Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Spa did not disappoint and the world's best track turned on a world class race. DRS worked a bit too easily on the run up to Les Combes, but we saw some amazing passes all around the track, Rivage and Poohon, and even Blanchimont! The pass Webber made on Alonso on the entry to Eau Rouge has to rate as one of the best and bravest we have ever seen, certainly up there with Haikenen and Schumacher at this same track, but probably braver. How did Alonso make his car disappear? One nano-second his front wing is in shot with Webber's, the next it is gone, saving a huge accident. David Coulthard said he had to turn away from the screen! Pity Kobayashi could not show the same sense. Views will differ on who did what to who here, but Lewis's hands did not move on that wheel. Yes he was moving left relative to the track edge but he took a straight shot from the exit of Raidillon to the turn in at Les Combes. Kobayashi had been passed and it's OK he tried to come back, but he was never going to make that move, just back off and attack again. Spoiled a good race for us.

Button showed us that Hamilton is not the only McLaren driver who can pull off some great passes, quite out of character at times but great to watch. His pass on Massa at the last chicane should be watched by Maldanado as how two great drivers can run hard and close without taking each other out. As I predicted the odd qualifying made for some great racing with Michael coming through to 5th ahead of team mate Rosberg for once. Rosberg looked like running away with it in the first couple of laps, as did Alonso at one point, but the Ferrari and Mercedes fade at the end of races. The Ferrari still does not like the hard tires, but there has to be more to it than just that. 

It would be interesting to know what went on with Vettel's read out on the steering wheel on that last lap, along with that and the tire issues they had from the very start of the race they definitely not only dodged a bullet(s) but came up smelling of roses. Andrian Newey was almost crying with relief.

Pity about Ricciardo's HRT stopping, he was having a great race and running 16th. Not sure if this was due to good fortune in avoiding the crashes at La Source on the first lap, but even if it was he hung on to it until something failed. This is the sort of drive he needs. Senna was a prime suspect in the first lap crashes but at least he owned up to it unlike some other drivers out there, and actually ran a good race in the end, only finishing twenty seconds behind Petrov despite the stops for a new nose and a drive through penalty. Both Lotus cars and the Virgins finished the race, with the Lotus cars both beating the Williams of Barrichello.

And all this and it did not rain! Amazing. Looks like nothing is going to stop Vettel and Red Bull now, but let us hope for some more races like this.

The reported potential lessee of the Silverstone Circuit is the Qatar's Sovereign Wealth Fund, why not, it owns everything else?  Still does not make any sense, the BRDC lost nearly 2m pounds last year despite running the F1GP, MotoGP and WSBK rounds with crowds that many others would envy.

Stoner on pole for the US MotoGP from Indy, with Spies and Lorenzo snapping at his heals, so should be a good race, except for poor old Valentino.

It's going to be a long month at this rate. Yes there is racing going on, the ALMS at Mid-Ohio skating rink for instance. Whoever thought putting sealant on a race track was a good idea should stick to Wal Mart parking lots. This has been a problem for a while and should have been fixed. Even with full wets it was impossible to keep the car on the track. Then there is the nice curb coming on to the main straight where two cars broke their suspension. I could go on. Let's hope the new owner fixes it.

Jean Todt has been on vacation in Mexico, or a tour anyway, and thinks it is a great place to have a grand prix. Does he not read the newspapers about what goes on there, and spills over to here? And how many GP's are we going to have? We already have 21 if we think Turkey is going to "do what it takes." Then there is Sochi, France wants one back but I guess they will share, New Jersey, and now Mexico, and I know I've missed some. And just why would Jean Todt care, what's his connection to Mexico? Maybe it is the direct connections available to Austin, just trying to make it easier for the teams to fit in all these GPs. Now I like to watch a GP as well as the next guy, but are we heading to NASCAR calendar territory here? How many is enough? I guess if you are CVC there is never enough.

The silly season is alive and well. Rubens says he was misquoted and he is not about to retire, but that is not what was reported, leaving Williams was. And we have the "Hamilton to Ferrari" game on while Domenicalli says Massa must stay calm, and his replacement will be an up and coming young guy, so who and when? Bianchi? Can you imagine the pressure on an Italian in the red car? Ferrari have usually avoided putting an Italian in the car, presumably for that reason. Perez is the other suggestion, and he does drive a car with a Ferrari engine, but losing the sponsorship would really hurt Sauber. Not a bad choice though given his form this year.

And finally back to Jean Todt who says the FIA must write rules that are more specific. Well why haven't you? Because the teams employ a huge number of very smart people to "interpret the rules in such a bizarre way they break them," as Jean puts it. Exactly. It has been that way since I was born, and long may it remain. It is called ingenuity, the origin of the word engineer.  

Now I know team orders are OK now, but the decision by Red Bull not to let their drivers race robbed the fans of an even better finish than we saw between Lewis and Massa. Mark seems likely to be offered a new contract, but he obviously is not happy about being told to "maintain the gap" and it took a few messages before he complied. OK, so no team wants to see their drivers take each other out, but McLaren has a lot more confidence in the ability of their drivers to race each other and not crash than Red Bull. So does Mark want a new contract?

McLaren shot themselves in the foot again this weekend with Lewis not having enough fuel in the car and Button being released without the wheel nut on. Now you could argue that Lewis would not have been where he was if he carried that extra fuel, but we won't know will we? The old Lewis turned up for this race, the one we got to admire and love. Great drive from tenth on the grid and fourth was a poor reward. Now Lewis is saying he will not continue to do the excessive amount of PR required by McLaren, especially in the lead up to this race. Martin Whitmarsh needs to circle the wagons and refire the troops.

It would seem from the performance this weekend that McLaren were hit hardest by the diffuser shambles. The problems with the car in testing were masked by their ability to get the blown diffuser working, and now they are stuck with a poor car, but have been given a reprieve. As I said Ferrari were strangely silent and it is suggested they were the ones driving this all along. Somehow Bernie twisted enough arms to get the unanimous vote needed to return to the pre-Silverstone situation where the changes in the ECU from qualifying to the race are banned, but blown diffusers can still be used. Initially it was reported that Ferrari and Sauber, who run Ferrari engines, were not agreeing to the reinstatement, but then Bernie came out and said they all agreed. What did that cost? Presumably now they have all agreed there is no basis for a protest.

Engine reliability did not seem to be a problem for anyone other than Kobayashi in the Sauber, so perhaps it is a longer term issue over several races, or not really an issue at all. Pity to see the two Lotuses drop out so early, reliability is still an issue for them despite improvements in performance. HRT seem to have got on top of it with both cars finishing, albeit last, but Ricciardo gained valuable experience and stayed out of trouble.

Great drive by Alonso, you had the feeling that he had the measure of the Red Bulls even if Vettel did not have that wheel problem, it will be interesting to see if Ferrari can maintain this or if they were lucky and did not have to use the hard tires today due to the wet conditions at the start.

Interesting the amount of overtaking that went on away from the DRS zone, and how little impact it had when the front runners tried to use it.

Adding to the oddities of the new pit complex is the location of the winners rostrum. Looked like the US where they never face the crowd and it is a made for TV event. Pit Pass web site has a piece on the BRDC finances, the owners of Silverstone, which does not make for pleasant reading.

http://www.pitpass.com/44171-Exclusive-BRDC-depends-on-bank-funding-to-continue-as-a-going-concern

Speaking of oddities I received the June 23 rd issue of Autosport yesterday, takes a while to get here. Lo and behold there is a two page center spread in the middle advertising the Laguna Seca Historic Races. But what did they use for the centerpiece photo? Silverstone from the 60's. Go figure. 

Over in Brno Melandri and Biaggi shared the WSBK wins, with Checa in third and his points lead now down to 30. No time to panic, but it does not look as easy as it did at the start of the season.

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.

Take that. You can change the rules but the result stays the same. Vettel and Red Bull cruised to another win in Valencia, with Alonso in the Ferrari the only one who even looked like bothering him. Webber looked at times like he was going to challenge but in the end could not hold off Alonso, and then had a gearbox issue. Why is it always Webber who has the issues? So, not a particularly inspiring race even though there were lots of battles right through the field. Button did show an unlike Jensen streak when he went past Massa at Turn Two like he was nailed to the floor, and got it done when the DRS zones could not, so do we really need this? Lewis continues to hate life. When told to slow down to conserve his tires he says he can't go slower! Then when his tires have gone off and he is told to go quicker he says he can't, doesn't sound like a man happy with his car or his team.

The best part of the race was watching it live on www.fromsportcom.com which showed the BBC coverage with Brundle and Coulthard. I do not have to put up with SPEED and those idiots again! Fox in their wisdom are showing the race at noon today, a part of their four race summer showing of F1 on the network, for some reason only a programmer would know. Due to their expectation that they will have a whole new audience they treat us as bigger idiots than usual. As I have said before, they do not feel compelled to explain the rules of baseball or football every time a game starts, so why do they do it for F1?

I also watched a fair bit of the Nurburgring 24 Hour thanks to a link provided by my friend Greg Sarni, and listened to the Radio Le Mans crew. These guys maintain their obvious passion for the sport and freshness as if they were spectators, while being totally professional and concentrating on the activity on track and not what is coming next or who is wearing what etc. This race has grown in stature over the last five years or so and is becoming a great showcase for manufacturers and new technology and ideas. Over 200 cars, and as one of the interviewees said there are more classes than he usually has entrants. The number of manufacturers was exceptional, it would be easier to say who was not there than who were, in fact I would not like to guess who was not represented. This was backed up by what must be every tire company, with some guys running on street tires. It is in some ways much more challenging than Le Mans, just the volume of cars and the bigger differences in performance on that narrow and dangerous track they call the "green hell." The number of top drivers there this year was a testament to its growth. There was Johnny O'Connell in a Renault Clio! Attendance is similar to Le Mans, so now we have two great 24 hour races.

It is interesting that the F1 Promoters, well 17 of them, wrote to the FIA to tell them they did not want the show if it was a 4 cylinder turbo. Now I have been a promoter and attended meetings with my fellow promoters, and it is hard to get them to agree to anything as we basically compete with each other over everything. A lot like the teams actually, but nowhere near as organized, so this is a new thing we are seeing. I always thought we as a group had a lot of clout, although there were always new tracks or existing ones who would take a race if I didn't, but this raises a new lobby group. I actually thought that a group of tracks that no longer have GP's could be a better bet to put together to start a new series based on better rewards for the guys taking most if not all of the risk. NASCAR's model would be a good start. Anyway, the current group is led by Ron Walker, Bernie's mate from Melbourne, so you can see where this came from, and why they would not support a breakaway series. The threat was to go to Indycar apparently. Yeh Right, let me know how that works out for you