Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Are Russian Virgins faster than British ones? I guess we will find out as Russian car maker Marussia Motors has bought a "major shareholding" in Sir Richard's toy. The Virgin name remains, probably for continuity of entry and the Concorde Agreement. So Sir Richard keeps the exposure, perhaps with a better car, and makes some money, something he is good at. So watch for a Russian driver coming soon to Virgin.

On a somewhat similar note Lotus, the Tony Fernandes one, has announced that next year it will switch to the JPS Black and Gold livery for their cars. In anticipation of losing the court case? Those cars were striking so I personally do not mind.

The "will he, won't he" goes on about Vettel helping Mark Webber, and he is not saying that he won't, but also is not saying he will. I guess if he decides on his own it is not team orders. Bernie continues his love affair with Abu Dhabi, and if someone paid me $40m a year and did everything I asked I'd be pretty happy too.

IRL seems set to at last have another manufacturer involved and the rumor is Chevy. That can only be good news for the League as I am sure the good ol' boys would rather watch a Chevy win than a Honda.

So, F1 practice Friday and perhaps our first indications of how this race is going to go. All the contenders believe their engines are good to go, so let's see a straight fight.

It seems tracks come and go. Austin is coming, but not quite as fast as was predicted. The latest report is 24 months to build, and they are not scheduled to start until December, and there are planning issues hanging over that date, so that puts us into 2013 for the first race. The way Bernie is going there will be a race in Bangladesh by then.

Edmonton is going, or gone according to reports. It seems the airport wanted to keep one runway open during the IRL race and this required a couple of million to be spent to adjust the track layout. It seems the IRL and the promoter assumed the City would just roll over and cough up, but no. In the US and Canada getting Governments to pay for racetracks is much harder than say Mongolia, or Spain.

McLaren and Red Bull will both let their drivers race this weekend, so we will see if Massa will roll over for Alonso at his home GP. What will we see if Massa is in front of Alonso?

The anticipated shuffle of engineers and team bosses appears to be underway at Mercedes with new race engineers to be brought in to the team next year for both Nico and Michael. Ross Brawn's role is to be "defined."

The rumors are that De La Rosa is going to HRT, with Williams gearbox, next year, and they say they now have a chassis "based" on this years unraced Toyota. HRT must have found some money.

Not sure what to say today. Murphy The Bear's latest offering in the rumor department does not make for pleasant reading for ALMS. You have to really wonder how long this can limp along outside of Sebring and Petit. Makes you feel even more depressed at the state of racing in North America. IRL are sounding all gung ho about how good this year was, except drivers like Tony Kanaan cannot get sponsorship. It's going to be a long cold winter, well everywhere except here in Arizona. Interwetten has dropped out of MotoGP, so how many bikes on the grid in 2011? Has anyone got any good news? Maybe the election results will cheer me up?

At least HRT is positive about 2011 and have purchased the gearbox from Williams to go with the Cosworth and avoid this years hydraulic and gearbox problems. Let's hope they have a car to put them in and some money to run them now that Bernie has dubbed them "cripples" and should go away.

Ferrari plans a "very careful" approach to the last two races. Let's see how Massa likes that at this weekends Brazilian GP. And how careful can Alonso be, he does not have that many points in hand he can drive around in fifth. Not in his nature either I would think.

Will the real Lotus please stand up? This situation over the use of "Lotus" would be silly if it were not for the history behind that name. This is a fight between two Malaysian groups that both use the Lotus name. One is Proton, the Malaysian car maker, owned by the Government I think, that owns the rights to make Lotus road cars, and has obviously decided to go racing in a big way. They sponsor a car in IRL for Kato to drive, and have just extended that deal, and have just announced an LMP2 Prototype for 2012. In between they have announced they are sponsoring the ART GP2 team next year. So, despite licensing Tony Fernandes, another Malaysian, to use the Lotus name this year in F1, I guess they have woken up that this is a great name to have if you are going racing and have decided not to renew the agreement, or rescind it, depending on what you read.

The plot thickens, as "Team Lotus," the original F1 Team, was presumably run as a separate entity to the Lotus road cars, and that name is apparently owned by David Hunt, relation of James Hunt F1 Champion. Tony Fernandes says he has acquired the rights from David to use the Team Lotus name next year. It is all headed to the courts to resolve this mess. As nice as it is to see Lotus racing again, some of us would probably have been just as happy to remember them as they were and save us all this. How about "Force Malaysia" Tony?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, or paddock. It seems FOTA met at Singapore and agreed a "Resource Restriction Agreement" RRA, to run through 2017. Reading between the lines it sounds as if they have just extended the time for the existing "Resource Restriction" out to 2017. Quoting Renault Team Principle, Eric Boullier, "The decision taken last year [with the original RRA] was maybe in a special context with manufacturers threatening to break away for another championship. The RRA in its old version could even have damaged the sport by being too radical and I was keen to change the slope and extending it – and why not? We know we have to enter into a transition period. Everyone has done a reasonable job and I am happy we have signed this agreement."

So, it is business as usual, find as much money as you can and find a way to spend it. Martin Whitmarsh said that a number of loopholes have been closed and the RRA should be harder to fudge in future. Let us remember that this is basically a "Gentlemen's Agreement" between the teams, and there are few gentlemen in that paddock. You just have to look at the ludicrous amounts of money spent on the "motorhomes," McLaren being the biggest offender, to see where it goes. How is that making the racing better? Yes the drivers and engineers need somewhere to work and debrief, but that is a mobile Taj Mahal used for only half the races anyway. Never mind a test team, how big a team and how many trucks does that take to cart around and assemble, let alone run. Can you imagine the kitchen?

Just look at the musical drivers going on. A contract is not worth much apparently. Heidfeld did bring a sponsor to HRT as I suggested, but his drive to the end of the season seems to have lasted one race. Let's see who gets in that hot seat for Japan. Ask Petrov how his contract is going, with Boullier now saying he wants to meet Kimi face-to-face to see how serious he is about returning? Luizzi is confident his contract and good relations with the team will save his seat for next year. Let us know how that works out for you Tonio.

You have to be sorry for the young guns coming into F1 at the moment, it is like a revolving door. With the ban on testing they get no seat time before being thrown in at the deep end, and then if they do not perform straight away they are tossed out in favor of the next rising star with a bag full of money. Di Grassi is the latest that looks to be headed that way with D'Ambrosio getting to practice in the Virgin and reportedly bringing $5m with him to do it. Is this getting to be IRL? Seriously, Jerome is a very good young driver, but how long is he going to have to prove himself? This is getting ridiculous. HRT had Chandook and Senna, then "look at the size of my wallet" Yamamoto turns up, and now Christian Klein is in the car, with or without a sponsor? Petrov took over from Grosjean, who was supposed to be the next great French driver, and now he is under threat. As Steve Matchett said during this mornings practice from Singapore, how can a team set up a car when there is no continuity?

Let's compare the approach of Lotus, under whatever name combination. Tony Fernandes goes out and hires Mike Gascoyne, Trulli and Kovalainen, and puts a decent car together. Rehires the drivers for next year, no messing about with rent-a-rides, and moves from Cosworth power to Renault. Tony is obviously very serious about being a long term success and putting his money where his mouth is. Compare that with his airline rival, Sir Richard Branson, who owns Virgin. Puts a team together on the cheap, yes they have some experienced people from racing, but not the top of F1. Yes he has Glock, but where else was he going to go, and now more young guys. You do not get the feeling he is totally committed to this do you?

As I may have mentioned a while ago I was approached by the Singapore GP to put in a bid to redesign some of the corners to improve overtaking. Well, they decided they did not need my expertise, or maybe it was my cost to do it? Anyway, they have fiddled while Rome burned, a few bumps removed here, pit lane lowered half an inch? They changed that stupid chicane, something Hamilton and I both agree on, and made it worse! That chicane just turns the track into a one line track, so most of the problem with lack of overtaking is in the corners leading up to one where there is an opportunity, because you cannot get close enough. Instead of messing about with a Government style "request for a quote" they should have given all the respected track designers a stipend to come up with alternatives and then pick what looks the best to be refined. That way they would get a lot of different ideas, not just one.  But who asked my opinion?

Rain continues to be a threat, not while they are racing, as it seems to be a typical tropical 4pm shower, but because the track does not dry, or worse, does not dry evenly.

Unfortunately everyone seems in love with Singapore for the wrong reasons, just like Abu Dhabi. It's not about the backdrop, or the celebrities, or the rock and roll show, it's the racing stupid! This track has yet to show us it can deliver on that score.