Bob Barnard Track Engineering

The latest trouble to hit the upcoming Indian GP is that of visas for those wishing to attend. Did no one associated with the race do their homework on this and the tax issues? The Times of India is reporting delays for drivers, teams, and journalists, and yes the FIA officials. There is even a report Rosberg has been refused! Obviously this not an event of "National Significance." The FIA head of communications is quoted as saying, "if it takes three weeks to get a visa then many people won't be going, including me."   

Now I actually have a visa, and yes it took weeks, causing me to miss meetings set up by a Government Authority who should have known better. The system is designed so that you cannot get to the consulate directly to try and speed things up, very frustrating. I was a little surprised, I had not required a visa to go anywhere for years, and with a British Passport foolishly thought this would be simple. Seems nothing is simple in India and they don't really want people to go there, except terrorists. 

So, if any team needs a driver, let them know I have a business visa.

That man Martin Whitmarsh is in the news again, he must be vying for attention with Montezemolo who has been in the papers every day this week. It appears FOTA is looking at purchasing part or all of the CVC shares in F1, buying back the farm. There are lots of successful player and team groups who have done this, PGA, ATP, NFL and NBA, and then there is CART. Martin says that the teams owning the sport will bring stability, but you cannot help wondering if the smaller teams, like HRT who is not a member of FOTA, would agree? Anyway, it must be better than a venture capital group just sucking money out musn't it?

On the driver front there are rumors that both Kubica and Petrov could be replaced by Senna and Grosjean, Senna bringing more money then Petrov. Renault has announced that Red Bull is their "factory team," no surprise there, and Boulier is apparently covering the bases by talking to Cosworth. All sounds a bit messy. Rumor yesterday that HRT are to switch to Renault power, leaving Cosworth with one customer, and you can't see how that works financially. Talking of leaving Cosworth, their CEO just did.

There are a few realignments going on with the F1 teams. Williams announced that they are going to use Renault engines from next year, so Renault increases its hold on the F1 engine market, despite supposedly being down on power. Let's hope this improves the performance of the team. HRT's ownership and management just got cloudier, with a buyout of Carabantes by Thesan Capital, which is a venture capital group backed by Nomura Bank of Japan. They say they will move to base the team in Spain with the current Directors and Team in place. So presumably Colin Kolles is still on the outer. This all begs the question who really is minding the store and who owns it? And will it make any difference?

HRT's arch rival for being last, Marussia Virgin, has confirmed a technical tie up with McLaren Applied Technologies, so look for an improvement there and perhaps Mercedes engines? Cosworth are going to be left with HRT, so it is highly doubtful they are going to invest in a new for 2014 engine with just one customer.

Speaking of engines, Clive Pollock is reportedly going to push on with his proposed engine for 2014 despite the u-turn by the FIA, and Bernie is now threatening to sue the FIA if the 15,000 rpm limit impacts on the poor promoters and their ticket sales drop. Of course his concern is that the promoter will not then have the money to pay the fee to stage the race, but since when has that ever been a concern for him? Bernie is famous for not being fond of drivers in general, they are like buses, another one will be along shortly. That is why he has cleverly promoted F1 as a team sport and built Ferrari and McLaren etc as the stars. It also seemed that promoters enjoyed the same stature as drivers, as there is always someone else waiting to pay him to lose money whenever a promoter wakes up or runs out of it. Bernie has also been having a bit of a verbal spar with Williams CEO Adam Parr. Adam was crass enough to point out that sports such as NFL enjoy considerably larger TV fees and suggested Bernie could be doing better for them all on this front. Bernie of course then pointed out how well Adam was doing on the sponsorship front for Williams. Touche.

The leakage of top staff continues at the other Renault, which isn't, Lotus Renault, with designer Tim Densham reportedly heading for Ferrari. Is everything really well at Renault as Boullier continues to tell us?

I took a day off yesterday so have not commented on the racing. Lorenzo scored a great win at Mugello so perhaps the Championship will not be a Stoner/Honda procession after all. Simoncelli managed to finish a race while Rossi dragged his Ducati up to sixth. In Imola the Peugeots gained revenge for Le Mans with an easy win over the Audis

This is my last blog. Just kidding, but it is my last blog on Wordpress. I have revamped my personal web site where I always intended to base my blog, and it will be launched today. The link should not change, so you should go straight to it, but if not go to www.bobbarnardtrackengineering.com and go to the blog page. See you there.

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.

Is anyone else tired of this nonsense with bad tyres? One of Bernie's best ideas was the three stage knockout qualifying to make teams put cars on track. Now we have the situation where they are once again sitting in the garage during qualifying to save tires. Of course it is made worse by the domination of Red Bull and to some extent McLaren. Why not just give them one or two more sets? In the race they are still going to have to use both compounds, and gamble on a two or three or four stop race. Better still make the tires better. As the editorial in this month's Motor Sport says the current gimmicks are a band aid to cover up the basic problem with the current car specs.

Then we have Lewis Hamilton admitting in the post qualifying press conference that he will not be able to challenge the Red Bulls tomorrow as he has to look after his tyres! Great racing this is. We also have Vettel admitting his KERS did not work in Q2 & 3. Good, can you imagine how much more than the one second advantage they would have? Let's hope Mark can put on a show, otherwise it will not matter how many DRS, KERS and bad tires there are, it will be very boring.

You all know I am no fan of KERS and the whole green racing deal on the basis that racing is about efficiency anyway. It is nice to read the piece, again in Motor Sport, about the new Audi for Le Mans. Dr. Baretzky, the Audi engine Chief, puts it nicely. Talking of hybrids and why they are not planning to use it he said that at the moment the extra weight on the car would need more fuel to propel it than you are gaining from its use. "The system should pay for itself...Motor Sport should be about the truth: the more efficient, quicker, better car should win, and the rules should be made according to that. The ACO says we have to encourage this technology. Why? If this technology is a better solution, it will come. If we have to encourage it and it turns out to be the wrong route, it is a waste of energy and time." Here here.

The FIA has announced that DRS is so successful we are to get two zones of it at Canada and Valencia! Personally I never saw that Canada has a problem with overtaking with Turn 1, the hairpin and the last corner being full of action in the past. Valencia now is different, it needs all the help it can get. They have also decreed that the DRS cannot be used in the tunnel at Monaco, or Eau Rouge.  It would be a very brave, and stupid, man to try it through Eau Rouge. The tunnel might entice some to try. Why all this manipulation of where and when? If it is so good then rely on the drivers common sense and self preservation to decide when to use it. Or are we protecting the drivers from themselves?

So who watched Kimi at Charlotte? I did, and was very impressed. He kept it going in the right direction unlike some of the much more experienced drivers out there, including his team owner Kyle Bush. Kimi never saw Charlotte until Friday morning and raced there that night! He certainly was not intimidated by running in close company, and the other drivers did not seem to have a problem racing around him. Great job, not that I expected anything less. So now what, Nationwide?

Back at Barcelona we potentially have the situation where the Cosworth teams could protest the engine mapped exhaust blown diffusers. This the off and then on again ruling by the FIA, which leaves the door open as they did not say its use was legal, just that the teams had a stay of when they needed to undo it. That would be a nice mess at the end of the race wouldn't it?

As reported a few months ago the success of the greens in recent German elections has made the support for the German GP unlikely to continue past 2015, two more races at the Nurburgring as it alternates with Hockenheim so that track only loses half as much!

So welcome to 2011, wasn't that the sequel to "2001 A Space Odyssey?" At least we do not have HAL running the cars yet. But as Rubens Barrichello said in his interview with Autosport, "As a driver we're just concerned that we're going to have to press so many damn buttons that it's going to be tough!" Rubens was talking about the 2011 Williams which he believes will be a more "aggressive" design thanks to his input. With over 300 races under his belt he certainly has the experience, and with top teams, and it is nice that the team at Williams are listening. I'm sure most of us fans have a soft spot for Sir Frank and wish him well for the new season.

Luca di Montezemolo is not giving up on the four cylinder turbos for 2013 and is looking for "friends" to help him get it changed to at least a V6. Cosworth are saying it will only cost 30m Euros to design, only? I suspect teams like HRT would like that as a budget. What happened to cost cutting? It's like the ethanol deal, it seems to be "green" until you look at what it takes to produce it.

I talked about losing the sound of F1 and Mark Hughes of Autosport also raised the likely sound of these new four cylinder cars. "A 12,000 rpm turbo four will sound flatter in tone and lower in volume." Perhaps that is another "green" agenda? Noise is a bigger issue for tracks than fuel economy, but it seems that people living near tracks will accept the major events such as F1, NASCAR, V8Supertourers etc, it is the daily use all year long that gets to them. When I ran Phillip Island the locals asked if we could just have the MotoGP thank you.  They certainly make enough money from that one event, it is a pity that the tracks do not. So, do not mess with the sound of F1. Wait till we have electric cars racing, they will have to have extra horsepower to run the "boom boxes" providing the noise.

Talking of noise, I always loved the sound of a Ducati, so distinctive, so I am glad that they say they are not out to produce a Yamaha "replica" with the GP bike, despite Rossi and his crew coming into the team. I've not had the pleasure of hearing the GP bike so maybe it does not enjoy the same notes as the street versions.