Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Welcome to the new home for my blog, always presuming you have found it and I am not just talking to myself! I hope you like the new web site, a lot of the same information, but a lot easier to post and update information.

Sorry to start on a slow news day. The only significant thing I read is that Mansell and Villeneuve have both come out and advised Lewis Hamilton not to jump ship. This after a Daily Mail article yesterday said Lewis had an escape clause in his contract if McLaren did not win the drivers and constructors championship, neither of which look likely. As they both have experience of leaving a winning team and careers that took a nosedive after, although Mansell's time at Ferrari wasn't all bad, they are telling Lewis to stick with the team who have groomed and supported him and still do. Hard to do when you are getting beat, but probably good advice in the long term.

Let's look forward to Silverstone this weekend and the non-blown exhaust cars, and see where that all falls out. I have an answer to my question on whether we have had two Australians in one F1 race before, and my great buddy Bill Crouch has done the research and we have. Alan Jones and Vern Schuppan in Austria in 1997, Alan winning in a Shadow and Vern 16th in a Surtees. Another good friend, past Australian Sprint Car Champ Skip Jackson, who is an avid F1 follower still thinks Perkins and Jones shared a track at one time. True or false?

 

So France cannot have an F1 GP again until F1 reduces its carbon footprint. What hypocrisy? Lets look at the Tour de France, 21 days around France with each team having numerous cars, buses, service trucks, media motorcycles and helicopters, not to mention the set up crews. OK, it is a bicycle race, but my bet is it uses more gasoline than F1 does all season, and all in France. Let's not even talk about how much gas is used for spectators to get to soccer matches, or the energy used for night matches. The most telling line came from France’s new sports minister Chantal Jouanno who, when asked what can be done to revive the country’s F1 race,  told the L’Equipe sports daily: "We need to know if the French motor sport federation (FFSA) is able to bear the cost of a grand prix." There lies the real problem, no government money for Bernie. Maybe Alain is right, they are "auto-phobic."

Sad to hear of the death of Tom Walkinshaw, let us remember his achievements and not the end with Arrows.

So VW is considering an F1 engine now the rules have changed, maybe I am wrong about the new engine, nah. I was thinking about how it will sound, very important for most of us fans. They were loud back in the eighties, but a turbo usually quietens engines, one of the complaints about the old CART cars, and if the new F1 engines are limited to 12,000 rpm and a turbo then this could be quite a different animal than we are used to.

It seems I am not alone in questioning the Korean GP's award of the Promoter's Trophy, several journalists who attended have very different views.

Speaking of views, Jacques Villeneuve likes most of the new rules in F1, thinks they have got most right, but is concerned that the movable rear wing is "too artificial." This raises a question, what do we think F1 is or should be? Is it sport, business or entertainment? It is all three of course, but where is the balance? Do we introduce artificial things to make it more entertaining? Tires that do not last and mix up the results have been mooted, we have KERS, but is that really any different than "push to pass" that fair ground addition to IRL because no one can pass? Now we have drivers at 200 mph trying to manipulate a KERS button and/or the movable rear wing, and how are we the poor spectator supposed to keep up with who is doing what to whom, and does it matter if it is not his driving skill doing it? It has all the makings of becoming a video game with the ability to manipulate buttons faster than the other guy being the measure of performance.

What a weekend! Crashes marred almost all the racing, and unfortunately took the life of an up and coming young American rider, Peter Lenz, at Indianapolis. The description of the incident shows that whatever we do with a track as designers the worst can still happen, and does, when two cars or bikes get together. The number of falls at the MotoGP, Rossi fell four times in the weekend, begs the question of what is wrong with the track surface? Indy has a history of problems with grip and tires for NASCAR, F1, and now MotoGP. From looking at the race I was amazed at the extent of the cracking on the infield track, which is not really that old. I know Indy has some bad weather in winter, but that seemed strange. The bumps cannot be bad asphalt laying, it must be movement in the base, but again, why?

The Moto2 race looked insane, with riders going down everywhere. Looked like a GP2 race! Speed did their usual bang up job, replacing the regular commentators with Larry and Mo, Diffey and Russell, and was more interested in giving us "background color" than showing us the race. Not that the race was very exciting, but more than Nicky Hayden at the dirt track!  I thought Australians were jingoistic, but American commentators beat us hands down.

I see that Valentino is calling for the removal of the electronic aids from the bikes to make the show more exciting. It certainly needs something. Apart from Ben Spies leading for a while, there was little to keep me watching except for professional interest. Not sure just removing the aids will do it though. It needs a group of equally good riders on equivalent machines, no not spec racers, but manufacturers all producing good machines. Suzuki certainly is not, Ducati is not on par, and Honda is up and down. And not just two from each either. Back when we saw Yamaha for instance with KR, Ago, and Sarron's team, six "works" bikes with good riders.

Spa turned on its' usual show. We moved house over the weekend and for some reason my DVD did not record, so will have to watch the replay Wednesday, but from the accounts it was a very good race. Well done Lewis and McLaren. Red Bull shot themselves in the foot again. Webber's anti-stall kicked in at the start which let Hamilton jump him and never look back, and Vettel did his now accustomed self-destruct, this time taking Button out instead of his team mate. Barrichello ran into Alonso and put himself out early, while Alonso took himself out later. Good result for Kubica and Renault. What would he do if he had a McLaren or Red Bull? Mercedes continue to be the mystery of the season. Season is building to another close finish, but now I have a problem. I have always liked Lewis, but I love Mark's grit and he is an Australian. So I cannot lose whoever wins the Championship, but who do I want to win?

And then there was Mosport, that 50 year old jewel. Well those 50 year old pine guard rail posts did not take kindly to being smacked by a 2010 Porsche. I told Don that they needed changing when I inspected the track after he bought it in 1998! Timber posts can be used if already in place, but are supposed to be rectangular hardwood, not old, round, pine. As soon as I saw that crash I knew they were never going to get that rail repaired. Even steel posts would still have given, that is the way rail is supposed to behave, and that is why I personally prefer a concrete block wall. It still moves, but is easy to pull back into place. The race? Shades of Lime Rock with cars running into each other all over the place. Interesting rather than exciting.

Good to see Boris Said finally win a NASCAR race, even if it was a Nationwide event. Sounds like a good race with Papis and Villenueve right there at the end.

Not much energy around at the moment, either personally or in the sport. Continue to feel under the weather and went to the Doctors this morning. Probably a viral infection, and a bit dehydrated. Can't understand why, I been drinking more water than ever. So, combined with a lack of any real excitement on two or four wheels I am sorry this blog has been below par as well.

Received the program for the Professional Motorsport Circuit Owners, Investors and Suppliers Forum in Cologne (Koln), Germany, in November. It's been extended out to three days and coincides with a major trade show, so the most worthwhile conference you will go to if you are in the track business. As a presenter I can provide my contacts with a discounted fee, so if you are thinking of going, contact me and I can give you the promo code. I am moderating a session on track engineering which has some great speakers, and part of a panel discussion on the future of track design.

Our enforced hiatus from F1 is about to end with Spa starting in two days. Consensus seems to be that the Red Bull cars will lose out on sectors 1 & 3, so it could be a close race. We saw with Force India last year having a great handling car in the middle sector gives you a great lap time, but does not win the race, so McLaren and Ferrari could be in with a chance. McLaren say they are still baffled by the flexi front wing, as are most outside observers. It seems they are finding a way for the airflow to bend up the front of the floor while bending down the front wing. Sounds like a difficult thing to do, but I am not an aerodynamics genius. Whatever happens it will be great to see Spa, a track with only one bad corner for me and that is that last chicane. The rest is pure poetry.

The FIA is supposed to announce the thirteenth team by the end of the month, Villenueve has appeared as the dark horse for the selection, which is surprising, he kept the fact he was bidding very quiet until the last month. Rumors continue that HRT will merge with the other strong bidder, Epsilon Euskadi, which could be very good for both of them. Whoever gets the nod will have their work cut out to be ready in time for 2011. In the meantime Jacques is off to race a Nationwide car in Montreal.

We must not forget the MotoGP this weekend at Indy. I still have a problem with motorcycles on that track, just does not seem to be where they should be. Maybe if Mr.Tilke can get his act together he could make Austin work for MotoGP, they might make some money on that. Tavo talks about all the other events they can run, like NASCAR, Grand Am and AMA motorcycles, but all these are run by NASCAR, and the word I hear is they are not going. In any event, Bernie is usually very particular what else runs on his F1 tracks. When we ran the US Motorcycle GP at Laguna in '93 Bernie controlled the bikes, and we had to get him to agree that Laguna could keep their CART race, as he normally ruled out anything that competed with something he controlled.

It seems in motorsport, and maybe in life, it pays to have a rich or famous father, or preferably both. Now I'm not saying these guys should not be out there, in most cases they are good enough, but so are many more who never get the chance.

Two news items today prompted these thoughts. Paul Menard has signed to run with Richard Childress in 2011. Now this is not so much Childress signing a new driver as Menard Senior taking his bag of money from one team to another, as Childress is adding a car to its team for Paul to race. Ed Carpenter is also back in IRL, courtesy of step-dad Tony George, late of IRL and part of the Hulman family that owns Indianapolis Speedway.

Over at the US F1 track and promoter Tavo Hellmund says that the race could be in Austin for forty years. he needs to hope so as then he may finally make a quid. But how did Hellmund get the rights, well his dad promoted the Mexican GP way back when.

Then there are all the famous sons in racing at the moment, Alex Gurney, Nico Rosberg, Jacques Villeneuve, Joylon Palmer, the Mansell and Taylor brothers, Tambay, Brundle, Piquet, Magnessun, the late Henry Surtees, Damon Hill, Derek Hill, Conor Daly, Prost, Nicholas Todt, Paul Stewart, Bruno Senna(I know he is a nephew), Scheckter, and I'm sure there are a lot I missed. Let's not even start on that family business, NASCAR.

Bernie must be reading my blog as he has decided that he and Tavo need an American driver for the US race, but who does he pick? Rossi, Newgarden, Summerton? No, Danica Patrick, the driver who is doing so well in the Indy Retirement League and crowd favorite, personality of the year. C'mon Bernie at least do your homework and look past the face and the gender. She might get some column inches but is unlikely to make F1 popular in the US. I guess if you think Schumacher is a good advert for your sport then Danica could be a good choice.

Another great presentation session last evening for the Sol Real project. We are getting great response and the word is spreading. I was contacted by the SCCA to inspect a track in the same region, but the owner knew of this project and my role, and was concerned about me working on a track that might compete with his. He might be questioning my integrity, but he confirmed his.