Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Formula Renault 3.5 was at Silverstone this weekend, and with the talent in that field it looks like it is becoming the main series for stepping up to F1. As I've said before, GP2 looks like a series for guys who are very good, but not quite good enough. Grosjean will wrap up that championship at his second coming and will probably get another crack at F1 with Renault. But there are a lot of drivers that won't progress.

F3 has traditionally been a great breeding ground, and drivers like Senna made the jump to F1 on the basis of a great season in it. Not sure that is likely these days. But back at FR3.5 you have Canadian Robert Wickens winning both races to take over the lead in Championship over fancied French driver Jean-Eric Vergne who finished sixth in Sunday's race after a bad pit stop. Second was American Alexander Rossi from new F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo. You get the picture? This is a field packed with talent and winning here means people are going to take notice. Watch out for these guys. And it is likely to get better with Grosjean demonstrating the new car, more horespower, better downforce, lighter and more adjustable.

We had a few races this weekend as the summer break is nearly over, Spa F1 next weekend! That Aussie Marcos Ambrose won again on Saturday in Montreal in the Nationwide series. Another road course to show off his talents, but winning becomes a habit. I saw an article about where are the next generation of NASCAR drivers coming from, Australia perhaps? Still in Montreal the Grand Am boys shared the bill and for once Ganassi's team did not have it all their own way, but can still wrap up another championship at the next race. Dan Gurney's son Alex won for Gainsco with Wayne Taylor's team, trying to catch the Ganassi boys, second. The big news is the test of the Grand Am Ferrari 458 at Daytona for next year's championship. I wonder how Ferrari are going to like losing to Mazda?

At Road America we had the ALMS 4 hour race with four LMP1 cars of which only two are contenders, and one LMP2 car. Sad. GT's were where the action and interest was at, with the Risi Ferrari 458 taking its first win of the season despite a few glitches. Nice bit of synchronised spinning at Turn One with the Corvettte. Nice driving actually by both drivers to avoid serious contact and keep it on the track and not lose a place. Not sure I like the safety car procedures. I know it is the interest of fairness, but who said life is fair, and it extends the yellows and makes for boring periods for spectators. And opening the pits for the LMP1 &2 cars? There are only four, let all of them come if the pit lane is long enough as Road America should be. I can understand it at Lime Rock, but we saw the weekend where yellows went on for lap after lap when the car that caused the yellow was long gone.

Finally, there is an article on Autosport about how F1 can maybe learn from MotoGP. Now I think it is mainly aimed at the pricing and access, but seriously, have they really looked at the state of MotoGP? 17 bikes at the most and some of these are make weights, and moving more and more to street bikes and spec racing. And as I said the other day commentators like Mat Oxley are worried that the lack of overtaking is looking increasingly like F1. Yes F1 needs to look at its business model as it does not look sustainable, but let's not go down the MotoGP road where the manufacturers wag the dog. Although having said that we almost got there with 4 cylinder engines!  

Jean Todt is continuing his world tour. After telling us Mexico should have a grand prix he is now in Sao Paulo and telling us the Interlagos track is safe, it was the cars that caused the deaths not the track. So now Jean is a track design expert? He may well be right, F1 cars have become very safe for the drivers so they would probably survive a similar accident, but why not remove the cause of the accident?

Not a lot else going on today. Interesting article by Miles Geauxbye, sounds like he is from Louisiana, on The Last Turn Club about the future of ALMS. Some of us have suspected for a long time it does not have one, but it is still there.

http://lastturnclub.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=786&Itemid=51

A couple of articles in this month's Motor Sport. Mat Oxley talking about the lack of overtaking in MotoGP, sound familiar? Too many rider aids, and too much manufacturer influence, something I've said for years. I think if you asked the fans we would still be racing 500cc two strokes.

The other is about our friend Tavo and Austin. I think Austin is probably a great place to stage it, like Adelaide, small enough to have everyone involved but big enough to have all the restaurants and entertainment people want. The Oz GP went missing when it moved to Melbourne. Tavo had an odd statement though that "many of the circuit's details will be unfinished by next year's race." He went on to say he hoped "the fans understand that there will be some components that aren't exactly ironed out...some things will have to wait until 2013, 14 or 15." Sounds like the Indian GP, the pits are finished but sorry about the grandstand. 

Mercedes should be applauded for helping out a young man who did not have a hand. In a wonderful piece of PC he is described as having "a lower arm deficiency that means his left arm stops at his wrist." You can read the whole story on ESPNF1, and it is certainly one of the best things F1 has done lately. Thanks to Ross Brawn and the team they have arranged for a new bionic hand to be supplied free as part of a deal for technical cooperation with the manufacturers, Touch Electronics. It seems when Ross started making enquiries both parties realised how much technology they had in common. A nice feel warm story, and again displays the incredible technology in an F1 car that most of us do not see.

I watched the Indycar race from New Hampshire yesterday and I hope a few more did than were at the track. I've seen bigger crowds at an SCCA race at Texas Motor Speedway. Of course the track's General Manager said how pleased he was at the attendance, I bet Bruton Smith wasn't. Dario had the race won until he and Sato managed to run into each other on a restart, and it looked to me like Dario moved down on him, but that was not how he saw it. Rain was a factor, bringing the race time forward to try and beat it, but the boys did not need rain to crash, Conway taking out Rahal at the first corner, and the Castroneves losing it there the next lap. Nice tire wall there made of used race tires! Could barely hold themselves up let alone stop a car, and in the wrong place. Will Power got all hot and bothered at the last restart after being taken out when he had a chance of closing the gap on Dario in the Championship. Lots of talk about the track being too damp to restart it, but in reality only one driver spun and caused the rest of the carnage, all the other drivers managed to keep it straight. Now that's not to say they would not have spun later, but in racing someone has to make a decision and live with it, it is not a democracy. Have the ratings really improved so much that ABC will now carry the races and not Versus, or did they work out the ratings would never improve on Versus?  

Missed the MotoGP race but was fortunate to see a great Moto2 race, just like the 250cc days. I like the Brno track and it has aged well. Great use of the topography. A little repetitive in the corners, but produces some good races, and a lot of spectators. Interesting Honda are saying they will limit bikes for next year in MotoGP, but one has Bradl's name on it already. Northern European market must need a boost, but well deserved. Great news that Gardner Senior and Junior, and Mick Doohan are to ride at Phillip Island this year, nice touch, and Remy is to have the Moto3 bike for 2012 to ride.

No blog would be complete without a reference to Bernie. News today that he is going to sell his shares in QPR soccer team to Tony Fernandes. Good time to sell as they have just been promoted to the Premier League, so sell at the top, it probably will not last. Apparently he cannot get on with the other shareholder, Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal. Now Lakshmi has in the past shown an interest in F1, and it is a shame he does not have a team because then we really could have had a driver "put the pedal to the Mitall."

Is it me or has it rained on just about every race this year at some stage? The "best drivers in the world" if you believe NASCAR are sitting it out at Watkins Glen, a road course, 'cause it's raining. Put some treads on and race, it's not an oval.

In Brno yesterday's third practice was wet and saw a number of falls, including Friday' surprise package John Hopkins who will not race due to broken fingers. Hero to zero. Stoner won handily from Dovi and Simoncelli after Pedrosa crashed out early. He just tried harder in the race was Casey's comment on the win. Lorenzo chose the wrong tire and had to settle for fourth with team mate Spies riding shotgun for him. Only 13 bikes finished, with Rossi sixth in front of his team mate Hayden. Suzuki's weekend went from looking good to disaster as Bautista crashed out of 7th place. This cannot do Suzuki's chances of running a team next year any good.

The F3 Masters was run at the Zandvoort circuit, of which I have fond memories from growing up in England. It brings together all the various F3 series runners and is part of the new FIA F3 Championship, won by Merhi despite being disqualified after making contact with Juncadella as his nearest rival had a DNF. British F3 star Kevin Magnussen finished third despite a recurrence of a misfire problem with his VW engine in practice. This has plagued him all season and it is hard to understand why VW or the plug manufacturer cannot get on top of this. A bit like Trulli's power steering.

Kevin's dad Jan also had a bad break, a driveshaft actually on his Camaro while leading the GT class at Watkins Glen. 

Well we at least have some GP racing going on at Brno, and Honda in the shape of Pedrosa is again leading the way. Stoner and Simoncelli are there as well so Lorenzo is running fourth fastest, but apparently working on race set up and doing consistent laps. Team mate Ben Spies was sixth despite a pinched nerve in his neck, can't be much fun. Rossi was happier with seventh, but still over a second off the pace. Rumors are that Ducati are thinking of going back to an aluminum frame instead of the carbon fibre. We've seen this before with the Cagiva in 1990. I can't help believing that a carbon frame and stressed engine is the way forward, it is just such a big step that it rewrites the set up and needs time to sort out. I'd hope they are given that time.

Suzuki are the surprise package with Bautista in eighth and ring-in John Hopkins right there in tenth. As Bautista said, nice to have John as long as he is slower than me. From there on down there are a bunch of guys making up the numbers. 

Elsewhere desperate web site are reduced to re-runs of THAT race at Dijon with Arnoux and Villeneuve, Gilles that is. Silverstone unveiled a very ambitious planning proposal for the site which will be great if they can fund it, but perhaps they should look carefully at what has happened at the Nurburgring with similar ambitious plans. Pirelli has raised the issue of qualifying tires for next year. Not sure I like the idea of going back to special tires, surely that is going to alter the set up on the car which has to be kept for the race? Anyway, the issue is teams saving tires during qualifying, so just give them extra sets of the race tires to use just for the qualifying rather than make something different.

Grand Am racing at Watkins Glen tomorrow, and Indycar at New Hampshire for something different.