Bob Barnard Track Engineering

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.

I am surprised at the lack of response to yesterday's blog, but for you guys in Australia the Mercedes World Drive is headed your way after the US leg, so check the map above.

Bernie's World Tour continues to grow would be stop overs with Croatia the latest to throw it's hat in the ring with a $420m track, to be built by Mr. Tilke of course. Do these would be track owners not read comments like Sir Jackie Stewart and now Martin Whitmarsh on Herman's tracks?  And these guys must know something about high finance that I do not. How do you invest $420m in a venture where the main event loses money every year? Even as a promotion surely you can find something a bit cheaper to put on, or just buy loads of air time. So who is going off the calendar to make way for this one? In a twist, there are protests in the streets of the capital this last weekend, so now we are having protests before we even get a race to cancel.

Martin Whitmarsh was also asked about McLaren building its own F1 engine, and he declined to rule it out. I would have thought that this was a totally logical step now they have divested the Mercedes ownership and started building its own road supercar and engine. McLaren clearly want to take on Ferrari, so their own engine is a necessary step.

There is an interesting news item on Autosport today about the winner of this year's USTCC getting a drive in the WTCC. Now I have not heard of a US Touring Car Championship since the year I first got to the US in 1997, so they have been keeping this a very big secret. Why would the WTCC team up with this unknown series and not the SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge, or either of the GT series which do after all run BMW's and other "Touring Cars?"

F1 testing resumes tomorrow or Wednesday, depending on which team you are in, and supposedly we will get some better picture of how the Pirelli's will perform. Hamilton is the latest driver to come out about how they "will make F1 slow." Melbourne will be interesting, or maybe not?

The season has not started yet and the amount of words being written about Pirelli tires rather than the cars is not right. When you have a single tire supplier the tires should not be a factor, but it seems that this year they will be the main factor. There is a great piece on pitpass website about the huge balls of rubber that are accumulating on the track, and being thrown over the debris fence! Catch one of these in your helmet and you will know it.

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=43040

Now Martin Whitmarsh has come out and said the drivers should shut up about it, that being the tire supplier is a "thankless task," but Pirelli wanted the task. Whitmarsh is one of those who go on about the sport being relevant and more environmentally friendly. What's environmentally friendly about using masses of tires every race, when we know the tire manufacturer could make one that lasts the weekend? And what is relevant about a tire that lasts 40 or 50 kilometers? Us average motorists would like to see 40,000 k out of a set thank you, that is what is "relevant." If you need pit stops to make the racing exciting, as NASCAR seems to do, then there is something wrong with your sport.

That goes right along with the sprinkler idea. London's Daily Telegraph offers up even more ideas for Bernie to spice things up.

There is a great saying in Australia to describe a stupid situation, "All we need is a tent and elephants and we would have a circus." This is what F1 has been called, and is well on the way to being a real one. More "F1 Figures" have come out in favor of sprinklers. Let's think about this. The reason rain effected races are interesting is usually the unpredictability of it, look at Spa. Now if it becomes "predictable" that Bernie is going to turn the taps on sometime in the race do you not think the geniuses in F1 teams will work out how to make it all "predictable" again?

Good old Luca di Montezemolo has sounded off again about the current F1 rules. Steering wheels like "martians." You have to love him. He gets my vote for being the next Ringmaster of the circus, but he probably has his eyes on a bigger tent.

Not to be outdone Indycar has some ideas of its own to spice up the show. Guest drivers for the last race did not even rate a comment from me, but I have seen what happens when you start distorting races with offers of large amounts of prize money and it is usually a demolition derby. You had better hope the Championship is not being decided at that race with a bunch of ring-ins out there having their own race and "devil take the hindmost." Now we are to split the Texas race into two races for double the fun. We all know people watch the start and the finish, so now they have to tune in twice. But just for real fun let's just pick grid spots out of a hat. Why waste time on qualifying at any races? It would be greener, especially if you used recycled paper.

Very good news on Sir Jackie, we need his common sense around for a while yet.