Bob Barnard Track Engineering

You know there is little to write about when the headline on Autosport's web site of "Montezemelo hails Ferrari fightback" has not changed for a week! Yes we have had the ALMS race from Mid-Ohio which ALMS has deigned to let us watch next week, and Dyson not only finished a race but won. Nice going, now let's see you do it some more. Four cars do not make a race for me, especially these four.

My mate Marcus Ambrose won the Nationwide race and I hope there were a few more people to watch than there were at the Grand Am race that followed. I can't imagine they all left? Piquet made his debut and did well, but I bet he never expected his life to end up trying to make it in NASCAR. Villenueve also did well, but you would expect that from road racers at Watkins Glen. The Grand Am was the usual Ganassi benefit with little to excite me in the time it was on. If the rumored takeover of the ALMS classes and cars does happen let's hope it spices up the races and we do not have one boring series instead of two. I agree with the view that we should just run the GT2 class.

The only other news of interest is that Adrian Newey crashed in a Ginetta single make race in Britain, but was not seriously hurt. Nice to see the top designer still has the passion to go out himself and have a go. Pretty good he is too.

On the Arizona front we are updating the web site with latest renderings. Check out the Casitas. For those not familiar with the term Casita, it is a garage with accommodation above, and these are exceptional, especially the ones right on pit lane.

Whatever happened to days off? With all this new technology and communications we were supposed to make life easier. All we've done is make it 24/7. Thought I could have a quiet day, read a book, watch some racing, but what arrives in e-mail this morning but another lead for a track . Should not complain really as a commission is a commission, and hard to close out, but that put paid to this morning, and now I'll be thinking how to lay it out all weekend. It is fun, but not very restful.

About the only exciting thing happening actually. IRL, NASCAR, ALMS and Grand Am all racing this weekend, but no great surprises yet. Following my review piece yesterday and comments on Peter Sauber not carrying the team much longer it turns out that he is in discussions with the owner of Telmex about investing in the team. Telmex backs the Ganassi Grand Am car, so has a background in racing, and there are a couple of handy Mexican drivers out there, so it could all come together for Sauber. As I said, De La Rosa and Kobayashi may not have a seat next year, we may be watching Perez & Gutierrez, both doing well in GP2&3. Mexico has produced some excellent drivers, who can forget the Rodriguez brothers, if you are old enough to remember them in the first place!

Let's hope there is something interesting for tomorrow.

Seeing as how we are in the middle of a break for F1, and about midway through the championship, I thought I would give you my score card on the teams and drivers.

Clearly the best car is the Red Bull, and should be where Brawn was last year. Two great drivers, so what's gone wrong? Poor management of the drivers and some reliability issues have cost them, and Vettel is either accident prone or has bad luck, but I think he does not have his head in the right place. They could wrap this whole thing up if they decided who they want to win the championship, and I would back Webber, and no, not because he is an Australian. He has the focus right now, and Vettel has time on his side.

Ferrari are a bit of an enigma, great one week and off the pace another. Alonso is driving up to his usual standard but his Latin temperament gets in the way sometimes, but you can't have one without the other. Massa is even more up and down. He obviously still has it, but it does not always show up this year. There is obviously something about the car that it is not consistent. Alonso and Ferrari could still pull this off, but they need to sort out team orders, did I really say that, before they get on track.

McLaren have been behind the eight ball all season. As always they never give up and their development pace is the best in the business, but they are playing catch up every race. They are managing their two drivers better than anyone else, with Hamilton for me the best driver out there. He makes the car do more than it should, while Button seems always to be waiting for his chance, for the car to be right, for the tires to be right, etc. Don't get me wrong, he has had some great drives this year, and is the reason McLaren even have a shot at the Constructors title.

Mercedes have to be the disappointment of the season. You take a Championship team and back it with Mercedes money, bring in a young hot driver, and Michael, and you would expect them to be competing at the front. Compared to Red Bull these three teams missed the basic car design. As Nico Rosberg said, the basic car is not right, and trying to start from that base with development does not get you there. Nico is driving better than he did at Williams, and once he has the right car he will be a force. The less said about Michael the better.

Renault and Williams are for me the teams doing most for less. Renault have Kubica which is flattering the car I think, but Petrov is also putting in some good drives like Hungary, so the car cannot be that bad, and considering last years problems and the new ownership they are punching above their weight. So too is Williams, the best of the Cosworth brigade by a country mile. It is not consistent, but who is except Red Bull, and Rubens continues to put in some very good drives and shows no signs of getting stale or just driving for the money. Hulkenburg is having a good rookie season, so Williams are probably going to retain both. If Williams bring in some investment money then they can hopefully return to the force they were.

Sauber is also doing well considering the last minute pull out by BMW and Peter carrying the team. Again inconsistent, and both drivers have had bad days, but we have also seen some good ones. I doubt Pedro will be back next year, and maybe Kobayashi may not be back. Depends on what happens with the team ownership, Peter cannot keep funding this thing, and there is an obvious lack of sponsors on the car.

Force India showed a burst of performance late last year that surprised everyone. Unfortunately that does not seem to have carried over to this season, and losing a lot of their Tech people cannot help. Not sure what is going on here as there are ongoing rumors about their finances. They do continue to develop the car with the latest innovations, so can't be all bad. Sutil is wasted in this car, but not sure there is a seat available anywhere else. Luizi is up and down, and seems to have had bad luck with his chassis, but who else would you pit in the car at the moment?

Torro Rosso are actually doing well for a driver development team that has to design and build it's own car these days. Buemi and Alguersuari seem on a par and at times putting in good drives, apart from running into each other at times, but even the best teams do that don't they?

That brings us to the new boys. Lotus is clearly the class of the rear of the field, and I agree with Bernie that they are the one likely to survive. They all have surprising reliability problems which is really hurting their development. With no testing then if you do not run race weekend you can never move forward. Seems Lotus is moving to the Renault engine, which I am not sure is a good move, but Williams and Renault seem evenly matched so who knows? I'm sure Mike Gascoyne does. Maybe it will solve his hydraulic problems. Trulli and Hekki are doing the best they can with what they have as you would expect.

Virgin is not quite as bad as HRT, but it is a close run thing. Cannot imagine Sir Richard putting up with this situation next year, so he needs to get out or fund this properly. At the moment it is money that is worse than wasted, it is very negative exposure. What can you say about HRT? The situation is not poor Colin Kolles' fault, but not sure if he is the one to solve it. He has been with a few teams now, and none are what you would say really successful. Having a "renter driver" shows how desperate they are for money, and Dallara did them no favors with the car, but who knows what the real story is as far as payment went for what they did.

Let's hope the rest of the season is as entertaining as most of the first half has been, provided Red Bull do not finally get their act together.

Over at the ALMS we are already down on prototype cars and we have lost the CytoSport Porsche before the weekend started. The Drayson Lola is on pole by a comfortable margin. I suppose Lord Drayson is fit again, so we will see what happens in the race. Highcroft is slowest of the three front runners, but somehow they find ways to win.

Grand Am is at Watkins Glen again as a support to the NASCAR race, so watch for that tomorrow.

"The devil is in the details" as they always say, and they would be correct. Starting something like Sol Real from absolute scratch is about details, and what to attack first. Projects evolve, so you do not want to lock into some things too early, but you still have to give sensible answers to questions, and "I don't know" does not instill confidence. Following the successful first presentation we met yesterday to go over the questions that prompt the need to fine tune the details of our package. Country Clubs for motorsport are still in their early stage of development as an idea, and each of the existing  clubs are working from their own model, so there is not a set path to follow, which is both good and bad. There are so many possible scenarios as well, and some of the answers will have to be developed over time and experience.

Working through mundane stuff like business cards and some corporate clothing takes time, but are important part of building our brand. More meetings scheduled in the coming days with small groups or individuals, and a group presentation will be staged every Tuesday from now on. Moving forward and moving fast!

Not a lot else going on. ALMS at Mid-Ohio this weekend, but don't look for it on TV, it is delayed a week. Hope I can remember or be bothered to watch by then. How can you take this seriously with this sort of timetable. Can you imagine NASCAR doing this?

Elliott Sadler's massive crash at Pocono yesterday brings home the danger built in to some tracks. The answer will undoubtedly be, "no one has crashed there in ...years." That changes nothing, it was sitting there for someone to hit, and eventually they will. He was a lucky boy to walk away from that, and obviously NASCAR have made strides in their car safety, but this should not have happened. Someone from NASCAR must approve their tracks, so why was this there?

Following yesterday's Hungarian GP and my comments on Vettel, I read my latest edition of Motorsport. Nigel Roebuck writes a great opinion piece each month called "Reflections," and this month he reflected on the situation at Red Bull and young master Vettel. I like his quote from film maker Sam Spiegel, "You make a star, you make a monster." Reminds me of comments from Gary Howard who runs International Racers and manages most of the American motorcycle stars of the last few decades who talked about how you find great young talent, and you only have yourself to blame for what you create.

Nigel goes on to say that "while Vettel is hardly that (a monster), still it's been clear for a while that the impish schoolboy is receding swiftly into the memory. When things go wrong for Sebastian, I'm told, it's as well to stand well back as the toys come flying out of the pram." Not a great basis for winning Championships. Now as most people who know me well will attest, I have been known to throw the odd thing, especially hats. But I am not racing in F1. Lewis Hamilton has also been known to wear his heart on his sleeve at times, as has Mark Webber as recently as Silverstone, but there is something different about their response. They grit their teeth and get on with it, while Seb hangs his head and loses focus. There is also the denial thing, "I had radio problems." Lights are visual for a reason, he did not need the radio to tell them they had gone out. If you screw up say so and get on with it.

Hope you have had a chance to visit the Sol Real web site. This will update regularly, and there will be new renderings of the site layout and details of some of the buildings being added in the next couple of days.