Bob Barnard Track Engineering

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.

Great live streaming pictures and sound from SPEEDTV.com this morning. Wish I could watch all the F1 like this, no ads, no idiot commentary, maybe ALMS has something here. No picture break up or lock up, and the quality was better than cable. Two interesting sessions today with some big accidents, two at the chicane after the tunnel. Rosberg lost the back end under braking and took off over the speed bumps put into the center of the chicane, presumably installed to slow cars down that short cut it. Thankfully these were removed before qualifying as they actually only make it worse, as demonstrated . I for one did not expect to see Rosberg back out in quali, not that he was hurt, he missed the center island between the track and the run-off, but the car had substantial damage. Great job by the Mercedes team to have him not only back out but competitive. Perez was not so lucky in Q3, hitting the island side on, and thankfully he did, a head on would probably have him under the TECPRO barrier. The jury is still out on these compared to tires, and they cost many times more. For me they are too light, as we have seen already cars go under them. Perez will miss tomorrow's race but fortunately his injuries are relatively minor.

Unlike the two HRT cars who despite not turning a wheel in qualifying have been given the OK to race, and they did not even have to buy a starting spot! The Stewards in an unfathomable piece of generosity will let them race, despite being 6-7 seconds off the pace in practice. Now on another track that may be OK, but around here there is no place for sentiment, and no room to overtake. Let us hope that decision does not turn around and bite someone.

Perez's accident showed the absolute necessity to get out early and bank a lap in these short sessions. McLaren failed Lewis and now he is stuck down in seventh despite being fastest in Q2. As I suspected, no one tried to save tires, starting position is everything here. It will be interesting to see what McLaren's pit strategy will be to try and leapfrog Lewis up the field.

I commented the other day on the efficiency of the Monaco track team in repairing the asphalt, and it was in evidence again today. Most of these incidents would have taken lesser crews a long time to clean up, and in some cases may not have repaired in time to finish a session. Indy, NASCAR et al need to go there and see how they do it. As Michael Schumacher was crashing Thursday at Ste-Devote you could see the crane operator start up. Having said that the "crest" coming out of the tunnel seems to have contributed to a few accidents this weekend and needs addressing. Given their usual rapid response it is surprising it was not planed smoother during yesterday's quiet day.

In other news it seems the Lotus sponsored Renault team is in a spot of financial trouble. The Marussia money is not flowing and since Kubica's accident interest from new sponsors has all but disappeared. The Geni Capital deal was a novel one for starters, and Lotus Cars is another work in progress. maybe Tony Fernandes just needs to wait this out. Story is Renault is owed big time for engines and may be looking elsewhere for 2012, like Williams.

I did miss a race from my list yesterday. The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars were at Charlotte last night, but got rained out anyway. Rescheduled for tonight, but will only be live streamed. Kimi qualified 15th for the Nationwide race! Outqualified not only his mentor Kyle Busch but his car owner Joe Nemechek! Need to watch that tonight.

Ferrari have now expressed their concern at extending the calendar to accommodate Bahrain. Has no one the guts to come out and say they will not go? I for one will not watch it if it is reinstated and encourage others to do the same. That is the only message Bernie and his cohorts will understand. This would be almost the last straw for me and I hope many others about what has become of our sport.

Allen Petrich explained that unlike F1, Indy has always been the car that qualified, not the driver, so swapping drivers is not uncommon. I can see that an owner could decide to substitute a driver, even in F1 if a driver is injured like Kubica then another driver comes in, or as might happen at Torro Rosso a driver is replaced for not performing. That does not happen between qualifying and the race though. Given Paul Tracy's comment I think what is uncommon is one team buying the spot, sponsorship and all. Do we know if they are going to race AJ's car, as it qualified I guess they have to.

As I surmised, Kimi is off testing at Virginia International Raceway prior to his Nationwide debut, which may now be in doubt, but not in a Nationwide car, a Cup Car, Robbie Gordon's Dodge. Kimi's Cup debut is rumored to be at Sears Point in a few weeks time. Now that makes some sense and will be worth watching. Talk about a fast track to the big time. Piquet Jr. must be wondering what he is doing still driving a truck?

Nasty incident at Ste-Devote in Monaco, and the race isn't until tomorrow! A truck preparing the track caught fire and burnt the asphalt, a promoters nightmare. Always really difficult to get a patch to match the rest of the track, and in a critical spot. I know the best experts are available so even given the extremely short cure time this should be OK. I might be tempted to use concrete to make sure it stays down, but then the grip would be so different, so not a good solution. Trucks on racetracks always make me nervous, fuel leaks being the usual problem, but on a street course what else can you do?

Bernie is ramping up the rhetoric over the new Concorde Agreement. If the teams won't sign it then fine, we will not have one and they can all pay a large fee to come and race. That is always assuming they want to come and race Bernie. The News Corp takeover has all gone very quiet, moves behind the scenes perhaps?

The Financial Times has come out and published accusations that Bahrain sacked a quarter of the circuit's staff. Not only sacked but "detained" with all the connotations that go with that word. This follows on stories of journalists being "detained," so with June 1 a week away it seems the pressure is going to stay on for Bahrain to remain off the calendar.

Trulli has come out and said qualifying is dead now thanks to the tires. Hard to see that in Monaco teams will risk saving sets at the sacrifice of grid position given how hard it is to overtake anyone around here, but after Monaco? Remember, Monaco first practice is Thursday.

Just as I thought, there is a Nationwide Toyota waiting for Kimi to drive this weekend at Charlotte. It appeared in Joe Nemechek's shop and will be entered by his team, Kyle Bush does not have a Nationwide team, yet. Kimi has a guaranteed start due to Joe's owner's points in the series. Is he going to test beforehand? I would think the Nationwide car would be easier to adjust to than the truck, but what do I know, that's where they all seem to start. This is a marketing dream for NASCAR, even bigger than Montoya.  Perhaps I'll watch the Nationwide race this week?

Renault are saying it is unlikely that Kubica will return this year, which is no real surprise. Let us just hope he can return at all.

Bernie gave the Crown Prince of Bahrain an audience at Barcelona.  How important must Bernie feel when he has Royalty coming to see him? Of course the Prince came to give Bernie the message that it is safe to come back, but I doubt the teams feel that way. Ross Brawn is against the extension of the season, says his guys need a break. Nice way to not go.

Pirelli media celebrity, Paul Hembery, announced himself happy that the hard compounds did not wear. Did not grip either according to the drivers, especially Alonso. Steel tires would probably not wear either, and we would not have the "marbles" that were still very evident at Barcelona.

No protests after the race, but Colin Kolles of HRT is telling the teams they need to fix their engine mapping or he will protest in Monaco. Their supplier, Cosworth, have joined the "do not change the engine in 2013" brigade as they fear their teams cannot afford it. My buddy Peter Geran pointed out that in the Motor Sport article I quoted the other day the Audi engine chief had been in on the FIA panel advising on the new engine. As Peter says, how does someone who has no investment in the sport get to help make decisions? But from my experience that is how most of these decisions are made. When I was running Moto GP's the Road Race Commission was comprised of FIM elected members not one of whom had a dime invested. Still, you can see where Todt was going with this, let's get some more manufacturers involved, after Max's reign where he tried to get rid of them. There could also be a darker motive as Allen Petrich has hinted at. Todt said the other day that the 4 cylinder is going to be the engine of the FIA's top series, and if they do not like it they can go and race in another series. Is this how he breaks the 100 year deal with Bernie?

I watched a little of Indy bump day, thanks to the rain that's all there was. Can't say I found it very exciting, and judging by the lack of spectators not many others do either. The most interesting thing all day was the look on Michale Andretti's face when Marco bumped his other team car right at the end. "How do I explain that to the sponsor" was the look I saw.

It took Kimi to make me watch the NASCAR Camping World Series! Me and a lot of others I suspect. Watching him out on a mile and a half tri-oval for the first time I thought he did really well, although the truck was so loose it looked like rallying at times. Still, his reflexes and ability kept it on the track and tonight's race should be fun. You have to admire the guy, just like the old days when F1 drivers drove everything and raced every weekend, sometimes two races a weekend in Europe and America. F1's loss is the world's gain.

The really big news of the weekend for me is the ACO moving to live up to it's regulation on parity between the diesels and petrol cars. Petrol cars will have an air restrictor increase of 0.3 mm and can lose 10 kg, and if they cannot take weight off the car then they get a 0.5 mm increase. In addition the fuel hose for the petrol cars is increased by 10 mm, nearly half an inch, and the diesels decreased by 0.3 mm, so faster refuelling for the petrol cars. The ACO have made the changes after seeing all the new cars in action at Spa for the first time, and believe they will allow the petrol cars to do an extra 5 laps during the 24 hours. The older ORECA Peugeot benefits from a 15 kg weight reduction. It will be interesting to see how all these pan out in a few weeks time.

F1 is in Barcelona and not much has changed, Red Bull and McLaren on top with Alonso and Ferrari fifth. Mercedes big step forward has not improved their position. News is that Williams are the team that pushed the FIA to act on the engine mapping, but it seems that Cosworth are the problem in not being able to match the big guys. The top teams are of course resisting any changes, as they are the new engine for 2013. The opposition to the change to 4 cylinder turbos is growing, with Renault apparently the only manufacturer now in favor, for obvious reasons. Talking of Renault, the big rumor from Barcelona is that Kubica has signed to drive for Ferrari, the latest in a long line of drivers similarly rumored to go there. Massa must be feeling very unloved, despite Montezemolo telling the world Massa will drive for them next year. He did not look very happy with the car during practice.

The gap between the teams seems to be growing, with HRT still 7 secs off the pace, but then Lotus and Force India are around 4 secs off, and so on up the order. Alonso is a second off, and you quickly get to 2 seconds around tenth place. On these times the HRT are in danger of not making the cut at their home race, but I guess with Q1 times on hards they may make it. Lotus seem to have made the jump across the gap to the midfield teams, only to see the front of the pack just as far away as ever.