Bob Barnard Track Engineering

How do supposedly smart businessmen get themselves into the mess that is the US F1 GP in Austin? Bobby Epstein as the money guy presumably is smart as he has made enough money to build the track, but is not smart enough to do the research on people who try and get Bernie to change his terms for a GP. When I worked for Kenny promoting the US Motorcycle GP at Laguna in 93 Bernie ran the bike GP's, and the contract was 44 pages and Bernie would not change a single word, not even for his mate Kenny. So good luck Bobby, especially as you want Bernie to agree to your contract.

Bernie says he will not replace Austin in next years calendar, and Bahrain and Korea will happen as he has a contract. Well he had a contract this year for Bahrain and that did not happen, and Korea may think it cheaper to default than lose another $36m next year. I have to laugh when I read in Autosport that the Indian GP will be with us for a long time. Just long enough for Jaypee to work out they will never make any money. 

I have been MIA the last week as my wife and I have moved from Phoenix to Raleigh NC, and drove 2250 miles in three days, about 31 hours, and basically never got off I 40. All this in a 13 year old Honda Accord with 150,000 miles on it, never missed a beat, amazing car! Unfortunately the movers are not so amazing. National Vanlines managed to do everything wrong that we told them the last movers did, and then some, so no I do not recommend them to anyone, and no we did not take the lowest quote.

I am off this week giving three presentation at the Orlando Professional Circuit Owners Convention and moderating the whole of the second day, so will be a tired boy at the end of it. Looks like a great convention though, and then the PRI show the day after. 

Oh yes we had the last F1 GP today in Brazil, and no surprise a Red Bull won, and Webber finally broke his duck for 2011. I have no TV or internet yet so could not watch, but let's hope that in 2012 someone can give them a run for their money.

The story of today has to be the on and off restrictions by the FIA on feeding exhaust gasses to the diffuser. This "trick" has been the big idea to maintain downforce that the FIA keeps trying to reduce. As I mentioned a few weeks ago this involves keeping the engine on full song during braking to keep the gas flow constant and therefore keep the downforce. This increases fuel consumption at a time when the sport is trying to reduce it by 35%. The FIA came out yesterday and said that this basically constituted a movable aerodynamic device and the set a limit of 10% throttle opening during braking, effective Friday! Now I don't know if this is driven by green feelings, or reducing downforce, or just responding to complaints from teams that are not doing it, but like most good ideas in F1 it is eventually banned.

The FIA then had a change of heart and delayed the introduction of the measure, agreeing that changing the engine mapping might not be possible in the time. I can't see why? These engines have been around for a few years now, so just dig out the old map from before you started doing it. The problem probably is in how the FIA are going to police this. As always, it is easy to say don't have flexible front wings, it is something else entirely to write a rule and tests to police it, as we have seen. Still, with a common ECU, you would think they could control or monitor this.

No one answered my question on where the Sutil/Lux case would be heard. The story now is that Sutil had a drink spilled on him and went to throw a drink over Lux, the glass broke and he hit him in the neck. I presume he thought Lux spilled the drink on him. Still all seems  a bit odd, but more believable than Sutil doing it on purpose. Of course Sutil has the teams complete support, at least for this weekend's race.

Bernie damned the new Silverstone with faint praise as they say in the classics, "very nice, pity they did not do it ten years ago." Still, he did say he could now bring would be tracks there to see how you spend 28m Pounds on a pit building!

Barcelona Circuit is speaking out of both sides of its mouth. In one breath it is saying if the current F1 cars still cannot overtake there then they will spend money to change the track. Then they add they are still in negotiations with F1 and MotoGP about future contracts, i.e. should we spend the money to keep them, as suggested a couple of months ago the State may not view this as a good investment . The changes that were made a few years ago to the last corner complex certainly improved things, not.

That brings me to Sao Paulo and the changes proposed to the last corner there. It has been decided to wait until after the GP at the end of the year as they cannot get the work done in time! They plan to take down part of a grandstand and move the wall back. How hard is this! Just keep your fingers crossed there is not another accident there.

Bahrain says it is "ready" to have the Grand Prix back. Define ready? The troops and tanks are in place? All the ringleaders are now in jail? The question is, is the world ready to have you back. The jury is definitely still out on that question for most of us.

The final corner onto the straight at Interlagos, home of the Brazilian F1 GP, has always bothered me. The drivers cut across pit entry to get a faster line on basically a blind corner, and then the wall on the exit of the corner is right on the edge of the pavement. We have seen crashes here in F1, but not as many as you would expect, so it was one of those deals that seemed OK even if it looked bad. Well, I should remember my own words, if it looks bad it probably is. A motorcyclist died earlier this year and last weekend there was a fatality in a stock car race, the third fatality on four years, at a time when racing is generally being spared. There are now calls to modify the corner, but the problem is not easy to fix. The track is very close to the boundary of the property on the outside, and there is a steep drop off on the inside. The corner is great and re-profiling it would not be appreciated by the drivers, but nor would dying. Not a simple fix.

Jean Todt is flagging a revisit to the fees CVC, aka Bernie, paid for the hundred year commercial rights to F1. The fight over engines is apparently just an opening salvo, and Jean is giving notice he is standing for re-election. I bet Bernie will be working away behind the scenes to put his own man in there.

I love the fact that the Russina GP track is "well on track." Well the race is three years away so why shouldn't it be? The best bit is the "Final Feasibility Study" is going to the IOC. Last time I looked they did not run F1 races. And wouldn't you do the feasibility study before you signed a contract for millions of dollars to stage an F1 race? Silly me, this is just the study to make sure you can run a Winter Olympics and an F1 race within a few months of each other, not whether it is going to make money. We all know that answer don't we?

Has everyone caught up with what McLaren were trying to do with their trick exhaust before they gave up and copied Red Bull? "The Octopus" was what it was called. Instead of collecting the exhaust into two pipes from eight, it split them up and fed them into areas of the underfloor to provide the perfect exhaust diffuser. It was all a bit too complicated, and like a lot of complicated things in F1, they could not get it to work. Some of the best cars have been the simplest, the FW07 for instance. Don't think they have forgotten it though, so look for a revisit sometime this year.

Casey Stoner continued his domination of testing in Malaysia with all the top Hondas under the track record. Yamahas made up places 5-7 with Edwards again in the mix with his factory team compatriots. Ducati is "sandbagging" really well if that is what they are doing, filling the 11-14th slots, Rossi being the quickest of them and nearly two seconds off the pace. Even the Suzuki is faster.

Back in Europe Valencia is now denying asking for a reduction in fees for the GP, and did not address the rumor that they have not paid for last year yet. The Minister also said he was not aware of other races pushing for a fee reduction. Why even raise these issues unless there is something to them?

Bernie is pushing for Bahrain to join Abu Dhabi and Brazil at the end of the season in back to back to back weekends of fly-away races. Not something the teams have done and a bit of a nightmare for them, especially if we have a situation like last year. Bernie obviously would like his fee. In the meantime he is not winning any friends with his comments in the new book about other personalities such as Jean Todt and Sir Richard Branson. Why would you say those things to a writer? Does he think he is invulnerable and can say what he likes? It seems so at times. It reminds me of when Kenny Roberts was running his team. On a slow news day journos would get a comment from Kenny as he was always good for something to stir things up, but never in this fashion.

If the Canadians are worried about the Renault JPS livery what are they going to say about the Williams Rothmans throwback?

Lord Paul Drayson has given up on ALMS for "greener" pastures, i.e. electric racing. His car will be missed if not Lord Paul, and good luck, I hope you have enough extension cord for your "zero emissions" vehicle. How much longer do we have to put up with this BS? He of all people should know that at the moment he is just moving the emissions elsewhere.  What now ALMS?

Glock is saying that the new Virgin is a second or more off the pace of the Lotus due to a problem with the rear wing. Nick Worth just needs to fix it apparently, oh if it were that easy. Presumably "I don't need a wind tunnel" Worth would have fixed it already if it was that easy, and just maybe a wind tunnel may have shown the problem.

On the home front it has been a busy and exciting week. More expert witness work, an overseas contact for a track, and a positive response on a major project I am trying to initiate here in the US. Hopefully I can tell you all about it in the next week or so.

So Red Bull let their drivers race, as they should, but I cannot help wondering if they are happy with the Constructors Championship, and congratulations for that, and do not mind if Alonso is the driver's Champion. They probably figure if Mark wins he will leave or retire anyway, so who cares, we've got Vettel who will definitely win it one day and that is who we really want. Helmut Marko looked very happy with the way it finished. It was actually a pretty predictable race, let's hope Abu Dhabi is a bit more exciting, although from last year's example do not hold your breath.

The biggest news out of Brazil is the attempted hold up of Button and the robbery of the Sauber mechanics, which should not be a shock to anyone who has been there. Bernie seemed very concerned, he laughed it off as "someone trying to sell him a hat." I think Bernie was talking out of his. Nice that he cares so much about his stars who have to drive around in bullet proof cars and police escorts. What is it going to take for him to wake up, someone getting shot or kidnapped? And the 2016 Olympics is in Rio!

Peugeot won in Zuhai with some squawking from Audi about the second Peugeot holding them up, but personally I do not see the problem. If Audi could not pass it how were they holding them up, and isn't that allowed, it is hardly a "team orders" issue. The big news is the hybrid Porsche was sixth, ahead of all the GT cars. I checked on the Petit situation for 2011 and my information is that it is not a part of the Intercontinental Cup, wither Petit now?

Lorenzo mad a miracle save and went on to win the race in Valencia, a worthy Champion. Roll on next season when the music stops on the changes in the seats. Ben Spies did well to finish fourth, so watch out for Ben on the works Yamaha next season. Checa finished last and you know my thought about where he should be riding, or not riding, next year.

Just as a reminder I will be in Cologne, Germany, all the week of the 15th speaking at an International Forum on circuit design, construction and operation. It is a very busy week with sessions for me on two of the three days and I am not taking my computer, so you are going to have to find your daily fix elsewhere. If you want to check it out go to http://www.professionalmotorsportcircuit-forum.com.