Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Lewis is sending mixed messages at the moment, saying that he is committed to McLaren and likes Button as his team mate etc. Then we hear the radio transmissions, and read that he thinks McLaren is not taking enough risks, and he fears that they will take a step backward when the blown exhaust is severely restricted. Then we read that he would take less money to drive a winning car, well it is relative when you make that much, it's not as if he is offering to drive it for nothing. He does not look or sound happy, and why would he be? It is interesting to compare his situation with Alonso. Both fierce competitors in cars that cannot win, but Alonso says he is very happy as he knows in his mind he is driving at his best at the moment. Kovalainen said something similar despite being in a car 4 seconds off the pace, but you can't see Lewis being happy with anything less than winning can you?

Seems the media were very unhappy about the race in Valencia, F1 is boring again, and the track is getting a lot of stick. Kids with a scalectrix kit could do better is the consensus. Ouch! As I understand it Bernie had a lot to do with how this is laid out, so Tilke can't have all the blame. As I said to my wife during the race I would not rush off to Valencia based on what I see on TV. Interesting that there were no DNF's for mechanical reasons or crashes, which I think is only the third F1 race in history. On a street circuit? That tells me that despite what it looks like the boys are not pushing ten tenths, as Moss would say. Of course the lovely asphalt run-offs let you make mistakes without penalty.

The circuit owners are going beyond the threatened 4 cylinder boycott and are demanding an engine that revs to 18,000 rpm as now. "The noise is part of the brand," says Ron Walker, and the brand is what we signed on for. Is this the beginning of a brave new world, has the worm turned? Ron assures us that he is not Bernie's mouthpiece. Let's wait and see shall we? Bernie can pick them off one at a time over the fees, but if all of them stick to their guns then he would be hard pressed to replace 20 tracks.

Take that. You can change the rules but the result stays the same. Vettel and Red Bull cruised to another win in Valencia, with Alonso in the Ferrari the only one who even looked like bothering him. Webber looked at times like he was going to challenge but in the end could not hold off Alonso, and then had a gearbox issue. Why is it always Webber who has the issues? So, not a particularly inspiring race even though there were lots of battles right through the field. Button did show an unlike Jensen streak when he went past Massa at Turn Two like he was nailed to the floor, and got it done when the DRS zones could not, so do we really need this? Lewis continues to hate life. When told to slow down to conserve his tires he says he can't go slower! Then when his tires have gone off and he is told to go quicker he says he can't, doesn't sound like a man happy with his car or his team.

The best part of the race was watching it live on www.fromsportcom.com which showed the BBC coverage with Brundle and Coulthard. I do not have to put up with SPEED and those idiots again! Fox in their wisdom are showing the race at noon today, a part of their four race summer showing of F1 on the network, for some reason only a programmer would know. Due to their expectation that they will have a whole new audience they treat us as bigger idiots than usual. As I have said before, they do not feel compelled to explain the rules of baseball or football every time a game starts, so why do they do it for F1?

I also watched a fair bit of the Nurburgring 24 Hour thanks to a link provided by my friend Greg Sarni, and listened to the Radio Le Mans crew. These guys maintain their obvious passion for the sport and freshness as if they were spectators, while being totally professional and concentrating on the activity on track and not what is coming next or who is wearing what etc. This race has grown in stature over the last five years or so and is becoming a great showcase for manufacturers and new technology and ideas. Over 200 cars, and as one of the interviewees said there are more classes than he usually has entrants. The number of manufacturers was exceptional, it would be easier to say who was not there than who were, in fact I would not like to guess who was not represented. This was backed up by what must be every tire company, with some guys running on street tires. It is in some ways much more challenging than Le Mans, just the volume of cars and the bigger differences in performance on that narrow and dangerous track they call the "green hell." The number of top drivers there this year was a testament to its growth. There was Johnny O'Connell in a Renault Clio! Attendance is similar to Le Mans, so now we have two great 24 hour races.

It is interesting that the F1 Promoters, well 17 of them, wrote to the FIA to tell them they did not want the show if it was a 4 cylinder turbo. Now I have been a promoter and attended meetings with my fellow promoters, and it is hard to get them to agree to anything as we basically compete with each other over everything. A lot like the teams actually, but nowhere near as organized, so this is a new thing we are seeing. I always thought we as a group had a lot of clout, although there were always new tracks or existing ones who would take a race if I didn't, but this raises a new lobby group. I actually thought that a group of tracks that no longer have GP's could be a better bet to put together to start a new series based on better rewards for the guys taking most if not all of the risk. NASCAR's model would be a good start. Anyway, the current group is led by Ron Walker, Bernie's mate from Melbourne, so you can see where this came from, and why they would not support a breakaway series. The threat was to go to Indycar apparently. Yeh Right, let me know how that works out for you

No not that great piece of British engineering, the City in Texas, where three individuals are suing the State Comptroller to stop the $25m payout to the F1 promoters. The basis of the suit is that the comptroller approved the payout before receiving official approval. As my contacts in Texas tell me, this is far from a done deal despite all the earthmoving going on.

In an amazing piece of self delusion or wishful thinking, not sure which, the Chief Executive of the Bahrain Circuit said that the cancellation of this year's race "was nothing to do with Bahrain, but there was an internal battle between Bernie and the FIA." He stated that he expected the demand for tickets for next years race will be much higher due to the disappointment of not having a race this year and intends to add more grandstands. Good luck, if you keep trying Shiites and putting them in jail then next year may also be a disappointment.

Over in Holland one of the consequences of going to four strokes made itself evident with the second three practice sessions for the MotoGP cancelled due to one Moto2 engine blowing up. IRTA were always very nervous about me running Superbike races for local competitors as part of our race program and made very sure I understood it was on my head if this happened. I wonder how they feel now, especially as it seems Assen cannot clean up an oil spill in an afternoon!

News is in that Eric Lux has filed suit against Sutil over the incident in China, and Sutil says he will fight it in court and should have nothing to do with his driving. It is interesting to me that the action is a criminal complaint for GBH in a German court when the "crime" was committed in China. Lawyers out there explain this? Both German citizens?

Tony Fernandes is having a good day in court with Justice Smith refusing Group Lotus the right to appeal, and granting Tony costs.

One of the suggestions now the engines for 2014 have been set is that McLaren will build its' own, now that it is building engines for its' road car. Martin Whitmarsh played this down as being too costly for a company producing 4500 cars a year, but what of Ferrari?

Does anyone else find Sergio Perez's illness in Canada odd? Now he is saying he will see how he feels in practice in Valencia. He is either fit or not, and the Doctors say he is, but how about mentally? Pedrosa seems to be having the same issues over in MotoGP with his shoulder, which despite being seen bowling, and riding supermotard, won't let him race in GP. This when Colin Edwards finishes third with a plate in his shoulder in the rain!

Whatever they are. The F1 Commission met earlier today and voted to delay the new engine formula for F1 until 2014, and then go to a V6 1.6 liter turbo. Makes sense to go to V6, but not sure how this helps Bernie's problem with the noise, if there ever was a problem. This does not change the fact that manufacturers are going to have to spend a bunch of money developing a new engine, I can't see they can just lop off the end two cylinders of the existing. Still, it keeps Ferrari happy, and as I said, even Nissan makes a bunch of V6's, as does Honda, Toyota etc. These are now going to a fax vote of the WMC. Another win for Bernie?

I'm glad things had settled down in Bahrain. They just sentenced a bunch of Shiite dissidents to long prison terms, which is sure to make the 70% of the population that are Shiites happy. Next comes the trials of the medical staff, which should quieten things down even more, not.

Joe Saward has his usual informative blog today with the news that the next stop on the GP trail, Valencia, is in a State that has debts of $25 billion, and the race costs then $40m. Do we think this race has a future?

France in the shape of its Prime Minister has woken up and decided it must have an F1 GP back, as soon as 2013. Paul Ricard is the track being suggested and the track Director is saying that it will only happen if they can find a promoter. Look closer to home, who owns Paul Ricard in whatever corporate guise you want? Bernie. So like the BBC, if he really wanted a French GP it would be easy, except then he would be playing with his own money, and he knows what he will lose on that bet.

On a different note, Trulli is frustrated by the ongoing problems with the Lotus power steering. I'm not surprised, I'd be frustrated too, and worried, steering the car seems a pretty basic requirement, and one I cannot fathom that Lotus out of all the teams cannot resolve. Wouldn't you go and find the best person in the world in power steering and pay them whatever to fix this? Better yet, steal the best person in the paddock. I can imagine this is not your average power steering set up, so can anyone reading this tell us what the issue is?

So Red Bull are pulling the plug on their NASCAR team at the end of this season. As someone else asked is the writing on the wall for NASCAR, or is Red Bull just seeing a better opportunity at the US F1 GP as also suggested? Even so that suggests they see NASCAR as on the decline as its viewing numbers must still far exceed F1. They certainly have not conquered NASCAR like F1, but then again they do not have the Adrian Newey of NASCAR.

The FIA has gone a step further in its clamp down on engine mapping by placing the qualifying engine mapping in the parc ferme situation between quali and the race. It seems some teams, Red Bull for example, have been using some pretty extreme mapping for quali, but have to dial it down to last the race. Valencia and beyond is going to be interesting. Ferrari is suggesting that we will see a Championship in two halves. You watch, some bright spark will work out how to remap the engine sitting on the grid, or at the first stop.

Talking of Red Bull, well Torro Rosso actually, they were in Hong Kong for one of their demo runs, amidst rumors that Hing Kong wants an F1 race. Monaco and Singapore have one so why not? Then there are Mexico and Argentina apparently wanting races. Bernie has to be loving this, but I thought "The Circuit of the Americas" was supposed to draw all those Mexican fans to Austin, so why do they need a race? A 25 race calendar anybody?

In an interesting move Ducati are to run this year's engine in next year's chassis in an attempt to fix their current problems. Never been tested so the first practice should be fun to watch.

Engines are back on the table in F1 with a meeting of the F1 Commission tomorrow. Bernie is saying the vote by the FIA to go to 4 cylinder turbo was not valid because Todt bypassed the F1 Commission. The fallout from this is going to be interesting as someone is going to be unhappy.

Going back to the BBC and F1, I had a comment off-blog so to speak that Sky would be the alternative and it is not free to air. ITV is still there, unless someone tells me otherwise, and was until recently the F1 broadcaster. So did they let it go to the BBC as it was not worth the cost so are unlikely to want it back? It is academic, Bernie will just drop his fee won't he? Is that a pig just going by the window?