Bob Barnard Track Engineering

So this morning we saw the Monaco street parade, with no changes of leaders if you discount the pit stops, and Indianapolis with a record number of lead changes. Which is right? Neither. Indy was all too easy to draft past someone, and until the end was a fuel strategy race. Congratulations Dario, but can't say I enjoyed it, in fact I fell asleep on the couch for the first half of the race. I expect we will see the same multi-leader race tonight in Charlotte, although the All Star Race was pretty spread out.

Monaco may have produced the sixth winner as expected. Now Monaco is very difficult to pass on, but we hardly saw any attempt being made, it was alll about saving fuel and preserving tires. Not racing in my book. The field has certainly bunched up on performance, making passing even harder, just ask Jenson who made an un-characteristic move on Kovalianen.

So Alonso leads the drivers Championship. Not that much wrong with the Ferrari is there, even Massa managed a decent race. Perez did not cover himself in glory today, he seemed intent on hitting everyone he could. And how about Maldanado? He makes the same move on Perez in practice that he did to Lewis in Spa and Lewis was supposed to be at fault. Here Maldanado gets a ten grid place penalty for a blatant move, but Lewis gets put to the back at the last race for a team failure to fill the car. Where's the consistency?

But how is it that last race Lewis could look after his tires to do a two stop race when everyone else did a three stop, and today seemed to have to nurse them? McLaren really have not got on top of these tires or their car set up. Lewis' contract talks must be interesting, but it is hard to see where else he can go. 

We saw plenty of fireworks on and off the track in Spain. Unusually the Barcelona race was a cracker, with Williams, everybody's sentimental favorite, winning at last, and deservedly. Maldonado may bring a bag of cash, but he also obviously brings skill and guts. I admit I for one thought him good, but only there for the money, but he proved us all wrong yesterday. Hanging on under great pressure from Alonso showed nerve and courage. How sad that their celebration was spoiled by the pit fire, and how great to see Pastor rescuing his brother, again the courage.

In my discussions with fire marshals the world over, who always get carried away with the risk of fire in a pit building, I usually ask them when was the last fire in a garage, as opposed to the pit lane. They cannot answer as it was so long ago, but now I can't use that argument. What I also say is still valid though, if you are going to have a fire it is as good a place as any as it has a lot of fire fighting equipment and people who know how to use it. Pity the same cannot be said for the track's fire fighting force it seems. In my expert witness work we always ask about manuals and procedures, and what training staff have had, and this just confirms the importance of not just having procedures, but practicing them. The other thing I have learned running events is that it is not over just because the race or whatever action is going on, has finished. The event ends when everyone has gone home, so don't knock off the staff.

It was impressive to see the pictures of the team members fighting the fire, knowing what to do and doing it calmly. As Pit Pass said, they are a community, even if they fight all the time, but what family doesn't? When the chips are down they pull together, great to see.

So what of the race? McLaren shot Lewis in the foot again, how many ways can they do that, and how long can he put up with it? Amazing to see him still passing and attacking while preserving his tires for a two stop race, and beating Button at his own game. What would we have seen had he started on Pole? And why did he start from the back? He set a time in Q2, so why did he not start based on that time down with Vettel? Very strange goings on with Red Bull and the noses, and how did Vettel still run 6th after his nose problem and drive through? Alonso continues to flatter the Ferrari, what would he do if the car was sorted? Massa is an embarrassment and should have been pinged for blocking, and HRT are an ongoing embarrassment and should just go away.

Alexander Rossi did OK in his Friday session, kept it off the wall and wasn't too far off Petrov's time. Let's hope for some more sessions for him. Sauber continues to impress, as does Lotus, both of whom you would expect to win a race sometime this year. Almost anybody's race this year.

Over at Donnington for the WSBK there were fireworks of a different kind, with BMW repeating their DTM achievement and winning for the first time. 1-2 in the first race, and should have been in the second until Rae knocked them out at the last turn. How do you do that and still win the race? We see Schumacher given a penalty for punting out Senna, and rightly so whatever Michael says, and Rae wins the race. Still, both races were a cracker, which is more than can be said for our two home grown Sports Car series who have to make up for lack of racing by interviewing anybody they can find. I've said it before, but why do we have to listen to Scott Atherton during every ALMS race and hear the same BS about how great everything is? Two LMP1 cars does not make a race. Thank goodness for the GT's, and very good to see the Aston on pole, but what happened to its' pace in the race? Over at Grand-Am it seemed impossible for anyone to pass another car without hitting it in the process, but I guess it is owned by NASCAR. 

On the F1 commercial side the change in Government in France has made the French GP more complicated and certainly more expensive. Red Bull and Ferrari are to get seats on the Board of the floated company, as apparently will McLaren, although having Ron Dennis at the meetings could be exciting. Some doubt though over whether they will get the float done this summer as the markets are not cooperating.   

In an unfortunate headline "Maldanado vows to keep fighting." I would have thought he should keep his head down, I am not alone in thinking he should have been excluded for that move on Hamilton.

On the business scene the upcoming meeting of CVC shareholders promises to be interesting with some major investors wanting answers as to what CVC actually knew and why it has not done something about its management since all this broke?

The Qatar wealth fund has denied it is the likely investor in Silverstone while there are no shortage of rumors. Joe Saward says the deal is done but no one is saying, while the BRDC has told members that the deal will not be closed until later this year. They sold their soul to Bernie to keep the F1 GP and now they have to find someone else to pay the piper.

Following on my comments yesterday about Indy and the MotoGP there is news today that this was the last year of their contract and Indy is not sure it will be renewed. Laguna has a contract for the next two years and Austin has a contract from 2013. It is hard to imagine Indy makes any money on this after paying to rebuild the track for it and then repaving it.

Not much else exciting going on. Baltimore ALMS and Indycar race this coming weekend on the new street circuit, so that will be interesting to see how that works.

Well I think the Stewards wimped out on that one. Five grid places for deliberately driving into someone? Joe Saward said it well, "less than severe given what happened." He should be excluded for at least this race. And Sir Frank should have the guts to fire him, deliberately damaging his car. I know he brings a lot of sponsorship, but also disrepute. How is Hamilton reprimanded? Why would he deliberately move right to hit Maldanado, or was it for the pass at the bus stop? That to me was clear cut, Maldanado was wallying around, slow, stayed right as if to give Lewis room and then when Lewis is alongside cuts back left, no problem for me. Has Maldanado been watching "Days of Thunder" too much? I can just see Sir Frank, "now I want you to go out and hit the safety car."

Vettel took pole from Lewis in his repaired McLaren at the last gasp, but tomorrow's race should be interesting. Button starting from 13th, Michael from the back after his loose wheel incident, lucky that was not at Eau Rouge, and Alonso down in 8th after an unhappy qualifying session. Senna drove well for his first drive on Pirelli's after a long absence and outqualified his team mate Petrov by over a second. Ricciardo needs to lift his game, over a second slower than Luizzi is not going to get him into Webber's seat. Mark has predictably re-signed for Red Bull for next year, so Daniel has another year to prove himself, but where? The new owners at HRT will want a Spaniard in at least one of the cars. Fortunately the Stewards waived the 107% rule and all cars will start, including Michael's three wheeler. Not sure what the point of having a 107% rule is if you are not going to enforce it. I can understand Michael, but the conditions were the same for everyone in that Q1 session.

Roman Grosjean predictably wrapped up the GP2 title after finishing third in the Saturday rain affected race, now let us see where he goes next year.

At Indianapolis for the MotoGP Casey Stoner is dominating practice despite being highly critical of the new track surface. It started out very slippery Friday morning and has improved as it cleaned up and has some rubber, but there are comments it is wearing tires very fast. "Most" of the bumps have gone, and Casey has this morning run the fastest lap around here, but still considers it his least liked track. Ben Spies is flying the Americans flag with second fastest, and Colin Edwards is inspired by home soil to be the quickest non-works bike. Lorenzo is not happy in seventh behind Colin, while the Ducati boys continue to struggle, Rossi being the quickest in eighth but over a second off the pace. Let's see what qualifying brings, although of course here in the US SPEED would rather show off-road racing or a chopper show than an actual MotoGP, so we won't see it.

Stories today that the BRDC, owners of Silverstone, are looking to lease the place out now they have spent all that money on it. A one hundred year lease term is suggested, although how anyone can predict what will happen in the next decade I don't know, let alone the next century. $400m is the asking price, so they can then spend all that on their grand scheme of hotels etc. So what does the lessee get, the track? And how does he make any money? I know it is only $4m a year, but then there is the interest or opportunity cost. The BRDC is not making money on the F1 GP at the moment, and I know the place runs all year, but then it costs money to run it all year. It was suggested Bernie might want it, but he know better than most that owning tracks and running races is not where the money is at, he makes his from the poor track owner, just ask him about how well Turkey is going. As I said before, do they not learn from history? Octagon went down this road and bought their way out of the deal, and the Nurburgring is currently in all sorts of trouble with their hotel/theme park/conference center development. Donnington should still be burned in everyone's memory, what a farce that was. Now Silverstone is not so remote as the Nurburgring, but it is not in the middle of Europe either. 

It is interesting that Audi have gone from an open cockpit car to a closed for this year's Le Mans contender the R18, and Aston Martin has gone from a closed cockpit to an open. Can they both be right? Audi have preferred the open cockpit since they built the R8 due to the easier driver changes and less problems with visibility. They had power to burn presumably to overcome the extra drag. Now they say the restrictions on the engine mean they have to minimise drag, hence the closed cockpit. Allan McNish at the Autosport Show said that the petrol cars will be very competitive this year due to Article 19, and that the Aston was already very fast last year. So does Aston now have power to burn over the diesels and can therefore go to the open cockpit? I recall when Tony Dowe was running the Panoz he cut the roof off as the open cars at that time had some rule breaks which if I recall correctly allowed larger rear tires and a bigger fuel tank. Who makes this up? Although it did not have the elegance of the Coupe, it won races.  All part of the "knowing the rules and exploiting them" game that is motor sport.

Every journalist on earth must be at the Autosport Show or Wroom with Ferrari and Ducati. Not sure how much Ferrari and Co. spend on this bash but it is worth every penny in the PR onslaught they achieve at a time when there is not much else happening. Some one must have been in Venezuela to cover Maldanado in the Williams with Hugo Chavez and the deal with PDVSA. As I think Joe Saward commented, there ways of being a "pay for ride" driver without actually paying for it yourself, which is what most of these deals are. So Williams protesting that this is not a pay for play deal sounds a little far fetched. I don't really care if PDVSA give Sir Frank the money he needs to be competitive again  as long as Maldanado does not turn out to be another Eliseo Salazar.

I love Luca di Montezemolo, he says such great quotes. "maybe when others have won 10% of what Ferrari has won, then they can also have their say." He does not think Red Bull know how to behave as Champions, and is also using their overspending to point out the silliness of the RRA. And I love the comment on Brawn winning due to "technical drug taking." F1 on steroids. They presumably grew bigger diffusers.

On the home front I completed the text for my book, so now to find a publisher, edit and select the photos. I need a shot of me on the winners rostrum at Phillip Island in '89 if anyone knows a photographer who was there. I have a concept plan for the Circuit Grand Bayou and waiting on feedback from the client, who at first sight liked it a lot. Busy on a business plan for another project, so watch this space. Don't forget the Circuit Forum in LA in April, the program is just about done and will be out probably next week.