Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Renault with its forward exhaust is fastest on the last day at Valencia, so obviously they have something working. So much for Helmut Marko's assertion after day two that "If we had run a race today we would have lapped the field." Helmut also vehemently denies they overspent, but even if they did the fines should go to charity, not the smaller teams who came in expecting some equality in spending. Not so fast Helmut, and why don't you just shut up and go away. A friend sent me a link to an F1 technical blog which showed how Newey has used a different way to use the exhaust gas through the diffuser, through a loophole in the rules. You have to love these guys. Apparently this did not show up until the second day. Here is the link.

So Kubica was quickest over the three days, and Lotus are back to having hydraulic problems, this time with the power steering. How does that happen, surely you buy this stuff from a specialist? Glock in the Virgin was well up, but Force India still continued to shine with Sutil second fast. Now, it is all very early days, but it is still interesting. McLaren are to unveil their car tomorrow in Berlin, and Lewis says it looks different to the other teams and is not sure if that is good or bad. The Mercedes is having teething troubles, with the HRT faster at this point. Ross Brawn says he is encouraged though, but is sitting on another payout from Mercedes for his remaining shares, so is probably feeling pretty good about life at the moment. So it is all over the place. Next test Jerez in a week.

The FIA have set the rules for the movable wing for the first three races. A line will be painted on the track at the entrance to the last corner onto the straight where the car following will have to be within one second to allow the wing to be triggered, and another line 600 m from the corner at the end of the straight to show is plebs where the wing can be used by the driver. Ferrari have suggested that 600 m may not be enough, but the FIA say they will tweak it once we see how it works. As I said, are we going to see processions waiting to get to that point?

Mike Gascoyne blames the tracks, as he should, especially the boring desert tracks, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. As Mike says, they had a clean sheet and as much money as they wanted and still got it wrong. Let's include Korea in that, and wait to see how India works out, if they can sort out their corruption problems. Apparently the first layer of asphalt started being laid yesterday.

In Malaysia Simoncelli on a non-works Honda ended the last day fastest, with Stoner a hair's breadth behind. The Hondas all populated the top of the time sheet with Lorenzo and Spies mixing it with them. The Ducatis improved to 8th and 10th, with Hayden again the quicker, but Valentino thinks his shoulder is costing him 7 tenths or more, so he feels they are closer than it seems. Nice to see that a second string Honda is not too shabby, could make the racing more interesting this year. Some of us can recall when there were several "works" teams out there, especially Yamaha, which definitely made it more fun.

Great article on Superbike Planet today about Lorenzo's visit to the Kenny Roberts school of hard knocks at his ranch in Hickman. I included the training school in my book, and my frequent visits to the local urgent care with would-be racers, and how Kenny will stop the race as soon as he is leading. Lorenzo is reportedly shocked a guy 30 years older can beat him. Silly boy, he needs to realize Kenny can still beat anyone over a short race, say a lap! Here is the link.

http://superbikeplanet.com/2011/Jan/110117krlorenzo.htm

Sir Frank Williams, a gentleman of a similar age and will to win, is considering floating the Williams team. This could relate to Joe Saward's story yesterday about Qatar Holdings being interested in a connection with Williams. More power to Sir Frank, who is emphasising that this does not mean he is stepping back from his role in the team.

Now we hear today that Boullier is considering Grosjean as the "third driver" for the Lotus Renault team. Surely he means fourth? Or is it a tie for third with Fauzy? Strange doings. And Peter Collins is now saying his driver Luizzi  may not drive in F1 this year, so can we finally sort out who is driving Force India before the test starts in 12 days time? Sutil and Di Resta with Hulkenburg as the third presumably.

Terrible to hear about Dean Stoneman's illness, and I'm sure we all wish him a recovery to rival Lance Armstrong's.

Sounds like an interesting evening at the Sydney Speedway a week ago with Tony Stewart getting into an altercation with one of the track owners and the police getting involved. My old mate Garry Rush is also an owner of that speedway, and I could sell tickets if he and Tony got into it. Another dynamite old racer who can still do it when required, and I'm sure he will not mind the "old." They used to say "there are old racers and bold racers, but there are no old, bold, racers." Not sure that applies anymore. Perhaps he and Tony could have sorted it all out with a match race?

Martin Whitmarsh has stated that the FIA and FOTA will not let the movable wing "fail." They will "tweak" the rules, which as I have been saying, remain unclear, but here is perhaps the best explanation from his interview with Autosport.

"Drivers will have the system primed in the race when FIA-monitored GPS technology tells them they are less than one-second behind the car in front at a certain point of the circuit. This only becomes valid two laps after the start of a safety car restart.

However, to ensure that the wing boost advantage is not over-egged, the FIA will only allow use of the wing's speed boost at a single zone on the track. This will be carefully monitored and controlled to ensure that overtaking still remains a challenge - and this area may not even be on the main start-finish straight."

So, only in one spot, and the boys will know which zone that is and hopefully so will we. Drivers can use the KERS system either to defend or to help with the wing's reduced drag. So is this going to be better or not? Are they all going to drive around behind another car waiting for that spot, and not try anywhere else? Is that better than no overtaking? I'm sorry, this all seems contrived, like Bernie's "short cut" idea. Let them move the wing whenever they want. What happens though when to overtake at the end of the straight the driver leaves the wing in low downforce too long? His braking is compromised so he will lose out at the corner, or worse go off. Is the FIA going to have another "trigger" to turn it off at a safe distance from the corner?

Today's news seems all about money. Max Mosley accused Red Bull of exceeding the Resource Restriction Agreement, i.e. overspending, in 2010. Red Bull denies this, but this agreement is so full of get out clauses it will be hard to tell. The boys cannot agree on what is "Restricted" in 2011, and presumably they have committed most of their spending already. The RRA was a way for the teams to do what Max wanted and reduce spending without him unilaterally decreeing it, so of course it is full of loopholes on what is restricted and what is not.

Then there is the great article by Dieter Rencken in this weeks Autosport on the problems F1 tracks have making money. It is really a case of restricting the losses, and reflects what I have been saying here since I started the blog. All fans of motorsport need to read this to see the mess it is in, and how it is unsustainable. As we saw with manufacturers, as soon as Governments wake up there will be no more billion dollar race tracks, and we will need all those great tracks that have been cast aside in the name of CVC's wealth generation.

Dun and Bradstreet have just released a report card on when F1 teams pay their bills. Red Bull pay promptly, which may be why they are over the RRA. If you delay paying, like Lotus which is the worst offender with 180 days late, then presumably you can delay recording the expenditure? The bottom line seems to be suppliers know they are going to get paid. One supplier commented that "if Yijay Mallya sold his yacht he could pay the team bills for the next two years." Now paying bills late is not unusual, it is "good business" for lots of companies, including the one I worked for back in the eighties. I was running a State Branch of a construction company in a small town and would meet my subs and suppliers every day, and be asked when they are going to get paid. Now they knew they would be paid, but it got wearing, so I complained to our accountant, who was also a co-owner, who just told me the money was better in our bank than theirs, and putting up with the whining was what he paid me for. Touche.


And of course there is the ongoing "Banker Bribery" scandal to fully unfold, and the situation with "pay for ride" drivers, but we all knew F1 was really about money didn't we?

Very quiet Saturday, but a friend sent me some interesting news items on the French track Mas Du Clos which appears to have been closed by the French Authorities because it does not meet the FIM standard. Now the track was primarily a "track day" circuit, and as such does not need an FIM license, not sure it even needs a French Motorcycle sanction. This opens a whole bunch of questions about who should be approving tracks, one that will be addressed at the upcoming Los Angeles Professional Circuit Owners Forum. In NSW, Australia, the police approve tracks under The Speedway Act, but it is the local guy who does it without knowledge or guidelines, so what is the point? I guess he then becomes liable, but somehow I doubt it.

Someone needs to inspect and approve tracks, so who should it be and to what standard? Insurance companies have the most to lose, but their role and ability varies all over the world I suspect. If the National sanctioning body is not insuring the track or events as they have no role in track days or private tests for instance, then should they still have the role, and would they want it? If the National body is not involved then the FIA or FIM have no reason to become involved. So are the State Authorities the ones? Not unless they know what they are looking at. There are specialists like myself who can inspect and certify which happens here in the US for the SCCA, but there are 1300 tracks here and I bet 1200 have never been properly inspected.

This is a huge can of worms, because if a track gets inspected and does not do the work then they are in a worse situation than not being inspected, so most owners probably do not want to know. In the meantime people are getting hurt or worse due to lack of proper safety measures being in place. Perhaps France is making the correct moves?

I'd be really interested in hearing from readers who know the situation with Mas Du Clos, or want to comment on what happens where they live.

Even if the 2013 engines do not make a lot of noise the decision to go to a four cylinder turbo certainly is. Bernie is the latest one to chime in on the possible lack of an F1 sound and how that would hurt the sport. It's OK though because Jean Todt has said it will be, " the smaller engine is very important to the manufacturer."  Number one it should be what is important to the fans, without them there is no F1, and since when is the FIA a department of the MIA, the Motor Industry Association? It is there to promote and regulate the sport, it is time to bring FISA back to look after it. Who are these manufacturers? The ones who left F1 or have never been in it? We currently have Ferrari, who yes are owned by Fiat who make a lot of 1.6 lite engines, but Ferrari are the most vehement in their opposition. Then there is Mercedes who probably make a small engine but that is hardly their brand image, and Renault who does build small engines, but are in the process of downsizing their interest to an engine supplier. Cosworth will build whatever someone will pay for and don't care about road cars. So who are these manufacturers? VW? Or maybe Tony Fernandes' Toyotas and Hyundais? Todt clearly has an agenda, it would be nice if he let us in on it, or better yet ask us if that's what we want to watch. He should look over the wall to his mates at the FIM and see what the manufacturers have done to that sport.

Now we have Mallorca wanting an F1 GP, presumably Valencia's. If Valencia is having trouble filling seats then why would Mallorca, an island, do any better? I can hardly imagine it needs promoting as a tourist destination. Still Bernie says to go ahead with their plans, he just loves to have promoters waiting so he can squeeze the existing ones. His mate Phillipe Gurdjian is involved, the guy who planned that white elephant at Abu Dhabi.

Looks like Chris Dyer is the scapegoat for the Ferrari screw up at Abu Dhabi, despite years of great calls he is to be punished for one bad one. As someone asked about me once, "do you think he forgot how to do it?" Maybe time and circumstance played a big part.

There are signs that McLaren might be dropping the silver paint job now Mercedes are not a big part of their team other than an engine supplier. So, what will the colors be? I think I mentioned a great article about watching paint dry, about McLaren and how they paint the cars. Still worth a read. http://en.espnf1.com/mclaren/motorsport/story/27211.html?wrapperetype=print