Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Bob Varsha was in fine form today during practice for the Hungarian GP. As he said himself most of it was useless trivia, designed to show his extensive knowledge of things none of us actually care about. And then there are all the promos for things coming on Speed, which if I really cared about I would go to the guide to find. In between this we did get a bit of the practice. Bob needs to learn that if you have nothing to say then keep your mouth shut. Commentators do not have to talk all the time, we are quite happy looking at the pictures. If not we would be listening on the radio. I particularly liked his put down of how Andrian Newey designs his cars. Oh my gosh, he still uses a pencil, like a "cave man drawing on the cave walls with a stick" to quote Bob. So what does Bob use? I happen to use a pencil to draw my tracks, it is a process of creation, it is a tactile thing. The "design" that the two hundred guys behind Adrian are doing on computers is pure mechanics, if they could create what Adrian does then they would be doing it. Inspiration comes in its own ways.

Whatever Adrian is doing it is working much better than anyone else at the moment, the Red Bulls being in a different class to everyone except the Ferrari, and you suspect there was a bit of sandbagging going on there. Lotus again had hydraulic problems. C'mon all you tech guys out there, how can that continue for all these new teams. Mike Gascoyne is no newcomer to this, so why all the issues at every race?

Interesting to hear Ron Dennis say how ticked off he is to hear his drivers complain about lack of speed in qualifying. According to Ron, McLaren have purposely gone for race speed not qualifying, and seeing as how they have both won races and are leading the Championship, then he would like to hear a lot less complaining thank you.

Cypher have announced they are not pursuing their F1 entry, no money. Not surprising given the USF1 debacle, they cruelled it for anyone following for a while I suspect.

Nice piece on www.lastturnclub.com about ALMS and Lime Rock, well worth reading as it raises some broader issues with tracks being selected on purely commercial grounds despite their unsuitability, and the lack of any centralized or coordinated licensing system for tracks in the US.

World Superbike at Silverstone this weekend, and nice to see someone other than Biaggi on pole. In fact five different makes in the top five grid spots, interesting.

Here in Arizona the project web site is due to go live tonight, so watch for the address here tomorrow. Another overseas approach for a track overnight, and another here in the US. If only a couple of these come about I am in trouble, busy enough as it is.

Furniture arrived this morning so a day or two unpacking. Won't unpack it all as we will be moving again when the actual track construction starts, need to be closer as the days will be long. These first months are for planning and selling, so need to be here in Mesa. Did this in Georgia, and it is hard as we always need something we did not unpack, so we have to start guessing which box it is in.

Still working with the webmaster to finalize the site. It is my 90/10 rule again, it takes 10%of the effort to get it to 90% finished, and 90% of the effort to finish the last 10%. Always tempting to go public with something close to finished, but that would be a mistake.

Well done Valentino with fifth fastest in qualifying for the German MotoGP. His team "mate" Lorenzo is on pole, and pole is looking very familiar in every class. Vale is aiming for fourth in the race, and who would bet against him?

Le Mans Series in Portugal at the Algarve circuit. Big guys missing so Oreca is on pole in the private Peugeot, but not by much from the petrol brigade. Good field, but it does not seem a real LMS event without the big teams.

Interesting that Jacques Villeneuve has submitted a bid to be the next team to join F1. He has kept that pretty quiet. Not saying if he plans to drive or just manage. If you recall he has done this once before with his manager Craig Pollock when they set up British American racing that morphed into Honda and then Brawn. So do  not write him off, he is apparently collaborating with Durango, a GP2 team, in the bid. The decision is supposed to be the end of this month. I am amazed that none of my readers has any scoop on who Cypher is.

House in total chaos, boxes everywhere, and the truck coming this morning, so short and sweet today.

The fall out from Red Bull continues with Horner saying he regrets not talking to Mark Webber before they took the wing off Mark's car to give to Vettel. What was going on that was so important you could not spend two minutes explaining that? I can only imagine my reaction if I walked in the garage and saw that going on without being told anything! Do these people know nothing about managing people, especially people as intense as top sportsmen. They need to call Phil Jackson for some tips, or just read his book.

Alexander Rossi finished third in the GP3 race at Silverstone the weekend, having a great first season, and someone in the US needs to make sure he has the backing to move on from here in a top team. Cypher?

Well done Valentino Rossi, tested on a superbike the weekend and lapped as quick as the WSBK guys. Just do not fall again!

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Well is seems the summer season has woken up and we have some news to comment on. Casey Stoner is off to Honda next year in MotoGP, not a surprise really, and the other shoe to drop will be Rossi to Ducati to get away from Lorenzo.

Over at F1 at Silverstone the HRT Team have put Yamamoto in to replace Bruno Senna, only for this race they say, and only for money is what they are not saying. Yamamoto has raced in F1 before but made such an impression I cannot remember. In practice he is was not the slowest, but only because Trulli's Lotus broke after three laps! Red Bull have led both sessions today with Vettel quickest in the morning and Webber this afternoon. Times are all over the place with Ferrari struggling in the morning and second fastest in the afternoon. Teams working out the new layout. Eddie Oliver, you mentioned the bike times were slower than the simulation, can you tell us how much? It would be interesting to know the prediction for the F1 cars. Drivers not saying too much about the new section, mainly worried about the high curbs at the Maggotts/Becketts complex and are asking for them to be removed. I can understand why being a really high speed corner, and that style of curb is used for slow chicanes. Why would you put those in and why did the FIA OK them? Nice quote in one report that Rosberg was half a second quicker than his "elderly" team mate!

Bernie is calling for tire with a maximum life of 100km so the cars have to stop twice and spice up the show. You know my thoughts on that sort of idea, a circus is entertaining but that is not what we are running here. Seems that Bernie did not keep his mates at the FIA informed of the deal in Austin, with both Jean Todt and Nick Craw, head of ACCUS, and I know no one knows what that is but look it up, reported as saying they knew nothing and still do not. Todt is saying it is a "project," i.e. not yet real. This all comes from an article in the Austin Business Journal, seems they are still sceptical of the whole deal. Tavo Hellmund is reported off in South Africa, at the World Cup or raising money? Tilke say they will have a track layout in September, but no one knows where the site is yet.

Jonathon Summerton seems to have become the spokesperson for Cypher, the latest would be US F1 team. Jonathon tells us there is a lot going on and he is learning a lot from these ex F1 guys. Hard to see how they are keeping this so secret, surely someone out there knows who these guys are? Tony Dowe, you always know everthing.

Sir Frank Williams is handing over the CEO role at Williams to Adam Parr, but will remain the Team Principal and front up at the shop every day. Amazing man, it would be great to see Williams bounce back. Not that they are doing bad at the moment, but we remember the glory days and their innovations.

Over at the Rally of Bulgaria there are two headlines almost side by side, have to laugh, "Raikkonen for a podium," "Raikkonen crashes and stops special stage." Just about sums up Kimi's year. I hope you are enjoying it Kimi.

Bernie is up to his usual tricks. No room for FOTA in F1. This is the man who got his power by taking over what was FOTA and with Max Mosely wresting the commercial control of the sport from the FIA. Seems there is a fight going on in the background over teams showing their sponsors logos at the track. What a cheek! In Canada it was about trackside, and at Silverstone it has moved into the paddock. The teams have been forced to take their prime movers with their logos off the trailers and park them outside. What petty BS. Of course Bernie says it is not him, it is Allsport, Patrick McNally, who is the signage rights holder who is doing it, and of course Bernie has no connection to "Paddy", just as he does not with Tilke. You just cannot have an F1 race without Alllsport having the signage.

Chris Pook is reported to be involved with the New Jersey aka New York F1 GP bid. Now Chris ran F1 at Long Beach and gave up trying to make money and went to CART. Chris told me in Detroit in '85, "If Bernie thinks you are making money he will put the price up." So why is he involved again? Most promoters have found out what Chris learned the hard way, and now Bernie has a built in escalator of 10%, so he makes sure you cannot make a profit. There is a great article in the June 10 Autosport about the money in F1, and a telling number is that it takes $250 from every spectator just to service the debt of the rights holder CVC. The average cost to buy the rights is $30m, and Abu Dhabi apparently paid $50m. Now do you fans understand why Austin does not seem a smart idea?

I am forever surprised at the naivete of fans, God Bless Them, but if you are into a sport so much then take the time to find out how it works, who runs it and who is getting the money. Yes, what happens on the track is the key, but it is only the end result of everything else that has got them to that point.

Emanuele Pirro is to step in for Lord Drayson in his Lola as the Lord has hurt his foot. It is a blessing in disguise, and it will be very interesting to see Emanuale and Johnny Cocker in that car at Miller Park this weekend. Not that there is much opposition, but that car has been struggling to beat what there is. GT's should put on the best show as always lately.

The Cypher would be US F1 team has come out at last and said it has lodged an official application for 2011. Still no details of who or where other than these are supposed to be the engineers and designers who have the knowledge and can make it happen this time. Confirmed that Jonathon Summerton is their driver if they get in. Good luck to you all, you are going to need it.

Saw an article by Jonathon Ingram about how F1 is not making a foothold here because the US has so much other motorsport that there is too much competition. My comment was have a look at Europe, there is way more going on over there, so that argument does not wash. I still stick to my premise that the US needs a very successful driver and/or team. No one here took much notice of cycling until Lance dominated, not just won, Greg Lamond had won, and then nothing. No one here cares about soccer until the US gets into the World Cup Finals and wins a game or two, then it is headline news. TV audiences in Germany bounced back when Schumacher returned. Sport is about heroes, forget that at your peril. IRL will struggle until an Unser or Andretti reappears. No one cares about a bunch of Brazilians, Englishmen, Australians or Frenchmen.

Rossi was back on a bike yesterday for the first time since he broke his leg. Seems it went OK, did a bunch of laps and his shoulder seemed to be more of a problem than his leg. His Father is counseling him to go easy, but Champions do not know how to. Good advice though, the last thing he needs now is to fall again.