Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Who would have thought, well I would and anyone else who has watched racing at Spa. I recall being there for bike GPs, now that was scary. They were still public roads with oil and white lines, and Blanchemont had no run off. Not quite the Isle of Man but close.

Anyway we have F1 back with us, even if at a reduced pace. The boys did get half an hour in the dry with Webber fastest, but nothing very exciting. Schumacher's 20th anniversary is getting all the attention. That's a long time to drive and I still say he and Rubens and perhaps Trulli should move over and give the young guys some options. To follow on my comments on GP2 there is an article in Autosport about how hard it is to move up from there and to keep finding the 2 m Euros budget each year when the prospect of an F1 drive is fast disappearing.

Senna is in the Renault and had a crash in the first session, but is quicker than Petrov who is very unhappy with his car. Reports are that it is a financial deal rather than Boulllier expecting Senna to be quicker than Heidfeld. Rumors of Renault's money problems continue. These are not helped by Boullier whining about the money coming to the teams from the Commercial Rights holder and how it is split up. He says that in no other sport does the rights holder keep 50% of the income. Not sure that's correct. One would suspect NASCAR keeps a chunk, although it is fairer, and I'm sure there are others. Anyway he seems to think teams should not have to raise their own money, a bit like Premier League paying everyone to play, can't see that. He goes on to suggest that the current set up that rewards success should be changed so the top four teams get nothing and the rest is shared equally. Goes against Bernie's whole rational so good luck with that one Eric. Bernie's a bit of a "law of the jungle" man, or as Trueman put it, "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." You knew the rules coming in, so don't complain now.

A lot of people are all of a lather over a girl riding a MotoGP Suzuki at Indy. No, not in the race, but doing some laps. Like F1 there have been females in racing for a long time, perhaps not in the top class, but back in the days when the 125s and 250s were real classes we had them. Let's not get all gender conscious, if a person is good enough let 'em race, but let's not get into reverse discrimination. On that note Danica has said she is leaving Indycar and going to NASCAR full time. So after never really achieving much in open wheel she has followed the money. Let's see how long that lasts.

I don't know who rattled Max Mosley's cage but he had a Bernie day yesterday, pontificating that "F1 does not always have to be exciting," "It will survive the Gribkowsky scandal," and "the Sky TV deal will be good for fans." Max apparently cannot waste an afternoon watching soccer on TV so likes just the highlights, not someone in touch with real fans I suspect.

 

Just four days after the "unanimous" decision on Bahrain both Bernie and Todt are saying we will have to keep an eye on the situation and rethink going to Bahrain! How can these people have any credibility? I saw a clip of an interview with Jean Todt on the BBC last night, and he looked a bumbling fool. He kept looking over his shoulder as if to check with someone that what he was saying was OK. Who would that be, Bernie or the Bahrain Royalty?

Pit Pass has a couple of pages that say things more eloquently than I:

http://www.pitpass.com/43844-Comment-WTF

The next one is a report from inside Bahrain that raises some very pertinent points. Like "Odd is it not that you can be fined $100m for stealing someones designs but kill a few people and it is OK." I paraphrase, read the whole piece at:

http://www.pitpass.com/43834-Greetings-from-Bahrain

Max Mosley raised the point that the WMC cannot just change the calendar without the unanimous agreement of the teams, and the teams have finally broken silence, albeit in a private letter to the FIA and FOM, and asked for India to remain on Oct 30th, and let Bahrain go to the end of the year if at all. That way I guess they can say when the time comes we are not going.

This whole sorry saga is taking on the image of a French Farce, and must also call into question the ability of those theoretically in charge to continue running the sport. Perhaps Rupert can do it better? In the meantime how would you like to be promoting the Indian GP and selling tickets? And where are those bunch of heroes who own F1, CVC, they are deafening in their opinion of events. Perhaps their investors include some middle east money as well?

Hopefully we can actually get to some racing in the next few days. Who says there are no politics in sport!

So Turkey turned out to be a turkey for Michael. It brought him "no big joy." Must be a German expression. Still, Mercedes say he has their complete support. I think that is what Williams said about Sam Michael about a day before he quit. In the same web site Johnny Herbert is predicting Michael will retire again at the end of the season. So take your pick. It was very strange how he was right on the pace up to the Q3 session, and then lost it.

His old mate Rubens is saying the FIA decision to allow the DRS system at Monaco is wrong. The answer is simple Rubens, don't use it. The FIA is not saying you have to use it, only that you can, and as the driver you have the choice. Talk to your mates and just agree that you won't use it, and then see who does!

Trulli picked up that the tire situation is changing qualifying. This format was put in place to make sure the punters had cars on track to watch, but now it seems teams would rather sit in the garage and conserve tires.

Poor Max Mosley lost his case in the EU Court to have the nasty media tell people before they write bad things about them so they can obtain an injunction. He is looking very bitter and twisted these days. What's he going to look like when Rupert runs F1?

D'Ambrosio is supposedly in danger of losing his drive in the Virgin as his sponsors have not paid up. I wonder why? Could it be the lack of performance of the team and lack of exposure?

So Bernie says the return of the Austrian GP is possible, and Turkey is saying talks yesterday made it 50% more likely it will stay on the calendar. Not sure if that means the price only went up 50% of what Bernie was asking or not. So who is going to miss out? Getting awfully crowded.

I talked before about headline writers and today there is a classic. Not sure if it is meant to be funny but judge for yourself. "Mosley refuses to be beaten over quirk." What's funny about that you say? His "quirk" is he likes to be beaten! It reminds me of an old and bad joke. Masochist: "Beat me, beat me!" Sadist: "NO." The article is about Mosley's push to have private lives made sacred from media exposure following his little episode with a few young ladies in a cellar.

You can't keep Briatore down can you, now he is a medical expert. "Briatore visits Kubica, predicts recovery." Well I'm sure we all feel better for that Flavio. It is safer to ask who has not been mentioned as a replacement for Robert, I even saw a comment that Mark Webber could consider taking the seat. Now that is an idea even my fertile brain had not considered.

Of course the whole "he should not be doing this" saga rolls on. Kimi has wrecked his car in just about every rally since he left F1 and still gets away with it. Mark Webber goes mountain bike riding and breaks his leg etc, so leave it out.

The other big news is that HRT unveiled an graphic image of the new car. Not the new car you note, just the great new graphics by the Hollywood designer. And yes it looks nice, but does it exist and will it be any better? We have 32 days now to the first race and two test sessions left, one of which starts this week, and they still have only one driver. In a further statement HRT has decided to skip the Jerez test and "support Pirelli" at a filming session in Monza. With the new graphics? What are these people thinking?

In other news, the German weekly, Der Spiegel, has picked up where Stern left off with a story about how much CVC paid for the F1 rights and how much the bank received, which apparently were not the same. Guess where they say the rest went? I have to ask, is this uncovering of information the result of ongoing research, or do they know the whole story and they are teasing it out like a serial to get us to buy the paper?

Today's news seems all about money. Max Mosley accused Red Bull of exceeding the Resource Restriction Agreement, i.e. overspending, in 2010. Red Bull denies this, but this agreement is so full of get out clauses it will be hard to tell. The boys cannot agree on what is "Restricted" in 2011, and presumably they have committed most of their spending already. The RRA was a way for the teams to do what Max wanted and reduce spending without him unilaterally decreeing it, so of course it is full of loopholes on what is restricted and what is not.

Then there is the great article by Dieter Rencken in this weeks Autosport on the problems F1 tracks have making money. It is really a case of restricting the losses, and reflects what I have been saying here since I started the blog. All fans of motorsport need to read this to see the mess it is in, and how it is unsustainable. As we saw with manufacturers, as soon as Governments wake up there will be no more billion dollar race tracks, and we will need all those great tracks that have been cast aside in the name of CVC's wealth generation.

Dun and Bradstreet have just released a report card on when F1 teams pay their bills. Red Bull pay promptly, which may be why they are over the RRA. If you delay paying, like Lotus which is the worst offender with 180 days late, then presumably you can delay recording the expenditure? The bottom line seems to be suppliers know they are going to get paid. One supplier commented that "if Yijay Mallya sold his yacht he could pay the team bills for the next two years." Now paying bills late is not unusual, it is "good business" for lots of companies, including the one I worked for back in the eighties. I was running a State Branch of a construction company in a small town and would meet my subs and suppliers every day, and be asked when they are going to get paid. Now they knew they would be paid, but it got wearing, so I complained to our accountant, who was also a co-owner, who just told me the money was better in our bank than theirs, and putting up with the whining was what he paid me for. Touche.


And of course there is the ongoing "Banker Bribery" scandal to fully unfold, and the situation with "pay for ride" drivers, but we all knew F1 was really about money didn't we?