Bob Barnard Track Engineering

McLaren "launched" their MP4-26 today in Berlin and immediately started telling us that what we saw was not the real deal, so what is the point? Launches are for sponsors, that is why the launch was in Berlin, for Vodafone. Still, there was enough interesting pieces to see on the new bodywork, and they have gone to the pull rod rear suspension revisited by Newey in the RB5. Forward exhausts are not ruled out, the exhaust and engine were plastic at the launch so we learned nothing. Bargeboards are back despite the rules supposedly being written to eliminate them. Why not write a rule that says "no bargeboards" instead of trying to do it by proscribing an envelope for the body work as I understand they did. So, make the body work narrower and there is room for bargeboards. It is like when they tried to ban ground effects and we saw the cars elevate themselves at the end of the race.

I think it was Ross Brawn who commented on the front exhaust and talked about the value of hot gas sealing the sides, like a skirt, and cold air running up the center. Can anyone expand on this, sounds like the sort of thing our whiz bang aerodynamicists would dream up.

As I said yesterday there seems no consensus coming out of Valencia about who was really the fastest car. Kubica was not very happy despite being quickest, too many problems with the car. As Vettel will tell him, being quick is OK as long as it keeps going. It will be interesting to hear any times from the Lotus test today, hopefully they will have fixed the power steering. Let us hope that they do not have these ongoing hydraulic problems like last year, I thought that was why they went to the Red Bull package. Apparently Tony Fernandes was offered $10m to settle the Lotus name dispute but turned it down. He must be pretty sure of the outcome of the court case, or else is a good gambler.

The Pirelli tires came in for some criticism, "like driving on ice" said Michael, for whom these tires were seen as the saviour of his comeback. They degrade pretty fast by all accounts, which it seems is what Bernie wanted, but he is not driving is he? Jenson thinks they will suit him, and with his style he may be right. There is a very clever Vodafone ad with Jenson and Lewis, let's hope their relationship is actually this good as it will be great for the team.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6706Xz6xYPY

The Australian GP is to keep it's 5pm start time, despite the drivers complaining it was too dark at the end of the race last year and the FIA agreeing. What Bernie wants he gets, well almost, he wants it under lights. Add that to the deficit. Geelong, a city near Melbourne, has been suggested as an alternative to Albert Park. Now Geelong has wanted a street race since I was building Adelaide, but it is hard to see why building it in Geelong is any cheaper than in Albert Park? And it is still in Victoria with the same government footing the bill. More suckers for Bernie's show, the world is full of them.

Just to confuse us, or maybe so we are not confused, Peugeot has kept the 908 name for their latest Le Mans contender, and have retained the diesel engine without hybrid, but in V8 format similar to Audi. So now we have two very similar cars, and presumably the same close racing. Let's hope that the petrol cars really are equalized this year.

Not Jenson, the ones on the steering wheel that control everything these days. I questioned a few weeks ago if we were not making life a little too complicated for the drivers, KERS and movable rear wings now added, and Ferrari's Aldo Costa has said yesterday that the demands on the drivers has reached a threshold to being unacceptable. He said the Overtaking Working Group had been evaluating in the simulator whether drivers can physically manage all these components, and then there is the mental gymnastics to know when to use what, and if you are. On a much simpler level, when I was racing my Morgan it had the Jaguar gearbox to which it was possible to add the electronic overdrive, quite illegally of course. Not only that we could make it work on every gear, not just the top, so I could split every gear. This was particularly useful on first to second which was a huge gap. The problem was I could not always remember whether I was in a gear or an overdrive gear!

Pretty amazing that the first four at Daytona were within a few seconds of each other after 24 hours. Yes the cars are pretty much constrained to the same level of performance by the rules, and you might expect close races over a couple of hours, but over 24? It is a tribute the level of preparation, pit work, driver skills and a lot of luck to avoid trouble. That is a lot of variables, and as we saw at Le Mans last year it is easy to get it wrong even for teams as professional as Audi and Peugeot, so well done.

We are getting the first look at more F1 cars today with the two Lotuses, or is that Loti? Then there is the Sauber and a tease of the Mercedes. Not keen on the Lotus Renault black and gold and red. Too heavy on the gold, Team Lotus had a better look but of course they have gone back to the green and yellow. Nice looking car though with some interesting tabs around the side radiator openings. You can sign up for "Lotus Notes" which has nothing to do with IBM, and see what some of the fans did with black and gold designs, very good some of them, better that the professionals at Lotus Renault. Anyway, they will all be on track soon enough so we can see who has it right this year. It is interesting that most seem to have stayed with the push rod suspension rather than follow Newey with pull rod, even though it was designed before the diffuser became de rigueur.Team Lotus say that the T128 pushes the boundaries, especially the suspension, "lighter and more efficient." Colin would have liked this, sounds as adventurous as he was, too adventurous according to most drivers. Sir Stirling Moss said a week or so ago that Lotus meant "wheels falling off."

It is interesting that Michael Schumacher said he was not alone in getting motion sickness in a simulator, a lot of top drivers get it. I don't feel so bad now.

I commented the other day that if Boullier wanted Grosjean in F1 then he should give him a seat at his team, so what does he do? He hires Fauzy, a 28 year old Malaysian who has shown nothing in his previous trip to F1. Must be the long arm of Proton the Malaysian car maker backing Lotus cars, and they need some backing. Joe Saward in his blog today presented their latest earnings (losses) figures and the need for $64 in finance with a $700m loan being sought. These are the guys who intend taking over the world?  The naming court case is due to start Monday, so they had better get talking if they want to settle this as Bahar says.

While the Canadians are expressing concern over the Lotus fag packet livery Marlboro confirms it will continue to sponsor Ferrari and Ducati. How does that work? Are the Canadians color blind. Do they not sell Marlboro in Canada so it's OK? More power to Marlboro, if it is legal to sell them then it should be legal to advertise, or is the tax too convenient? I am no fan of smoking, in fact if cigarettes were banned it would suit me just fine, but I have been on the receiving end of this hypocrisy.

Qatar seems to be quietly taking over motorsport, along with some of its Gulf friends. Qatar Holdings LLC. is buying more of Porsche, and strengthening links with Williams. Joe again believes that this is a move to bring in VW-Porsche to F1, but that was countered by Porsche saying today that Le Mans is more interesting, affordable and a lower risk of failure than F1. I am old enough to remember the last time Porsche ran in F1, and it was not pretty.

The Mayor of Rome now says he wants the Olympics in 2020 rather than the F1 race, so I guess that is over. Can my Italian friends keep an eye on Flammini's land deal?

A1GP is to be resurrected it seems as A10 World Series, whatever that is. Never quite understood what A1GP was about except losing bucket loads of money. This has to rely on a big series sponsor and the promoters paying lots of money to have a race, without any "name" drivers, at least none that the general punter would know, and in spec cars. "The ethos is completely different in terms of the business model." a spokesman for A10GP said. It had better be. The series will run in the off season in non-European countries, so perhaps these racing starved people will not care who is driving? Now I know there are a bunch of Englishmen who just love "Our Jens," but I have never bought in to the jingoistic "our nation is better than yours" concept in motor racing. I, and I would believe most fans, like drivers and cars from wherever. Drivers I admire because of their ability and character, not nationality, and cars for their engineering and style. I can admire both the Peugeot and Audi equally at a Le Mans race without being French or German, and in the case of A1(0)GP we do not even have the difference in nationality of the cars, other than the color, and who really cares about that? We already have the Superleague based on soccer teams, which probably has more chance of motivating followers, although despite the success of my soccer team's car, Tottenham, I personally am unlikely to walk across the street to watch it. Good luck.

I loved yesterday"s quote from Lotus Renault designer James Allison who said the design of this year's car "would be on the brave end of brave." That's what we want to see, and Chapman would be proud. Or was it Lotus drivers who were the brave ones?

Tires are in the news today with Pirelli saying their tire will mean two or three stops during a GP. Hardly green is it, and I am not convinced it is good for the show, we are back to sprint races. Some of the best races last year were when someone made their tires last much longer than the opposition thought. In fact you could argue Ferrari lost the Championship because they did not expect Vettel et al's tires to last. We know Button can extend the life, and didn't Webber win in Hungary by making the softs last and Vettel ran the whole race in Italy to finish fourth. Now we are back to "wait for the pit stop" to overtake.

Hankook have been announced as the official tire of DTM. It is not long ago that the idea of a South Korean tire manufacturer supplying race tires to the DTM would have been laughable, but not anymore. I am actually having Hankook fitted to my street car, before hearing of the DTM deal. The reports from other users are great and the price is certainly right. Falken have been running a car in GT2 in ALMS and are stepping up with Derek Walker taking over the team for 2011. They put in some good performances last year that tended to fade away as the race progressed, so it will be interesting to see what they learned and what Walker can do. All adds to the interest of the GT2 class.

Well we are nearly at the end of the winter wait, with the first F1 test due in 15 days. Not that the tests are always a good indication, but it will be great to have some action on track again. The Rolex is due to run the weekend before that, so we can get our sportscar fix starting in just over a week. The "Lotus" court action is due to start next Monday, but this is not the sort of action I think we wanted to see. Can't Bernie bang their heads together?

It seems the Tobacco Police in Canada are not happy with the new (old) Lotus Renault paint job. JPS fags are still sold in Canada, so any likeness to a cigarette packet is against the law. This is just the sort of nonsense I went through at Phillip Island twenty years ago. I doubt anyone else would have noticed if they had not raised it, and since when has a driver been used to promote smoking? What other color schemes are suggestive of cigarette packets? Are they to be banned too? This is just what the Victorian Government wanted, a "white out."  But I suppose there is a white fag packet somewhere in the world.

I trust all my American friends had a great Thanksgiving, I certainly did. Spent it with Aussie mate also from Adelaide and we watched the movie made of the set up for the first Adelaide F1 GP that I recently managed to obtain a copy of.

It is sort out time for the remaining seats in F1 next year, so let's look at who's where and who might be. McLaren is set with Hamilton and Button, and it looks like despite everything Webber and Vettel will be back at Red Bull. Christain Horner is tipping Mark for the title, so he must think he will be back. Ferrari will have Alonso, but is Massa safe? Who is available that is a better #2 to Alonso? Kubica and Webber have been mentioned, but neither look like moving and would not want to be a number 2 anyway. Mercedes has Nico, and maybe Michael. He says he likes the Pirelli's, and I don't think his ego is going to let him give up that easily. If they wanted a German driver there is Hulkenburg or Heidfeld, or even Glock, that would do as good a job or better, but Michael's name is great marketing for Mercedes. Renault has Kubica and looks like it might keep Petrov. The car is improving all the time so Kubica will stay, and Petrov did well at the end of the season, and with the Russian connection it seems smart to keep him. Force India is likely to keep Sutil, another German that Mercedes could take, but it seems Liuizzi might be replaced by Hulkenburg which would be a smart move.

Williams are retaining Barrichello, how long can this man go on, and I presume Maldonando with his sponsorship, although that is not announced.  Torro Rosso has given a big hint that Buemi is not coming back and could make room for Ricciardo. When was the last time Australia had two F1 drivers? Answers on a postcard please. Sauber has Mr. Overtaking, "I do not see the other cars" Kobayashi and the young Mexican driver Perez. Lotus, or whoever, will have Trulli and Kovalainen back, but the other two new teams are still up in the air. Glock will probably stay at Virgin, or whatever it is next year, with just maybe a Russian partner, Aleshin. HRT will take whoever has a big check book, and will anybody care?

So the GP2 winner may again not find an F1 seat, and drivers are bypassing it from FR3.5 and GP3 etc. Far from being a stepping stone it is becoming a support series for F1 for drivers that are not quite good enough.

On a final note, Bernie was mugged entering his home last night. Some journalists are unkind enough to repeat Bernie's comments after the attempted muggings in Sao Paulo, "They look for victims, they look for anyone who looks like a soft touch and not too bright," Bernie said in Sao Paulo. "People who look a bit soft and simple, they will always have a go at." I cannot for one moment subscribe to Bernie being "a soft touch and not too bright" so it seems no one is safe.