Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Happening that is. Rain at Daytona for the bikes and Sebring where Indycars are supposed to be testing. Barcelona is fine, certainly for Perez and Sauber who top the time sheet today, pretty close to Vettel's time yesterday. Massa is next and then Webber. No McLaren today, and times all over the place again. Lotus still have reliability problems and Williams had gearbox problems. I don't know if you have followed the Williams design this year, but the gearbox is so low the top wishbones are attached the bottom of the rear wing central support. Very novel and provides a huge hole for air to the back wing, but as someone said, you then have to use it.

Mercedes have some new parts and Schumacher is only 1.13 secs off the fast time, and both drivers say they are happier with the car, and Haug says they are not running low fuel. Williams and Ferrari have gone down the Red Bull exhaust road rather than the Renault as they think it is the best solution. Still feeding exhaust gas through the diffuser, but at the rear, not in front of the sidepods. I still have not heard or seen what McLaren have done.

The drivers met with the FIA, presumably Charlie Whiting, last evening to discuss their concerns about the movable wing, so watch for some tweaks to the rules, including not using them in the wet as the  change in downforce is thought to upset the car.

The most impressive thing in testing is the amount of laps Ferrari and Red Bull have put together, over 1000 not counting today, so their reliability is not a problem. Their quick too, not a good start to the season for the others.

There is a very funny Billy Connolly sketch in which he uses this expression, and in Barcelona it is all the same, just different drivers. Vettel is atop the timesheets and the rest are struggling. McLaren had car problems again this morning and appear to have some real problems with it. Hard to believe that all that equipment needed to be on the nose just to record some stress/strain information. They had easier ways than that I'm sure. Peter Geran sent me a photo off twitter of the Red Bull front wing dragging the end plates on the ground again a la 2010, so much for stronger tests. Petrov is doing well in the Renault, but Rosberg and the Mercedes are still struggling and Virgin are still 7 secs off the pace.

HRT have finally signed Luizzi so all the seats are filled now, and the new car is supposed to be at the track Friday.

Interesting that Suzuka has only extended its deal to stage the GP for one year? Bernie usually likes multi-year deals. Suzuka says it only makes a marginal profit, which is an achievement in itself, but is owned by Honda who quit F1 so is presumably reviewing the benefit of still staging the race, especially if Bernie is upping the fee.

Nice to see David Brabham confirmed to drive Duncan Dayton's HRD LMP1 at Sebring. Not much time to get the car shaken down, but Duncan's cars are always top class so it will be a great addition to the LMP1 field.

There are a couple of interesting articles about CVC, the F1 rights owner, and Bernie, and the sale of the shares. CVC has instigated its own enquiry into the events surrounding the purchase of the shares from BayernLB and the supposed bribe paid to Gribkowsky. At the same time it is reported they are head-hunting a new Chairman for the holding company, Delta Topco. This is a non-executive Chairman, so presumably Bernie is still in control, but it points to a lack of confidence. Bernie may not be able to put a woman in charge if he is not calling the shots.

The other piece is in the Pitpass web site where Der Spiegel has done its own digging and come up with its opinion that the shares were not sold below market value. There was an auction with two other bidders and CVC's offer was the highest, so how could Gribkowsky rig the sale to assist CVC? This is Alice in Wonderland stuff. If Gribkowsky did not get a $50m bribe for this deal, where did the money come from and why? Bernie is going to have a field day with the magazines if this lot is true.

The World Motorsport Council met today and decided to give Bahrain till May to decide if it wanted to reschedule the race. All seems quiet to us, but there is a piece on Pitpass from a private citizen in Bahrain describing the ongoing and escalating demonstrations. It would appear that Libya has taken the spotlight off Bahrain whose news organizations are being prevented from covering the demos.

Other WMSC decisions involved the allotment of extra tires, both for Friday practice as "evaluation" for new Pirelli's, but also additional tires for the race. Does someone have a lack of confidence in how long the Pirelli's are going to last?The WMSC has also asked the "Circuit Design Group" to look at how exisiting tracks can be changed to increase overtaking. About time someone woke up that it's the tracks, stupid. Again Pitpass has a nice editorial piece, especially the last two paras:

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=43052

In Barcelona we have the first day of the last F1 test, as well as Arsenal playing in the Champions League. At least with the soccer we will know who wins. Today Webber is doing a lot of laps with the quickest at 1 min 22.5 secs, but most averaging 1 min 29 secs, so we can see how the tires are going to slow things down. Button is the only man anywhere near this time, most are 2-3 seconds off with the Virgin 9 secs off the pace! McLaren had everyone going with a weird nose and front wing which they took off after lunch and said it was just to measure the forces on the front wing. Ferrari had another of those "filming days" yesterday at Barcelona and featured a new exhaust layout, but these are all so tucked away it is hard to see what each team is doing. So nothing changes, thank goodness Melbourne is just under three weeks away and we will finally get real on who is doing what.

The Boss of the Barcelona Circuit has come out and said that the comments of the Region's new President were in the way of a negotiating ploy to get the future GP fee reduced. He stated the obvious, "It is hard to negotiate with monopoly." In the end all you can do is say no and walk away. He did echo the Presidents comments that due to the inbuilt escalation clause, believed to be 10% a year, the cost of the race by the end of the current contract is "unaffordable."

Interesting in these unsettled times that the Williams float is apparently fully subscribed. There must still be money out there if you can make it look worthwhile, or is it the excitement of owning a piece of an F1 team? Williams CEO Adam Parr came out and said what we suspected, that his team would not have gone to Bahrain if it had not been canceled.

Malaysia, a track built in 1999, is "tired." Strange that tracks like Spa or Monza somehow manage to stay fresh? Perhaps their design does not get old. It was apparently rushed and done cheaply. Really, I bet it cost more than most at the time and took a couple of years to do. Phillip Island cost $5m and was built in less than a year and I do not hear of that being "tired." What they really mean is that the people are tired of it. They had a crowd of less than 100,000 over three days last year, how can you justify the fees for that? The solution? A night race of course. Let's spend a lot of money lighting the track and then hope enough people turn up to make that cost worthwhile. Clutching at straws it seems to me.

The last F1 test is now on March 9 and HRT are reported to be bringing the 2011 car. Ross Brawn tells us he is not concerned about their current form as the car they are running is not what will show up in Melbourne, so let's look forward to that. Red Bull are "sandbagging," and Sam Michael likes both the Pirelli's and Maldonado. Frustrating time of year for us fans isn't it? Who or what do you believe?

The motorcycle world kicks off this weekend at Phillip Island with Checa continuing where he left off in testing by capturing pole for the opening round of the World Superbike. Perhaps Ducati should have dropped the works team in MotoGP and not WSBK? Part of the GP bikes problems are put down to the carbon fiber frame, which is presumably much stiffer than the aluminium. I remember Cagiva coming out with a CF frame in 1990, and having all sorts of problems. As Warren Willling put it, they are starting from scratch as all the previous set ups mean nothing, and it would take a huge amount of time and effort to work out what to do. Cagiva gave up.

Over at IndyCar all is not as well as it seems if Gil de Ferran and Tony Kanaan cannot raise the money to go racing.

No I did not watch it, but congratulations to the Wood Brothers, nice to see them back in the winners circle. Growing up in England I used to read the monthly NASCAR reports in Motor Sport when it was all totally foreign to me and ruled by King Richard Petty, and the Wood Bros. So what will we see next at Daytona, cars with couplings built in or a sort of "stretch limo" in the shape of two cars?

No news on Bahrain, but the expectation is still that it will be "postponed." So when would you fit it in to an already crowded schedule? Before or after Abu Dhabi? The general consensus is not to go, so even if it goes on there may be those not attending.

Testing continued in Barcelona, but the new President of the region is now saying they cannot afford to keep the race, even though their fee seems to be more modest than most. So even with Alonso mania you cannot make a quid. Another politician has come out in Melbourne to say the race is no longer worth it economically, and the locals don't want it anyway, if they ever did. Anyone remember the demonstrations both in Melbourne and outside Bernie's house when it was first being built? So Shanghai has negotiated a lower fee, Valencia and Barcelona have both indicated they are not happy, and there is Melbourne. Korea has fired its Chief and India's has quit. Is the wheel starting to turn at last? France cannot afford it, Indy stopped, Hockenheim can't make it pay, Spa is always in trouble, Fuji gave up, Turkey is I think run by Bernie as they get no spectators, as is Hungary, Canada had to be bailed out by the Government, so where to next?