Bob Barnard Track Engineering

In the years leading up to the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games the Australian Broadcasting Company, the PBS of Oz, ran a series called "The Games." which spoofed the preparations. It was extremely funny with John Clark as the lead. At one point he makes the comment on F1 that they are the fastest cars in the world but you can't pass, the race is decided by parking! He meant pit stops of course, and we saw it again today. Not that it was not an intriguing race. It reminded me of the Gilles Villenueve win at Jarama many years ago when he had a train of five or six cars right behind him, who could not pass for the whole race. His win was helped that day by the fact there were no pit stops in those races. The tension of watching drivers strain for every inch, and striving for perfection of braking and placement, is sometimes more exciting than non-stop passing.

So, the question of who chose the correct downforce setting was answered. Hamilton I believe was forced into the mistake by him knowing he had to get to the front to make his setting work, which they did for Ferrari.  But, if only McLaren could have matched the pit stop time, but that is why you run the race. A simulation would probably have Button winning. Vettel's race was weird, with the inevitable suspicion that his "engine trouble" was a team orders ruse, but then he goes and beats Mark anyway. Apparently it was a sticking brake that fixed itself. Very clever strategy to keep him out, the super softs do not seem to wear out anymore. I thought for a moment they were going to try the "pit on the last lap" trick and roll across the timing line in pit lane. Didn't Ferrari do that at Silverstone for Schumacher some years ago? Is that a legal move does anyone know?

And why does Hulkenburg get away with not only cutting the chicanes but clearly blocking? Alguersuari gets a drive through for cutting the first chicane without gaining an advantage, where clearly Hulkenburg gained the advantage of not losing a place. Seems it is OK as long as you do not gain a place, you can avoid losing one. Isn't that the same thing?

It seems to be the World Championship no one wants to win. Every time we seem to get a clear leader or leaders, they screw up and it all closes up again. No one is taking it by the scruff of the neck and making it their own. Keeps it interesting for us, but as Lewis commented, not for the guys involved.

Bob Varsha was back to his best form, or worst if you have to listen to him. I muted the race because he would not shut up, which is very annoying as I like the sound of F1 cars, but if you cannot hear them for Bob rabbiting on then what's the point?

Peugeot won the inaugural Intercontinental Cup race of the Le Mans Series at Silverstone as I predicted, although McNish suffered the first mechanical breakdown of the Audi since the R10 days. Dindo says they learned a lot in their preparation for the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, so we should look forward to a cracking race as usual. At least I can listen to Radio Le Mans commentary, which I know some of you do not like, but I do.

Pruett and Rojas won the final race of the Grand Am series, no surprise there. Who is going to step up and challenge these guys next season, Dyson?

So, depending on who you believe, there was either not enough evidence to penalize Ferrari for team orders, or they did use team orders but the rule is ambiguous and others do it so you should not penalize Ferrari more. If there was not enough evidence how did the Stewards decide to fine them $100,000, and if they were wrong, why did Ferrari not get their money back? Same goes if everyone is doing it why uphold the fine? As Sir Frank Williams said, he supports team orders, maybe only in the second half of the Championship, some basis for that, but he asks as I do, how do you appease the die hard fans? This will be a test for diplomacy.

Nice comment during the Monza practice about how long the concrete banking has survived. Seeing as how the Romans invented concrete, and most of their structures from 2000 years ago are still standing, I cannot see why anyone is surprised.

Practice was pretty uneventful, except for poor Mark Webber, he seems to have bad Fridays, but good races. The most interesting moment for me was Hamilton's on-board going into the parabolica. The merest of lifts off the throttle and then straight back on it, incredible. How Massa missed that wall no one will know, especially Massa. Tomorrow's qualifying should be interesting, six cars potentially going for pole, do not count out Webber.

Peugeot quickest in practice for the first round of the Intercontinental Cup Le Mans Series race at Silverstone, no surprises there. Audi are going to have to hope Peugeot have not fixed the engine problem, but do not hold your breath.

Grand Am have their last race of the season at Miller this weekend, with Ganassi on pole, surprise, surprise.

Spent the day revisiting the site layout for Sol Real now we have land in escrow. Even though it is still the same size the orientation is now north-south, much better for the sun angle, and the views to the east are spectacular, so obviously with the afternoon sun we want most of the buildings facing east. There is a small section of flood plain too across the NE corner, so flipped the track vertically to make that the run off at the end of the straight. The net result is a anti-clockwise track instead of clockwise, and a few other bonuses to improve the overall site layout. All part of refining the design. Checked out the run off at key points too and all looks more than enough, which is just as well with the speeds we are seeing on the simulator. Haven't got the heart to tell the programmer I've changed the layout now he has it in the computer. Hope everyone remembers to turn left and not right now at the end of the straight!

Well Spa is living up to its tradition of throwing up odd results. Rained of course, but not all the time, which is also as usual. We are actually moving house as we speak and my recording of practice, it starts a bit early here in Arizona, was interrupted by the cable company swapping the service earlier than we expected, so I have yet to see any of it. Just reading the reports though sounds pretty bizarre. Practice held up by spectators climbing the debris fence! I've seen them climb it in Suzuka at the end of the eight hour and run across the track, and I've seen grandma and the kids break a hole in it at Paul Ricard during the GP to get a better look, but not heard of this one. Then the lights at the end of pit lane would not change? Whole session disrupted so the times are a bit pot luck. Alonso quickest and Hamilton third, so that's not so strange, but Sutil second? It shows that some characteristic of the Force India car especially suits Spa following last years performance. It will be interesting to see if this will continue through the weekend. Webber is way down the field, but says he is not concerned. The comment I liked was Michael showing you can go through Eau Rouge with opposite lock. Now that would be something to see! Not that it did him any good timewise by the look of it.

Red Bull passed the flexi wing test, not that there was any doubt it would, they are way too smart for that.

GP2 qualifying sounds even more chaotic than F1 practice, with the track flooded at one point and a load of accidents. Shook up the order, so that race could be more fun than usual. Series leader Maldonado ended up third in his Rapax team car. Always wondered where the name Rapax came from, and it comes from a Roman Legion with the motto, "we came to win." Very apt for the race team, but it seems the Legion got wiped out!

Lots of activity on the motorcycle front with Ben Spies being confirmed as Lorenzo's team mate for next year. Well deserved after a good rookie season, if you can call a World Superbike Champion a rookie. Colin Edwards is apparently still hoping to retain his Tech 3 ride, while Divizioso is looking to keep his ride at Honda when Casey Stoner moves over. Stoner meanwhile is fastest in first practice at Indy with Lorenzo second and Valentino fifth. What is the story there, Vale still nursing his shoulder and leg? Ducati has withdrawn its' factory team from the World Superbike, a series it has supported and at times dominated since it inception. It says it will leave it to privateer teams to race their machines, but did not sound too please with the direction the class is heading. It sounds as if WSBK is heading away from production machines, which I thought was the whole point, and MotoGP seems to be dumbing down. So in the end we arrive at two series both looking the same? That always seemed inevitable as soon as MotoGP went to four strokes. IRL v's Cart, Grand Am v's ALMS anyone?

ALMS is at Mosport this weekend, a track described by ALMS this way on it's web site. "When it comes to old-school, Mosport International Raceway is as close as it gets. The site of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón’s eighth and penultimate round has many of the same features it did when it opened 50 years ago – high speed, dangerous curves and a certain level of risk." Could not have put it better myself. Sounds just what you want for an International Race Series in 2010.

Grand Am is supporting the Nationwide series up in Montreal, which should be worth a look to see them on a decent track for once. Can anyone beat Ganassi though?

Finally, congratulations to Rubens for his 300th race. Who could have imagined any driver reaching that milestone? Just putting up with the travel would stop me a long time before that. Eddie Lawson said that he would not have retired if he could have had a helicopter pick him up at his front door and drop him at the track.

I guess everyone is on vacation as there is not even much spam! Very tough keeping you all entertained when there is so little to prompt the mind. It is like when I worked for Kenny Roberts in Spain and I was warned that everyone went on holiday in August, so do not plan on getting anything done. Did not treat that advice the way I should, and was pretty shocked when everything, and I mean everything, "cerado por vaccasiones" or something like that in Spanish on the door.

Great race between Montoya and Ambrose at Watkins Glen yesterday, even kept me watching. Good clean hard racing, Ambrose must have enjoyed that, like being back  in the V8Supertourers. Pity Marcus missed out on second right at the end, he deserved second. Nice to see Montoya win again, now we need him to win on a speedway.

Elsewhere Franchitti won at Mid Ohio, not that I watched. Chip Ganassi had a dream weekend, Grand Am, NASCAR and IRL victories. I had that lazy day reading a book apart from NASCAR. Vergne continues his winning ways in F3 and must be winning himself a seat in an F1 car the way he is driving. Spengler won the DTM race, and BTCC  saw Plato win a couple of races and retake the championship lead, and in a Chevrolet.

Even the motorcycle world is quiet, I guess because it is run by Spaniards and Italians and they are on vacation.

I'm off to the printers to look at the business cards and pick card stock, looking to get the video updated again with the casistas added, and the web site is also being updated. Next presentation tomorrow evening, so we roll on.

You know there is little to write about when the headline on Autosport's web site of "Montezemelo hails Ferrari fightback" has not changed for a week! Yes we have had the ALMS race from Mid-Ohio which ALMS has deigned to let us watch next week, and Dyson not only finished a race but won. Nice going, now let's see you do it some more. Four cars do not make a race for me, especially these four.

My mate Marcus Ambrose won the Nationwide race and I hope there were a few more people to watch than there were at the Grand Am race that followed. I can't imagine they all left? Piquet made his debut and did well, but I bet he never expected his life to end up trying to make it in NASCAR. Villenueve also did well, but you would expect that from road racers at Watkins Glen. The Grand Am was the usual Ganassi benefit with little to excite me in the time it was on. If the rumored takeover of the ALMS classes and cars does happen let's hope it spices up the races and we do not have one boring series instead of two. I agree with the view that we should just run the GT2 class.

The only other news of interest is that Adrian Newey crashed in a Ginetta single make race in Britain, but was not seriously hurt. Nice to see the top designer still has the passion to go out himself and have a go. Pretty good he is too.

On the Arizona front we are updating the web site with latest renderings. Check out the Casitas. For those not familiar with the term Casita, it is a garage with accommodation above, and these are exceptional, especially the ones right on pit lane.