Lewis had his last lap "destroyed" by Webber and Schumacher overtaking him at the chicane as he slowed to give himself some room to the car in front. So, did Red Bull give Mark the word to jump Lewis a la Ferrari? Mark was off the pace anyway, and I'm sure Michael would have taken the chance to screw Lewis with glee. He says Lewis put him onto the grass. Touche Michael, have you looked at any race film lately? I did not see it on the TV, and the Stewards have done nothing so far, so it cannot have been as bad as either Lewis or Michael are saying. So, we could be set for a great race tomorrow with Jenson and Lewis both looking very fast, and if someone can jump Seb at the start we could have fight for a change.

In Q3 we again saw four cars sit it out to save tires. This basically went on all weekend with the top cars sitting out the first 40 minutes of Friday morning. Pirelli and others are calling for a change to provide the paying customer something to watch. I think probably one more set of softs for Q3 would do it, and take them away afterwards.

In other series in action this weekend Kevin Magnussen has put himself on pole for both British F3 races and has won the first, so looks good for second place in the Championship. Where would he be if he did not have all those plug problems early in the season? Canadian Robert Wickens has won the first race of the FR3.5 finale weekend and extended his lead in that Championship, but only to nine points so it is all to play for Sunday.

Bathurst, the best tin-top race in the world, and yes I include Daytona. Never mind 500 miles turning left, how about 1000 km up and down a mountain? SPEED has it on this afternoon so check your local listings as they say. Rain shuffled the top-ten qualifying so the first few laps should be fraught with action.

And last but not least the Teams are to discuss the situation in Bahrain, which shows no signs of settling down. Bernie in his usual fine form said " I do not know if it is right or wrong, but we have it on the calendar for 2012."