Bob Barnard Track Engineering

D'Ambrosio does, or he will till he drives it. So another shoe has dropped and we are left with HRT and Force India, barring surprises. It seems D'Ambrosio, odd name for a Belgian, has won the ride on merit and not his wallet, and no Russian driver in sight.

So "Lotus Racing" has rebranded itself as "Team Lotus." All semantics to us plebs. I'd be just as supportive if they called it Air Asia. I know the brand is valuable, but not when we know it isn't really Lotus and it is being devalued all the time with the current squabble.

It seems that we are going even further back to the future with "tea tray" front wings from 2013, i.e. flat and short, not the convoluted things we see hanging out in the breeze waiting to be knocked off these days. This is something from the early eighties to go with the eighties turbo. Patrick Head and Rory Byrne were tasked with coming up with the regs for 2013, which will see even smaller rear wings and more downforce from under the car. Hang on, isn't that called "ground effects" and didn't we ban that as too dangerous? The worst part of this whole story, which I had to check the date on to see it was not April 1st, was the quote from Patrick.

"(In 2013) We are only going to have roughly 65 per cent of the amount of fuel and a (limited) fuel (flow) rate - that was a given," Head, engineering boss and co-owner at Williams, confirmed.

"We were just told ’That’s what it will be, you’ve got to come up with a car spec that is not going to be more than five seconds a lap slower than a current F1 car’.

So slower than a current GP2 car? What are we doing here? As Montezemolo said the other day "This is Formula One which should be the spearhead of technological development."

Murphy The Bear has a new posting which gets even more gloomy for ALMS and LMP1 cars every time. Why don't we just run the series for GT3 cars and enjoy it without having to worry about those other cars coming past and pushing them off the track? Murphy has a worst projection of two cars and a unlikely max of five. Why bother for other than the Sebring and Petit races?

If you think that the row between the Australian GP and the ASN, CAMS, is over, then watch this space. Last straw comes to mind for some people down under.

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.

I trust all my American friends had a great Thanksgiving, I certainly did. Spent it with Aussie mate also from Adelaide and we watched the movie made of the set up for the first Adelaide F1 GP that I recently managed to obtain a copy of.

It is sort out time for the remaining seats in F1 next year, so let's look at who's where and who might be. McLaren is set with Hamilton and Button, and it looks like despite everything Webber and Vettel will be back at Red Bull. Christain Horner is tipping Mark for the title, so he must think he will be back. Ferrari will have Alonso, but is Massa safe? Who is available that is a better #2 to Alonso? Kubica and Webber have been mentioned, but neither look like moving and would not want to be a number 2 anyway. Mercedes has Nico, and maybe Michael. He says he likes the Pirelli's, and I don't think his ego is going to let him give up that easily. If they wanted a German driver there is Hulkenburg or Heidfeld, or even Glock, that would do as good a job or better, but Michael's name is great marketing for Mercedes. Renault has Kubica and looks like it might keep Petrov. The car is improving all the time so Kubica will stay, and Petrov did well at the end of the season, and with the Russian connection it seems smart to keep him. Force India is likely to keep Sutil, another German that Mercedes could take, but it seems Liuizzi might be replaced by Hulkenburg which would be a smart move.

Williams are retaining Barrichello, how long can this man go on, and I presume Maldonando with his sponsorship, although that is not announced.  Torro Rosso has given a big hint that Buemi is not coming back and could make room for Ricciardo. When was the last time Australia had two F1 drivers? Answers on a postcard please. Sauber has Mr. Overtaking, "I do not see the other cars" Kobayashi and the young Mexican driver Perez. Lotus, or whoever, will have Trulli and Kovalainen back, but the other two new teams are still up in the air. Glock will probably stay at Virgin, or whatever it is next year, with just maybe a Russian partner, Aleshin. HRT will take whoever has a big check book, and will anybody care?

So the GP2 winner may again not find an F1 seat, and drivers are bypassing it from FR3.5 and GP3 etc. Far from being a stepping stone it is becoming a support series for F1 for drivers that are not quite good enough.

On a final note, Bernie was mugged entering his home last night. Some journalists are unkind enough to repeat Bernie's comments after the attempted muggings in Sao Paulo, "They look for victims, they look for anyone who looks like a soft touch and not too bright," Bernie said in Sao Paulo. "People who look a bit soft and simple, they will always have a go at." I cannot for one moment subscribe to Bernie being "a soft touch and not too bright" so it seems no one is safe.

"The Korea International Circuit is ahead of schedule in its bid to host the country's inaugural grand prix, according to circuit official Kim Jae-ho."  I have heard some promoters spin before, but this post on ESPNF1 has to take the prize as the best! How can you be months behind on the inspection date required by the FIA and "be ahead?" Actually it gets worse. The paving which was supposed to have started Tuesday did not start until today, is now going to take three days and will be finished by Friday. These Koreans must have a different calendar than the rest of us. Now some of you may think I am picking on Korea, but I do this for a living, and it is criminal that they are both incompetent and appear to be getting cut a whole load of slack. I found out the hard way that if the powers that be know that you know how to do it they want it perfect, but if they know someone has no idea they will settle for what they can get. Life is not very fair sometimes. This Grand Prix is going to be a circus. As I have said many times, do not take your show to somewhere that does not allow it to put on anything other than it's best performance.

There is an article on Speed's web site by Marshall Pruett about how Grand Am is listening to its fans for a change, and making changes to the cars to make the series more interesting. Things like making the "greenhouse" on the Daytona Prototypes smaller, and the GT's changing to central nut wheels. Changing deckchairs on the Titanic is what comes to my mind, and he lost me completely about the possible DTM cars. Read it yourself and see if you can work it out?

VJ Mallya had a bad day in court. He originally won a decision in the English High Court over sponsors of the Spyker car that he bought to get into F1. They conflicted with his airline and brewery business which he stuck on the cars, so they pulled out. The High Court gave VJ a $4.7m payout for their leaving, but the Court of Appeal, disagreed. "both companies were contractually guaranteed the status as the team's most prominent sponsors, appeal judge Sir Bernard Rix ruled.

"In my judgment ... Force India rode roughshod over all these rights and protections." So VJ now has to pay it back. There have been rumors all year about Force India and money, this can only make matters worse.

Williams are losing sponsors at the end of this season, and have said that they are confident about replacing them. Their recent good form should help them , but it is suggested that a key figure in that good form, Nico Hulkenburg, could be out of a drive in favor of Maldanado who has a bag of money from a sponsor to bring. I know this is how F1 has run for years, but that does not make it right. What other sport can you buy your way onto the team? Not that Maldonado is not a good enough driver to get an F1 drive, but what happened to loyalty?

So here we are in Singapore, metaphorically speaking, getting ready for an important race in the World Championship. They are all important of course, but as we get closer to that last race the ability to recover from a bad race is much more difficult. McLaren say they have fixed the Hungary problems, let's hope so, we want a good close race not a Red Bull benefit, even though they are capable of losing anywhere even with the quickest car.

The engine limitation rule is about to bite someone.  Pedro de la Rosa has already had to use his ninth (Ferrari) engine in his Sauber and take the ten grid spot penalty, and Alonso and Massa are both on their eighth engine. Now Sauber had to go to the ninth as they had blown the others, which is not Ferrari's situation, but even though they say they are not worried there has to be a glimmer of concern. At best the engines might be a bit tired, at worst ready to grenade. Just when you thought it was all complicated enough with five guys still in the running, then we add this little twist. Red Bull are in the best condition with engines, despite the fact that they seemed to have a lot of problems this year, but I guess they were not terminal.

Rain is the other wild card this weekend. We've seen what happens in Malaysia when it decides to rain, and apparently that is what is going on each afternoon this week. The forecast is for more rain, which is always an issue with tracks anyway, but throw in the night race under lights and it gets us into the unknown. Now NASCAR runs under lights but not in the rain, and Le Mans does not have enough lights to potentially be a problem, but the Rolex 24 hour at Daytona does. I cannot recall it creating a problem for drivers, but then they are only turning left on the oval which drains well anyway and the infield is not lit. We have seen how spray hangs in the trees at say Monza, can you imagine it under the lights?

Water on a street track always creates it own problems, Adelaide was shortened at least once because it was impossible to drive on. Drainage on any road is a key element, but on a race track it is magnified ten times both in importance and difficulty of doing it. That is why I have included a presentation at the Cologne Forum specifically on drainage of tracks. Let's hope that Singapore is not marred by rain and we have a good straight shoot out. I know rain effected races can throw up some fun results, but it is not what I would be looking for at this time.

Bernie is quoted as saying he would welcome France back on the calendar, provided a promoter can be found to stump up the cash and someone can provide a track. Is that all? On that basis anyone could have a race, but where would you find space in the twenty race calendar we have now? Who is on the short list to be dropped? While we are talking about Bernie, he is raising his medal system again instead of points. As he said, the new points system did not change anything, but not sure I like the winner takes all approach a medal system implies, and who is going to buy the gold and silver for them? The Promoter I suspect.

World Superbike is at Imola, one of those great tracks that no longer host an F1 GP, despite upgrading the facilities as requested. It will be good to see it again. Imola was home to some of the best signage, large painted logos on the grass run off that was in perspective and looked like it was standing up looking at you, like the signs in Italian soccer if you watch it. Very clever.

The driver situation is heating up, even though there does not appear to be too many options. Paul di Resta is tipped to have a full time seat at Force India next season, so is Liuzzi out, or is Sutil off somewhere, or is Mallya just hedging his bets? Heidfield's ride is just to the end of the season, so is Massa really going back to Sauber as part of the Ferrari engine deal? All will be revealed soon I guess.