Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Three series enjoying Friday practice with interesting results. In Turkey the weather spoiled the morning, especially for Vettel who stuck it into the wall in a big way and could not take part in the afternoon session. Neither McLarens bothered in the morning, they must expect a dry race, or perhaps they are expecting a wet one and wanted to save their wet tires as Pirelli are concerned that not enough sets of wets have been provided for a complete wet weekend. Button finally topped the times with the McLarens and Mercedes swapping fast times, yes even Michael. Webber apparently did not try for a fast time so the Red Bulls were for once missing in action. Alonso is down in 11th, with both Massa and Petrov faster than their team leaders. Lotus were split either side of the Sauber of Kobayashi, while the corner Virgin turned must have been a wrong turn as they had trouble beating the HRT's.

Meanwhile at Spa it was dry, fancy that, and the Audis continued to set the pace, and the closest petrol car still nearly 5 secs off their fast time. Some big accidents seen here so far, with Peugeot doing an overnight rebuild and the RML car being withdrawn. In the GT class Porsche managed to get one car amongst the Ferraris, but your money must be on the new 458 in this class. Still in 1000km around here anything can happen, even rain!

The Superbikes are at Monza and Checa is in an uncustomary mid field position. Leon Haslam leads the way on the BMW from Mad Max Biaggi. Let's see what Saturday brings for all these series.

Elsewhere the Authorities have frozen Mr. Gribkowsky's money so it looks like he is going to trial. Should make interesting theater. Bernie is going to have fights on two fronts it seems. There are now reports that News Corp is also going to be at the Stuttgart meeting. It appears that this meeting surprised the other teams and is making them "nervous." And we thought politics was dead in F1.

The buy out of CVC continues to be the main story with some interesting side bars. The timing of these cannot be a coincidence. Ferrari has come out with a statement that "Ferrari believes that big decisions need to be made soon about the future direction of Formula 1 - as it suggested more needs to be invested by its chiefs to promote the sport." They say that they are impartial on ownership, but if CVC stays then they must invest in promoting the sport. Clearly the teams think that News Corp with their media muscle will do a better job on this score, and I have first hand experience of what they can do when they worked with me on promoting the Australian Motorcycle GP back in '89. Domenicali has made a number of statements in the past few days, continuing the push about F1 being too dominated by aerodynamics and not about engines, which is inversely proportional to the road car business. There are reports that "teams are indeed setting out plans for simple and stable rules post 2012, the revival of key European venues, reduced ticket prices and the modernizing of media platforms for the younger audience." Admirable goals for true enthusiasts I would think.

There are some clear messages being coordinated here, more promotion, stable rules with more emphasis on other components of the car, keeping the current engine, and reviewing where they are racing. There is a meeting scheduled in Stuttgart of Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull to discuss the buy-out, and it is suggested to join it. And at last an un-named team boss has come out and said what I have been saying, KERS as it is used now, is not "green." Only used for acceleration, increases the car's weight so uses more fuel, and then you have to dispose of the batteries. Someone had to say it. KERS is like the DRS, there to spice up the show, so stop pretending it's green. Capturing wasted energy is a worthwhile objective, but not like this.

Meanwhile, there is some real racing going on at Spa with the Audi fastest on the first day. It is all very close among the diesels, but the best petrol car, the Rebellion Toyota is 5 secs off the pace. In the GT class it is all Ferrari.

Virgin says it hopes to "turn the corner" in Turkey. I hope so, there are lot of them.

So the FIA made a firm decision not to decide on Bahrain. Let's give them another month. What a bunch of champions. Don't wait for Bernie to tell you what is going on, or the rulers, send someone down there to see for yourselves! Better still, ask the media people who are there already. This is not difficult. It should have been dropped a long time ago. Who says there are no politics in sport, anyone who has dealt with a National or International Sporting body knows it is nothing but politics. These guys are elected like normal politicians, and make the same deals to get there. For a while there when Bernie really did run things decisions were made and we got on with it. What happened to Jean Todt, did he forget how to do it?

The story about the Kawasaki Team trailer with the load of drugs, and a gun and ammunition, even worse than drugs in England I would have thought, is an odd one. The team are now saying they knew nothing about any of it, someone snuck into the trailer in Assen and left them there. On the table reportedly, and no one noticed. What was the person who left them thinking? No one will notice, I'll just slip over to England and into the team workshop and pick them up when no one is looking? Big problems for all teams from now on one would think. Can you imagine unpacking one of these at Dover? When I was twelve my family came back from a trip to Europe in a Hillman Minx and I saw what the customs did to that.

There is a mess at Williams. This should not happen to Sir Frank, but the SS Williams looks like the Titanic at the moment. Patrick Head is abandoning ship with his bag of loot from the sale of his shares, which are sinking faster than the teams results. The Captain, Parr, has offered to go down with it, but the owners want him around, so it is Sam Michael and Jon Tomlinson who are to be thrown overboard to appease the ocean gods. Enter the evil villain Mike Coughlin to the rescue. Just kidding, I always thought Mike naive and stupid, and a scapegoat for the "spygate" scandal at McLaren, so he has done his time and is getting another turn in the engine room. Let's hope he can get up enough steam to save her. Sorry about getting carried away with the ship analogy.

Meanwhile, over at superliner Ferrari. Upgrades for Turkey have been tested in a straight line at Vairano, but not until after another of those "filming sessions" that Ferrari seem to be famous for. Amazing how these Italian teams can get away with testing on two and four wheels.

Fuel for thought. My Wife Xan has been following the McLaren trucks on their way to Turkey for the GP on facebook. This morning Xan raised the question of just how much diesel that is taking, and times that by all the other trucks headed there. Puts the amount of gas used in a race in some perspective.

And here is the US Indycar series dragging itself off to Brazil only to have the race stopped for rain after a lot of accidents. Did I mention another debacle? Like Bernie just chasing the money. This is not going to solve their problems. There is talk of a second race down there next year, oh goody. Why not just move all of the series to South America if that is where the money is, we can just tune in and watch on Versus, if we get it, or care. Interesting that Sears Point is talking to the World Touring Car Championship, WTCC, about a race next year. Not such a bad idea given that the Chevy Cruze is competitive, but not sure US audiences are ready for WTCC. WTCC goes to some odd tracks around the world so Sears won't seem so bad.

Estoril has been run and won, well done Pedrosa, shoulder surgery obviously did the trick. Making for an interesting Championship. I was going to say Ben Spies disappointed again, but it was a crew member who caused the problem this time, so we'll suspend judgement. Interesting that IRTA has 16 new teams applying for next season. Where are all those machines, and more importantly money, coming from. I know the rules are changing but that hardly seems to be sufficient reason for this. Let's see how many actually make the grid. The "claiming rule" is back. I know the US grew up on this stuff, but it just seems foreign to me in this day and age. Like going back to amateur hour.

I loved the report from Bahrain that "day-to-day life is improving under the State of National Safety." Aka a State of Emergency, how all dictators have maintained power through history. Let's ask the average Joe if he thinks his day-to-day life is improving. I think we know that answer from the open letter to Bernie. Today is May 1st, has anyone heard any news from the FIA?

The news is all about regimes today. Bernie says we should extend the deadline for Bahrain to subdue the demonstrators. Is money really that important? Then there is the story that McLaren talked to Libya back in January. Shock and horror, how could they? As I recall in January Gaddafi was still everyone's flavor of the month, so why are Mclaren being so defensive. "Yes we considered it but no actual meetings took place." So what? Is Gadafi still on the UN Human Rights Commission or whatever it's called? Now when Kenny and I were nearly suckered into taking Libyan oil money in '93 for the US Motorcycle GP this was the reaction I expected.

Then there is the story that Sonangol, the Angolan oil company, is to sponsor something in F1 other than Ricardo Teixeira in F2. Why would be my question? I cannot see that it will generate business, it already sells its' oil to China and it is hard to imagine too many companies rushing in there. Attracting tourists? Don't think so. My daughter used to work in the oil business and went there. Lived in a guarded compound and was escorted to work every day, and not to mention the vaccinations for some nice tropical diseases. Personally I think charity, and sponsorship, begins at home. Clean up the environment from the mess of the oil business, build some schools and hospitals. Something worthwhile other than putting it in rich mens' pockets.

Peter Geran, a regular contributor, commented on my question about Ducati testing, saying he thought it was allowed as long as it was not the GP riders doing it. Are all the teams testing in that case? I know they have test riders, we see these mobile chicanes when the regulars are injured, but so do F1 teams and they do not test. Answers anyone?

Aston Martin is going testing with its Le Mans contender rather than racing at Spa. Given the problems they have had so far that seems like a very good idea.