Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Some people just do not know when to shut up. We have some great examples today.

Bernie said that his mate Briatore was "In no shape or form .... involved in this." He then went on to tell the Daily Express. "He did make a payment for me but only because I asked him." ? I know when to say nothing.

Then there is Adam Parr, he who is telling disgruntled fans how expensive it is to run a team. He does it again today and I'm sure the fans appreciate being told that if they just accept the need for budget cuts in F1 then the teams would not need all that money and the TV and admission costs would go down. Well, he did not actually say the last piece, and we all know that the money will just go somewhere else. The teams could reduce the cost of the show whenever they want, just getting rid of those monstrous "hospitality" units would save a few million, each. No, Adam goes on to say that if each team spends 100m pounds a year to run then the cost of the show is 1.2 bn pounds. Well it is a lot more than that Adam if you add in the cost of building the tracks and staging the races, but let's just look at his maths. Each team has sponsors who foot part or all of that 100m pound bill, but let's say half, so now we are down to 600m pounds by his reckoning. Then there are the fees paid by the poor promoters, say 25m each by 20 races, that nearly covers the rest. You could almost put this on TV for free, but that does not include Bernie's cut or the CVC rape.

Adam continues with his "racquets and plimsoles (tennis shoes to you and me)" analogy, and then makes it worse by comparing the cost of admission to Crique de Soleil" at 100 pounds to the local circus for 10 pounds where you only get to see "a couple of mangy elephants and a rather droopy clown." Nice one Adam, just endeared yourself to the circus industry. Anyway Adam believes the fans will understand. I would not bet on it. At least F1 does not have a slogan of "For the Fans." The next FOTA forum in England should be a doozy, they could sell the rights to that for a lot of money, help defray the cost of running the races. 

Then there is India and the GP, which yesterday had 6000 workers going day and night with 250 engineers to finish the track. Today we are told its all done bar the top layer of asphalt and they were ready for and expecting Charlie last Monday, but he decided to leave it till August 30th. Now I am happy it is ready, but why tell us a story?

Last but not least we have another reported intent to stage an F1 race in the streets of New Jersey with Manhattan as the backdrop, with a race in 2013. Bernie and Martin Whitmarsh must be pleased. It is a private investment, so the question must be why? These are smart businessmen and must know what the costs are, but perhaps know better than I what the income will be, but I would check with Melbourne first. It is one thing for the City to fund this and reap the "economic benefits," but unless these guys own a bunch of real estate in the area it is hard to see the rational.

Here we are, Monday morning after a GP, Spa 24 hour and WSBK and not much to stir the blood.

A couple of things caught the eye. Yamaha is withdrawing its WSBK factory team. This is despite currently running third and fourth in the Championship. They have obviously taken notice that Ducati are leading the Championship with Checa despite the works team dropping out for the first time this year. Yamaha say they are going to support private teams, which clearly works. I think back to what I see were the good days of GP when Yamaha had several "private" teams running their equipment, Kenny, Ago, Sonauto with Sarron, and all were "works" bikes and we had good racing. Honda had a works team, but also Kanemoto, HB and Cabin, and Garry Taylor ran Suzuki for Schwantz. This to me is the right way for series to run, not just one "works" team for each and really only three or four guys likely to win. Not a bad model for four wheel racing either, like we saw at Spa, six Audis in three private teams racing each other, which is how McLaren are going with the GT.

The other is the ongoing Gribkowsky deal, with the six others being named, and behold there is Bernie's friend Briatore, the man banned from F1 helping Bernie out.

The furore over the Sky TV deal continues, with Pit Pass suggesting it is not poor Bernie's fault, nothing to do with the high cost of TV rights and everything else to do with F1, no it is the Teams' fault. They should do something, but what? He suggests that the teams subsidise the Sky fee for F1 fans. And how are you going to identify them? And 10 m households at 475 pounds apiece is a rather big ask. Why not the teams accept less TV money, say $20m, and reduce the cost of the rights to BBC? But that won't work either as then you set a precedent for all the other broadcasters. But if "free-to-air" is so important for the sponsors? If that were the case then F1 would be on Network TV here in the States and we might get a few people interested in it, and cheaper than building a track and running a race. How about funding Alexander Rossi in to a good seat as Red Bull are doing, then you might see some interest. But no, all these spend money, and of course the poor teams just need more and more. As Adam Parr said it is expensive for them to go racing, you can't just buy a tennis racquet and some shoes. I thought that was what sponsors were for. So are we really interested in building a sport or making money? If the Sky deal loses audience then we will see. This whole series is run on unrealistic income streams that if one or two start to fall by the wayside could fold up like a house of cards. If Bernie cuts a deal for Germany what does he do for Oz and Valencia, Barcelona, Spa etc? 

I talked before about headline writers and today there is a classic. Not sure if it is meant to be funny but judge for yourself. "Mosley refuses to be beaten over quirk." What's funny about that you say? His "quirk" is he likes to be beaten! It reminds me of an old and bad joke. Masochist: "Beat me, beat me!" Sadist: "NO." The article is about Mosley's push to have private lives made sacred from media exposure following his little episode with a few young ladies in a cellar.

You can't keep Briatore down can you, now he is a medical expert. "Briatore visits Kubica, predicts recovery." Well I'm sure we all feel better for that Flavio. It is safer to ask who has not been mentioned as a replacement for Robert, I even saw a comment that Mark Webber could consider taking the seat. Now that is an idea even my fertile brain had not considered.

Of course the whole "he should not be doing this" saga rolls on. Kimi has wrecked his car in just about every rally since he left F1 and still gets away with it. Mark Webber goes mountain bike riding and breaks his leg etc, so leave it out.

The other big news is that HRT unveiled an graphic image of the new car. Not the new car you note, just the great new graphics by the Hollywood designer. And yes it looks nice, but does it exist and will it be any better? We have 32 days now to the first race and two test sessions left, one of which starts this week, and they still have only one driver. In a further statement HRT has decided to skip the Jerez test and "support Pirelli" at a filming session in Monza. With the new graphics? What are these people thinking?

In other news, the German weekly, Der Spiegel, has picked up where Stern left off with a story about how much CVC paid for the F1 rights and how much the bank received, which apparently were not the same. Guess where they say the rest went? I have to ask, is this uncovering of information the result of ongoing research, or do they know the whole story and they are teasing it out like a serial to get us to buy the paper?

So NASCAR were more than thinking about changing the point system, they have done it, and what a major change it is, not! Last still gets a point, and it is a straight 43 for a win down to 1 for 43rd. But they want to make winning more valuable, so you get three bonus points for winning. Doesn't that mean you get 46 points for winning? And this is simpler? Then there is a point for leading a lap, which I always thought was there anyway, and one more for leading the most laps. Now the news report says that "it is also expected to to keep gaps tighter than in the past." So where's the reward for winning? Then there is the wonderful "Chase" where the last two spots will be decided on who has won the most races out of the next ten drivers, and this is simpler? As I said the other day, deckchairs on the Titanic. Oh yes, and to bring them into the modern world they are going to use vented gas cans to do away with the vent guy. How about a proper fuel rig like any other professional motor sport, and while you are at it centre lock wheels and pneumatic jacks? The only good idea I read was to move away from the CoT and for "the season ahead the cars will have new front ends." Is that this year or next year?  Then "within two years the cars are expected to more closely models being sold." What a concept, isn't that where we came in?

Poor old Flavio, first his yacht, now his bank account with 1.5 million Euros. Italian police have seized the money for tax evasion. This is the guy who is supposedly banned from F1 but still manages two drivers and wants back in. He presumably took the news well at HIS resort in Kenya. One has to ask, how did he amass so much money from being a team manager and driver agent? It's one thing being rich, but he seems like Bernie to have a bottomless pit of the stuff.

So Red Bull say they have a clause in Vettel's contract that if he wins races and finishes within the top three this year they have a contract for 2012. Isn't that the same as many driver contracts that say if I do not win then I can leave? I still have a problem with Vettel going to Ferrari while Alonso is there. If he thinks Mark Webber was a difficult team mate he should ask Lewis about Alonso. I would have thought as a driver I would be happy with the best car of whatever make, so what is it with Ferrari? I mean, I get the history and mystique, but not quite sure why it is assumed every driver wants to go there. Not every Ferrari driver has good memories of the place.

Is there any significance that Ducati chose to debut this years superbike with Rossi on board the same day as the official WSBK test started? There are 21 riders entered for the WSBK, but it looks like the usual suspects. What is the average age does anyone know? Cycle World had this piece on Facebook, "World Superbike CEO Paolo Flammini said on age limits, "The age limits present in 600 and 1000 Superstock classes have been made more generous for two main reasons: The first is that 40 year olds can now become World Champions, so why stop 24 year olds from racing?" Is anyone else confused, and if not can you explain? The Ducati test? It seems Mr. Rossi's shoulder is hurting more than anyone thought. Let's see when the season starts.

No, I am not finally sick of cars, no one ever gets over that, but the last time I can recall ever being car sick was about eleven years old, until I got in a simulator that is. It seems Michael Schumacher and I have the same problem, simulators give us motion sickness. Now I have raced cars, flown in small planes across the heat of Australia's deserts, sailed boats and been on a Catamaran out to the Barrier Reef when everyone on board except four of us were sea sick, so this came as a great shock to me. Can anyone explain this phenomenon? After I designed the track here in Arizona the client bought a locally made simulator and they loaded the track layout. It worked great, but I could only do a few laps before feeling very disoriented and queasy. Not much of an inconvenience for me, but it must be a huge problem for Michael, everyone else has the car set up before they even get to the track and he starts from scratch.

There is the start of a nice article by Julian Ryder on Superbike Planet today about how Superbikes started.

http://superbikeplanet.com/2007/Nov/071119l.htm

It interested me as it talks of Steve McLaughlin, "motormouth" who was instrumental in the first World Championship. I happened to be in Geneva for a meeting of the FIM Management Council the day Steve was there to have the agreement with the FIM signed. Sitting in the lobby for most of the day with Steve was an education.

Joe Saward in his F1 blog today asks the question "why are the media publishing comments from Briatore and Symonds?" As two of the key figures in the "crashgate" debacle he believes that they should not be heard of again, let alone be involved in the sport, and cites numerous examples of life time bans from other sports. He asks if he is on his own with this view, so Joe, since you asked, no.

Is it just me or has the USGP announced three times now that they have started? We saw before the New Year machines on site, but that was only a soil sampling exercise and putting up silt fence.  Then we had a "photo op" the other day of Tavo driving some machine on site, started again. And now today we read that USGP is set to receive digging permission. Now I do not doubt they will get it done, but please quit the over hype, it does them no favors.

The judge in the Lotus case quickly disposed of the first hearing refusing Lotus Groups submission to throw the action out even before their lawyers said anything, and rather than let it drag on he has set it down for March 21, suggesting they sort themselves out before then. Nice one judge. Tony Fernandes is quoted as saying the good do always win. Not in my world Tony unfortunately, so good luck.

Sounds as if Force India are set to announce Paul Di Resta as a driver for 2011 tomorrow in Glasgow. Why else would you go to Glasgow? So, what now for Luizzi, and his contract?

Pat Symonds, yes the one I said should not be heard from, but is, suggests that F1 needs to do a lot more research on just how much overtaking it needs. Good point, I don't think F1 fans want a NASCAR type lead change every lap, and Lewis Hamilton did not seem to have too much trouble to pass people at most tracks this year, and how about Kobayashi, so perhaps it is attitude not the car? We certainly do not want to see manipulated races.