Bob Barnard Track Engineering

The day after a long weekend of racing and not much stirring the blood. Lewis continues to dominate the news with some observers agreeing he was badly treated for trying to overtake on a track that is nearly impossible. Now the Station Hairpin, showing my age, was never on, the only move that worked there was Schumacher on Rosberg and as team mates they gave each other room. Lewis was never far enough alongside Massa to do it, and without the benefit of replay I do not think he was far enough alongside Maldanado to make it stick. His move on Schumacher earlier at that corner seemed to me to almost wheel to wheel and Michael had to let him have it. Whatever the circumstances his comments afterwards were totally out of order, as I think he has since realised, but the damage is done. He says he is not changing his approach and if he continues to be penalized he will quit F1, which is again a silly comment from one of the top drivers. Is he missing his father's steadying hand, or was that what caused the split?

Joe Saward has some interesting photos of the two passes at Ste-Devote:

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/8572/hamiltonmonaco2011t1.jpg

http://img857.imageshack.us/img857/3797/hamiltonmonacoturn1b.jpg

It's all just inches, but it looks to me that he was further alongside Michael, and not convinced that Maldanado moved over on Lewis, you'd have to look at Maldanado's previous laps to see what his usual line was.

Eric Boullier is playing down the stories of Lotus Renault's financial problems, saying all is well. He is telling Heidfeld that he needs to lift his game though. I must say I think we all expected more out of Nick, but perhaps this is why he was without a drive?

Bahrain has again come out and said they are ready to stage the race. You all know my thoughts on this, but read the BS on pit pass.

http://www.pitpass.com/43806-Bahrain-ready-and-waiting-to-host-2011-race

No not the last turn club, the last turns at Indy and Charlotte. Both the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 were won and lost at the last corner. Earnhardt Jr. had his best run for a long time only to run out of fuel, but J.R. Hilderbrand had even worse luck crashing at turn 4 at Indy. He almost won even so, Wheldon only just beating him to the line even though he was still on all four wheels. Reminded me of Adelaide in '85 when one of the Ligiers finished on three wheels.

Pirelli finally did something I agree with, coming out and saying the rule should be changed to prevent tire changes under red flag conditions. Ruined the race for the fans. Let's hope someone is taking note.

Martin Brundle echoes my thoughts,  speaking of Lewis he said “You wonder if he needs a bit of a mindset change.” I'm afraid Lewis is becoming a whiner, nothing is his fault. The Stewards have apparently accepted his explanation and apology, but I doubt the FIA are going to let it go at that. Bringing the sport into disrepute?

Ferrari has continued their opposition to the 4 cylinder engine and has proposed a V6 for 2015, with the V8's being limited by fuel and with KERS to make them "green." Cosworth came out and said the 4 cylinder isn't green anyway. Todt has come out now and said he is looking for harmony, so maybe the engine deal is not decided yet.

Monaco continued to give us some major crashes, and thanks to the design of the modern F1 car they all walked away, figuratively. A couple of things stood out in the race for me. "Controlled aggression" is what they say you need around here, but Lewis forgot about the controlled bit. I don't know if it was the mistake by his engineers in not sending him out early in the Q3 session started this, but I am beginning to wonder where his head is at. You know I am a fan and said after Turkey that Whitmarsh should not be asking him to avoid aggressive moves, but maybe he is seeing something we are not, until today. OK, that aggression got him past Michael, just, but his moves on Masssa and Maldanado where not smart. We saw it on the first lap in Monza last year, and just maybe we have gone over that fine line between great passing moves and stupid ones. I cannot help asking where he would have finished if he had just driven a calm race, probably fourth or fifth. His comment about being called in front of the Stewards 5 times in 6 races "may be because he is black" is a very unfortunate statement by someone not in control. Let's hope an apology is forthcoming.

The other thing I cannot understand is why under a red flag teams are allowed to work on the cars and change tires? Number one this robbed us of a great finish and penalized Alonso and Button. I know it is the rule, I am just at a loss at what that is trying to achieve? It was obvious that no one was going to pass once they all had new tires, the only thing the restart accomplished is Maldanado's car being damaged in a crash.  Vettel has to be congratulated on being able to get that many laps out of the soft tire, I for one could not believe he was not stopping again. The track helped of course, but the still had to drive faultlessly. Mark Webber's luck did not get any better with a delayed pit stop.

Aussie Daniel Ricciardo did his resume no harm by winning the FR 3.5 race, while Alexander Rossi seems to have had a good race before tangling with a back marker.

Kimi finished 27th in his Nationwide debut, and did not enjoy it much by the sound of it, complaining about how hot the cars are. The race was on the same time as the soccer, so missed it, but the commentators agreed he drove well, losing time with a pit exit speeding penalty and split splitter, if that does not sound too odd.

Checa is hot at a freezing Miller Park in the WSBK qualifying, nearly a second if front of second placed man Camier, and over a second on Biaggi.

Now I am going to crave your indulgence and talk about soccer and Barcelona. The Champions League Final was a great match, played in good spirit, but Barcelona were just too good for Man U, in fact too good for anyone. Watching the game it struck me that Barca play the game like a bull fight. Barnard's lost it I hear you say, but bear with me. If you have not seen a bullfight it is a mind game between the matador and the bull. The bull charges into the ring, going for anything and everything, much like Man U started. But as with the bull, that aggression is absorbed and gradually abates as Barca exert a little pressure back, controlling the ball and taunting the other team as happens in the ring with the bull. Eventually the matador uses his cape to mesmerize the bull, just as Barca's short passing game and ball control does to the opposition. At times Man U's defence were static, just watching until the "sword" was applied, the rapier pass through the gap to a player open in front of goal. So 3-1 is the result, and some team has to figure out how to match them at this game. Barca controlled the ball for 70% of the time, and this against one of the other great teams in the world!

If I may continue, I could watch Messi play all day, every day. Not only is he the best player in the world today, perhaps of all time, or will be, but his enjoyment at playing is evident whatever is happening to him. Lewis could learn something here. It does not matter if he has just missed a goal or been taken down by a cynical foul, he gets up smiling. Nothing fazes him. His mind must be amazing. I know mine is more like Lewis'.

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.

So the race was not quite the procession we expected, but Alonso in the Ferrari being lapped was something no one expected! I want to be a fly on the wall when Montezemolo talks to the team. Yes the race was exciting at times, but we are back to the days of refuelling and sprints between pit stops to decide who leads. Think about it, how many actual passes were there between competitive cars? Alonso passed Webber at Turn Ten, only to be re-passed. The DRS zone did not work. Even with Vettel struggling with KERS Lewis could not get close enough to trouble him using the DRS. The Mercedes underperformed again, with Michael beating Nico, for the first time? Nico blamed the lack of the DRS system that quit on him for not being able to overtake Michael. Sad. The highlight of the race for me was Michael getting out of the way for Vettel and Hamilton when being lapped, not what I expected at all, but well done Michael. Keep that up and I might become a fan.

I commented at the time about a fastest lap being set while the yellow flag was out for Kovalainen's accident, and it is nice to see that the Stewards took note, even though they only gave a warning this time. We've seen guys lose their qualifying times for this sort of thing.

The pace of the McLarens was surprising given the practice times, and Red Bull may as well take the KERS off the car, they can win without it and would be even quicker if they took it off and lightened the car, or at least moved the ballast where it does most good. The other surprising thing was the empty grandstands. If it wasn't for the people on the grass banks it would look like Turkey, not a good omen for keeping the race here.

I don't know if Pirelli are just paying SPEED a lot of money or Bernie is leaning on the TV to talk them up, but Paul Hembery, their chief, is getting more airtime than the drivers and there are "infomercials" during each broadcast. In a time when the FIA is trying to appear green, how can you justify the waste of resources on tires? Give them one set for the race and let's see who can manage their tires.