Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Just four days after the "unanimous" decision on Bahrain both Bernie and Todt are saying we will have to keep an eye on the situation and rethink going to Bahrain! How can these people have any credibility? I saw a clip of an interview with Jean Todt on the BBC last night, and he looked a bumbling fool. He kept looking over his shoulder as if to check with someone that what he was saying was OK. Who would that be, Bernie or the Bahrain Royalty?

Pit Pass has a couple of pages that say things more eloquently than I:

http://www.pitpass.com/43844-Comment-WTF

The next one is a report from inside Bahrain that raises some very pertinent points. Like "Odd is it not that you can be fined $100m for stealing someones designs but kill a few people and it is OK." I paraphrase, read the whole piece at:

http://www.pitpass.com/43834-Greetings-from-Bahrain

Max Mosley raised the point that the WMC cannot just change the calendar without the unanimous agreement of the teams, and the teams have finally broken silence, albeit in a private letter to the FIA and FOM, and asked for India to remain on Oct 30th, and let Bahrain go to the end of the year if at all. That way I guess they can say when the time comes we are not going.

This whole sorry saga is taking on the image of a French Farce, and must also call into question the ability of those theoretically in charge to continue running the sport. Perhaps Rupert can do it better? In the meantime how would you like to be promoting the Indian GP and selling tickets? And where are those bunch of heroes who own F1, CVC, they are deafening in their opinion of events. Perhaps their investors include some middle east money as well?

Hopefully we can actually get to some racing in the next few days. Who says there are no politics in sport!

The buy out of CVC continues to be the main story with some interesting side bars. The timing of these cannot be a coincidence. Ferrari has come out with a statement that "Ferrari believes that big decisions need to be made soon about the future direction of Formula 1 - as it suggested more needs to be invested by its chiefs to promote the sport." They say that they are impartial on ownership, but if CVC stays then they must invest in promoting the sport. Clearly the teams think that News Corp with their media muscle will do a better job on this score, and I have first hand experience of what they can do when they worked with me on promoting the Australian Motorcycle GP back in '89. Domenicali has made a number of statements in the past few days, continuing the push about F1 being too dominated by aerodynamics and not about engines, which is inversely proportional to the road car business. There are reports that "teams are indeed setting out plans for simple and stable rules post 2012, the revival of key European venues, reduced ticket prices and the modernizing of media platforms for the younger audience." Admirable goals for true enthusiasts I would think.

There are some clear messages being coordinated here, more promotion, stable rules with more emphasis on other components of the car, keeping the current engine, and reviewing where they are racing. There is a meeting scheduled in Stuttgart of Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull to discuss the buy-out, and it is suggested to join it. And at last an un-named team boss has come out and said what I have been saying, KERS as it is used now, is not "green." Only used for acceleration, increases the car's weight so uses more fuel, and then you have to dispose of the batteries. Someone had to say it. KERS is like the DRS, there to spice up the show, so stop pretending it's green. Capturing wasted energy is a worthwhile objective, but not like this.

Meanwhile, there is some real racing going on at Spa with the Audi fastest on the first day. It is all very close among the diesels, but the best petrol car, the Rebellion Toyota is 5 secs off the pace. In the GT class it is all Ferrari.

Virgin says it hopes to "turn the corner" in Turkey. I hope so, there are lot of them.

The FIM "clarified" the claiming rules teams,CRT's, at Estoril. How many of the 16 new MotoGP teams for 2012 will be CRT's I do not know. CRT's are defined as anyone the GP Commission decides, and not one of the Motorcycle Manufacturers Association. They must be "prototypes," so presumably built from scratch, not a rehash of an existing machine. Teams only get CRT status one year at a time, and that status can be removed during the season with one race notice by the GP Commission! How do you put a team together and sponsors on that basis? Why would the GP Commission withdraw the status? Because they are winning? And then what, they become part of the Manufacturers race? We are going to have two class racing in MotoGP it seems. Someone out there must know a potential CRT team and can comment on this.

The other main news story is about News Corp and Exor, the Italian group that basically owns most things Berlesconi doesn't, including Ferrari, so a lot of what was being scoffed at as just ill informed gossip is actually true. CVC has confirmed that James Murdoch has talked to them about their "friendly" intentions. Now there are all sorts of scenarios being put forward for the motives of all these players, so you can take your pick, but those of us who have seen Rupert go from an obscure afternoon paper in Adelaide to a major media player know not to underestimate him.  The choice of words in the News/Exor release is interesting and revealing. They are "creating a consortium with a view to formulating a long-term plan for the development of Formula 1 in the interests of the participants and the fans." Suggests that they are looking to do things differently, and as one scribe said, these words are very similar to when FOTA was looking to form a breakaway series. As I said, is this a backdoor way of doing that?

Interesting weekend coming up with F1 in Turkey, for the last time? Then there is the next round of the Intercontinental Cup at Spa which will see the big boys in sportscars back out for a final warm up for Le Mans, all except Aston Martin. WSBK is at Monza, so plenty going on for everyone. Wonder if the Kawasaki team will get there?

In other news the Indycar teams want to delay the introduction of the different aero kits that were to be possible for the new Dallara chassis. Seems the teams do not want to spend the money it will take to R&D and produce these just so the cars can look different. Why not let them be different? No self respecting top class series can be spec racing. Even Grand-Am has more than one DP chassis, just.

So Bernie is going to let the Crown Prince decide whether it is safe to stage the Bahrain GP. At least he is not asking the opinion of a cameraman. Maybe Bernie is playing the politics and "letting" the Prince look like he made the decision, or hoping the Prince will cancel so he does not sue Bernie for breach of contract. There are suggestions that the teams have agreed not to go, but do not want to say so for fear of breaching the Concorde Agreement. Insurance is apparently a problem when there are travel advisories by the UK Foreign Office and other like bodies, so there is a "force majeur" situation there that could resolve the teams issue. It looks like a situation where no one wants to make a decision in case they are held in breach of contract, they are all dancing around the subject. The FIA, apart from a couple of inane comments a week ago, are missing in action on this one, afraid of upsetting the Arab voting block I guess. The only people with the courage of their convictions are the demonstrators.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the teams are continuing their Barcelona test. It is hard to read anything into fast laps, especially between different drivers on seperate days, but AT&T Williams keeps a running tally of all drivers on all days, which is interesting if nothing else. Check out http://www.attwilliams.com/test-timings

Rosberg is quickest overall with Vettel, Petrov, Alguersuari, Hamilton and Alonso and Barrichello within one second. Trulli in the Lotus is 2 plus seconds off the pace, which is much better than last year, with HRT and Virgin both over 3 seconds off thanks to Luizzi. Without Luizzi HRT would have been nowhere so they had better sign him up. The consensus is still Red Bull in race trim, but it is still any one's guess.

For those who like to see pairs of cars run around nose to tail for 4 or five hours then Daytona is on today, and yes they changed the rules again making the radiator slot bigger this time, just so they can last 500 miles? Can you imagine F1 doing this, or Le Mans? Just cut a bigger hole in a piece of tin plate boys, all sounds like amateur hour.

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?