Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Very sad to hear of Robert Fearnell's passing at the age of 57. I met Robert first at Donnington in 1988 and on several occasions after as part of ROPA. One of the real good guys with a solid background in the sport, like so many that England produces. Too young.

The last test for F1 has been completed and produced very close times, with Caterham doing surprisingly well. The other two new boys were conspicuous by their absence, so not expecting too much from them. Kimi and Lotus set the fastest time of the week, but we will really have to wait until Melbourne to see who was sandbagging. Red Bull brought out their real parts this week and suffered a lot of reliability issues, but don't count them out. They seem to have found a way to still use the exhaust gas, but my understanding is that Charlie has said anything that helps the aerodynamics will be ruled out. Could be interesting.

Elsewhere the situation in Austin just gets worse with Tavo now suing the rest of the boys. I've been in this sort of mess when I promoted Phillip Island so I know how it distracts you from the real problems. Following the USF1 debacle the rest of the world must wonder if we know what we are doing.

VJ Mallya's problems continue to mount with the Indian Tax Authorities freezing his airline's accounts.

Oscar McIntyre, a 17 year old Queensland rider, died at Phillip Island on Saturday during a support event to the WSBK. Any death on a racetrack is tragic, and is more so to me if it happens at a track which I built. I have not seen the accident, but a friend who was there, Herod Lowery, e-mailed me to say Oscar went straight on at Turn One and crossed the track between Turns 2-3. Oscar was hit by two other riders who fortunately survived.

Now when I rebuilt the track I had an earth berm at the rear of the Turn One run off to prevent this, and somehow it has been removed. I would be very interested to know by who and why. Presumably the FIM Inspector OK'd this? It is hard to imagine the Turn One run off is not long enough if you saw Kevin Schwantz get off in 1990 due to a rear brake seizure at close to 200 mph and brush himself off and walk away. Large open run offs are a two edged sword, riders tend to try and "save it" rather than lay it down. I don't know if this is what happened, but if you can get hold of the video from 1989, first lap you will see some great on-board footage of Malcolm Campbell trying to ride out an off at Turn one, not successfully.

Oh, and the race? Checa crashed out of the first leg leaving his mate Biaggi to win it, but stayed on the bike to win the second with Biaggi recovering from a Turn One first lap incident to come through the field and finish second. Biaggi is leading the Championship, but it looks like a Checa/Biaggi veterans Championship. The bright note was the race form of the BMW.

Daytona 500 postponed for the first time in its history. That is amazing in itself given Florida's weather, and today does not look good apparently.

VJ Mallya looks to be getting further and further into trouble with his Airline, just when his F1 team is starting to fly.

The Gribkoswky trial has gone quiet, but Pit Pass has information that the lawyers are looking to do a deal and drop the bribery charges for lack of any real evidence. Gribkowsky still has a problem with the German tax man though. Where does that leave Bernie? Well it leaves him a lot poorer, and if Her Majesty's tax men want to know more about his trust then he could be even poorer. Still, always another would be F1 GP promoter to donate to the cause.  

Sebring Twelve Hour will be here in a couple of weeks. It should be an Audi benefit in the absence of Peugeot. Risi's Ferrari will also be absent for the first time in a long time. Sign of the times, economically, or a move to Grand Am? They managed to field a car at Daytona remember.

Let us spare a thought for all those who have given their lives and continue to serve to protect our freedom. As we have graphically seen in the Arab world, and especially in Syria, how precious it is and how people are willing to sacrifice their lives to get it for others. I am grateful to have been born at a place and time that has not asked me to make that sacrifice.

So to Abu Dhabi and the F1 race. I did not watch it I confess, I am ploughing through thousands of pages of evidence in a fatal accident to develop an opinion, and it will not be pretty. So I have to go on the reports which have Hamilton and Button quickest, but it is only Friday. Rosberg is doing his usual trick of being amongst the slowest. You would think that signing a contract extension with Mercedes would have sparked him up. So the driver market is slowly being set, but there are a bunch of young hopefuls including Canadian Robert Wickens who drove this morning hoping to impress. 

Alonso and Vettel found the fence at Turn One during the second session. I think I have remarked before how no one had hit the wall here in two GPs, which indicated to me that the drivers were not real happy with the proximity of them and like a street track were keeping a bit in hand. Not so today it seems.

Talking of street tracks, it seems the promoter of Baltimore cannot pay his bills. Despite a very good crowd it cost more to stage the race than they paid to see it. A lesson for New Jersey where the fee is many multiples of what Indycar and ALMS would have asked. They did not have a sponsor you will respond. And how much would that be? It makes no difference, in F1 you don't get the money, Bernie does.

Bernie has finished his time in court and jetted down to Abu Dhabi. There is a lot more to come in this case, none of what Bernie says make sense, especially the arch deal maker being shaken down by a banker. 

Seems Mallya's airline is in big trouble, can't pay its gas bill or leases on planes, and the share price going down faster than his Force India cars. Sorry Sahara Force India.

After saying that this years car would be an upgrade on the 2010 chassis HRT, or more correctly Colin Kolles, is saying that it will now be a totally new car designed under the direction of Geoff Willis. Furthermore it will run at Bahrain test. But he also says "At the moment, there are approximately 40 designers finalizing the first spec." And it is going to run in Bahrain? HRT are still to name which young driver has a big enough bag of money to come and drive the "new" car.

Force India have however confirmed the worst kept secret that Sutil and  Di Resta will race their cars with Hulkenburg as the third driver. So, now let's see what Luizzi does. Now contracts are made to be broken, here in the US it is the quick and the dead for employment contracts, so I'm sure there is a get out clause, it just depends how much it is going to cost Mallya. As Joe Saward points out the bigger cost is to Mallya's credibility. I know F1 is called the "Piranha Club," but VJ has quickly become a senior member.

So Cape Town is lining up a bid for an F1 race. Do they not get the Australian news over there? What is it that makes usually sane business people think that they can make an F1 race work financially when the example is out there for all to see that you cannot, except it seems Silverstone. But then they have all those mad poms, and yes I was one once.

For all it is two days away from the start of the Rolex weekend and less than a week to F1 testing, there is little news to stir the blood, so see you tomorrow.

"The Korea International Circuit is ahead of schedule in its bid to host the country's inaugural grand prix, according to circuit official Kim Jae-ho."  I have heard some promoters spin before, but this post on ESPNF1 has to take the prize as the best! How can you be months behind on the inspection date required by the FIA and "be ahead?" Actually it gets worse. The paving which was supposed to have started Tuesday did not start until today, is now going to take three days and will be finished by Friday. These Koreans must have a different calendar than the rest of us. Now some of you may think I am picking on Korea, but I do this for a living, and it is criminal that they are both incompetent and appear to be getting cut a whole load of slack. I found out the hard way that if the powers that be know that you know how to do it they want it perfect, but if they know someone has no idea they will settle for what they can get. Life is not very fair sometimes. This Grand Prix is going to be a circus. As I have said many times, do not take your show to somewhere that does not allow it to put on anything other than it's best performance.

There is an article on Speed's web site by Marshall Pruett about how Grand Am is listening to its fans for a change, and making changes to the cars to make the series more interesting. Things like making the "greenhouse" on the Daytona Prototypes smaller, and the GT's changing to central nut wheels. Changing deckchairs on the Titanic is what comes to my mind, and he lost me completely about the possible DTM cars. Read it yourself and see if you can work it out?

VJ Mallya had a bad day in court. He originally won a decision in the English High Court over sponsors of the Spyker car that he bought to get into F1. They conflicted with his airline and brewery business which he stuck on the cars, so they pulled out. The High Court gave VJ a $4.7m payout for their leaving, but the Court of Appeal, disagreed. "both companies were contractually guaranteed the status as the team's most prominent sponsors, appeal judge Sir Bernard Rix ruled.

"In my judgment ... Force India rode roughshod over all these rights and protections." So VJ now has to pay it back. There have been rumors all year about Force India and money, this can only make matters worse.

Williams are losing sponsors at the end of this season, and have said that they are confident about replacing them. Their recent good form should help them , but it is suggested that a key figure in that good form, Nico Hulkenburg, could be out of a drive in favor of Maldanado who has a bag of money from a sponsor to bring. I know this is how F1 has run for years, but that does not make it right. What other sport can you buy your way onto the team? Not that Maldonado is not a good enough driver to get an F1 drive, but what happened to loyalty?