Bob Barnard Track Engineering

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about how the Rome F1 GP may not be all it seems based on some information from an Italian friend. I did not go into detail, but today there is a statement from the Promoter,"Flammini argues that a Grand Prix would revive the neighbourhood by not only drawing attention to it, but also by restoring the Tre Fontane sports grounds with a total investment of $200 million from private investors. All that the city would have to provide for the event would be construction permits for the work, which would create a new park in which there would be venues for volleyball and skating and two theatres." Now this fits with my connection who said this is more about getting hold of this property and construction permits than running a GP.

As I also wrote a couple of days ago, how are we bloggers supposed to work if every rumor turns out to be wrong? Now McLaren are saying they are not changing their silver and red livery, just the merchandise. Not that I blame them, always thought the silver jackets etc looked tacky.

Your friendly banker is now in custody as a result of his dealings over the sale of the F1 shares to CVC, a nice little earner that seems to have been. $50m seems to have been the going rate, and CVC vehemently deny any involvement or knowledge, so the question remains who else stood to gain? This has the ability to turn very ugly if true. It is hard to see Mr. Gribkowsky taking the fall for this on his own.

As noted on Superbike Planet, running a non-profit does not mean that someone is not making money. The AMA certainly pays its' Chief a bundle, which I guess is the way you avoid making a profit. There are several other examples of this if you look around. My wife worked at a track that ran five major events a year, including a very large CART event, and did it with 13 staff. Now they run three events, non of which match CART, and need 30, go figure? In a similar vein I received a press release from ALMS yesterday about their TV contract for 2011 which involved the VP of Communications, the Director, and the Manager. Now ALMS is not F1, so it is hard to see it takes three people to do this job, and I suspect the Manager is managing others. So many tracks and series cannot help themselves, they just keep creating jobs and spending money. When I ran Phillip Island, and yes it was before the Internet, aside from the GP I had a Manager, lady in the office and a security guard. No wonder there are so many "non-profits."

Speaking of ALMS and their TV, it hardly seems a giant leap forward, sorry "a game changer," if your major event the Sebring 12 hour is now shown not live but the next day and the "ABC will feature race telecast coverage." Whatever that means, but I suspect not all the 12 hours. We can watch all the races live on ESPN3.com, which I for one will probably prefer, certainly if the broadcast TV is the sort of made for TV "documentary" we saw last year. Puke!

Cytosport are to contest the LMP1 class in a new Aston Martin, which will be a welcome addition to that class, if there enough cars to call it a class. Greg Picket is down to drive it again, but hopefully not often or for long. No offence Greg but this car deserves to be driven by the other great drivers you have. Maybe Lord Paul Drayson, if he is racing in ALMS this year, and yourself can have a separate race?

So Tony Fernandes likes the new engine regulations for 2013, "F1 becomes so relevant because everybody has a 1.6 engine. And costs go down and money goes into better uses than just making a car as fast as possible so I think it is fantastic, it is a really, really great step forward." It gets worse, "I hope the next step is to make the wheels and tyres the same size as [road] cars so tyre manufacturers benefit from the safety that is learned, and engineering that can be put onto a 1.6-litre, Toyota, or Hyundai or Renault," said Fernandes. I tell you what Tony, why don't we just race Toyotas, Hyundais or Renaults, road cars that is, and be done with it? Since when has redesigning engines been "cost saving?" And the last time I looked the whole point of racing was about "making a car as fast as possible." What is it otherwise, a reliability or economy run? It is also the point of F1 that not everybody has one. And I am so tired of the "we must be relevant" BS. What is horse racing relevant to except the betting industry?

Joe Saward is back and obviously refreshed. Some nice scuttlebutt about Dr Gerhard Gribkowsky, a Director of the Bayerische Landesbank who owned the shares in F1 of the failed German Media tycoon. Too much to include here, but it seems he has a bundle of money that he will not, or cannot explain where it came from. Check out Joe's site.

It seems the Force India seats are not actually sorted yet, seems there is the problem of what to do with Liuzzi's contract. In a similar "that rumor is not correct" it seems the reported sale of Torro Rosso is not true either. How are us bloggers supposed to keep up if the stories are not being checked first?