Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Whatever happened to days off? With all this new technology and communications we were supposed to make life easier. All we've done is make it 24/7. Thought I could have a quiet day, read a book, watch some racing, but what arrives in e-mail this morning but another lead for a track . Should not complain really as a commission is a commission, and hard to close out, but that put paid to this morning, and now I'll be thinking how to lay it out all weekend. It is fun, but not very restful.

About the only exciting thing happening actually. IRL, NASCAR, ALMS and Grand Am all racing this weekend, but no great surprises yet. Following my review piece yesterday and comments on Peter Sauber not carrying the team much longer it turns out that he is in discussions with the owner of Telmex about investing in the team. Telmex backs the Ganassi Grand Am car, so has a background in racing, and there are a couple of handy Mexican drivers out there, so it could all come together for Sauber. As I said, De La Rosa and Kobayashi may not have a seat next year, we may be watching Perez & Gutierrez, both doing well in GP2&3. Mexico has produced some excellent drivers, who can forget the Rodriguez brothers, if you are old enough to remember them in the first place!

Let's hope there is something interesting for tomorrow.

What a strange weekend, the only race that did not end with someone really upset was the MotoGp at Laguna. Not a great race, but great result for guts and determination on the part of Valentino. Cannot imagine how hard the corkscrew is with a broken leg, although as I said before it is the shoulder that is giving him the most trouble. using more arm strength to turn the bike and he hurt his shoulder anyway. Roger Hayden at least finished the race which is more than a lot of the full time riders did, and was not last, so well done.

Ferrari are being hammered about the German GP debacle. I guess on balance my feelings are that if Alonso was faster he should have overtaken Massa without team orders, but we know how hard that is to do with cars so closely matched. From Ferrari's viewpoint I would have thought the team championship would be the prime target, and they got the same points for that whichever way round their drivers finished, so clearly there is a number one driver in that team. So, where do I stand? Let them race. It is going to be potentially a very stressful time for Ferrari until they know what the World Council is going to do, they have been known to strip a team's points for the season.

Over at Indy I guess Montoya thinks there were team orders at Ganassi, with his team mate being sent with two tires and him being delayed to take four and losing the race. I love Montoya for his passion, but then getting caught up in an accident seems to have been a "red mist" moment, although I did not see it so cannot really comment. Must be interesting in some teams debrief sessions. Managing these elite athletes is a special talent, and at the moment McLaren seems to  be the only ones doing it well, although they had their problems too in 2007. Maybe Martin Whitmarsh is the new Phil Jackson. If you do not know Phil he is the Coach of the Lakers Basketball, and was Michael Jordan's coach at Chicago. Known as one of very few men who can make egos work together. One funny story, he ran what he called the "triangle offence." When he went to the Lakers the players said they were confused as they could not work out which two of them could sit down.

Over at the IRL I watched the Edmonton race with the sound off as I was not really interested, but, like most I suspect, I am mystified how Castroneves was blocking? No wonder he was hot after the race, that was a terrible decision. About the only thing interesting about the whole race, except why there are walls right on the edge of the asphalt at an airport?

On the home front it has been an interesting morning with three e-mails about overseas projects. Never know where any of these end up, usually nothing happens, but it is nice to know people are out there finding me. Interesting the projects that get thought up. It is difficult to know whether just to give them a fee for what they are thinking of, or to try and redirect them to what I think probably works. It is also summer in most places that want to do something so they are on vacation and things take longer. That is a little of what is going on here in Arizona, but schools go back soon and things will get back in full swing.

Bernie is up to his usual tricks. No room for FOTA in F1. This is the man who got his power by taking over what was FOTA and with Max Mosely wresting the commercial control of the sport from the FIA. Seems there is a fight going on in the background over teams showing their sponsors logos at the track. What a cheek! In Canada it was about trackside, and at Silverstone it has moved into the paddock. The teams have been forced to take their prime movers with their logos off the trailers and park them outside. What petty BS. Of course Bernie says it is not him, it is Allsport, Patrick McNally, who is the signage rights holder who is doing it, and of course Bernie has no connection to "Paddy", just as he does not with Tilke. You just cannot have an F1 race without Alllsport having the signage.

Chris Pook is reported to be involved with the New Jersey aka New York F1 GP bid. Now Chris ran F1 at Long Beach and gave up trying to make money and went to CART. Chris told me in Detroit in '85, "If Bernie thinks you are making money he will put the price up." So why is he involved again? Most promoters have found out what Chris learned the hard way, and now Bernie has a built in escalator of 10%, so he makes sure you cannot make a profit. There is a great article in the June 10 Autosport about the money in F1, and a telling number is that it takes $250 from every spectator just to service the debt of the rights holder CVC. The average cost to buy the rights is $30m, and Abu Dhabi apparently paid $50m. Now do you fans understand why Austin does not seem a smart idea?

I am forever surprised at the naivete of fans, God Bless Them, but if you are into a sport so much then take the time to find out how it works, who runs it and who is getting the money. Yes, what happens on the track is the key, but it is only the end result of everything else that has got them to that point.

Emanuele Pirro is to step in for Lord Drayson in his Lola as the Lord has hurt his foot. It is a blessing in disguise, and it will be very interesting to see Emanuale and Johnny Cocker in that car at Miller Park this weekend. Not that there is much opposition, but that car has been struggling to beat what there is. GT's should put on the best show as always lately.

The Cypher would be US F1 team has come out at last and said it has lodged an official application for 2011. Still no details of who or where other than these are supposed to be the engineers and designers who have the knowledge and can make it happen this time. Confirmed that Jonathon Summerton is their driver if they get in. Good luck to you all, you are going to need it.

Saw an article by Jonathon Ingram about how F1 is not making a foothold here because the US has so much other motorsport that there is too much competition. My comment was have a look at Europe, there is way more going on over there, so that argument does not wash. I still stick to my premise that the US needs a very successful driver and/or team. No one here took much notice of cycling until Lance dominated, not just won, Greg Lamond had won, and then nothing. No one here cares about soccer until the US gets into the World Cup Finals and wins a game or two, then it is headline news. TV audiences in Germany bounced back when Schumacher returned. Sport is about heroes, forget that at your peril. IRL will struggle until an Unser or Andretti reappears. No one cares about a bunch of Brazilians, Englishmen, Australians or Frenchmen.

Rossi was back on a bike yesterday for the first time since he broke his leg. Seems it went OK, did a bunch of laps and his shoulder seemed to be more of a problem than his leg. His Father is counseling him to go easy, but Champions do not know how to. Good advice though, the last thing he needs now is to fall again.

As I said a while ago, who arranged this timetable? Tour de France, World Cup Soccer, MotoGP in Spain, Daytona, IRL at the Glen, you get the picture. I'm trying to do some serious writing, and I'm not talking about this blog. I guess Wimbledon is finishing as well. Glad it is actually a holiday on Monday, but the Tour goes on.

Mark Webber did a promotion with the Red Bull F1 in Parliament Square, London, and wowed the crowd. There is nothing like seeing a F1 car on streets you know and where you can get close to appreciate just how fast they accelerate and brake. That is what is so astounding about these cars that sets them apart from say NASCAR, where the top speed is the same but it takes them two laps to get there. That is why I love street tracks, provided they are done right.

Elsewhere the other Schumacher finally seems to have come good in the DTM with his first pole. The Norisring track is interesting, it is on the old Nazi Party rally grounds. Looks a bit like the old Avus circuit in Berlin. If you have never seen that check it out, it had an amazing banked 180 degree corner that puts Daytona to shame. Over at Daytona Brian France is talking about going green with a bit of ethanol, provided Sunoco agree, and possible changes to The Chase again to include some sort of knockout. I had that idea a while ago, to make sure they all go for it. Start with the top ten and whoever is the last of those ten drops out, so even for the last race you do not have to win it, just finish in front of your competitor. What do you do if they both crash?

Australian Daniel Ricciardo won the Formula Renault 3.5 race in Hungary and still leads the Championship. The next Mark Webber? Joylon Palmer returned to the winners circle in the F2 Championship and is leading that handily.

Big crash during practice at The Glen. Viso ran over the curb at Turn One and could not get it back in time and hit the wall on the exit head on. I said a few weeks ago that I was unhappy about some aspects of that track when there seems to room to move barriers back, and that is one of them. It is also down to the asphalt run off behind that curb that allows drivers to try and drive out of an off without lifting.