Bob Barnard Track Engineering

A couple of different thoughts and observations. In Gary Hartstein's You Tube piece he makes the damming statement that "they know and don't care." It reminded me of a recent deposition involving the IKF, International Kart Federation, which is based on the west coast of the US and has no international affiliation. The IKF had at one time, a long time ago, a set of standards for how to set up a track. These got buried, but fortunately a set surfaced. The CIK, the International Kart Commission of the FIA, who really are International, publishes their own standards on their web site. But as I have been told before, "we do not follow them." And why not I ask, they are the only standards available, and published by the world recognized sporting body? In the absence of anything else, why would you not use them. 

The crazy thing is that the CIK also publish rules for how the karts are built, and if you go through the IKF Rule book, even at random, they are more than happy to quote those standards. I opened a random page and it was listed 7 times! Now IKF are not alone in this, but this was such an obvious disconnect. How can you care how the kart is built if you don't care how the track is built?

In the same You Tube Gary talks of Sid Watkins and the group that was formed after Senna's death at Imola. They focussed on the four key elements of safety. The driver's protective gear, the design of the car, the design of the track, and the systems for running events. The first two get taken care of pretty well here in the US, mainly because the driver and car are part of the world scene, but no one is doing anything about the other two, the tracks and the systems. People are dying, and the way to fix it is known, but "they" don't care. Someone needs to care. If not the sanctioning bodies then who? The insurers? They at least are supposed to inspect tracks, but to what standard do they inspect them if none are available? And who is training anyone to run tracks safely? The SCCA has the only program that I know of.

On a completely different subject, Bruton Smith is rattling the cage of the Cabarrus County by telling the world that he is considering moving the fall event at Charlotte to his track in Las Vegas. Now I mentioned the lack of spectators at COTA and Indy, and should have commented on the empty seats for The All Star Race. Biggest night of racing in the world as SPEED tells us. Used to be. Special cars and paint schemes were the norm, but the mighty have fallen and there were lots of spare seats last Saturday. They fiddled with the format again, and lost me very early. Maybe the crowds will go to Vegas, but judging by Bristol and many other NASCAR races this year you would not bet on it.

No not the last turn club, the last turns at Indy and Charlotte. Both the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 were won and lost at the last corner. Earnhardt Jr. had his best run for a long time only to run out of fuel, but J.R. Hilderbrand had even worse luck crashing at turn 4 at Indy. He almost won even so, Wheldon only just beating him to the line even though he was still on all four wheels. Reminded me of Adelaide in '85 when one of the Ligiers finished on three wheels.

Pirelli finally did something I agree with, coming out and saying the rule should be changed to prevent tire changes under red flag conditions. Ruined the race for the fans. Let's hope someone is taking note.

Martin Brundle echoes my thoughts,  speaking of Lewis he said “You wonder if he needs a bit of a mindset change.” I'm afraid Lewis is becoming a whiner, nothing is his fault. The Stewards have apparently accepted his explanation and apology, but I doubt the FIA are going to let it go at that. Bringing the sport into disrepute?

Ferrari has continued their opposition to the 4 cylinder engine and has proposed a V6 for 2015, with the V8's being limited by fuel and with KERS to make them "green." Cosworth came out and said the 4 cylinder isn't green anyway. Todt has come out now and said he is looking for harmony, so maybe the engine deal is not decided yet.

Great live streaming pictures and sound from SPEEDTV.com this morning. Wish I could watch all the F1 like this, no ads, no idiot commentary, maybe ALMS has something here. No picture break up or lock up, and the quality was better than cable. Two interesting sessions today with some big accidents, two at the chicane after the tunnel. Rosberg lost the back end under braking and took off over the speed bumps put into the center of the chicane, presumably installed to slow cars down that short cut it. Thankfully these were removed before qualifying as they actually only make it worse, as demonstrated . I for one did not expect to see Rosberg back out in quali, not that he was hurt, he missed the center island between the track and the run-off, but the car had substantial damage. Great job by the Mercedes team to have him not only back out but competitive. Perez was not so lucky in Q3, hitting the island side on, and thankfully he did, a head on would probably have him under the TECPRO barrier. The jury is still out on these compared to tires, and they cost many times more. For me they are too light, as we have seen already cars go under them. Perez will miss tomorrow's race but fortunately his injuries are relatively minor.

Unlike the two HRT cars who despite not turning a wheel in qualifying have been given the OK to race, and they did not even have to buy a starting spot! The Stewards in an unfathomable piece of generosity will let them race, despite being 6-7 seconds off the pace in practice. Now on another track that may be OK, but around here there is no place for sentiment, and no room to overtake. Let us hope that decision does not turn around and bite someone.

Perez's accident showed the absolute necessity to get out early and bank a lap in these short sessions. McLaren failed Lewis and now he is stuck down in seventh despite being fastest in Q2. As I suspected, no one tried to save tires, starting position is everything here. It will be interesting to see what McLaren's pit strategy will be to try and leapfrog Lewis up the field.

I commented the other day on the efficiency of the Monaco track team in repairing the asphalt, and it was in evidence again today. Most of these incidents would have taken lesser crews a long time to clean up, and in some cases may not have repaired in time to finish a session. Indy, NASCAR et al need to go there and see how they do it. As Michael Schumacher was crashing Thursday at Ste-Devote you could see the crane operator start up. Having said that the "crest" coming out of the tunnel seems to have contributed to a few accidents this weekend and needs addressing. Given their usual rapid response it is surprising it was not planed smoother during yesterday's quiet day.

In other news it seems the Lotus sponsored Renault team is in a spot of financial trouble. The Marussia money is not flowing and since Kubica's accident interest from new sponsors has all but disappeared. The Geni Capital deal was a novel one for starters, and Lotus Cars is another work in progress. maybe Tony Fernandes just needs to wait this out. Story is Renault is owed big time for engines and may be looking elsewhere for 2012, like Williams.

I did miss a race from my list yesterday. The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars were at Charlotte last night, but got rained out anyway. Rescheduled for tonight, but will only be live streamed. Kimi qualified 15th for the Nationwide race! Outqualified not only his mentor Kyle Busch but his car owner Joe Nemechek! Need to watch that tonight.

Ferrari have now expressed their concern at extending the calendar to accommodate Bahrain. Has no one the guts to come out and say they will not go? I for one will not watch it if it is reinstated and encourage others to do the same. That is the only message Bernie and his cohorts will understand. This would be almost the last straw for me and I hope many others about what has become of our sport.

It's Memorial Day here in the US this weekend, the traditional start of summer, and a big weekend in motorsport. Not that you would know it for the lack of news. Bahrain continues to provoke strong feelings, even if the paddock is quiet about it other than Bernie. If you have any doubts about why F1 should not go there read today's Pit Pass offering:

http://www.pitpass.com/43742-A-plea-from-Bahrain

As I said the other day, things can be "normal" if all the dissidents are locked up and the press suppressed.

The Kimi/Bush partnership seems to be short lived with Kimi already bored with truck racing and looking to move up, while Kyle is a bit stretched to do this. Kimi practiced the Nemechek car and ran  16th and 18th, not too shabby. Looks like he runs better in this than the truck. The race is Saturday evening here and I wonder if it is live in England like the truck race?

A busy weekend with F1 at Monaco, NASCAR at Charlotte, Indy 500, WSBK at Miller and Grand-Am at Lime rock Monday, and oh yes, Champions League final Saturday morning. Not sure when to sleep or eat. Did I miss anything?

The Lotus judgement has been handed down, and good luck working out what happens now. Both can use Lotus, Lotus Cars can use it on its own, with black and gold livery, and Tony Fernandes can use Team Lotus in green and gold. By now I think we can all work out who is Renault and who is Team Lotus, so who cares? Of course there will be appeals.

The British Touring Car Championship has reportedly seen a huge increase in viewing figures for the first couple of races. "Unprecedented" is the word used. It seems I am wrong, someone does like spec racing. I don't think anyone knows why yet, it will be interesting to find out.

Just as I thought, there is a Nationwide Toyota waiting for Kimi to drive this weekend at Charlotte. It appeared in Joe Nemechek's shop and will be entered by his team, Kyle Bush does not have a Nationwide team, yet. Kimi has a guaranteed start due to Joe's owner's points in the series. Is he going to test beforehand? I would think the Nationwide car would be easier to adjust to than the truck, but what do I know, that's where they all seem to start. This is a marketing dream for NASCAR, even bigger than Montoya.  Perhaps I'll watch the Nationwide race this week?

Renault are saying it is unlikely that Kubica will return this year, which is no real surprise. Let us just hope he can return at all.

Bernie gave the Crown Prince of Bahrain an audience at Barcelona.  How important must Bernie feel when he has Royalty coming to see him? Of course the Prince came to give Bernie the message that it is safe to come back, but I doubt the teams feel that way. Ross Brawn is against the extension of the season, says his guys need a break. Nice way to not go.

Pirelli media celebrity, Paul Hembery, announced himself happy that the hard compounds did not wear. Did not grip either according to the drivers, especially Alonso. Steel tires would probably not wear either, and we would not have the "marbles" that were still very evident at Barcelona.

No protests after the race, but Colin Kolles of HRT is telling the teams they need to fix their engine mapping or he will protest in Monaco. Their supplier, Cosworth, have joined the "do not change the engine in 2013" brigade as they fear their teams cannot afford it. My buddy Peter Geran pointed out that in the Motor Sport article I quoted the other day the Audi engine chief had been in on the FIA panel advising on the new engine. As Peter says, how does someone who has no investment in the sport get to help make decisions? But from my experience that is how most of these decisions are made. When I was running Moto GP's the Road Race Commission was comprised of FIM elected members not one of whom had a dime invested. Still, you can see where Todt was going with this, let's get some more manufacturers involved, after Max's reign where he tried to get rid of them. There could also be a darker motive as Allen Petrich has hinted at. Todt said the other day that the 4 cylinder is going to be the engine of the FIA's top series, and if they do not like it they can go and race in another series. Is this how he breaks the 100 year deal with Bernie?

I watched a little of Indy bump day, thanks to the rain that's all there was. Can't say I found it very exciting, and judging by the lack of spectators not many others do either. The most interesting thing all day was the look on Michale Andretti's face when Marco bumped his other team car right at the end. "How do I explain that to the sponsor" was the look I saw.