Bob Barnard Track Engineering

When I first arrived in Australia the Premier of Queensland was one Joh Bjelke Petersen. If that sounds like he should have been running South Africa then you get an idea of his politics. Joh loved to have press conferences, "feeding the chooks" as he called it, or feeding the media a line of misleading information more like it. Bernie seems to have gone to the same school of media management. He is famous for putting ideas out there to get a reaction or put pressure on someone.

This week we have seen him question the New Jersey F1 race, saying they are behind in some of the contract requirements, presumably a payment. Now we all know Bernie has been waiting for a race with a view of Manhattan for years, so I doubt he is serious, so what's his game? He played the boys in Texas well too to the extent of a reported increase in race fees of $10m, and he is dangling the Mexican GP as a stick to beat anyone not living up to his standards.

We also have Bernie blaming KERS for the Williams pit fire, without any reports to back that up. Now, that is a possible cause, but why say that now? Bernie does not like KERS or the other energy recovery systems, electric motors in pit lane etc, and is presumably putting pressure on the FIA to back off on these.

We also see reports today that the float is to be delayed due to market unrest. But I thought this was a golden goose that anyone would want to invest in? Didn't they just sell $1.6 bn of shares without floating? As Joe Saward says today, we have seen this before, a delay becomes a change of mind. I've asked before why Bernie would want to have the books open to public gaze. Was this just another ruse to get the big teams into line on the next Concorde Agreement? Or was Mercedes too big to fight? One thing is for sure, Bernie will come out smelling of roses.

In other matters the opposition to the Canadian GP looks more serious than Bahrain. Perhaps people are waking up to how much these ego boosts are costing the country. How many university places would a race fee pay for each year?

Over in Barcelona Casey Stoner has shown impending retirement has not dulled his competitive spirit. How about Bradl and Marquez on Hondas next year?

Finally, it is June 1, and I hope you are well rested. We have the Euros kicking off in a week's time, Le Mans test day this weekend and the race on June 16, Five F1 races and the Tour de France all before the end of July, not to mention MotoGP and WSBK. Phew!

The Mole, aka Peter Windsor I suspect, has a different take on Adams sudden departure. It still involves Bernie, but his take is that Bernie forced him out as Adam was one of very few who critized Bernie from inside F1. Bernie said recently that the reorganization of Williams should have started at the top, i.e. Adam. The scenario is Bernie needs Ferrari, McLaren and Williams to sign on, and knows Red Bull and Toro Rosso will go along for the money, and Sauber will do what Ferrari wants anyway. So offer Sir Frank a deal, Sir Frank says yes please, Adam says no, so no more Adam.

Another theory, but one of the comments suggested Adam would take "gardening leave" and turn up at CVC, along the lines I suggest. Bernie and Max Mosely had some famous disagreements, it did not stop them working together, and in my scenario Bernie is not there anyway.

Joe Saward has a piece about how our friends at CVC are going to be rewarded further for their investment in F1, with an extension of their loans maturity to 2017, the end of the next Concorde Agreement. In the meantime the return for investors is guaranteed at 5% over bank rate, and they can get ready for a float. Are we never to be rid of these parasites?

Now Thailand wants a GP, home of Red Bull why not? More the merrier. We'll be able to run the whole series in Asia soon.

If my French is correct, very doubtful, Concorde means agreement, peace and all that. Bernie announced yesterday to the world that he has Concorde with "most" of the F1 Teams for beyond 2012, i.e. after the current peace agreement runs out. Of course it is not a peace agreement, it is a way to divide up the spoils of the rape and pillage of promoters. Bernie names Ferrari and Red Bull as expected, and McLaren, which was not. Joe Saward suggests McLaren are just trying to outlast Bernie, which some of us may not get to see on Bernie's current form.

So, now Bernie has most of what he needs to float all or part of F1. Again Joe Saward suggests that the lack of a clear successor to Bernie would put off investors, but I think greed wins every time over common sense.

Meanwhile, out on track in the real world, McLaren are beating Red Bull and Ferrari, and everyone else as they did in Melbourne. An interesting few sessions with different teams being fast at different times, so hard to tell who was doing what. In the end McLaren are fastest, but looked very nervous at the back end under braking with Lewis losing it in Q1. Mercedes look fast, with the car suiting Michael a bit more than Nico it seems. Lotus have speed and it will be interesting to see what Kimi can do from his five grid place penalty, could be fun. You can't help thinking Jenson will have the measure of Lewis over a race distance, but let's see, if Lewis can win the start he might just drive away. There again Michael might just drive the pair of them into the pit wall. 

There have to be some disappointed teams. Caterham looked like they made the jump to the mid-field, but now we are racing they are stuck back with Marussia and HRT, with Petrov giving Kovalainen a hard time, and Force India seems to have lost some of the "force." Williams with Maldanado continue to surprise, but Senna is doing an imitation of his Brazillian mate Massa. Ferrari are probably the most disappointed. Massa managed to get his new for Malaysia chassis within 0.3 seconds of Alonso at the end, but for most of the time he was up to a second off the pace. He cannot be long for this seat. 

Sauber are a bit of a mystery. At one point they are among the fastest, and then off the pace. Low fuel runs?

Let us hope for a dry race as I think it will be a good one. Vettel said that using the hard tire to set fast time was not a strategy for the race, and he may be right, there is not much between the compounds and some cars were quicker on the supposedly slower tire, but as he can presumably run longer than those around him on the grid he just may have made the winning move.

Elsewhere Stoner continues to be fastest in MotoGP testing, but we also have a CRT machine getting in amongst the prototypes, so maybe they will not be a complete waste of time.

Indycar kicks off in St Pete if anybody cares.

Has Bernie had a change of mind, or is that heart? His whole philosophy has been survival of the fittest, reward the successful, sink or swim. The Concorde Agreement is based on rewarding the top teams with most money and giving the bottom teams absolutely nothing. So teams come and go, would be F1 team owners learn the hard way and either claw their way up or disappear.

Now it seems Bernie is taking pity on the three new teams, maybe we should let new teams run last years car from Red Bull or McLaren to get them going. What's this, sympathy? Bernie as always has the solution and always has had. Do as the NFL and NBA do and give the worst teams the best picks in the draft, equalize the money, and try and equalize the competition. So Bernie could just reverse the Concorde Agreement and give the top teams nothing, after all they are winning and should attract the most sponsorship, and give the bottom teams more money.

If you think about it that would dispense with the RRA, the resource restriction agreement, as the top teams would be restricted anyway. Just a thought. I suppose the rude letters from Ron Dennis and Luca will arrive shortly.

Talking of Luca di Montezemolo and Ferrari, is he really worried about their test performance or just setting us up by suggesting that he hopes podiums are possible. Alonso was second quickest at the last test so not too shabby.

No word yet from Beijing, so let's hope no news is good news. The season is getting ready to start for real with the Melbourne F1 GP and Sebring 12 hour, looking forward to that.

So Bernie is going to let the Crown Prince decide whether it is safe to stage the Bahrain GP. At least he is not asking the opinion of a cameraman. Maybe Bernie is playing the politics and "letting" the Prince look like he made the decision, or hoping the Prince will cancel so he does not sue Bernie for breach of contract. There are suggestions that the teams have agreed not to go, but do not want to say so for fear of breaching the Concorde Agreement. Insurance is apparently a problem when there are travel advisories by the UK Foreign Office and other like bodies, so there is a "force majeur" situation there that could resolve the teams issue. It looks like a situation where no one wants to make a decision in case they are held in breach of contract, they are all dancing around the subject. The FIA, apart from a couple of inane comments a week ago, are missing in action on this one, afraid of upsetting the Arab voting block I guess. The only people with the courage of their convictions are the demonstrators.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the teams are continuing their Barcelona test. It is hard to read anything into fast laps, especially between different drivers on seperate days, but AT&T Williams keeps a running tally of all drivers on all days, which is interesting if nothing else. Check out http://www.attwilliams.com/test-timings

Rosberg is quickest overall with Vettel, Petrov, Alguersuari, Hamilton and Alonso and Barrichello within one second. Trulli in the Lotus is 2 plus seconds off the pace, which is much better than last year, with HRT and Virgin both over 3 seconds off thanks to Luizzi. Without Luizzi HRT would have been nowhere so they had better sign him up. The consensus is still Red Bull in race trim, but it is still any one's guess.

For those who like to see pairs of cars run around nose to tail for 4 or five hours then Daytona is on today, and yes they changed the rules again making the radiator slot bigger this time, just so they can last 500 miles? Can you imagine F1 doing this, or Le Mans? Just cut a bigger hole in a piece of tin plate boys, all sounds like amateur hour.