Bob Barnard Track Engineering

We are down at the sharp end of most Championships now, with some having been decided, some decided this weekend, and some still to play for. Congratulations to Lorenzo for the MotoGP and Tony Elias for the Moto2 World Championships, but what might have been if Valentino had not crashed? But that is what makes this sport so great to watch, there are so many what ifs, but in the end it is only what was. It is not as if someone else took Valentino out, he crashed himself, so it is part of his year. Great guts and determination to come back, and to win today's race from sixth. Lorenzo is a worthy Champion, and next season should be a very good one if they can all stay healthy.

Daniel Ricciardo missed out on the FRenault 3.5 Championship, finishing fourth after a late spin following a good duel with the eventual Champion Aleshin. Daniel has still done enough to deserve a step up next year, so let's see where he goes.

At Suzuka the predictable Red Bull 1-2 occurred with Vettel leading home Webber and is now third in the championship by virtue of Alonso's extra race win. All pretty predictable, except I thought Kobayashi's drive was inspired, and how he kept the car on the track and largely one piece must have been divine intervention. Hamilton too drove a great race given his start to the weekend and apparently with an ear infection. That cannot be great with a driver relying on the inner ear so much to tell him what is going on with the car. I don't know that I expected the McLaren to be as close on times a they were, and were not using the latest wing due to their practice problems. How unlucky can you be for a new gearbox to lose third gear when you have gone through the season without problems? It robbed us of a great finish between Alonso and Lewis. Massa had a terrible weekend. Are the mind games of being a number two getting to him? That dive down the inside at Turn One at the start was never going to work, and how did he not get a penalty for that when Petrov did? Petrov's would seem an honest mistake while Massa's was totally self inflicted.

We were treated to some excellent "commentator speak" this weekend. Kobayashi had three "unofficial spins." Those official ones must be something to see. Then there was the 130R that should be called the 130L, really? Varshaisms abound. I especially liked the "slow hairpin." I personally prefer the really fast hairpins, but you do not see many of them these days. David Hobbs chimed in with the fact that Red Bull had lead all the races this year "one way or another." I personally only know of one way to lead a race, but David has had a lot more experience of this stuff.

David Brabham finished thirteenth at Bathurst, only twelve seconds behind the winning Holden driven by Lowndes and Skaife after over six hours of racing. Craig Lowndes was one of those Australian drivers I was referring to yesterday who did get to Europe, but only had money for one year, so came back to drive tin tops, and very well he does it too.

And so on to Korea for the inaugural Grand Prix. Let's hope it is not a reprise of Dallas from 1984, or Spa where the race was canceled after one practice. Charlie Whiting is going there Monday, and will probably give it the OK, seeing as how Bernie has already said so.

As amply demonstrated at Suzuka, drainage is a key factor in building a track, and a most difficult thing to achieve. It is one of the featured topics in my Track Engineering session at next months Professional Circuit Owners Forum in Cologne, and we have the right guy presenting the latest designs, as we have for every topic. If I were building a new track I would take this team of presenters to do it for me.

Now Suzuka did some upgrading before the Japanese GP came back from Fuji, but they obviously spent all the money on the important stuff like the pit building, corporate suites and press room. I do not know how much rain they got, but 50mm was the forecast, which is not a lot where I've been living, but the topography of Suzuka, which makes it such a great track, also presents a huge challenge for drainage. Tomorrow morning is forecast wet as well, so we are in for an interesting day. Lewis Hamilton's weekend went from bad to worse with a gearbox change, so he is going backwards at the moment. Still, Kimi won it from 17th once, so anything is possible.

It seems the flexi-wing saga is not over, with comments about how low the Red Bulls are running resurfacing. Martin Whitmarsh said he was too busy to notice, I bet he was.

Bernie is as always in the news guaranteeing the Korean race will go ahead amidst photos of a track with a top course and curbs. I will be the first to congratulate them if that surface stays down, and will be in the queue to ask what they used. Bernie also said the Russian F1 GP is a done deal, the only potential stumbling block being the annual promotion fee, apparently comparable to the approximately $40 million paid by Singapore and Abu Dhabi. Oh, is that all? Bernie says he will sign the deal with the resort city Sochi the day after they sign it. For $40m I bet he will. So who is being dropped from the calendar? Is Austin in trouble? According to the local American Statesman newspaper the planning authorities have issued a four page list of concerns about the project. Tavo is apparently some way from satisfying the bureaucrats who have to approve it before groundbreaking can occur, which is scheduled for December. Couple this with the recent report that the design has not been submitted to the FIA as expected, not that they have missed a deadline, just an opportunity, and you wonder where this going. Tavo welcomed the inclusion of Perez in the Sauber Team, saying it will add 20,000 to the crowd.

In Malaysia Jorge Lorenzo is obviously out to prove himself a worthy champion by taking pole for the MotoGP ahead of Nicky Hayden, Nicky's best qualifying for a long time. Maybe Jorge figures that being in front is the safest place to be with Valentino back in sixth spot. Ben Spies qualified well, maybe he is going to run rear guard for his future team mate?

In the FRenault 3.5 final round Australian Daniel Ricciardo won the first of the weekend's two races to tie for the lead in the Championship with Russian Mikhail Aleshin, so Sunday's race will decide the title. Nice going Daniel, let's hope you have the backing to keep going unlike most Australian drivers. Perhaps Mark Webber's performance and potential F1 title will spark more sponsorship interest. Tonight's race , for us in the US, from Suzuka should clarify the F1 Championship picture, and not hopefully not "muddy the waters," couldn't help that. Whatever happens it will be a great few hours of TV thanks to the qualifying postponement.

It seems the two newest team owners in F1 know more than the powers that be that have been running the thing. Tony Fernandes has come out and said we should get rid of blue flags because it is slowing his cars down, and Sir Richard agrees with him. I think there a lot of things slowing their cars down, that is why they are seeing the blue flag. It cannot be the engine though as Williams is using the Cosworth to great effect. Cannot be the drivers, Glock, Trulli and Kovalainen are no slouches. Cannot be the tires, they are all the same, so it has to be the car. Fix the car, don't try and fix the sport. If there were no blue flags then presumably his drivers would be looking in the mirrors even more than they do now as they would have no other warning.

It seems everyone except Lorenzo enjoyed seeing the fight with Rossi, and more than a few took exception to Lorenzo's comments after. Personally I interpreted them as not bemoaning the forcefulness of Rossi, just that it should not be what a team mate does when the other rider is trying to win a Championship, which is not unreasonable. Bit like Vettel on Webber at Turkey. Once Lorenzo seals the Championship then it will be something to watch.

Alonso says he is ready for some pain in the four remaining races. Not quite sure what he was referring to other than perhaps a lot of extremely long hours and hard work for the team. Let's hope he does not expect physical pain. Looking forward to Suzuka, should be a cracking race, and the tension gets ramped up every race.

Also on next weekend, not that we get to see it here in the US, is the best touring car race in the world, Bathurst. If you have the chance be sure to watch. David Brabham is a glutton for punishment and after a ten hour race at Road Atlanta is heading to Bathurst for another one on an equally challenging track and, if possible, even more competitive cars!

It comes as no surprise that Sergio Perez will line-up alongside Kamui Kobayashi at Sauber next year in a new deal involving Mexican communications giant Telmex. Let's hope he gets a better chance to show his talent than most of the recent new boys, but Peter Sauber has demonstrated that in the past and has brought in some very good drivers, so good luck Sergio. Hopefully the Telmex sponsorship will move Sauber up the grid, it has not hurt Chip Ganassi in the Grand Am.

So now we have everyone calling Singapore a jewel, just because Bernie likes a parade with pretty lights. Someone said it is a great race, no it is a great event, there is a difference. Now, I know some of you think I am picking on Singapore, but my comments are intended to try and balance the overblown expressions of excellence. We have a track that is almost impossible to pass on. I say almost because we saw a few, when a driver had a much quicker car or better tires, and the overtaken car did not fight it. The rest of the time we saw the consequences of trying with one or both cars out. Vettel said it was too risky to try and pass Alonso, not conducive to good racing. Again we saw a lack of preparation for an incident, both in the track layout and the operations. Nowhere to put a damaged car or a crane to lift it, and no marshals running to remove it. Kovalainen was desperate to find a fire marshal and he was lucky he got that fire out with the small extinguisher they passed him through the pit wall debris fence. I know this is not politically correct, but I have never liked the fence on pit wall. I know the reasoning, but when did we have an accident that sprayed debris over that wall, I'm sure someone will tell me.

Then the NASCAR Channel, sorry SPEED, showed their utter contempt for F1 fans by leaving the race without the winners rostrum or the interviews, not for the first time, to go to a NASCAR talking heads show. SPEED, you know the time this race is going to run so why do you do this, especially hours before the other race is due to start?

Singapore says that they are going to study the true economic benefit of the event, and see what Bernie's fee is, before the ante up for the new contract after 2012. It was a sell-out, but the stands were largely empty Friday, and that tells me they are not tourists coming in for the race but locals, so where is the benefit?

Korea seems even more in trouble now Bernie has finally fessed up that all is not well. "We have to get lucky and hope it will happen." Not the way to run a multimillion dollar sport I think, and not Bernie's style at all.

A friend who works for Musco Lighting has responded to my comment on how "green" can you be using the power for the lights. They have a system coming, that is not for common knowledge at the moment, that will improve the situation, but it still needs power to run which would not be required for a daytime race. And let's not forget the lighting required for the spectators, it is not just the track.

I made a silly comment a month or so ago that Vettel must be dreaming if he thinks he can still win the Championship. Well, here we are and he can still do it, as can Alonso, Webber and Hamilton, and maybe Button. As we have seen anything can happen in the last four(three?) races, it is the Championship no one wants or can take control of.

So Bernie thinks Singapore is a "jewel" that gets polished better every year? That may be the 5000 feet view, or the one from the balance sheet, but closer to the action it's not much of a jewel for us race fans. Why did Massa's Ferrari sit in the middle of the track with no marshals trying to move it, in fact not one in sight, and no cranes to lift it. Do these people not look at other races? Monaco, which is a jewel, shows every year how to do it

Massa apparently had a gearbox problem, but they chose to change the engine as well as he was last on the grid anyway. Sort of follows from my blog a couple of days ago about potential problems for Ferrari. Let's see how Alonso goes in the race. Should be interesting as it is still very close among the five championship contenders. It is really anybody's race, and anyone's race to lose. Webber and Button are the two most likely not to put it in the wall, but I guess we will see.

Murphy The Bear has a new posting today on the state of sportscar, and notes, as I have been saying, the lack of "buzz." Makes it hard for us bloggers when nothing stirs the spirit. Petit Le Mans next weekend, so let's hope for some more interest. Always a great race, second only to the 24 hour for me, and don't forget the Radio Le Mans feed for those of us who do not want SPEED's endless nonsense. I have to take my hat off to them, I could not remember so much useless verbiage to keep spouting, unless they have someone supplying a script. If they do we need to find that person and take away his pen.

The ongoing saga of Korea. Apparently the surface was still not down this last week, and the final inspection is supposed to be Tuesday. Bernie has his money they say, so the race will go on regardless. He who has the gold makes the rules?

I want to thank Peter G for his comments, especially pointing out that for a series that is trying to be "green," night racing uses an enormous amount of unnecessary energy. I have made this comment in respect of NASCAR, video boards at the Cowboys stadium, soccer night matches, etc. Why is F1, or motor racing in general, the only one who has to be relevant in terms of energy saving? Has anyone an idea on the amount of energy required to light Singapore or Abu Dhabi, compared to say, the amount of fuel the cars use?