Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Practice for the Valencia F1 race and qualifying for the Assen MotoGP this morning. Caught the second F1 practice, but not much to excite there, can't say I like this layout. Most interesting thing so far is Schumacher's continued good form following Canada. Tomorrow will tell if the engine mapping restrictions will have an impact on Red Bull's qualifying speed. The back end of the grid is the usual suspects, HRT, Virgin and Lotus, and surprising to see Lotus still over 4 seconds off the pace, as is Kobayashi. There is a big gap to his team mate Perez of 1.5 seconds, did Kobayashi not use the super soft option?

Over in Holland the works Hondas all had crashes in the morning which left them a bit tentative in qualifying. Simoncelli had no such worries, it is the race that's his problem. Ben Spies nearly pipped him for pole in a reversal of form which saw him outqualify Lorenzo for the first time. Rossi's switch to the 2012 chassis does not seem to have done him miuch good as he is down in 11th, outperformed by Abraham on the privateer Ducati in 7th.

The news out of Austin continues to suggest ongoing problems with local politics, but the organizer's attorneys statements seem designed to scare the locals into supporting the project, so not sure how bad this really is for Tavo and the boys.

So Red Bull are pulling the plug on their NASCAR team at the end of this season. As someone else asked is the writing on the wall for NASCAR, or is Red Bull just seeing a better opportunity at the US F1 GP as also suggested? Even so that suggests they see NASCAR as on the decline as its viewing numbers must still far exceed F1. They certainly have not conquered NASCAR like F1, but then again they do not have the Adrian Newey of NASCAR.

The FIA has gone a step further in its clamp down on engine mapping by placing the qualifying engine mapping in the parc ferme situation between quali and the race. It seems some teams, Red Bull for example, have been using some pretty extreme mapping for quali, but have to dial it down to last the race. Valencia and beyond is going to be interesting. Ferrari is suggesting that we will see a Championship in two halves. You watch, some bright spark will work out how to remap the engine sitting on the grid, or at the first stop.

Talking of Red Bull, well Torro Rosso actually, they were in Hong Kong for one of their demo runs, amidst rumors that Hing Kong wants an F1 race. Monaco and Singapore have one so why not? Then there are Mexico and Argentina apparently wanting races. Bernie has to be loving this, but I thought "The Circuit of the Americas" was supposed to draw all those Mexican fans to Austin, so why do they need a race? A 25 race calendar anybody?

In an interesting move Ducati are to run this year's engine in next year's chassis in an attempt to fix their current problems. Never been tested so the first practice should be fun to watch.

Engines are back on the table in F1 with a meeting of the F1 Commission tomorrow. Bernie is saying the vote by the FIA to go to 4 cylinder turbo was not valid because Todt bypassed the F1 Commission. The fallout from this is going to be interesting as someone is going to be unhappy.

Going back to the BBC and F1, I had a comment off-blog so to speak that Sky would be the alternative and it is not free to air. ITV is still there, unless someone tells me otherwise, and was until recently the F1 broadcaster. So did they let it go to the BBC as it was not worth the cost so are unlikely to want it back? It is academic, Bernie will just drop his fee won't he? Is that a pig just going by the window?

Now before you all write and tell me that is old news, this is the next generation. Wayne's two sons, Luca and Remy. This was their first time at a track where their World Champion father won the first Australian MotoGP back in '89, and Luca won one race in the rain and finished second in four others. Nice going. Remy had a bit more torrid time of it but still managed two seconds, two thirds and a fifth. Great future for these two I think, but Dad needs to lift his game as a mechanic. Still, Wayne did beat them when they took time out to go kart racing. The boys loved the Island, who wouldn't, and cannot wait to go back.

Over in Italy at Monza, another great track, the cream rose to the top with Ricciardo leading Alexander Rossi home in the second race. I loved the teams explanation why there were "loose bolts," apparently not just one but all of them. The rule only says "tight," but not how tight. Classic motor racing, if you do not define it with a torque value how tight is tight? He did not win the argument though.

A lot is being made about News Corp not being allowed to buy F1 because it will have a conflict of interest, being a media company. How short the memories are. How did all this get started? When Bernie decided to make a bunch of money and sell it to the Kirsch Media Group out of Germany. That's right, the Kirsch MEDIA Group. So what has changed in the last twenty years? If it was good enough then why not for Rupert and Co? I'm sure Rupert can put in place enough cut-outs, like Bernie and the boys have now, to put a fire wall between the company owning F1 and Sky. And why are they only carrying on about Sky? What about Fox and Speed in the US, and all the other stations he owns. We pay for Speed via the cable here in the US, so define "free to air."

Casey won at Le Mans, no surprise there, but Rossi third? That was largely thanks to Simoncelli and Pedrosa coming together and Lorenzo having a bad day, but the Ducati seems to be coming good. The Simoncelli incident earned him a ride through penalty, which has sparked a lot of debate on-line as to who was at fault here. I have not seen anything but the stills, and it does look like Simo did not leave him much room, unlike what we saw at Turkey last week, and he is making a habit of this and making himself very unpopular with his fellow riders. The Tech3 boys did not manage to repeat their qualifying form, and Spies was down in sixth. Marquez finally learned how to keep a four stroke upright and won his first Moto2 race, so look out everyone else if he repeats his form from the 125's.

Rockenfeller won his first DTM race, and about time. It is hard to believe that with all else he has won he has had to wait this long for a good car. Let's hope Grand-Am can bring this series here in 2013. Talking of Grand-Am the race from Virginia started with an hour behind the pace car for rain. Someone finally beat Ganassi and Co, but given how easily Pruit caught the lead car on the last lap I wonder if that was not a set up to try and make the series more interesting. $25,000 reward was posted by Grand-Am for anyone beating Ganassi which received more press than anything else they have done.

Kevin Magnessun won the third F3 race of the weekend at Snetterton after finishing ninth in the second "reverse grid" race with fastest lap of the race.

Bernie made a surprise visit to the reopening of the Austrian track owned by Red Bull magnate, Mateschitz, and told him that even though "Didi" does not want an F1 race, he should have one. Didi probably knows what it will cost him.

After my "foot in mouth," or is it keyboard in mouth, comment about Ricciardo just keeping his hand in he goes and sets fast time, only to have it taken away because a bolt was found loose on the car after qualifying. This sort of thing sounds a bit over the top, like last year when a piece of tape was found on a car. Daniel was philosophical about it though, confirming he was there for the race experience. He did well in the first race, coming through the field from last to sixth, but with another potential problem as he and a few others are under investigation for possibly passing under a yellow.  American Alexander Rossi finished well down, let's hope for a better finish in race 2.

Jan Magnussen's son Kevin won his maiden British F3 race with a couple of great overtaking moves. Let us hope Kevin can catch the breaks better than his father did. Somehow to me F3 is still the class to be in and win. We have F2, GP3, FR 3.5 etc, but this still seems the best finishing school. Many top drivers went straight from here to F1, while it almost seems that with a few exceptions classes like GP2 are for guys who will not quite make it. Still, not everyone is going to be world champion and at least they are living their dream and hopefully having some fun. Speaking of F2, another son of a famous father, Alex Brundle, took pole at Magny-Cours.

Also in France, at Le Mans, Casey Stoner continued to dominate practice and qualifying from Simoncelli and the rest of the Honda gang. Fifth is Lorenzo in front of the two Tech3 Yamahas, with Ben Spies eighth. So four Hondas, four Yamahas, and then the three Ducatis with Rossi and Hayden, who could not repeat yesterday's form. Are we loading an Ark here?

Grand Am is at VIR today, and DMG bikes are at Sears Point, but I don't think anyone is noticing.

The news is all about regimes today. Bernie says we should extend the deadline for Bahrain to subdue the demonstrators. Is money really that important? Then there is the story that McLaren talked to Libya back in January. Shock and horror, how could they? As I recall in January Gaddafi was still everyone's flavor of the month, so why are Mclaren being so defensive. "Yes we considered it but no actual meetings took place." So what? Is Gadafi still on the UN Human Rights Commission or whatever it's called? Now when Kenny and I were nearly suckered into taking Libyan oil money in '93 for the US Motorcycle GP this was the reaction I expected.

Then there is the story that Sonangol, the Angolan oil company, is to sponsor something in F1 other than Ricardo Teixeira in F2. Why would be my question? I cannot see that it will generate business, it already sells its' oil to China and it is hard to imagine too many companies rushing in there. Attracting tourists? Don't think so. My daughter used to work in the oil business and went there. Lived in a guarded compound and was escorted to work every day, and not to mention the vaccinations for some nice tropical diseases. Personally I think charity, and sponsorship, begins at home. Clean up the environment from the mess of the oil business, build some schools and hospitals. Something worthwhile other than putting it in rich mens' pockets.

Peter Geran, a regular contributor, commented on my question about Ducati testing, saying he thought it was allowed as long as it was not the GP riders doing it. Are all the teams testing in that case? I know they have test riders, we see these mobile chicanes when the regulars are injured, but so do F1 teams and they do not test. Answers anyone?

Aston Martin is going testing with its Le Mans contender rather than racing at Spa. Given the problems they have had so far that seems like a very good idea.