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.

Curious that the second most important sportscar race is on and Autosport web page does not mention it, not even under the ALMS tag? We have Peugeot and Audi going head to head with two cars each, unlike Silverstone, and they covered that race. I know the ALMS is not seen as it once was. Quoting Gary Watkins in the September 6 Autosport, "The harsh truth is is that, despite the rhetoric from the series bosses, the ALMS is a pale imitation of its former self." As Gary says, "should Audi return and be joined by another big gun in LMP1, the ALMS can return to its former glory." That is what makes the absence of news from this weekend mystifying, we have just that scenario, and it has drawn the fans to the track by all accounts. Even SPEED has opted to show us all ten hours! Must not be a truck race on.

Practice is showing how close the race is going to be. Yes the Peugeots are fast, 204 mph at the end of the main straight, and lap times in the 1 min 8 seconds. Audi are about a second behind with the "young guys" car, who have less experience here than McNish and company. Maybe Audi know the race is not won in practice. In fact many teams opted to sit out the wet second practice to install their race set up and engine, saving the mechanics sleep last night. They commented that getting the race set up was more important than qualifying.

In LMP2 the Highcroft Honda is just in front of the Cytosport Porsche, and the GT2 class is its usual close run thing, but with the Patron Ferrari with its nose just in front. All drivers were commenting on the amount of traffic so the race is going to be fraught for the drivers and interesting for us. Luck and patience is going to determine who comes out on top, just ask Pirro.I liked Anthony Davidson's comment that Road Atlanta is a "proper mans track."

The Porsche Hybrid is performing extremely well, as you would expect from a car that almost won the Nurburgring 24 hours. Even though it is racing itself the comparison with the GT2 cars will be inevitable, and should it beat them, what then? Porsche are making statements about rejoining F1, and Audi staying with LMP1. It has been a long time since Porsche ran its own F1 car, without much success, but supplied engines to help McLaren win world championships in the mid eighties. It seems that is likely to be the way they will return, although probably not with McLaren. I think we can look forward to McLaren making their own engines when their deal with Mercedes runs out.

Talking of McLaren, Lewis says he will hold nothing back in Japan, that will be something to see! Look out world, I'm coming through. Poor Massa has finally been told what he already knew, he is there to help Alonso win the championship.

Over at MotoGP at Motegi, Pedrosa has helped Lorenzo win the championship by falling off and breaking his collarbone in two or three places, depending on what you read. He is out this weekend, so maybe they can plate it and get him back for later rounds, but what's the point? Valentino topped practice today and was surprised by the lack of shoulder pain and his speed. Let's hope he can keep it up and give us a race Sunday. Lorenzo only needs to cruise around, but if he is any sort of racer he will want to beat his team mate.

Will the real Lotus please stand up? This situation over the use of "Lotus" would be silly if it were not for the history behind that name. This is a fight between two Malaysian groups that both use the Lotus name. One is Proton, the Malaysian car maker, owned by the Government I think, that owns the rights to make Lotus road cars, and has obviously decided to go racing in a big way. They sponsor a car in IRL for Kato to drive, and have just extended that deal, and have just announced an LMP2 Prototype for 2012. In between they have announced they are sponsoring the ART GP2 team next year. So, despite licensing Tony Fernandes, another Malaysian, to use the Lotus name this year in F1, I guess they have woken up that this is a great name to have if you are going racing and have decided not to renew the agreement, or rescind it, depending on what you read.

The plot thickens, as "Team Lotus," the original F1 Team, was presumably run as a separate entity to the Lotus road cars, and that name is apparently owned by David Hunt, relation of James Hunt F1 Champion. Tony Fernandes says he has acquired the rights from David to use the Team Lotus name next year. It is all headed to the courts to resolve this mess. As nice as it is to see Lotus racing again, some of us would probably have been just as happy to remember them as they were and save us all this. How about "Force Malaysia" Tony?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, or paddock. It seems FOTA met at Singapore and agreed a "Resource Restriction Agreement" RRA, to run through 2017. Reading between the lines it sounds as if they have just extended the time for the existing "Resource Restriction" out to 2017. Quoting Renault Team Principle, Eric Boullier, "The decision taken last year [with the original RRA] was maybe in a special context with manufacturers threatening to break away for another championship. The RRA in its old version could even have damaged the sport by being too radical and I was keen to change the slope and extending it – and why not? We know we have to enter into a transition period. Everyone has done a reasonable job and I am happy we have signed this agreement."

So, it is business as usual, find as much money as you can and find a way to spend it. Martin Whitmarsh said that a number of loopholes have been closed and the RRA should be harder to fudge in future. Let us remember that this is basically a "Gentlemen's Agreement" between the teams, and there are few gentlemen in that paddock. You just have to look at the ludicrous amounts of money spent on the "motorhomes," McLaren being the biggest offender, to see where it goes. How is that making the racing better? Yes the drivers and engineers need somewhere to work and debrief, but that is a mobile Taj Mahal used for only half the races anyway. Never mind a test team, how big a team and how many trucks does that take to cart around and assemble, let alone run. Can you imagine the kitchen?

Just look at the musical drivers going on. A contract is not worth much apparently. Heidfeld did bring a sponsor to HRT as I suggested, but his drive to the end of the season seems to have lasted one race. Let's see who gets in that hot seat for Japan. Ask Petrov how his contract is going, with Boullier now saying he wants to meet Kimi face-to-face to see how serious he is about returning? Luizzi is confident his contract and good relations with the team will save his seat for next year. Let us know how that works out for you Tonio.

So Nick Heidfeld has gone from reserve driver at Mercedes, to Pirelli tire tester, and now Sauber driver. Is Peter getting a jump on the opposition with the experience Nick has with the tires? I thought the point of using Nick was he was not driving for any of the teams? Pedro de la Rosa has done a decent job, if a bit up and down, but for a guy who was test driver for McLaren for many years he did better than Luca Badoer. Must have been a shock for Pedro, but it is a smart move by Peter Sauber. Will make Singapore even more interesting.

Martin Whitmarsh says we should all be very happy with the racing this season, and he is actually right. No team has dominated, even though Red Bull probably would have if they did not shoot themselves in the foot so often. They have more issues with brakes than all the rest put together, why is that? It has been interesting how car and driver combination have suited different tracks, and the technical side has been up to par. The remaining tracks are all different. A street track with little passing, Suzuka, one of the great tracks, Korea and unknown but looks like a street circuit which might break up, Brazil, always a good race, and the Abu Dhabi. Martin says it will be great to have a finale there with the championship on the line, but at a track where there was no passing and very little action I'm not so sure.

So Kimi is looking to come back to F1 with Renault. I'm not surprised. He might enjoy rallying, but has crashed so many times you must wonder if he has a future. It would be good to have him back. I know I say we need to make room for young guys, but Kimi will add to the show and make the driver line up even stronger.

A friend sent me a piece from the Isle of Man local Radio which is questioning the future of road racing, on real roads, as they do on the Isle and in Ireland and parts of England. They lost another rider last weekend in Ireland. It takes enormous courage to race a motorcycle around these roads, but common sense says it is not the smartest or safest thing to do. It mentioned insurance. How do you insure something like that? Sure, the riders all sign a waiver, but the insurer must know that sooner or later a spectator is going to be seriously hurt or worse. The question is, if you want to keep doing this how do you make it safer, and if it is do these guys still want to do it?

In the years leading up to the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games the Australian Broadcasting Company, the PBS of Oz, ran a series called "The Games." which spoofed the preparations. It was extremely funny with John Clark as the lead. At one point he makes the comment on F1 that they are the fastest cars in the world but you can't pass, the race is decided by parking! He meant pit stops of course, and we saw it again today. Not that it was not an intriguing race. It reminded me of the Gilles Villenueve win at Jarama many years ago when he had a train of five or six cars right behind him, who could not pass for the whole race. His win was helped that day by the fact there were no pit stops in those races. The tension of watching drivers strain for every inch, and striving for perfection of braking and placement, is sometimes more exciting than non-stop passing.

So, the question of who chose the correct downforce setting was answered. Hamilton I believe was forced into the mistake by him knowing he had to get to the front to make his setting work, which they did for Ferrari.  But, if only McLaren could have matched the pit stop time, but that is why you run the race. A simulation would probably have Button winning. Vettel's race was weird, with the inevitable suspicion that his "engine trouble" was a team orders ruse, but then he goes and beats Mark anyway. Apparently it was a sticking brake that fixed itself. Very clever strategy to keep him out, the super softs do not seem to wear out anymore. I thought for a moment they were going to try the "pit on the last lap" trick and roll across the timing line in pit lane. Didn't Ferrari do that at Silverstone for Schumacher some years ago? Is that a legal move does anyone know?

And why does Hulkenburg get away with not only cutting the chicanes but clearly blocking? Alguersuari gets a drive through for cutting the first chicane without gaining an advantage, where clearly Hulkenburg gained the advantage of not losing a place. Seems it is OK as long as you do not gain a place, you can avoid losing one. Isn't that the same thing?

It seems to be the World Championship no one wants to win. Every time we seem to get a clear leader or leaders, they screw up and it all closes up again. No one is taking it by the scruff of the neck and making it their own. Keeps it interesting for us, but as Lewis commented, not for the guys involved.

Bob Varsha was back to his best form, or worst if you have to listen to him. I muted the race because he would not shut up, which is very annoying as I like the sound of F1 cars, but if you cannot hear them for Bob rabbiting on then what's the point?

Peugeot won the inaugural Intercontinental Cup race of the Le Mans Series at Silverstone as I predicted, although McNish suffered the first mechanical breakdown of the Audi since the R10 days. Dindo says they learned a lot in their preparation for the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, so we should look forward to a cracking race as usual. At least I can listen to Radio Le Mans commentary, which I know some of you do not like, but I do.

Pruett and Rojas won the final race of the Grand Am series, no surprise there. Who is going to step up and challenge these guys next season, Dyson?