Bob Barnard Track Engineering

It is still the "silly season" it seems, with a Spanish web site sending false messages about Santander buying in to HRT. So not to be left out I will pass on a bit of fun I read in Nigel Roebuck's piece in this month's Motor Sport about a pilot coming in to land at Gatwick and announcing to the passengers "Welcome to Gatwick, the only building site with its own airport." That struck a chord with me, it seems every airport in the world, at least the ones I go through, are building something. You hear about problems for airlines making money, but the amount of travel must keep going up to warrant all this building.

Seems like no one is happy about what is happening to the Nurburgring, and nor should they be. A friend, Allen Petrich, asked the question about how the current drivers would fair on it against the likes of Nuvolari and Fangio, especially if they had to drive those old cars. He suggests building a new Auto Union and letting the youngsters try to match the times the old guys set, but it occurred to me that some bright programmer must be able to simulate a race between these guys. There is always going to be talk about who was really "the best" which is usually defined by whoever is doing the talking, and it makes for good discussion and often argument, so maybe we do not really want to find out?

In other bits and pieces Adrian Newey says the RB7 will be an evolution not a revolution, but Red Bull might build its' own engine one day. Don't know why you would want to do that with the new regs being sold as the way to bring the likes of VW and the Japanese companies in. Ferrari is really the only chassis/engine manufacturer that has succeeded on a consistent basis, but perhaps Mercedes will change that, and what of McLaren? BMW, Honda, Toyota and Renault tried it, with Renault the only modern success story, but even they really did not build the chassis.

HRT's engineer says KERS is an inefficient system and is only being used in F1 for the manufacturers to sell it on their road cars. If it is inefficient on F1 cars why is it not the same on road cars? The Williams flywheel system seems efficient enough for Porsche, so perhaps he is just talking of the electrical systems. I am all for using the energy out of the current engines as efficiently as possible and think we are still scratching the surface. Gordon Murray's town car just did London to Brighton on less than a gallon, which must be getting close to 100 mpg, and not an electrical cord in sight. But if we are going to all the trouble and cost of developing these systems and putting them in a race car why are we limiting the amount they can store and when they can use it? It just seems another "push to pass" deal, why not just use the energy as efficiently as you can whenever you want? That rewards the best engineering, which is what most of us want to see, until the FIA ban it.

Talking of HRT they are going to use the 2010 car for the first test so they can try out drivers. Yeh right.

Niki Lauda wants Sutil and Hulkenburg at Force India. Well I suggest he buys Force India, then he can have who he wants, until then who cares and why do we keep reporting what Niki wants? It's like Mosley, just fade away.

At the recent track conference we had a session on how to make your circuit more energy efficient and truly green, and to look out for "greenwash," the BS that some people put out to make themselves look green. We see a lot of this in racing today, it is as if just because we are involved in a sport that runs on gasoline we have to apologize for it. The latest today from Infineon Raceway, Sears Point to me, and NASCAR, is that these heroes have planted 74 trees, a whole 74! Some forest that will be, and think of the carbon offsets, must be at least one lap by one car don't you think? My wife and I donate trees to people on special occasions or in their memory through the Arbor Day Foundation. We have over 700 planted so far, so come on NASCAR and Bruton Smith, get real. And to everyone else, think about donating to the Arbor Day and have a forest of memories growing, it is not expensive and a much better gift. You can actually go and see your trees if you wish.

It seems to be a day for stating the obvious. Graham Rahal wants to be at Ganassi for a long time. Really? What else are you going to say Graham, a couple of races will do me?

Tavo Hellmund says that Tilke knows his stuff. He sent the FIA  "all the civil engineering. It's a big book, a massive document. It's a blueprint for what the track is going to look like with all the cross-grading and everything." Not the cross-grading and everything, wow who would have thought. Tilke does not expect to have a problem with the FIA. I bet he doesn't after some of the stuff he gets away with like Turn 17 and the pit entry at Korea.

So the end of season FIA Gala is to be held in New Delhi next year. What fun for everyone to drag themselves there after flying around the world all year. What next, the FIA Headquarters?

Sad to see Johnny O'Connell has lost his Corvette drive and been switched to the CTS program in World Challenge Series. Johnny has served Corvette long and well, good luck with the CTS Johnny.

Nice piece from Joe Saward http://joesaward.wordpress.com/ about the dangers inherent in Ferrari's suggestion to run three car teams, worth a read.

Truthfully there is little else in the news worth talking about, must be Christmas. Had a great evening with an old friend, Jean-Marc Bonnay, "Snoopy." Snoopy has done pretty much everything on two and four wheels except F1 and we bemoaned the current state of most of it. Must be getting old. Waiting on plans to start the Grand Bayou project in Louisiana and to see what will come of the Arizona project. Need to get back to finishing the book.

So the FIA thinks the mechanics in F1 need to get their sleep. What next, the Le Mans 24 Hour being stopped so the mechanics can get some rest and we start again in the morning? It does not seem to matter that they keep extending the season and going to "developing" countries, with Vietnam being the latest rumor. Saturday night is already a night off due to the parc ferme rules after qualifying. What about the track staff? I know from personal experience that track staff are working very long hours both during the event and leading up to it, are they to be given a curfew? As Ferrari likes to remind us F1 is a team sport, which includes the work done at the factory and by the engineers and mechanics. Working their tail off to get a car repaired or rejigged is just as much about winning the race as the driver, let's not allow the "nanny state" to infect sport. The FIA is getting like every other "government," to make ourselves look important and necessary we have to keep making rules.

And speaking of Le Mans, I failed to point out to the French Minister of Sport that they are perfectly happy to allow Le Mans to race 24 hours with 50 cars, where is the carbon footprint reduction for them, or the Monte Carlo Rally?

Montezemolo threw Massa under the bus yesterday, he gave him a 7 out of 10 for effort, "he sent his brother to drive in the second half of the season." Maybe the FIA thought he was tired and needed a rest? Just maybe you demotivated Massa by favoring Alonso?

If we did not know before that MotoGP was turning into a circus then Paris Hilton partnering with a 125cc team confirms it. Clutching at straws?

I saw a piece today that said Mark Blundell and Martin Brundle, say that a few times fast, are teaming up for next months Daytona 24 hour! That's pretty scary, time goes by so fast. We have just finished this season and we are talking about next month's races. I know it is late in January so it is closer to two months, but still. Only 90 days to the Bahrain F1 GP.

F1 news still centers on drivers and teams with HRT reported in big trouble following the falling out with Toyota. Seems Toyota wants paying, how rude of them. So no new chassis, no drivers, no money, but a Cosworth engine, presuming they have paid them. Petrov is being told to move to England near the team and improve his English, that will improve his consistency apparently. I suppose being around the team can keep an eye on him, but not sure really how it improves his consistency. Hulkenburg is being tipped to fill one seat at Force India, let's hope so, he is good enough to stay in F1, unlike some.

Interesting that Mazda is setting up a scholarship to help young drivers step up from Star Mazda to Indy Lights and then Indy Car. They have a big motorsport image here in the US so this is part of that, but what about a Mazda engine in Indy Car?

Alain Prost regrets the Renault sale of it shares in the F1 Team and believes that France has become "auto-phobic." It would appear so with no French F1 GP, but what about Le Mans, Peugeot and Citroen in WRC? Vergne is on the brink of an F1 drive and Renault are still producing engines for F1 and reviving the young driver program that was so successful in the past. So things are no quite as gloomy as Alain would see them.

The "green" engine rules are due to be approved by the FIA World Council today, and it seems it is Jean Todt who has pushed this through against the protests of the engine manufacturers. I was never quite sure why we went away from turbo cars in the first place. I know the power was getting out of control, but presumably that is being addressed now, so why not then? In an Autosport piece about how this green engine will be better for the sport David Tucker, director at sports agency KTB, told Brand Republic: "The potential rule change will allow F1 to appeal to a wider potential sponsor audience, and demonstrate to fans F1 is still at the cutting edge of technology." Seeing as how we had 1.5 liter turbo engines in the eighties I'm not sure how cutting edge this is. Turbo cars running around in some sort of efficiency run may appeal to would be "seen to be green" sponsors, but what about the F1 fans? If Tucker is talking about all the energy recovery systems, we did not need a new engine to do that, just ask Williams and Porsche. It seems we are headed to a world engine of 1.6 liters, turbo charged, with fuel monitoring in F1, Touring Cars and presumably sports and rally cars. Where is the "cutting edge" in that? All looks like "Spec Racing" to me. Common ECU, common chassis in BTCC and V8Supercars, where is this all going? Tony Dowe said the other day, go back to big block V8's that will run a season and put them in F5000 and Can-Am style cars. Cheap, fun and people want to watch.