Bob Barnard Track Engineering

A big weekend of racing. MotoGP turned on their usual good show, but Turn 1 at COTA? Tilke missed a great opportunity to make that a really good corner. Instead we have a crash site. But the commentators were at it again. "The most competitive field we have ever seen." Seriously? Where were you in the late 80's and early nineties when Gardner, Doohan, Magee, Rainey, Lawson, Mamola, Koscinski, Sarron, Schwantz and co. were around?

Indycar at Long Beach had its usual accidents at the usual locations. How anyone thinks this can be an F1 track is beyond me. If they left out some of the petunias around the base of the fountain we might have a track wide enough to race on. The Tudor Sports car race was a yawn. Time was when an LMP2 car could beat an LMP1 car around here, but now it cannot even beat a DP.

There is always the quote that "it's a long race" by drivers, even if it is the same length as all the rest, but Saturday evening we really did have a long race. 500 miles around Darlington took forever. I wondered why it started so early. It was all I could do to stay awake.

Which brings me to the point. I come from a European back ground with a spell in Oz, so I am used to watching a sport event without it being turned into a continuous commercial. Sky manages to show an entire F1 race without ads, so why can't Fox or NBC? I know Sky is subscription, but all the sport here in the US is basically on cable which I pay for anyway. NASCAR is by far the worst, a race being one long ad, even when the race is being shown with every opportunity taken to show a sponsor logo for Kentucky Fried, Sprint, Progressive Insurance etc. Then there are the "infomercials" during the sports car races, and Indycar has to go off and interview anyone they can find that they think is a star of anything. 

There has to be a template for showing sport in this country that includes three old farts in suits and ties blabbing on, and usually a female studio anchor and pit lane or side line reporter. With an average age of probably sixty the boys on NBC for F1 have about as much chance of bringing in a younger fan than I have of being knighted. Take a look at the Sky guys. They are at a race track and dressed like you would expect at a race. NASCAR and Indycar and even the NFL are all the same. Is this just me or is it that the TV guys know what the average American sports fan wants. A blonde bimbo with big tits.

Now that's off my chest, so to speak, let's look at F1 goings on. Domenicali has fallen on his sword, or was he pushed, and his obvious replacement is a car salesman. First guy I would have picked, not. Perhaps Montezemolo is actually the problem. Bernie's problems are about to get worse with the prosecution dismissing his blackmail defense. But the judge is going to give him days off it seems to run F1. Red Bull lost the appeal, as they should. Whining that they could not keep second place if they obeyed the rules is a strange defence. There are probably twenty other cars out there who feel they could win if allowed to cheat a bit. Or is that just me?

It is reported that Gene Haas and Colin Colles will be granted the two extra F1 team slots today by the FIA. Why they would want them is the bigger question. Colin Colles can't help himself. After the HRT experience why would he think this one can succeed? He just wants to go racing, as long as someone else is paying it seems..

Gene Haas is a much more serious proposition though. With a successful CNC business, a NASCAR team with Tony Stewart, and an interest in the Mooresville wind tunnel he has the money to back this and the know how, but again why? HRT demonstrated the likely out come,and both Murussia and Caterham are shining examples of how hard it is for new teams under Bernie's winner take all payment scheme. The "owner" of Marussia, Cheglakov, has given up on his supercar plans and F1 it seems, so Gene could buy that as a cheap way in. Tony Fernandes has warned that this year could be the last for him to pour money into without results. So the omens are not good for a new team.

Then there is the current state of F1. Bernie's case starts soon, and he is running around talking about a "new" GP1 series based on GP2 cars. So where would that leave Gene with his new team? There must be a more secure and possibly cheaper way of promoting his business. With the current state of motor sport I'm sure there are lots of teams in WEC, WTCC, GP2 etc that would love to put Haas on the sides of their car. Or if he wants world wide coverage go and sponsor or buy a soccer team.

Bernie has just worked out what Renault engineers said two weeks ago and anyone with a mechanical bent knew anyway. When you have turbocharged engines it is hard to nigh impossible to increase the noise level. Noise is generated by the exhaust gas pushing the air which eventually beats against your ear drum. Turbos use that energy. That is why most earthmoving equipment do not require a muffler. The whole point of this formula is to use the waste energy, so what are we going to do? Waste some of what we just saved to give the whiners more noise? I guess we would not be able to hear them whine.

Bernie is also muddying the waters as usual, suggesting he could set up a "new" FI with GP2 cars, but call them GP1. Gets more noise, more teams and it would be cheaper. But hang on, didn't he just block a cost cap for the real F1? 

Teams stayed on in Bahrain to test some more, but information seems lost in transmission.

Watched the delayed NASCAR race from Texas yesterday. The end was good as usual, even if contrived by a yellow 3 laps from the flag. Kurt Bush had a close shave with the wall but did not touch it, and had a tire come apart on the apron. Enough for the guys at NASCAR, or did they lean on the button again? Bush spin earlier without hitting anything and continued and they threw the yellow then too. Lugano was not to be denied though and deservedly won from Gordon. We saw a lot of yellow, with the race starting under yellow for 12 laps as the track was still "damp." Rain tires anyone? I can understand them not running in the rain, the spray would be terrible, but a bit damp is no big deal.

Wet grass is another thing though as we saw with Junior's excursion. Tore his car up and Johnson's who was close behind. Jr. caught fire and thankfully got out OK as we saw an IMSA style chinese fire drill. While the boys on the fire truck were working out how to turn the hose on a marshal leant over the wall with a normal extinguisher and put it out. Not good enough.  We then had to have the "competition caution" of course as the track was "green" and the teams would not have known how to set the car up. It has rained every day from what I saw so what was different?

Missed the anniversary of Jim Clark's death yesterday. One of those "where were you when" moments. I was at Brands Hatch, where Clark was supposed to be, not racing an F2 race at Hockenheim. An incredible talent, and a humble gentlemen, not like our current World Champion. No one finger salute after races for Jim.   

First day's, or should that be day and evening's, practice completed with Mercedes looking well in control of the situation. Still plenty to keep us interested though, with half a second covering the next eight cars. Fuel consumption is going to be an issue it seems for the first time this year, but as we saw in Malaysia Hamilton was very light on his fuel use. The advantage of running your own race at the front as we saw so many times for Vettel. Not much difference in tire degradation between the medium and soft compounds, so the soft is going to be the tire to use as it is way faster. Over two seconds it appears, although some of that may be down to the cooler temperatures in the second session.

The fear that these cars will be slow is unfounded, with the Mercedes basically matching the fast time from this same session a year ago. And it seems people are getting used to the noise of these cars, all except Ferrari fans that is. Montezemolo is meeting with Bernie and Todt to talk about rule changes. Really, after three races? Smacks of Red Bull and tires last year. We can't compete with these rules so let's change them. I can't believe Todt is going to go along with that after the battle to get these current cars. Then there is the conspiracy theory that Bernie is just trying to devalue the sport so he can get CVC bought out by his mates, who would not care if he is convicted or not.

On that subject Joe Saward must have had too much time on his hands and has written a very funny blog on the "zoo" that is Formula One. I don't know how he keeps his press pass.

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/the-f1-jungle-book/

If you doubt where the world is going with transport then just look at the latest Peugeot 308. A three cylinder turbo charged car which has demonstrated a fuel mileage of 99 mpg! The 308 is one of a long line of trick little cars, so no made for shopping hybrid here.

So the latest F1 cars are just where they need to be. F1 has always been about technology, and not how loud they are. They were in danger in being left behind by the WEC cars, so a move just in time. On the subject of fuel, Red Bull have yet to lodge an appeal and have until tomorrow, but you get the feeling they may not. Ferrari and Mercedes have come out supporting the FIA on the issue, and the FIA said that the meters meet their tolerance. It would be nice to know what that is. Almost any specification I have seen in my engineering life has a tolerance. Precision is for the gods not mere mortals.

Joe Saward, yes him again, said a month ago that CVC is letting us down gradually. That there is a method of drip feeding a message so that when it finally happens it is not a big shock to the system. So easing Bernie off a few boards of FOM was a first step to his going. Now we have Bernie saying that like all top sportsmen, you should go out on top. So he is thinking that this may be his last year as he will be 85 next year and has done this so long maybe he should do something else. Really? F1 is his life. So is this the next drip in the demise?