Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Well I think the Stewards wimped out on that one. Five grid places for deliberately driving into someone? Joe Saward said it well, "less than severe given what happened." He should be excluded for at least this race. And Sir Frank should have the guts to fire him, deliberately damaging his car. I know he brings a lot of sponsorship, but also disrepute. How is Hamilton reprimanded? Why would he deliberately move right to hit Maldanado, or was it for the pass at the bus stop? That to me was clear cut, Maldanado was wallying around, slow, stayed right as if to give Lewis room and then when Lewis is alongside cuts back left, no problem for me. Has Maldanado been watching "Days of Thunder" too much? I can just see Sir Frank, "now I want you to go out and hit the safety car."

Vettel took pole from Lewis in his repaired McLaren at the last gasp, but tomorrow's race should be interesting. Button starting from 13th, Michael from the back after his loose wheel incident, lucky that was not at Eau Rouge, and Alonso down in 8th after an unhappy qualifying session. Senna drove well for his first drive on Pirelli's after a long absence and outqualified his team mate Petrov by over a second. Ricciardo needs to lift his game, over a second slower than Luizzi is not going to get him into Webber's seat. Mark has predictably re-signed for Red Bull for next year, so Daniel has another year to prove himself, but where? The new owners at HRT will want a Spaniard in at least one of the cars. Fortunately the Stewards waived the 107% rule and all cars will start, including Michael's three wheeler. Not sure what the point of having a 107% rule is if you are not going to enforce it. I can understand Michael, but the conditions were the same for everyone in that Q1 session.

Roman Grosjean predictably wrapped up the GP2 title after finishing third in the Saturday rain affected race, now let us see where he goes next year.

At Indianapolis for the MotoGP Casey Stoner is dominating practice despite being highly critical of the new track surface. It started out very slippery Friday morning and has improved as it cleaned up and has some rubber, but there are comments it is wearing tires very fast. "Most" of the bumps have gone, and Casey has this morning run the fastest lap around here, but still considers it his least liked track. Ben Spies is flying the Americans flag with second fastest, and Colin Edwards is inspired by home soil to be the quickest non-works bike. Lorenzo is not happy in seventh behind Colin, while the Ducati boys continue to struggle, Rossi being the quickest in eighth but over a second off the pace. Let's see what qualifying brings, although of course here in the US SPEED would rather show off-road racing or a chopper show than an actual MotoGP, so we won't see it.

Stories today that the BRDC, owners of Silverstone, are looking to lease the place out now they have spent all that money on it. A one hundred year lease term is suggested, although how anyone can predict what will happen in the next decade I don't know, let alone the next century. $400m is the asking price, so they can then spend all that on their grand scheme of hotels etc. So what does the lessee get, the track? And how does he make any money? I know it is only $4m a year, but then there is the interest or opportunity cost. The BRDC is not making money on the F1 GP at the moment, and I know the place runs all year, but then it costs money to run it all year. It was suggested Bernie might want it, but he know better than most that owning tracks and running races is not where the money is at, he makes his from the poor track owner, just ask him about how well Turkey is going. As I said before, do they not learn from history? Octagon went down this road and bought their way out of the deal, and the Nurburgring is currently in all sorts of trouble with their hotel/theme park/conference center development. Donnington should still be burned in everyone's memory, what a farce that was. Now Silverstone is not so remote as the Nurburgring, but it is not in the middle of Europe either. 

Hot on the heels of the concerns raised about Lotus Renault finances there is a very interesting piece by Joe Saward today on the goings on behind the scenes.

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/

As I said, Tony Fernandes only has to wait this out. It also seems the question of drivers is far from over with Grosjean's name being mentioned despite a less than stellar performance last time out in F1, and a falling out between Kubica's manager and Lopez from GenII Capital.

Reports are coming in that the crane at the chicane in Monaco is to be moved so the run off can be moved back another 20 meters. The logic is that an accident there will bring out a red flag or safety car so there is no rush to move a car, but that is not necessarily true if it is down the escape road. Still, as often is the case it is a choice between less than perfect options. I forgot to comment on the removal of Maldanado's car in less than a lap last weekend, that's less then a minute from when the leaders were expected, so great job. If you read the comments my view on tires is "old fashioned'" but perhaps so am I and glad to be. At the Circuit Forum in Cologne last year Hubert Gramling, scientific adviser to the FIA Institute, proved that straw bales actually worked better, how old fashioned can you get! No one is suggesting going back to them as they of course catch fire and make a mess when you hit them, but it goes to show that not all new ideas are better. Remember when catch fences were all the rage, and then gravel, ploughed this way and that, and now we have asphalt everywhere.  Yes you can go under tires, but Perez was not so far from going under the Tecpro, especially if he went in nose first. Anyway, I am happy to spark debate and will publish all comments even if they disagree with me.

It seems that Rosberg is re-signing with Mercedes up to 2016. He must believe Ross Brawn when he says the 2012 car will be "excellent."

Someone not keen to extend a relationship seems to be Virgin who are reported to be looking to tie up with McLaren in a similar way as Force India. Sorry Nick Worth and Cosworth. Still, Cosworth look like picking up Lotus Renault next year. Lotus Cosworth? Now that has a familiar ring to it.

Bahrain's "state of emergency" is lifted today. Now what? The FIA says it will listen to the teams, who object to the calendar being extended but will not come out in public and say they do not want to go. Gutless.

Yesterday Nico Rosberg was concerned about the lack of pace with the Mercedes, and today Michael tops the timesheets at Jerez, go figure. It seems he had no less fuel than Massa when he did his quick time, so did they find something in the car or is Michael back? Two of the new boys had big offs and bent their toys. Perez and Maldonado both hit something hard, so Maldonado in particular is having a baptism of fire. Alguersuari took note of Helmut Marko's comments that Torro Rosso was not a boarding school, whatever that means, and he is more than ready to replace one or both of the current drivers. Strangely it is not Ricciardo he is favoring but Vergne, but most of what Helmut does is strange. No one answered my question about two Australian drivers by the way.

Button had his go in the new McLaren, but they are still basically doing systems checks, albeit fast ones. Lewis declared he found the car better, which you would hope he would say after all the time and effort gone into it. Lotus had another troubled day, but at the moment the field is covered by just over two seconds, so better than last year. Way too early to judge anything though. Heidfeld gets to drive tomorrow, and Boullier says if he is quick he will sign him. He needs to do something, Petrov is not setting the world alight at the moment. The news on Kubica continues to be encouraging, with Robert vowing to be back before the end of the season, but you would have to wonder why, unless his replacement is not doing well.

Ron Walker, the Australian GP boss is softening everyone up for Melbourne losing the race. Bernie is apparently upset by the remarks of the Mayor. A man not easily upset by personal comments I would have thought. Now Ron did throw in a more telling line that Bernie is concerned that for the first time in 40 years someone is questioning the value of his product. The King's new clothes comes to mind.

Over in Abu Dhabi Ferrari protege Jules Bianchi beat Grosjean off the line in the Asia GP2 race, and kept him there for a maiden GP2 win. He beat a class field, so despite being the winter series this is for real. That other series, Superleague, the one with the soccer team cars, says that it is the best alternative to F1 because it has so many ex F1 stars. Narain Karthikeyan, Sebastien Bourdais, Antonio Pizzonia and Robert Doornbos? Not exactly a stellar cast, and all cast offs. Yes they can drive much better than I, but that is not the point. Let's see someone come through this series to F1, not from it.

Are you kidding? Ford is suing Ferrari over the use of the F150 name. Is this a publicity stunt? I know protecting your logos and trade names are serious business but this is just making Ford look foolish. They would be better off making a commercial with an F1 Ferrari morphing into a fast red pick up.

The new Ferrari 458 made it's debut at the Sebring test yesterday prepared by the Risi team who arguably ran the best 430, at least of the ones allowed to race. Most of the big hitters are absent from the test, but there are still enough interesting cars out there with the Muscle Milk Aston quickest at the moment. Duncan Dayton seems likely to finalise the deal to run the HPD LMP1 both here at Sebring and at Le Mans and so give David Brabham a ride for this year. The 24 hour entry list was published yesterday and a great field it is too, quality all the way through.

There is actually a fair bit going on this weekend with Sebring, Jerez, and GP2 Asia kicking off in Abu Dhabi. Renault reserve driver Roman Grosjean is on pole for that event with another strong field of drivers. His compatriot at Renault, Fauzy, is not doing so well though down in 23rd. It is a very even grid though with the top 14 separated by less than a second, and the field by less than 1.7 seconds. Should make for good racing and a lot of action given the desperadoes in the field.

Meanwhile at the F1 test at Jerez it is still way too early to judge anything. Massa is fastest, with Perez in the Sauber next quickest. So it is not just the Mexican sponsorship, he can drive. Meanwhile Maldonado is way off the pace in the Williams, but he did have problems with the movable wing, and as I said it is early days. Hamilton has the new McLaren out and yes it has forward exiting exhausts. Lewis is presumably just doing shake down laps but is fifth so far behind Webber and young Australian Daniel Ricciardo in the Torro Rosso. If I were Buemi or Alguersuari I would be looking over my shoulder right now. How long since Australia had two drivers in F1, if ever? Schenken and Jones? No. I'm sure one of my readers knows the answer.

Petrov dumped the Renault in the gravel trap, not enhancing his claim to the number one seat, which seems to be headed Heidfeld's way. Despite saying they had plenty of time to fill the seat they have Heidfeld testing later this weekend. Nick has had a lot of experience and is a good driver, but is he really good enough? As someone pointed out the other day, when the two Williams drivers both retired in the early eighties a guy called Rosberg filled in after a less than stellar career, and we know how that worked out, so let's see if Nick can do the same.

It now seems that the money from the Williams float is not going to keep the team afloat but to the Patrick Head retirement fund, and presumably Sir Frank's. Not sure I would buy shares on that basis. Not saying they are not entitled to a return on all their years of hard work, but if I buy shares then I would want to know the business I have a piece of is going to survive. It also seems that the float was part of the agreement when the other partner, Toto Wolffe, bought his 10%, so is he looking to get out at some stage?

All the news today is about Kubica's accident in a rally in Italy. I'm sure there will be a lot of people saying he should not be doing it anyway, but he is a racer in the old mould and like Kimi wants to do what he enjoys. Let's all hope he makes a good and complete recovery, but the hand sounds bad and with the complexity of modern F1 steering wheels that could be a long term problem. This does not sound like a short recovery, so Renault have a problem. It seems they have a competitive car that can win races, but who do they have to drive it that can do that for them. They have a raft of "third drivers" including Bruno Senna and Grosjean, but neither of these would float my boat if I were Boullier. I would be round Kimi's place with a big fat contract right now. Kimi is racing his own team, so he can put someone else in the rally car and come back where he belongs. Maybe all the "will he, won't he" go to Renault late last year may have soured the relationship, but the chance to come back in a potentially winning car has to be tempting for someone as driven as Kimi.

Heidfeld and Hulkenburg are also mentioned, as is Luizzi, and they could do well. I would pick Hulkenburg out of those three, but VJ may not want to let him go with the form he has shown at the first test. Whatever the final decision is it makes for an interesting if unfortunate pre-season. Whoever ends up at Renault you can be sure there is a clause about other activities in it, but you can hurt yourself playing tennis, just ask Montoya.

In other news Tony Fernandes of the Team Lotus camp has been awarded a CBE by the Queen for services to industry. Will the judge in the name game case look upon Tony now more favourably he has the Queens' blessing?