Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Happening that is. Rain at Daytona for the bikes and Sebring where Indycars are supposed to be testing. Barcelona is fine, certainly for Perez and Sauber who top the time sheet today, pretty close to Vettel's time yesterday. Massa is next and then Webber. No McLaren today, and times all over the place again. Lotus still have reliability problems and Williams had gearbox problems. I don't know if you have followed the Williams design this year, but the gearbox is so low the top wishbones are attached the bottom of the rear wing central support. Very novel and provides a huge hole for air to the back wing, but as someone said, you then have to use it.

Mercedes have some new parts and Schumacher is only 1.13 secs off the fast time, and both drivers say they are happier with the car, and Haug says they are not running low fuel. Williams and Ferrari have gone down the Red Bull exhaust road rather than the Renault as they think it is the best solution. Still feeding exhaust gas through the diffuser, but at the rear, not in front of the sidepods. I still have not heard or seen what McLaren have done.

The drivers met with the FIA, presumably Charlie Whiting, last evening to discuss their concerns about the movable wing, so watch for some tweaks to the rules, including not using them in the wet as the  change in downforce is thought to upset the car.

The most impressive thing in testing is the amount of laps Ferrari and Red Bull have put together, over 1000 not counting today, so their reliability is not a problem. Their quick too, not a good start to the season for the others.

That's Bernie's latest idea to spice up the show. You never know if he is winding us up or is serious, but I fear he is serious most times these days. So, short cuts at corners did not get a vote and he does not think the wings will work, so let's install sprinklers at tracks and then turn them on with a couple of minutes notice, just for a little while to mix up the order. Why stop there? Why not just turn them on at one corner unannounced, that would really make it interesting. Better still, we could make some money with those viewer texts to choose when to do it or where. This really is getting to be a circus and it is time the Ringmaster retired gracefully.

It seems we do not need rain to spice up the show, the top drivers are now all saying it will be a circus thanks to Pirelli anyway. Three or four stops for tires and a huge drop off in performance that even Jenson Button will not be able to manage. If you read about the World Supersport race at Phillip Island you will know that the Pirelli's had punctures, almost unheard of in motorcycle racing these days.

Bernie is also saying that the Bahrain race needs to be rescheduled before the first GP which is just 25 days away. Mid-season break seems to be favorite, but who's to say the problems will go away by then?

Proton, the parent of the Lotus Cars Group, the sponsors of Renault, are being subject to doubts over the foray by their sibling into F1. Their share price is dropping and the forecast profitability of the Lotus Group questioned. What happens if they lose the court case against the "other" Lotus. All of this smacks of Dany Bahar's ego.

Casey Stoner continued his domination of testing in Malaysia with all the top Hondas under the track record. Yamahas made up places 5-7 with Edwards again in the mix with his factory team compatriots. Ducati is "sandbagging" really well if that is what they are doing, filling the 11-14th slots, Rossi being the quickest of them and nearly two seconds off the pace. Even the Suzuki is faster.

Back in Europe Valencia is now denying asking for a reduction in fees for the GP, and did not address the rumor that they have not paid for last year yet. The Minister also said he was not aware of other races pushing for a fee reduction. Why even raise these issues unless there is something to them?

Bernie is pushing for Bahrain to join Abu Dhabi and Brazil at the end of the season in back to back to back weekends of fly-away races. Not something the teams have done and a bit of a nightmare for them, especially if we have a situation like last year. Bernie obviously would like his fee. In the meantime he is not winning any friends with his comments in the new book about other personalities such as Jean Todt and Sir Richard Branson. Why would you say those things to a writer? Does he think he is invulnerable and can say what he likes? It seems so at times. It reminds me of when Kenny Roberts was running his team. On a slow news day journos would get a comment from Kenny as he was always good for something to stir things up, but never in this fashion.

If the Canadians are worried about the Renault JPS livery what are they going to say about the Williams Rothmans throwback?

Lord Paul Drayson has given up on ALMS for "greener" pastures, i.e. electric racing. His car will be missed if not Lord Paul, and good luck, I hope you have enough extension cord for your "zero emissions" vehicle. How much longer do we have to put up with this BS? He of all people should know that at the moment he is just moving the emissions elsewhere.  What now ALMS?

Glock is saying that the new Virgin is a second or more off the pace of the Lotus due to a problem with the rear wing. Nick Worth just needs to fix it apparently, oh if it were that easy. Presumably "I don't need a wind tunnel" Worth would have fixed it already if it was that easy, and just maybe a wind tunnel may have shown the problem.

On the home front it has been a busy and exciting week. More expert witness work, an overseas contact for a track, and a positive response on a major project I am trying to initiate here in the US. Hopefully I can tell you all about it in the next week or so.

So Bernie is being Mr. Nice Guy and forgoing the fee from the King of Bahrain for the cancelled race. The King is getting the "Royal Treatment." Bernie is apparently trying to reschedule the race and Abu Dhabi has come out and said it's OK with Bahrain sharing the limelight at the end of the season, so if things settle down that is probably the best option. Bernie's other side is being exposed in the new book on his life, "No Angel," so the King should be happy that his right side is on show at the moment.

Not much else going on. MotoGP testing continued in Malaysia with the Hondas 1-2-3, and Rossi missing with a cold. Spies and Lorenzo followed up the Hondas, while the sponsored Yamaha second team, how does that happen, were next up with Colin Edwards.

Kolles is still saying the HRT will beat the Virgin and Lotus this year and Luizzi says he is not paying for the privilege of trying. Not sure what Kolles is on, but it must be good. Trulli says that the Pirelli's not only wear faster, but their characteristics change suddenly from understeer to oversteer, while Massa loves them. Who ever said ask a driver's opinion? Trulli also comes out against the constant rule changes in F1, costs too much and us poor fans cannot keep up. Lot of truth in what he says.

Some interesting comments on the Crash.Net web site from a lawyer on "force majeur" clauses after the Bahrain cancellation. A force majeur clause is meant to cover unforeseeable events such as earthquakes, and there is an argument that going to places with potential unstable political situations it is entirely foreseeable that one day there will be a problem. But I suppose you could use the same argument about staging races in earthquake prone regions.

Yesterday Nico Rosberg was concerned about the lack of pace with the Mercedes, and today Michael tops the timesheets at Jerez, go figure. It seems he had no less fuel than Massa when he did his quick time, so did they find something in the car or is Michael back? Two of the new boys had big offs and bent their toys. Perez and Maldonado both hit something hard, so Maldonado in particular is having a baptism of fire. Alguersuari took note of Helmut Marko's comments that Torro Rosso was not a boarding school, whatever that means, and he is more than ready to replace one or both of the current drivers. Strangely it is not Ricciardo he is favoring but Vergne, but most of what Helmut does is strange. No one answered my question about two Australian drivers by the way.

Button had his go in the new McLaren, but they are still basically doing systems checks, albeit fast ones. Lewis declared he found the car better, which you would hope he would say after all the time and effort gone into it. Lotus had another troubled day, but at the moment the field is covered by just over two seconds, so better than last year. Way too early to judge anything though. Heidfeld gets to drive tomorrow, and Boullier says if he is quick he will sign him. He needs to do something, Petrov is not setting the world alight at the moment. The news on Kubica continues to be encouraging, with Robert vowing to be back before the end of the season, but you would have to wonder why, unless his replacement is not doing well.

Ron Walker, the Australian GP boss is softening everyone up for Melbourne losing the race. Bernie is apparently upset by the remarks of the Mayor. A man not easily upset by personal comments I would have thought. Now Ron did throw in a more telling line that Bernie is concerned that for the first time in 40 years someone is questioning the value of his product. The King's new clothes comes to mind.

Over in Abu Dhabi Ferrari protege Jules Bianchi beat Grosjean off the line in the Asia GP2 race, and kept him there for a maiden GP2 win. He beat a class field, so despite being the winter series this is for real. That other series, Superleague, the one with the soccer team cars, says that it is the best alternative to F1 because it has so many ex F1 stars. Narain Karthikeyan, Sebastien Bourdais, Antonio Pizzonia and Robert Doornbos? Not exactly a stellar cast, and all cast offs. Yes they can drive much better than I, but that is not the point. Let's see someone come through this series to F1, not from it.