Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Great live streaming pictures and sound from SPEEDTV.com this morning. Wish I could watch all the F1 like this, no ads, no idiot commentary, maybe ALMS has something here. No picture break up or lock up, and the quality was better than cable. Two interesting sessions today with some big accidents, two at the chicane after the tunnel. Rosberg lost the back end under braking and took off over the speed bumps put into the center of the chicane, presumably installed to slow cars down that short cut it. Thankfully these were removed before qualifying as they actually only make it worse, as demonstrated . I for one did not expect to see Rosberg back out in quali, not that he was hurt, he missed the center island between the track and the run-off, but the car had substantial damage. Great job by the Mercedes team to have him not only back out but competitive. Perez was not so lucky in Q3, hitting the island side on, and thankfully he did, a head on would probably have him under the TECPRO barrier. The jury is still out on these compared to tires, and they cost many times more. For me they are too light, as we have seen already cars go under them. Perez will miss tomorrow's race but fortunately his injuries are relatively minor.

Unlike the two HRT cars who despite not turning a wheel in qualifying have been given the OK to race, and they did not even have to buy a starting spot! The Stewards in an unfathomable piece of generosity will let them race, despite being 6-7 seconds off the pace in practice. Now on another track that may be OK, but around here there is no place for sentiment, and no room to overtake. Let us hope that decision does not turn around and bite someone.

Perez's accident showed the absolute necessity to get out early and bank a lap in these short sessions. McLaren failed Lewis and now he is stuck down in seventh despite being fastest in Q2. As I suspected, no one tried to save tires, starting position is everything here. It will be interesting to see what McLaren's pit strategy will be to try and leapfrog Lewis up the field.

I commented the other day on the efficiency of the Monaco track team in repairing the asphalt, and it was in evidence again today. Most of these incidents would have taken lesser crews a long time to clean up, and in some cases may not have repaired in time to finish a session. Indy, NASCAR et al need to go there and see how they do it. As Michael Schumacher was crashing Thursday at Ste-Devote you could see the crane operator start up. Having said that the "crest" coming out of the tunnel seems to have contributed to a few accidents this weekend and needs addressing. Given their usual rapid response it is surprising it was not planed smoother during yesterday's quiet day.

In other news it seems the Lotus sponsored Renault team is in a spot of financial trouble. The Marussia money is not flowing and since Kubica's accident interest from new sponsors has all but disappeared. The Geni Capital deal was a novel one for starters, and Lotus Cars is another work in progress. maybe Tony Fernandes just needs to wait this out. Story is Renault is owed big time for engines and may be looking elsewhere for 2012, like Williams.

I did miss a race from my list yesterday. The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars were at Charlotte last night, but got rained out anyway. Rescheduled for tonight, but will only be live streamed. Kimi qualified 15th for the Nationwide race! Outqualified not only his mentor Kyle Busch but his car owner Joe Nemechek! Need to watch that tonight.

Ferrari have now expressed their concern at extending the calendar to accommodate Bahrain. Has no one the guts to come out and say they will not go? I for one will not watch it if it is reinstated and encourage others to do the same. That is the only message Bernie and his cohorts will understand. This would be almost the last straw for me and I hope many others about what has become of our sport.

It's Memorial Day here in the US this weekend, the traditional start of summer, and a big weekend in motorsport. Not that you would know it for the lack of news. Bahrain continues to provoke strong feelings, even if the paddock is quiet about it other than Bernie. If you have any doubts about why F1 should not go there read today's Pit Pass offering:

http://www.pitpass.com/43742-A-plea-from-Bahrain

As I said the other day, things can be "normal" if all the dissidents are locked up and the press suppressed.

The Kimi/Bush partnership seems to be short lived with Kimi already bored with truck racing and looking to move up, while Kyle is a bit stretched to do this. Kimi practiced the Nemechek car and ran  16th and 18th, not too shabby. Looks like he runs better in this than the truck. The race is Saturday evening here and I wonder if it is live in England like the truck race?

A busy weekend with F1 at Monaco, NASCAR at Charlotte, Indy 500, WSBK at Miller and Grand-Am at Lime rock Monday, and oh yes, Champions League final Saturday morning. Not sure when to sleep or eat. Did I miss anything?

The Lotus judgement has been handed down, and good luck working out what happens now. Both can use Lotus, Lotus Cars can use it on its own, with black and gold livery, and Tony Fernandes can use Team Lotus in green and gold. By now I think we can all work out who is Renault and who is Team Lotus, so who cares? Of course there will be appeals.

The British Touring Car Championship has reportedly seen a huge increase in viewing figures for the first couple of races. "Unprecedented" is the word used. It seems I am wrong, someone does like spec racing. I don't think anyone knows why yet, it will be interesting to find out.

Allen Petrich explained that unlike F1, Indy has always been the car that qualified, not the driver, so swapping drivers is not uncommon. I can see that an owner could decide to substitute a driver, even in F1 if a driver is injured like Kubica then another driver comes in, or as might happen at Torro Rosso a driver is replaced for not performing. That does not happen between qualifying and the race though. Given Paul Tracy's comment I think what is uncommon is one team buying the spot, sponsorship and all. Do we know if they are going to race AJ's car, as it qualified I guess they have to.

As I surmised, Kimi is off testing at Virginia International Raceway prior to his Nationwide debut, which may now be in doubt, but not in a Nationwide car, a Cup Car, Robbie Gordon's Dodge. Kimi's Cup debut is rumored to be at Sears Point in a few weeks time. Now that makes some sense and will be worth watching. Talk about a fast track to the big time. Piquet Jr. must be wondering what he is doing still driving a truck?

Nasty incident at Ste-Devote in Monaco, and the race isn't until tomorrow! A truck preparing the track caught fire and burnt the asphalt, a promoters nightmare. Always really difficult to get a patch to match the rest of the track, and in a critical spot. I know the best experts are available so even given the extremely short cure time this should be OK. I might be tempted to use concrete to make sure it stays down, but then the grip would be so different, so not a good solution. Trucks on racetracks always make me nervous, fuel leaks being the usual problem, but on a street course what else can you do?

Bernie is ramping up the rhetoric over the new Concorde Agreement. If the teams won't sign it then fine, we will not have one and they can all pay a large fee to come and race. That is always assuming they want to come and race Bernie. The News Corp takeover has all gone very quiet, moves behind the scenes perhaps?

The Financial Times has come out and published accusations that Bahrain sacked a quarter of the circuit's staff. Not only sacked but "detained" with all the connotations that go with that word. This follows on stories of journalists being "detained," so with June 1 a week away it seems the pressure is going to stay on for Bahrain to remain off the calendar.

Trulli has come out and said qualifying is dead now thanks to the tires. Hard to see that in Monaco teams will risk saving sets at the sacrifice of grid position given how hard it is to overtake anyone around here, but after Monaco? Remember, Monaco first practice is Thursday.

Following on from yesterday's comments on Audi being involved with the design of the 2013 F1 engine, their racing Chief, Dr. Ulrich, came out and said "There's a very good reason why we are not in F1, there's no relevance to the road. At Le Mans, one of our cars will cover 325 miles more than an F1 car will cover in an entire season, our average speed including pitstops will be 20mph higher than an F1 car and we will use 42% less fuel." And a lot less tires! They can run two or three stints of 45 minutes or more on a set, so a GP's worth. Now some of this is down to the characteristics of the Le Mans circuit, but can you imagine if they stopped every thirty miles or so for a set of treads? Anyway, it goes back to the question why Audi was involved in the F1 engine in the first place?

The blood has started to flow over at Ferrari after Sunday's disaster of being lapped with Aldo Costa "stepping down" as the Technical Director in favor of Pat Fry. Several other changes were made, but Domenicali is safe, for now.

Back at Indy it seems qualifying did not end Sunday. As Paul Tracy said, Monday is now Check Book Bump Day with Andretti buying a seat at Foyt's team for their man Hunter-Ray. So we sat and watched all the pathos of Ryan and his girlfriend after he was bumped, and the anguish on Michael's face, only to have him buy their way in. No wonder he looked anguished, he was calculating what it was going to cost him. Perhaps there is a whole new business here, get qualified for a race and then sell the place, or just hire yourself out. What would pole in F1 be worth do you think? What sort of joke is this? What do the fans who actually sat through the day, rain and all, think? A very sad day for a famous race. We know drivers have been buying their seat in Indycar, under whatever name, and some do in F1, but buying a starting spot?

Talking of buying a starting spot, Kimi is confirmed on the entry list for this weeks Nationwide race in Joe Nemechek's team. And yes I can be two-faced and say this once is OK.

Just as I thought, there is a Nationwide Toyota waiting for Kimi to drive this weekend at Charlotte. It appeared in Joe Nemechek's shop and will be entered by his team, Kyle Bush does not have a Nationwide team, yet. Kimi has a guaranteed start due to Joe's owner's points in the series. Is he going to test beforehand? I would think the Nationwide car would be easier to adjust to than the truck, but what do I know, that's where they all seem to start. This is a marketing dream for NASCAR, even bigger than Montoya.  Perhaps I'll watch the Nationwide race this week?

Renault are saying it is unlikely that Kubica will return this year, which is no real surprise. Let us just hope he can return at all.

Bernie gave the Crown Prince of Bahrain an audience at Barcelona.  How important must Bernie feel when he has Royalty coming to see him? Of course the Prince came to give Bernie the message that it is safe to come back, but I doubt the teams feel that way. Ross Brawn is against the extension of the season, says his guys need a break. Nice way to not go.

Pirelli media celebrity, Paul Hembery, announced himself happy that the hard compounds did not wear. Did not grip either according to the drivers, especially Alonso. Steel tires would probably not wear either, and we would not have the "marbles" that were still very evident at Barcelona.

No protests after the race, but Colin Kolles of HRT is telling the teams they need to fix their engine mapping or he will protest in Monaco. Their supplier, Cosworth, have joined the "do not change the engine in 2013" brigade as they fear their teams cannot afford it. My buddy Peter Geran pointed out that in the Motor Sport article I quoted the other day the Audi engine chief had been in on the FIA panel advising on the new engine. As Peter says, how does someone who has no investment in the sport get to help make decisions? But from my experience that is how most of these decisions are made. When I was running Moto GP's the Road Race Commission was comprised of FIM elected members not one of whom had a dime invested. Still, you can see where Todt was going with this, let's get some more manufacturers involved, after Max's reign where he tried to get rid of them. There could also be a darker motive as Allen Petrich has hinted at. Todt said the other day that the 4 cylinder is going to be the engine of the FIA's top series, and if they do not like it they can go and race in another series. Is this how he breaks the 100 year deal with Bernie?

I watched a little of Indy bump day, thanks to the rain that's all there was. Can't say I found it very exciting, and judging by the lack of spectators not many others do either. The most interesting thing all day was the look on Michale Andretti's face when Marco bumped his other team car right at the end. "How do I explain that to the sponsor" was the look I saw.