Bob Barnard Track Engineering

So the first day of the 2011 season has come and gone and what did we learn? The usual suspects are at the top of the time sheet, surprisingly perhaps in the shape of McLaren. They obviously did something special in the second practice as they found around two seconds. It is still a lot like testing, we won't really know I fear until the race who has the best race set up. The tires did not seem to give up as quickly as I expected, with drivers setting fast times after three laps on them. There is still an unpredictability about what to expect every time you go out on a new set, and the Stewards authorised the use of additional tires after there were problems with mounting some. Does not sound like good quality control, more like a lottery.

Chandook said he was glad to be back in F1, all 50 seconds of it. That's how far he got in the Lotus, Turn Three to be exact before plonking it against the inside wall courtesy of a heavy right foot, cold tires and damp track. Lotus must have regretted that decision. They are strangely off the pace they showed in testing where it seemed they had dragged themselves to within two or so seconds of the fast guys, but here they are back where they were last season. Gascoyne says there is a lot more left. Let's hope so, they are barely in front of the 107% rule.

Not so lucky are Virgin who are still 6 seconds adrift, only faster than HRT because that mobile, sorry bad choice, embarrasment only managed one lap with one car right at the end of the second practice. They are due an "early bath" as they say in soccer, barring a miracle. Aussies love a battler, but this is way beyond that now.

The good news for McLaren is not so much the pace they are now showing, it is the reliability that was sorely missing in testing. All the top runners looked good in that respect, and Mercedes seem to have resolved their problems. Rosberg looked like setting the morning's fastest time on a couple of laps, only to run wide and lose time, and Michael is sixth fastest on the day. Massa seems to be struggling, and Alonso did not appear until very late in the morning session for some reason, but was right on the pace immediately, impressive. Renault were strangely off the pace they threatened in testing, but new boy Perez  was an impressive eighth, a second faster than his more experienced team mate.

Adrian Newey says he is confident that they are still up to half a second faster than the pack, and if anyone knows he does. Still tires are going to play a part. Vettel had a large chunk out of a front tire that Red Bull say was due to running over debris on the track. Let's hope so. Domenicali from Ferrari is concerned about the amount of traffic in pit lane if each team is making three stops, and the new pit entry is really tight to accommodate the V8Supercar garage brought over from Homebush. I guess Tony Cochrane did not want his series to look like second class citizens.

It was interesting watching the movable wing in operation during practice, but the FIA are still playing with the rules so it is hard to keep up. The overtaking zone in Melbourne will now start BEFORE the last corner, not sure how that helps, you need the downforce to get through the corner I would have thought, and as soon as you bolt on intermediates you can no longer use the wing. They tried a race simulation during the last half hour of second practice just to totally confuse the crowd. And there are suggestions Red Bull did not use it in practice, so who knows where the times are.

The WSBK is at Donnington Park this weekend and Carlos Checa continued where he left off at Phillip Island topping the first free practice.

Le Mans Series cars tested at Paul Ricard yesterday, with the Aston Martin still to turn a wheel. The first race is next weekend. I did see a piece about the FIA talking to Peugeot about another flip by their new car. It has  had more than few big accidents during testing, although it ran faultlessly at Sebring, and the FIA are concerned about the aero on the car.

I am a little concerned about a report from the Portugese Rally special stage where a wheel came off a car and struck a spectator, and all the driver was reported to say afterward was "I can't believe I have been that stupid." To have crashed I suppose, but I would have thought he might have asked about the condition of the spectator and expressed some regret, or is rallying a sport where the spectator takes their chances?

So, depending on who you believe, there was either not enough evidence to penalize Ferrari for team orders, or they did use team orders but the rule is ambiguous and others do it so you should not penalize Ferrari more. If there was not enough evidence how did the Stewards decide to fine them $100,000, and if they were wrong, why did Ferrari not get their money back? Same goes if everyone is doing it why uphold the fine? As Sir Frank Williams said, he supports team orders, maybe only in the second half of the Championship, some basis for that, but he asks as I do, how do you appease the die hard fans? This will be a test for diplomacy.

Nice comment during the Monza practice about how long the concrete banking has survived. Seeing as how the Romans invented concrete, and most of their structures from 2000 years ago are still standing, I cannot see why anyone is surprised.

Practice was pretty uneventful, except for poor Mark Webber, he seems to have bad Fridays, but good races. The most interesting moment for me was Hamilton's on-board going into the parabolica. The merest of lifts off the throttle and then straight back on it, incredible. How Massa missed that wall no one will know, especially Massa. Tomorrow's qualifying should be interesting, six cars potentially going for pole, do not count out Webber.

Peugeot quickest in practice for the first round of the Intercontinental Cup Le Mans Series race at Silverstone, no surprises there. Audi are going to have to hope Peugeot have not fixed the engine problem, but do not hold your breath.

Grand Am have their last race of the season at Miller this weekend, with Ganassi on pole, surprise, surprise.

Spent the day revisiting the site layout for Sol Real now we have land in escrow. Even though it is still the same size the orientation is now north-south, much better for the sun angle, and the views to the east are spectacular, so obviously with the afternoon sun we want most of the buildings facing east. There is a small section of flood plain too across the NE corner, so flipped the track vertically to make that the run off at the end of the straight. The net result is a anti-clockwise track instead of clockwise, and a few other bonuses to improve the overall site layout. All part of refining the design. Checked out the run off at key points too and all looks more than enough, which is just as well with the speeds we are seeing on the simulator. Haven't got the heart to tell the programmer I've changed the layout now he has it in the computer. Hope everyone remembers to turn left and not right now at the end of the straight!

Furniture arrived this morning so a day or two unpacking. Won't unpack it all as we will be moving again when the actual track construction starts, need to be closer as the days will be long. These first months are for planning and selling, so need to be here in Mesa. Did this in Georgia, and it is hard as we always need something we did not unpack, so we have to start guessing which box it is in.

Still working with the webmaster to finalize the site. It is my 90/10 rule again, it takes 10%of the effort to get it to 90% finished, and 90% of the effort to finish the last 10%. Always tempting to go public with something close to finished, but that would be a mistake.

Well done Valentino with fifth fastest in qualifying for the German MotoGP. His team "mate" Lorenzo is on pole, and pole is looking very familiar in every class. Vale is aiming for fourth in the race, and who would bet against him?

Le Mans Series in Portugal at the Algarve circuit. Big guys missing so Oreca is on pole in the private Peugeot, but not by much from the petrol brigade. Good field, but it does not seem a real LMS event without the big teams.

Interesting that Jacques Villeneuve has submitted a bid to be the next team to join F1. He has kept that pretty quiet. Not saying if he plans to drive or just manage. If you recall he has done this once before with his manager Craig Pollock when they set up British American racing that morphed into Honda and then Brawn. So do  not write him off, he is apparently collaborating with Durango, a GP2 team, in the bid. The decision is supposed to be the end of this month. I am amazed that none of my readers has any scoop on who Cypher is.