Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Great pictures and commentary on www.fromsportcom.com of the first free practice and qualifying. Pictures are Eurosport with very few and short ads, and commentary is out friends from Radio Le Mans. They have 24 hour coverage of the race itself so I know what I will be watching. Peugeot just on pole at the moment from the three Audis. Top seven all diesels and the best petrol is Pescarolo 5.5 secs off the pace of the slowest diesel. The ACO intent is for the petrol cars to be within 2%, which would be around 4 secs, so getting closer, and they have some breaks which in the race may even things out. Lets hope so. Still, the times between the diesels is close and we should have another cracking battle.

Some big accidents, especially the Straka which leads the LMP2 class again this year, but all are repaired I believe. BMW's leading the way in the GT Class which is a big improvement on last year. Fisichella stuck in a quick lap at the end in the Ferrari 458 to split them, and then the Corvettes who had a bit of a fraught session. Let's hope all their problems are sorted.

Meanwhile, back in Bahrain the head of the Tourism Board called Bernie a hypocrite for changing his stance on staging the race this year. That's pretty rich for a group who say all is peaceful while they put 47 medical staff on trial in a secret court behind closed doors. Adam Parr, CEO of Williams, has come out and said we cannot change India's date, all his neighbors have booked their holidays. Nice way of saying we are not going to Bahrain without actually having to say it, no guts. So, if the FIA needs to 100% agreement of the teams to change the calendar then they are now officially in trouble.

Joe Saward can always be relied upon for some  good sensible comments and today is no exception. Read his two pieces about the situation:

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/

Can it be that Jean Todt has been set up over Bahrain? It is the Bernie and Max double act in a reprise of their previous performances. Bernie has done one of the fastest U Turns in history and is now saying it is "of course not on" and reiterating Max's statement that the WMC cannot change the calendar without FOTA's agreement. He is now saying he will send his own man to go check out the situation which might have been a good idea in the first place. As I said Todt looked inept at best in the TV interview, and is now isolated. The FIA is being likened to an "old boys club, where cash - in this case the Bahraini royal family's - can buy you anything." It is now being pointed out the Todt's son's GP2 Team is co-owned by the Bahrain authorities, not that anyone is suggesting that is a factor, but as I said the other day these guys have put themselves in the Middle east money's pocket, and are now reaping the "benefits."

Gracia is trying to justify his visit and report, which smacks of an episode of a send up of the Sydney Olympics, "The Games." If you have not seen it try and find it, it is both extremely funny and extremely true. In this particular episode about Y2K, remember that, a Spanish Olympic rep is sent to make sure Sydney has the problem solved. After a brief discussion in the board room and receiving some dubious guarantees that all is well he decides to go eat.

Well I guess Bahrain has given us something to talk about for a few weeks because there is not much else going on. Le Mans free practice is on at the moment with the first qualifying late tonight France time. Remember you can listen in on the web at radiolemans.com and there is some coverage on fromsportCOM.com from 6 pm Le Mans time.

Very little to talk about today. Bahrain decision continues to draw criticism, "like the 1936 Olympics" being one comparison. As Joe Saward said, it is a shame that the decision overshadowed a lot of good decisions made by the Council. Two that bemuse me a little are the new World Sportscar Championship, and the amalgamation of the GT classes to run under some equalization formula. So are we to have an FIA GT Championship and the WSC with the same cars?

Scrutineering started at Le Mans and if you ever get a chance to go to the race be sure to arrive early to do this, it is a great show in its own right. It then gives you a couple of days break to go and tour the Normandy Beaches, a must for anyone to understand the price of freedom. Busy weekend coming up with the Canadian F1 GP and Le Mans, no sleep Saturday night!

Following on from yesterday's comments on Audi being involved with the design of the 2013 F1 engine, their racing Chief, Dr. Ulrich, came out and said "There's a very good reason why we are not in F1, there's no relevance to the road. At Le Mans, one of our cars will cover 325 miles more than an F1 car will cover in an entire season, our average speed including pitstops will be 20mph higher than an F1 car and we will use 42% less fuel." And a lot less tires! They can run two or three stints of 45 minutes or more on a set, so a GP's worth. Now some of this is down to the characteristics of the Le Mans circuit, but can you imagine if they stopped every thirty miles or so for a set of treads? Anyway, it goes back to the question why Audi was involved in the F1 engine in the first place?

The blood has started to flow over at Ferrari after Sunday's disaster of being lapped with Aldo Costa "stepping down" as the Technical Director in favor of Pat Fry. Several other changes were made, but Domenicali is safe, for now.

Back at Indy it seems qualifying did not end Sunday. As Paul Tracy said, Monday is now Check Book Bump Day with Andretti buying a seat at Foyt's team for their man Hunter-Ray. So we sat and watched all the pathos of Ryan and his girlfriend after he was bumped, and the anguish on Michael's face, only to have him buy their way in. No wonder he looked anguished, he was calculating what it was going to cost him. Perhaps there is a whole new business here, get qualified for a race and then sell the place, or just hire yourself out. What would pole in F1 be worth do you think? What sort of joke is this? What do the fans who actually sat through the day, rain and all, think? A very sad day for a famous race. We know drivers have been buying their seat in Indycar, under whatever name, and some do in F1, but buying a starting spot?

Talking of buying a starting spot, Kimi is confirmed on the entry list for this weeks Nationwide race in Joe Nemechek's team. And yes I can be two-faced and say this once is OK.

Apparently Silvio is not doing so well with the Italian people, not for the first time. This leads me to ask, if it is OK for Silvio with all his media interests to run a country, why is it a conflict of interest for Rupert to run F1. Just a question.

Montezemolo says he is "married" to Ferrari and is not looking to move into politics. Being married to Ferrari one would think would be enough politics to last a lifetime.

I'm still intrigued as to where Eric Lux is going to sue Sutil as the event happened in China. I am no lawyer, but do you not have to have some standing before a court, so is he suing in China? Not easy one would think. Any lawyer out there care to comment?

As you can see the news is thin today, but the biggest story for me is Highcroft pulling out of Le Mans. Given that they were the only petrol car to stay with the diesels at Sebring, this is a sad loss. Due to Honda Japan's problems after the quake they say. Duncan is now looking for a new partner. With his track record and driving team I would think manufacturers would be falling over themselves to talk to him.

There is a video posted of work continuing in Austin. One would only hope so, are they so paranoid they have to do this stuff? The main feature is the nice sign and a lot of equipment seemingly going back and forth in the same spot.

In a replay of F1 the V8Supercar Series in Oz has been sold off to a venture capital group, but Tony Cochrane has learned from Bernie and has stayed as Chairman.

Last but not least, I am proud to announce the formation of Motorsport Services International, a full service organization for would-be and existing owners of motorsport facilities from conception through to operation, legal to tee shirts, and everything in between. Each of the over thirty individuals and companies are known to me personally as world class in their respective field, and are available individually or as a team. Check us out at http://www.motorsportservicesinternational.com