Bob Barnard Track Engineering

I think it is time for me to retire if Korea is an example of what a modern race track needs to be. Mark Webber says "We are really clutching at straws to be able to try and criticise anyone here." Personally I cannot find anything I actually like about the track from either a racing or safety point of view. It is as I have said before, if they think the track owners know nothing but somehow manage to get it finished, and that is relative, and get it half right, then they have done a "remarkable job." If they think you should know better then nothing is good enough. Just when was it OK not to have a verge between the white line and the wall? Some people compared it to Valencia, but it is far worse.

I enjoyed the streaming web based coverage of first practice, no commentary and we could hear the cars. Picture quality was great too. Not that the SPEED boys did a bad job on the second practice, for once it was not all gushing over a new track. I thought their comments were spot on about that last corner complex and pit entry, not sure about pit out either, and all those corners just running together. We saw in practice how impossible it is to overtake through those. And it is bumpy, despite the McLaren engineer's comments yesterday about how smooth it is. I guess if you are walking at 4 mph it looks OK.

The pavement has stayed down so full marks for that. I suspect the dust helped that, and the track surface is so hard, like we had in Adelaide, that the tires are not getting a grip and that is why we are seeing so much graining from tires sliding. When Keke Rosberg won the first race in Adelaide he had to keep stopping for tires as he was spinning the rear tires so much he was ripping them to shreds.

There is so much wrong here I do not even know where to start. It is like when I inspected Mosport after Don Panoz bought it. I believe that this is the worst Tilke design so far. Shouldn't he be getting better? I can only surmise that he was told to build a street circuit to suit the future city. So he designed around obstacles that are not there yet, instead of designing the track on a blank piece of ground, and then telling them to design the city around it. Perhaps he does not like to tell clients when they are wrong, but as a professional that is what we should do. Perhaps that is why he has all these projects and I do not. It is certainly why I do not work for Don any more, he got tired of me telling him what he could not do.

On a different note I read a comment from Ferrari that based on recent races they had done the right thing by backing Alonso over Massa. Sort of a self fulfilling prophesy don't you think?

And what about Lewis? Sits out most of practice and goes out and bangs in fastest lap.

What other race series has the owner and CEO give TV and radio interviews during the event? Are Bernie and Jean Todt missing out here? I am talking about Don Panoz and Scott Atherton of course during the Petit Le Mans. I would not mind so much if they had anything to say other than "next year is going to be great." If, as Scott said it is for the fans, why don't you shut up and let us listen to the commentary? We listened to Radio Le Mans to avoid SPEED's commentary, but at one point got so desperate when Scott went on, and on, and on, that we turned the sound up on the TV.

The race was great as usual. SPEED was not as usual. I timed the amount of race we saw and how long the ad breaks were, and we got about 2/3 rds of the race, and then if you take out the infomercials and stupid interviews, we saw a lot less than half. Even what we did see seemed to consist of non-stop in-car cameras from LMPC cars, especially the "green" one. The Director, I use the term loosely, had no feel for the race. It was obvious to a fan that cars were setting up a pass, but he would go to an ad anyway. Same with pit stops. The cameramen also have no idea, we will see a pass in progress and they will  not follow it to see it happen. I am close to not watching it in future it is so infuriating.

Congratulations Peugeot, beautiful cars, perhaps the best looking prototypes we've seen? Great strategy and well driven. Sorry to see Allan, Tom and Dindo lose, I admire and respect them enormously, but they have had a good run, and Dr. Ulrich is a class act the way he accepts defeat.

The Petit le Mans is a success story. The races are great and the fans come out to watch. What does it tell us? If you bring the best the fans will come and watch. When we ran the first one I had a potential spectator on the phone asking why should he come. I started to tell him the great cars that were coming, but only got as far as the Le Mans winning Porsche, and he said great, I'm coming! Fans are not bothered by the length of the race, their span of attention does not seem to be a problem. They are not confused by the different classes, or too much technology, foreign drivers, or all those other excuses that have been given lately. So, why is the rest of the ALMS series not as successful? They do not have all the best cars and drivers. Yes they have some, but other than the GT2 class there is one car and driver combination that stands out, and you cannot sell a race on that. And just maybe sports car fans do not want to watch 2 hour sprints?

On the home front we have a couple of very promising meetings next week on the Sol Real project, but unfortunately one project has been canceled so I am currently "underemployed." So if anyone needs a motor racing consultant let me know.