Bob Barnard Track Engineering

It is said that in F1 one great pass can be enough in a season. Hakkinen on Schumacher at Spa. Webber on Alonso at Spa. But yesterday we saw a non-pass that made a race. That half a lap, a series of silly 2nd gear corners where it is supposed to be impossible to pass, showed two great drivers at the top of their game. Webber as I said has shown it a couple of times this season, and Hamilton forgot all those silly incidents when trying to pass Massa to join him in a masterful display of courage, strength of mind and respect for the other guy. Which other two drivers would race so close, no pushing the other wide on the grass, always giving him just enough room, and no sudden swerves or chops? Button and Alonso probably, but few others. Made it worth stopping up past midnight for.

Then we were treated to twenty or so laps of Hamilton holding off Webber, shades of Villeneuve senior at Jarama. Lewis seems to have been in a different place this weekend, subdued but determined. Martin Whitmarsh explained the strange starts and races of Lewis and Jensen by saying they "lost" 10 pts of downforce on that first lap. One web site suggested rubber build up lodging in the front wing, but that would have been spotted and removed at the pit stop. Lewis had more and more front wing added at each stop, and half way through that last fraught stint asked over the radio if he had all there was. The answer was that the wing was maxed out. The lack of dry running on Friday was blamed by some, but Red Bull did not have the same problem. Just to rub it in Vettel threw in the fastest lap of the race by a second on the last lap!

You know I do not like the DRS. It is a false solution, created by Alonso's problem of getting past a slow car at Abu Dhabi. No question it works in those situations, so far so good. It does not work with two equal cars, and nor should it. We saw Lewis driving away from Webber through the twisty bits, but not quite getting the 1 second he needed to prevent Mark from wiping that out by no more technique and skill than pressing a button on the straight. If Lewis could have kept his 0.7 seconds he made each lap after 20 laps he would have a nice cushion. As it was he stressed himself to the limit of the car's performance each lap just to stay ahead. Made for good viewing, but I'm not convinced it is fair. Let's get rid of it and leave it to the drivers.

Strange to hear Alonso say near the end "I give up, I give up." After putting in 20 laps at qualifying pace he still could not get to Button, who in turn could not get to Webber. I think neither Lewis or Alonso are very happy with their cars at the moment.

Someone who is is Kovalainen. He finished a genuine 14th in the Lotus and mixed it with the back end of the mid-field on pace, beating both Saubers. He was ready to do it again straight away he said. Good to see. 

Congratulations to Casey Stoner on clinching the MotoGP crown at Phillip Island, that must have felt great, but I'm sure he would rather have done it by beating Lorenzo who did not start after losing part of a finger in a warm-up crash. So both Yamaha riders out of the race made for a sparse field, made sparser by race crashes including Rossi. Only ten bikes finished, very sad for the top level of Motorcycle racing. In Moto2 Bradl was pipped at the end by De Angelis which allowed Bradl to retake the title lead from third finishing Marquez by three points. With a return to form by Bradl the last two races could be fun.

In NASCAR land perpetual champ Jimmie Johnson crashed out of last night's Charlotte race and is last in the "Chase." So a new champ this year, if anyone cares. Not many at Charlotte to show they did.

I settled down yesterday afternoon for a motorsport marathon with Bathurst live for seven hours followed by the Japanese F1 GP. Bottle of red, some cheese and salami and hamburgers for dinner, does it get much better?

Well unfortunately it did not thanks to SPEED and Channel Seven in Australia. It was the worst, or close to, race coverage I have ever been subjected to. If you read yesterday's blog you know I love this race, so it has to be bad if I give up at lap 67 and watch a movie! My Aussie friends were posting on Facebook their annoyance at the number of ads Channel Seven were putting in, about every two to three laps it seemed. To add insult to injury SPEED felt it necessary to go and interview anyone they could find in pit lane even when the race was back on. What on earth were SPEED trying to do? I know you build a following for a sport based on the heroes, but you actually have to watch the sport! I know they pander to the lowest common denominator when it comes to an audience, but this was insulting. Are they trying to capture NASCAR fans?

Now an endurance race is hard to follow at the best of times as strategies unfold over the course of hours, so only seeing snippets made it impossible to follow, so I gave up.

So at 11 pm we turned to Fromsportcom.com to watch the Japanese GP. We actually do put SPEED's coverage on in case the computer stream locks up, but they were still at Bathurst, and stayed long after the GP started. I think it was about lap fifteen by they time they started the race, so if you looked on a web site you knew who won long before you saw it. And no sense of urgency even when they went to the GP, they did the grid walk and all the intro graphics as if there was all day to see this. 

Fromsport did not have the usual BBC feed for some reason so we watched German Sky, and lo and behold their commentators did not feel the need to talk non-stop. We had periods when we could just watch and listen to the cars, please note SPEED.

So to the race. Vettel has been to the Schumacher school of racing with the move he made on Button at the start, and of course got away with it. He says he did not see Button. Well the pit exit lane is not the normal line for taking turn one so I can only presume he expected someone to come up the inside and moved to block him. In that event do you not think he should be looking up the inside instead of driving Button onto the grass? Vettel joked afterwards that having two wheels on the grass did not stop him passing Alonso in Monza, very funny. He said he was looking for Hamilton who started third and behind Vettel. If that was the case why move over and give him the race line? Sorry cannot buy this.

Hamilton and Massa had their by now required coming together at the chicane. Lewis said he did not see him, and was actually taking the normal race line from 130R to the chicane, so he did not purposely move over on him, and presumably the Stewards saw it that way too. Hamilton had a bad race while his team mate drove his usual calm and controlled race and jumped Vettel at the second pit stop and hung on despite pressure from Alonso at the end, but ran out of fuel as he went over the finish line. So he was in fuel save mode for a while there which let Alonso close on him, and then threw in the fastest race lap at the end just to show he could.

Anyway Vettel score enough points running third to close out the Drivers Championship, and Red Bull must win the Team prize if they have not already, although I saw no announcement of this. I'm afraid Vettel is one of those drivers I respect but do not like. It is hard to fathom how he can drive away from some of the best drivers in the world at the start of a race, is the car that good? If so how come he ends up third? It seems from the radio transmissions that Vettel and Webber were told near the end not to take any risks. I presume that means Seb do not risk passing Alonso, and Mark do try and not pass Vettel.

An entertaining race if not dramatic. Ricciardo beat his team mate, so job done for him. His companions in FR3.5 finished off their season by Robert Wickens taking the Championship despite being taken out on the first lap as his rival Vergne also failed to finish. Alexander Rossi ended up third in the Championship, so another big step for him. Someone in the States needs to get behind Alexander and make sure he has the right rides to make it all the way to F1, then we might see some interest here. Magnussen the younger followed up yesterday's win with a close second in the final British F3 race.

I have said for a while that the Pit Pass site is Bernie's PR company, and now I am convinced of it. Following the rumors about Austin the piece today makes you want to throw up in your corn flakes.

http://www.pitpass.com/44849-Is-the-US-GP-on-track-to-transfer-promoter-rights

Now I agree the promoter does not need to be the track owner, I have been there myself with Eastern Creek. In fact the smart move is to have them separated so if one goes broke they both do not go down. So it seems Tavo is a genius, the world authority on F1, Bernie said so if you read the last line. Hellmund is "F1's Captain America and Full Throttle synonymous with the sport in Texas." Funny, but when it was announced he was doing a deal my motorsport friends in Texas had never heard of him.

But he has promoted NASCAR and football. Really? Eddie Gossage promotes NASCAR in Texas as far as know, and who promotes football? At NFL level the teams run their own show with the League, and Colleges do their own thing. So at what level were these promotions?

It gets worse, no one has put together State funding and obtained both F1 and MotoGP events. Well the Australian GP Office is State funded and has run both F1 and MotoGP for some years. So has Malaysia, Hockenheim, Suzuka, Silverstone, Barcelona, Jerez, Jarama, Magny Cour, Paul Ricard, Donnington in the famous 1993 F1 race, Spa, and I could probably go on. All you need is money.

Work is apparently about to resume on site, there was a hiatus while the books were sorted, but now they are all go again, with fill due to be trucked to the site. Hang on, haven't we just been moving lots and lots of dirt, and now you need more? Surely they mean road base? 

I'll let you draw your own conclusions from the article, but as I said, it will be interesting to eventually find out what is going on in Austin.

The big news of the day is that, not surprisingly, Jenson Button has re-signed with McLaren, and looks set to end his driving days there. As others have said, Jenson is driving better than ever and is assuming the role of team leader.

The other story getting a lot of air time is the victory of an English Pub Owner in the EU Court of Justice over her using a foreign channel subscription, Greek actually, to show football without paying Sky's exorbitant rate. The implications for Sky and F1 are not clear as this may only apply to pubs and clubs, but it has Bernie out and about again as you will read in the other Pit Pass story, "Has Bernie lost the plot?" When they run these stories I do have to question if they are Bernie's mouthpiece, or do they have a split personality?

Spa did not disappoint and the world's best track turned on a world class race. DRS worked a bit too easily on the run up to Les Combes, but we saw some amazing passes all around the track, Rivage and Poohon, and even Blanchimont! The pass Webber made on Alonso on the entry to Eau Rouge has to rate as one of the best and bravest we have ever seen, certainly up there with Haikenen and Schumacher at this same track, but probably braver. How did Alonso make his car disappear? One nano-second his front wing is in shot with Webber's, the next it is gone, saving a huge accident. David Coulthard said he had to turn away from the screen! Pity Kobayashi could not show the same sense. Views will differ on who did what to who here, but Lewis's hands did not move on that wheel. Yes he was moving left relative to the track edge but he took a straight shot from the exit of Raidillon to the turn in at Les Combes. Kobayashi had been passed and it's OK he tried to come back, but he was never going to make that move, just back off and attack again. Spoiled a good race for us.

Button showed us that Hamilton is not the only McLaren driver who can pull off some great passes, quite out of character at times but great to watch. His pass on Massa at the last chicane should be watched by Maldanado as how two great drivers can run hard and close without taking each other out. As I predicted the odd qualifying made for some great racing with Michael coming through to 5th ahead of team mate Rosberg for once. Rosberg looked like running away with it in the first couple of laps, as did Alonso at one point, but the Ferrari and Mercedes fade at the end of races. The Ferrari still does not like the hard tires, but there has to be more to it than just that. 

It would be interesting to know what went on with Vettel's read out on the steering wheel on that last lap, along with that and the tire issues they had from the very start of the race they definitely not only dodged a bullet(s) but came up smelling of roses. Andrian Newey was almost crying with relief.

Pity about Ricciardo's HRT stopping, he was having a great race and running 16th. Not sure if this was due to good fortune in avoiding the crashes at La Source on the first lap, but even if it was he hung on to it until something failed. This is the sort of drive he needs. Senna was a prime suspect in the first lap crashes but at least he owned up to it unlike some other drivers out there, and actually ran a good race in the end, only finishing twenty seconds behind Petrov despite the stops for a new nose and a drive through penalty. Both Lotus cars and the Virgins finished the race, with the Lotus cars both beating the Williams of Barrichello.

And all this and it did not rain! Amazing. Looks like nothing is going to stop Vettel and Red Bull now, but let us hope for some more races like this.

The reported potential lessee of the Silverstone Circuit is the Qatar's Sovereign Wealth Fund, why not, it owns everything else?  Still does not make any sense, the BRDC lost nearly 2m pounds last year despite running the F1GP, MotoGP and WSBK rounds with crowds that many others would envy.

Stoner on pole for the US MotoGP from Indy, with Spies and Lorenzo snapping at his heals, so should be a good race, except for poor old Valentino.

About half way through the Hungarian GP I had the feeling Button would win it, even though his team mate Hamilton seemed to be in command. It did not turn out the way I had been expecting, but not much did in this rain effected race. What we got was some great clean racing between McLaren team mates, and no team orders here, Horner please take note. We saw Massa give way to Alonso pretty easily, with both Ferrari drivers having their share of off track excursions. Lewis's race was effectively lost when the team, presumably with Lewis's agreement, kept him on the super soft when most of the other top runners went to the prime. Surprising really seeing as how quick Lewis was on those in qualifying. Just maybe that was the problem, he had saved an extra set of super softs in qualifying by using the primes, and that induced them to use them. 

In any event that only got worse when Lewis arrived at the wet corner first, spun, and then copped a drive through penalty for spinning the car back around in front of di Resta. A bit harsh if you ask me, if he had not moved so fast then Kovalainen would have been out on the grass to avoid him, but Lewis accepted his fate with good grace. As Eddie Jordan said, this is a different Lewis than we saw at Monaco and most of the first half of the season. His head is back in a good place and we are seeing some great drives of controlled aggression from him. The final nail was the decision to switch to inters just when the rain had stopped, but he fought back to fourth with his usual grit.

I was surprised to see Button catch Lewis when he had the prime tire and Lewis the super soft, which in theory is almost a second faster. Alonso looked decidedly unhappy with third, his race being ruined by a terrible start and the two Mercedes passing him through the first corner. Mercedes continue to really struggle, but as always passing around here is difficult at the best of times, let alone a damp track and one dry line. We did actually see some good passes though to make it more interesting than usual. Vettel increases his lead in the Championship on a day when he should have lost some ground, so his good luck continues, or is it good team work? Sorry to see the Lotus cars both retire, Kovalainen was having a very good run, and Ricciardo beat not only his team mate but also D'Ambrosio.

Elsewhere a wild card, in more ways than one, John Hopkins, took pole at Silverstone for the WSBK race, but Checa has taken the first race win with rival Biaggi well down. Over in Spa Audi won from BMW and Mercedes after a good race. Audi TV had very good live streaming and an amazing sole commentator that worked for hours on end, knew the cars and all those foreign named drivers. It was not continuous and I admit I did not stay up for it through the night, but saw enough to be entertained. This race saw three of the new McLaren GT cars entered basically as a shake down before putting them on sale to private teams to race next year, and they shook them down a bit harder than even they expected, one car going out to a huge crash in the first hour and another catching fire!

Talking of catching fire, the Lotus Renault of Nick Heidfeld did it again, about the only thing that was on fire in that team. Nick drove it out of pit lane after an extended pit stop where something obviously got too hot as it was trailing smoke from the pit stall. It finally exploded halfway down pit exit when a marshal was extinguishing the flames and let's hope he was not injured, but he limped off. So what exploded? Surely Nick shut down the engine before bailing out? So a radiator or something else in the side pod, KERS? It will be interesting to see if we are ever told. 

So, F1 is off on its holidays for three weeks, so could be a slow August for bloggers.