Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Slow news day, I guess we will have to get used to this as we go into the winter break, but who knows, there may be more gossip then.

Portugal qualifying washed out. Phillip Island is not looking so bad now. It must rain a lot in Portugal, although I always thought of it as a dry country like Spain. I remember Senna's great win there in '85 when it was a washout.  So Lorenzo on pole by half a second and Hayden, Rossi and Stoner all close. I bet Pramac are glad they drafted Checa in to improve their performance, he is last and over 5 seconds off the pace. Who thinks that was a good move? There are only two races left with this one, what was the risk of giving some young guy a chance?

V8Supercars will not be returning to Bahrain next year with scheduling around other events as the reason, but I suspect since no one turned up to watch it may not be worth what the V8's were asking. Now Abu Dhabi is a stand alone race which cannot be a cheap exercise, so you wonder how long that will last, but I guess they have to put something on at this billion dollar mausoleum.

Peugeot ran a test hack at Monza to prepare for next year's Le Mans. Not sure I like the sharks fin, I know it is there for safety reasons, but it does not look right on what was surely one of the most beautiful sportscars ever built.

The driver silly season goes on, with Hulkenburg getting a big rap from Sir Frank Williams, just when he was about to get the axe for Maldanado. D'Ambrosio is rumored to be close to signing for Virgin, so who's out?

Monza is an anachronism of a race track. Great history and atmosphere, but a bit like the old Hockenheim and Silverstone, long straights interrupted  by a couple of corners, and then we throw in  a couple of chicanes to slow the cars down, but only a little. We all know, except Bob Varsha, despite the fact he had just told us, that it is in a Royal Park and very limited in what it can do, much like Brands Hatch. So why does Bob wonder why "they have not done more with the infield of the old oval?"

What surprises me is the lack of serious accidents. We saw yesterday how Massa narrowly avoided hitting the wall at the Parabolica, and with the extreme speeds and lack of run off I would expect many more incidents. Now I would suspect that that would mean that the drivers are not at ten tenths, leaving a bit on the table, but when you watch that is very hard to believe.

Interesting technical session, especially between the McLarens, and Lewis may yet have made the right decision. OK, he will lose a bit of time in the corners, but you are not going to overtake there anyway. It is at the end of the fast straights where the overtaking will happen, especially Turn 1, and if Lewis can get through the Parabolica OK then he should be in a good place to go by. I mentioned yesterday how fast he was back on the gas at the entry to the Parabolica, and watching today it was noticeable how the quick cars only went back to fifth and were immediately on the gas, whereas the slower cars were going down a lot of gears.

Interesting the Red Bull pair were not in the hunt for the pole. Mark continued to have bad luck in practice, and the commentators questioned the decision not to put a fresh engine in his car for the race. Is Red Bull still playing games? Vettel was never a factor, despite being quick yesterday. Mercedes struggling badly, but Williams continue their good form, and Kubica does wonders with the Renault.

So Rome has done a deal for an F1 GP starting in 2012 or 13. Bulgaria again gets a mention. Where is this going to end? Who are we going to lose? There are a few I could suggest, but I doubt Bernie is going to give up the income from them.

Talking of failed stupid GP bids we had the Donnington Park saga which never made any sense except as a whipping post for Silverstone. So Simon Gillette tears the place up and then goes bankrupt. Along comes Adroit, an engineering company to take over the promotion and fix the mess. Now I am a Civil Engineer who made the transition to Promoter, so gave them the benefit of the doubt, but again I had my doubts to give them the benefit of. Lo and behold after fixing the track they gave the place back to the Wheatcroft's. Robert Fearnall, the tracks long time promoter, said "Adroit is a construction company that realised running a race circuit was outside it's experience." Perhaps they could have realized that before they took it on? This sport is full of people who know nothing about it but think it is glamorous and that they can be successful where others fail.  It would be interesting to know who paid for fixing the track, or was it a freebie from Adroit?

I know I wrote off Allan McNish yesterday after practice, and now he is on pole, but I do not think it is quite that straightforward. It sounds as if the Audi squad got the strategy correct and Peugeot did not, but Davidson is still not worried about the race, and nor would I be. But I have underestimated both Allan and Audi before though.

Those of you who have followed my blog will know my views on the English Autosport weekly magazine as the best there is. It turned 60 this week, nearly as old as me, and celebrates with a whopping 330 page issue looking back on those 60 years, the cars, the drivers and the tracks. It is a keeper. Have not read it all yet of course, but a look through is enough to see the quality of what they have produced, so make sure you get a copy wherever you are.

The article on iconic tracks is interesting, and they did a great job on Adelaide, but then again I am biased. I'm sure Ron Walker from the Melbourne GP is getting ready to sue them over their comments that Melbourne has yet to reach the standard Adelaide set. It is interesting to see the other tracks from each decade. I would have got them wrong. 50's Pescara, 60's Suzuka, 70's Paul Ricard, 80's Adelaide, 90's Texas Motor Speedway!, and 00's Algarve. Of course the word "iconic" does not necessarily translate to the best, but there are some interesting omissions.

I forgot for instance that Suzuka was built in the sixties. You tend to think of it in terms of its' F1 life. What a track it must have been when built, quite unique, and still is. Paul Ricard is a good choice for the seventies, but Texas for the nineties? I am trying to think of its place in the development of the 1.5 mile tri-ovals of that period, and why that one is particularly special. Guess I will have to read that article. Then the noughties. I would have picked the Chinese F1 track for sheer extravagance, and the grandstand/pit complex is certainly iconic. But there you are, we each have our own opinions, and thank goodness for that.

Of course these are tracks built in those decades, so Spa, Monza or Monaco pre-date the magazine.

Talking of Spa, it is raining, imagine that. Spa is notorious for rain. It is one of those places where that old saying, "if you can't see the hills it's raining, if you can see the hills it is going to rain" is most apt. Makes for interesting races on an already amazing track. Hamilton is still confident there is more to come out of the McLaren, and he had better be right if he and Button are going to maintain a challenge for the Championship.  The real interest is still going to be the fight inside the Red Bull team, and the FIA's latest moves to beef up the testing of the front wings and floors. There are heavier test loads at Spa, and apparently even more stringent tests to come at Monza, especially on the floor. It will be interesting reading when someone finally explains how they did this.

In a previous issue of Autosport they had a half year review of how the F1 teams were doing, and of course the RB6 was the class of the field. Gary Anderson makes the point that it is just better everywhere, it is not just the exhaust blown diffuser or the front wing, it is the skill of Newey. I have a 90/10 rule that works for lots of things, and Gary uses it here. He believes Adrian understands 90% of what makes a car work, because no one can know 100%, where others only know 80%. So the 90/10 rule, you can calculate 90%, but the last 10% is instinct, experience, call it what you like.

Roll on tomorrow when we have F1 and MotoGP practice to get our teeth into. Can Valentino win at Indy, or does Yamaha want Lorenzo to be the new hero?