Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Well the race has been run and won without further issues with the kerbs, although some were just left out and replaced by paint. The Turn Ten chicane, the "Singapore Sling" as it has been dubbed lived up to expectations and "slung" Kobayashi into the wall yesterday. This is the wrong solution to this corner and just results in a one line race track with the potential for cars to fly and lose control. The only passing move I've seen into it was Webber at the restart who jumped Alonso as he did in Spa.

Vettel predictably won the race going away from the start while Mark had his usual bad start which compromised Hamilton's who then had the now usual difficult race not helped by the lack of the patience he showed behind Schumacher at Monza. We saw a lot of passing for a change, but mostly by faster cars out of position getting past slow ones, but at least the DRS avoided the problems we saw at Abu Dhabi last year. The Stewards continue to issue inconsistent penalties. Rosberg misses turn 2 at the start and is not penalised, and then shoves Perez off there later in the race, improves his position and again no penalty. Now when Alonso was pushed to miss the chicane at Silverstone last year, or Hamilton at Spa a couple of years ago they get told to give back the spot. Schumacher drives straight over the back of Perez and gets a "reprimand" after the race. I guess he could hardly do a drive through.   

Renault had a terrible event, beaten by a Lotus on merit, so Tony Fernandes was happy and is apparently closing in on approval to change his team name to Caterham.

Button continues to show he is becoming, (has become?), the McLaren team leader with another great drive, while Ferrari is still around but not quite there as they have been all year. Aside from Red Bull Force India are probably the happiest with their results in Singapore.

In other news the teams are saying they are not happy with some of next year's calendar and were not asked to approve it, the "loophole" that tripped up the Bahrain changes this year, but this time Todt says it is a matter between FOTA and Bernie, and Bernie just says they are lucky to have somewhere to race. That's what I call negotiation.

It's going to be a long month at this rate. Yes there is racing going on, the ALMS at Mid-Ohio skating rink for instance. Whoever thought putting sealant on a race track was a good idea should stick to Wal Mart parking lots. This has been a problem for a while and should have been fixed. Even with full wets it was impossible to keep the car on the track. Then there is the nice curb coming on to the main straight where two cars broke their suspension. I could go on. Let's hope the new owner fixes it.

Jean Todt has been on vacation in Mexico, or a tour anyway, and thinks it is a great place to have a grand prix. Does he not read the newspapers about what goes on there, and spills over to here? And how many GP's are we going to have? We already have 21 if we think Turkey is going to "do what it takes." Then there is Sochi, France wants one back but I guess they will share, New Jersey, and now Mexico, and I know I've missed some. And just why would Jean Todt care, what's his connection to Mexico? Maybe it is the direct connections available to Austin, just trying to make it easier for the teams to fit in all these GPs. Now I like to watch a GP as well as the next guy, but are we heading to NASCAR calendar territory here? How many is enough? I guess if you are CVC there is never enough.

The silly season is alive and well. Rubens says he was misquoted and he is not about to retire, but that is not what was reported, leaving Williams was. And we have the "Hamilton to Ferrari" game on while Domenicalli says Massa must stay calm, and his replacement will be an up and coming young guy, so who and when? Bianchi? Can you imagine the pressure on an Italian in the red car? Ferrari have usually avoided putting an Italian in the car, presumably for that reason. Perez is the other suggestion, and he does drive a car with a Ferrari engine, but losing the sponsorship would really hurt Sauber. Not a bad choice though given his form this year.

And finally back to Jean Todt who says the FIA must write rules that are more specific. Well why haven't you? Because the teams employ a huge number of very smart people to "interpret the rules in such a bizarre way they break them," as Jean puts it. Exactly. It has been that way since I was born, and long may it remain. It is called ingenuity, the origin of the word engineer.  

One person not on vacation is Bernie, he continues to speak out on topics and is obviously still hard at it making deals. That is what he loves to do, so I guess that is as good as a vacation.

Turkey are desperate to get themselves back on the calendar and their negotiating ploy is a bit unusual." The Sports Minister is "ready to do everything" to keep the race. Music to Bernie's ears I would think. The "everything" includes "publicity and promotional campaigns to raise attendance and earnings." Well there's a novel idea, pity they did not think of this for the last 6 or 7 years, they might not be in this position.

Bernie is back talking about next year's calendar and giving a hint that Turkey could get back on. He is suggesting that the calendar could grow, and says that the teams would accept it if one of the ones to be dropped were to be Monaco or another team favorite. Nice one. The last seven races next year take place on four continents over ten weeks, the worst back-to-back being Sao Paolo and Austin, no direct flights. All this to be nice to Bahrain he says, "They" didn't want it up front apparently. Now the article seems to suggest that "they" were the Bahraini Gov't, but they seem happy just to have the race back as long as it is not in summer. From my recollection it was the teams who did not want to risk another embarrassing fiasco at the start of the season if the situation in Bahrain was not settled, but obviously felt that a race at the end could quietly be dropped. Now the teams are complaining about the logistics of those last seven races. Can't have your cake and eat it too. 

There was an odd reference as a footnote to this story about Austin and the State of Texas approving the funds. The State funds can only be distributed a year in advance, so presumably within twelve months, not a calendar year. So that $25m is not available until November, and presumably someone has read the contract to find out when Bernie's fee has to be paid. The writer suggests that this will delay the construction of the circuit, but this is not construction money so I don't get that.

On a positive note Robert Kubica's thumb has regained full movement, very necessary to push all those buttons. In similar news the likelihood of seeing Barrichello in a Williams next year is diminishing fast. I think Rubens is very disenchanted with the way the team is run.

The Renault chassis involved in the fire in Hungary has been written off, and the explosion explained as the air bottle that drives the valves getting too hot. The fire was caused by a cracked exhaust as a result of a "slightly different engine mapping in qualifying." Now I thought engine mapping had to be the same for qualifying and the race since Valencia, so are they saying they changed the engine mapping for both qualifying and the race? Strange way of saying it. No one noticed the crack which then got worse in the race and finally caused the fire after raw fuel was being burnt in the exhaust while it sat at the pit stop. No word on the marshal though.

Stating the obvious the Virgin CEO said that the fans will decide the success of the Sky TV deal. "From the point of view of the commercial model there are potential mismatches between a broadcasting that maximises viewers and one that maximises revenue." And we all know which one is more important don't we? He goes on to say that 90% of his income comes from sponsors and partners, which could be hurt if the audience goes down, but we are only talking of Britain here, so why is this getting so much play from the teams? Is the British market so dominant to the sponsors? Hard to imagine. 

As always it is necessary to watch what Bernie does rather than what he says. Not long ago the Big Bogie Rupert Murdoch was going to steal F1 and heaven forbid put it on Sky! That just cannot happen, we have to have it on free-to-air, whatever that means. I pay for SPEED to show it so it is certainly not free-to-air here and we have to put up with ads, lost of ads, and Bob Varsha! Lo and behold, Sky is now the best thing to have come along, it is "super for F1," Bernie says, "it will mean a lot more coverage for the sport." Not sure how that can be as Sky only has 24 million households while the BBC covers everyone. The key words here are "super for F1." Note it is not super for the fans.

The BBC said it could not afford to continue so it seems a deal was done to keep half the races on the BBC and all of them on Sky. I'm sorry, but this is like having a race every other year. If it is worth having for half the races then why is it not twice as valuable to have all of them? Prestige to have any it seems, what BS. At least the Brits will have an ad free broadcast from Sky for their money. 

And what do the teams make of this with all their posturing about how important it is to their sponsors to have it on free-to-air? Martin Whitmarsh says they must withold judgement, and he was the one who said the other day that F1 must broaden their reach to the new media. Adam Parr is more honest. If they get more money from the TV deal to compensate for any potential loss in sponsorship then he is happy. Of course he is, it's all about the money.

Meanwhile, back at the track Lewis Hamilton continued where he left off in Germany by topping the timesheets in both sessions, but in race simulations it seemed very close between McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari. Mercedes continue to struggle and Ross Brawn says it's all his fault. Ricciardo is ahead of his team mate by half a second, while Trulli's wake up call has him a similar distance in front of Kovalainen. 

Bernie has revamped next years calendar moving Bahrain to the end of the season so they can sort their problems out. So it starts in Melbourne, then Malaysia, China and India before a three week break which could include in-season testing. Turkey is missing, and as Allen Petrich said, there goes Tilke's best track. Austin is moved back to team with Brazil, but as someone pointed out this now competes with the NFL season, so good luck with viewers watching that.

BMW took pole for this weeks Spa 24 hour, and I need to find a live stream for that. In the Intercontinental Cup Aston Martin have given up of the new car and will run the old car for the rest of the season, very sad.

On the "green" front, a couple of snippets to share. It seems we are not all going to fry anytime soon from global warming, or as they say now, "climate change," as it seems to have not got any warmer lately.

http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-data-blow-gaping-hold-global-warming-alarmism-192334971.html

And to follow on about my thoughts on hydrogen, I saw a piece on TV yesterday about a new German stealth submarine that runs on hydrogen fuel cells. No moving parts, no noise, and no heat signature, very clever. Hydrogen and oxygen stored in tanks on the outside of the hull so reducing the danger of an explosion in the hull. Damn smart, good job they only just worked this out.