Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Not if you are Jean Todt it isn't, the British press are having a field day over the FIA's lack of leadership and direction during the Bahrain saga. The FIA are in a rock and a hard place as while they are a signatory to the Concorde Agreement, the real commercial problems of canceling a race are between Bernie, the teams and the promoter. Having the Crown Prince cancel makes Bernie's life easier. The big losers are the TV companies who have paid for 20 races and now have 19. It is very hard to see where a rescheduled race is going to fit in for 2011, the calendar was already the most crowded in F1 history. It will be an interesting sort out after this between all these parties, and the teams sponsors and insurance companies.

From comments made today it would appear that Valencia has not paid the fee for last years race. No comment. Melbourne's City Councillors have been polled and most are in favor of keeping the GP, but then again they are not paying for it.

F1 testing is over for a week or so, but MotoGP and WSBK are both in action. Stoner is fastest in Malaysia on the Honda with Lorenzo third on the unsponsored Yamaha factory team. What does that tell you about the state of MotoGP? A Japanese factory team could usually be relied upon to lean on one of its' fellow Japanese corporations to put something on the machine, but not this year. Of course it is done to allow Yamaha to celebrate its 50th year with the team in Yamaha blue, right. Rossi is still a second off the pace but at least in front of Hayden. Still not time to rule him out. Colin Edwards on the second string bike is in front of his old team mate Ben Spies who has the works machine, nice going Colin, let's see you stay up there this season.

Down at the Island Carlos Checa leads the way from the usual suspects and a high number of falls. It seems that despite no factory Ducati team the marque is still the one to beat. The debate on the GP date next year has gone quiet for a while.

Vettel has raised an interesting issue with Pirelli's and overtaking. I think it was Sir Isaac Newton who said "that for every action there was an equal and opposite reaction." So we add KERS and movable wings to make overtaking easier, and ask Pirelli to spice up the tires, and now Vettel says the amount of "marbles" coming off the Pirelli's will make overtaking impossible by half race distance.

Nice to hear that Kubica has started rehab. Best wishes Robert for a complete recovery.

The winter wait is over as F1 cars and MotoGP bikes hit the track today for their first test sessions. New cars and drivers, and some old faces for both, so it is going to be hard to make anything of this first test. Alonso and Vettel both near the top of the timesheet, with Hulkenburg in the Force India putting in some surprising times to be right there with them.  Just showing Williams they should not have let him go? The Lotus Renault and Williams have followed Red Bull with the pull rod rear suspension, but the biggest surprise so far is the lack of exhaust outlets on the Renault. They obviously have them, they just do not come out of the top or the sides, so must be underneath. This is the team that promised to be "at the brave end of brave," and it seems they are trying something here. At the end of last season, when we had the diffusers, most teams were feeding the exhaust gas out through them to increase downforce, so we can only presume they are doing something with this gas flow to generate downforce under the car. I read an article a few years ago that said an F1 engine is just a huge air pump, so the volume of gas coming out of the exhaust must be massive. In fact at 18,000 rpm that is 2.4 liters by 18,000, or if my math is correct, 43,200 liters per minute. Imagine if your local gas pump ran at that speed?

At the other end of the timesheet Rosberg is slowest, then Barrichello, with the HRT quicker, go figure.

Over in Sepang Casey Stoner is fastest on day one 0.4 seconds faster than Lorenzo. Did not take Casey long to adjust to the Honda. Now Valentino is down in 12th trying to find a position on the Ducati that is comfortable. Someone suggested he is still sand bagging, but team mate Hayden is behind him, and what use is it to sand bag? Can you really set up the bike if you are running around off the pace? And I would have thought that the "head games" would dictate that you would want to put your stamp of authority on from the beginning? Maybe someone out there can enlighten me? Good to see the Suzuki somewhere on the pace unlike last year, and Ben Spies going OK, but then so is Colin Edwards on the second team Yamaha.

In other news, Bernie is not talking about bribes on the advice of his lawyers, and Mark Webber says he is up for another crack at the title and I'm sure he is given how close he was last year. What Bernie is talking about is new races, "If we have some new races, some others will fall out — we don’t need Australia, for instance." Nice one Bernie.