Bob Barnard Track Engineering

It seems that despite being dropped from next year's calendar Turkey is still keen to have a GP and are ready to be the stand in if Bahrain cannot sort out its problems, which from current reports is not likely whatever Bernie says.

Very little going on worth writing about at the moment. Tost of Toro Rosso is echoing my thoughts on the Stewards at the last race and calling for professionals. In one of the most professional of sports it remains an oddity that the final arbiters of events are unpaid amateurs, and are different at each race. 

Over in the NASCAR world the "Chase" is on. When are they going to drop this stupid idea? Anyway Tony Stewart has won the first two races, so there is some justice in my opinion, but you can feel free to differ.

Petit le Mans testing was on at Road Atlanta on Sunday and the Peugeots are quick, and the gasoline cars nowhere. Qualifying is streamed live on ESPN3 on Friday, with the race on Saturday.

MotoGP from Motegi this weekend and all the riders are there despite the threat not to go because of radiation fears. Capirossi is not there due to his collar bone.

Finally the Indian Tax issue is not resolved. The customs duty may be, but the 70% tax on the team and drivers income from this race is not. Whitmarsh is not happy but it does appear the teams will go anyway.

There are a couple of items today about the plight of promoters. This has gone on since my day and the series promoters neither know no care, promoters are like buses, there will be another one along soon. In the case of MotoGP probably in Spain and the US. Damon Hill, former Chairman of the BRDC and therefore of Silverstone raises the issue, as well he might. They have been one of the very few to make a quid out of a GP, but Bernie's demands for improvements have beaten that. As Chris Pook told me a long time ago, "If Bernie thinks you are making money he will put the price up." Not the best business model one would think.

I have long compared F1 to NASCAR, and Joe Saward has a nice piece on the cost and rewards of being a track owner in each series, but of course it helps in NASCAR if you own most of the tracks when you cut them some slack.

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/

It now turns out that Bahrain had already paid Bernie for this year's race, and no they did not want it back thank you. Very magnanimous of them I'm sure. Why would they do that do you think? I wonder if they have paid for next year's race?

It now seems that the British Parliament is not to investigate the BBC/Sky deal after all. Good news you would think, but Pit Pass who broke this are running a poll on who is likely to buy a Sky subscription, and so far 90% say they won't. Not such good news. 

More news on Bradley Smith who turned down a move to MotoGP next year. Tech 3 have agreed to run him in Moto2 next year and then MotoGP in 2013. A sweet deal for Bradley and the English hopes of another World Champion at last? Reports that Stoner could wrap up his title at Phillip Island, that will be sweet!

As a few have commented already the FIA and presumably Bernie have lost all contact with the outside world. On the day that news reports tell us of a 14 year old boy killed in clashes with police in Bahrain,

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/08/31/bahrain.death/

the World Council of the FIA unanimously approve a calendar moving Bahrain up to be one of the early GP's just so India does not have to run in the heat. The whole idea of leaving Bahrain till the end was to give them time to sort themselves out, not that that was likely, so why just casually move it back to the beginning? And we lose Turkey from the same calendar, nice one guys.

Meanwhile Charlie has been to India and is very happy with the circuit which is good news for a change. Now to just keep the farmers off it. We have another new track here in the US, the Baltimore Street race for Indycar and ALMS is this weekend so it will be interesting to see how that works. There is a virtual drive on Motorsport.com:

http://www.motorsport.com/#/all/video/main-gallery/?s=2&i=2&id=1209

I will reserve my comments until after the race.

MotoGP from Misano where Loris Capirossi has just announced his retirement after a record 324 races, winning the 125 and 250cc World Championships along the way, the first at my event at Phillip Island in 1990. If you have not seen that race find a copy! Wayne Rainey will also be in Misano, the track that ended his career 18 years ago, what a tragedy.

Elsewhere Gribkowsky's attorney wants the charges dismissed for lack of substance, but the Prosecutor is having none of it. Even if the shares were valued correctly there are still a lot of unanswered questions here.  

One person not on vacation is Bernie, he continues to speak out on topics and is obviously still hard at it making deals. That is what he loves to do, so I guess that is as good as a vacation.

Turkey are desperate to get themselves back on the calendar and their negotiating ploy is a bit unusual." The Sports Minister is "ready to do everything" to keep the race. Music to Bernie's ears I would think. The "everything" includes "publicity and promotional campaigns to raise attendance and earnings." Well there's a novel idea, pity they did not think of this for the last 6 or 7 years, they might not be in this position.

Bernie is back talking about next year's calendar and giving a hint that Turkey could get back on. He is suggesting that the calendar could grow, and says that the teams would accept it if one of the ones to be dropped were to be Monaco or another team favorite. Nice one. The last seven races next year take place on four continents over ten weeks, the worst back-to-back being Sao Paolo and Austin, no direct flights. All this to be nice to Bahrain he says, "They" didn't want it up front apparently. Now the article seems to suggest that "they" were the Bahraini Gov't, but they seem happy just to have the race back as long as it is not in summer. From my recollection it was the teams who did not want to risk another embarrassing fiasco at the start of the season if the situation in Bahrain was not settled, but obviously felt that a race at the end could quietly be dropped. Now the teams are complaining about the logistics of those last seven races. Can't have your cake and eat it too. 

There was an odd reference as a footnote to this story about Austin and the State of Texas approving the funds. The State funds can only be distributed a year in advance, so presumably within twelve months, not a calendar year. So that $25m is not available until November, and presumably someone has read the contract to find out when Bernie's fee has to be paid. The writer suggests that this will delay the construction of the circuit, but this is not construction money so I don't get that.

On a positive note Robert Kubica's thumb has regained full movement, very necessary to push all those buttons. In similar news the likelihood of seeing Barrichello in a Williams next year is diminishing fast. I think Rubens is very disenchanted with the way the team is run.

The Renault chassis involved in the fire in Hungary has been written off, and the explosion explained as the air bottle that drives the valves getting too hot. The fire was caused by a cracked exhaust as a result of a "slightly different engine mapping in qualifying." Now I thought engine mapping had to be the same for qualifying and the race since Valencia, so are they saying they changed the engine mapping for both qualifying and the race? Strange way of saying it. No one noticed the crack which then got worse in the race and finally caused the fire after raw fuel was being burnt in the exhaust while it sat at the pit stop. No word on the marshal though.

Stating the obvious the Virgin CEO said that the fans will decide the success of the Sky TV deal. "From the point of view of the commercial model there are potential mismatches between a broadcasting that maximises viewers and one that maximises revenue." And we all know which one is more important don't we? He goes on to say that 90% of his income comes from sponsors and partners, which could be hurt if the audience goes down, but we are only talking of Britain here, so why is this getting so much play from the teams? Is the British market so dominant to the sponsors? Hard to imagine. 

The head of the Bahrain circuit was in Silverstone and was not happy with the "temperamental" F1 Teams. They loved us one month and then did not want to come the next. Well perhaps that's because you were not shooting people before? He particularly took exception to Webber's comments and said Australia had a problem with it's Aborigines so why did they have a GP? Well, the last time we shot one was quite a while ago, and while I know there are still issues they do enjoy equal opportunity despite being a minority, unlike the majority Shiites. The outcome of all this is that their place on the 2012 calendar is by no means safe, and the teams apparently want it moved to a later date so as not to be so conspicuous.

He also had a swipe at the US over Guantanamo, but Austin still has it's own problems. It sounds as if Building Approval has yet to be given for the structures, pits and grandstands. Now there is still plenty of time, but why is this taking so long? A scheduled meeting of the Government Liaison Committee was postponed so a vote required for the Texas State Funds has yet to take place.

Following on from Mark Webber's reluctance to accept team orders the rumors have resurfaced that he will not be in a Red Bull next season. Even Kimi's name has been reported by a German newspaper as the man to replace him despite Horner earlier laughing off of the suggestion. Ricciardo's sudden elevation to a F1 drive also prompted stories that he will replace Mark, but that seems a bit far fetched as good as he is. Even Vettel did not make that jump. So is this the start of the silly season? Williams seem set to keep their two, Ferrari are always reported to be replacing Massa, and Michael slated to retire again. Hamilton may or may not jump ship, but where to? You can't see Lewis "maintaining the gap" however many times Horner tells him.

Curious report about Mercedes being happy with their new exhaust diffuser system they fitted for Silverstone. Didn't we ban these for Silverstone and beyond, so why would you come out with a new system if you did not know you were going to be able to use it?