Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Monaco continued to give us some major crashes, and thanks to the design of the modern F1 car they all walked away, figuratively. A couple of things stood out in the race for me. "Controlled aggression" is what they say you need around here, but Lewis forgot about the controlled bit. I don't know if it was the mistake by his engineers in not sending him out early in the Q3 session started this, but I am beginning to wonder where his head is at. You know I am a fan and said after Turkey that Whitmarsh should not be asking him to avoid aggressive moves, but maybe he is seeing something we are not, until today. OK, that aggression got him past Michael, just, but his moves on Masssa and Maldanado where not smart. We saw it on the first lap in Monza last year, and just maybe we have gone over that fine line between great passing moves and stupid ones. I cannot help asking where he would have finished if he had just driven a calm race, probably fourth or fifth. His comment about being called in front of the Stewards 5 times in 6 races "may be because he is black" is a very unfortunate statement by someone not in control. Let's hope an apology is forthcoming.

The other thing I cannot understand is why under a red flag teams are allowed to work on the cars and change tires? Number one this robbed us of a great finish and penalized Alonso and Button. I know it is the rule, I am just at a loss at what that is trying to achieve? It was obvious that no one was going to pass once they all had new tires, the only thing the restart accomplished is Maldanado's car being damaged in a crash.  Vettel has to be congratulated on being able to get that many laps out of the soft tire, I for one could not believe he was not stopping again. The track helped of course, but the still had to drive faultlessly. Mark Webber's luck did not get any better with a delayed pit stop.

Aussie Daniel Ricciardo did his resume no harm by winning the FR 3.5 race, while Alexander Rossi seems to have had a good race before tangling with a back marker.

Kimi finished 27th in his Nationwide debut, and did not enjoy it much by the sound of it, complaining about how hot the cars are. The race was on the same time as the soccer, so missed it, but the commentators agreed he drove well, losing time with a pit exit speeding penalty and split splitter, if that does not sound too odd.

Checa is hot at a freezing Miller Park in the WSBK qualifying, nearly a second if front of second placed man Camier, and over a second on Biaggi.

Now I am going to crave your indulgence and talk about soccer and Barcelona. The Champions League Final was a great match, played in good spirit, but Barcelona were just too good for Man U, in fact too good for anyone. Watching the game it struck me that Barca play the game like a bull fight. Barnard's lost it I hear you say, but bear with me. If you have not seen a bullfight it is a mind game between the matador and the bull. The bull charges into the ring, going for anything and everything, much like Man U started. But as with the bull, that aggression is absorbed and gradually abates as Barca exert a little pressure back, controlling the ball and taunting the other team as happens in the ring with the bull. Eventually the matador uses his cape to mesmerize the bull, just as Barca's short passing game and ball control does to the opposition. At times Man U's defence were static, just watching until the "sword" was applied, the rapier pass through the gap to a player open in front of goal. So 3-1 is the result, and some team has to figure out how to match them at this game. Barca controlled the ball for 70% of the time, and this against one of the other great teams in the world!

If I may continue, I could watch Messi play all day, every day. Not only is he the best player in the world today, perhaps of all time, or will be, but his enjoyment at playing is evident whatever is happening to him. Lewis could learn something here. It does not matter if he has just missed a goal or been taken down by a cynical foul, he gets up smiling. Nothing fazes him. His mind must be amazing. I know mine is more like Lewis'.