Bob Barnard Track Engineering

A few items caught my eye today about tracks and calendars. Superleague cancelled their trip to South America as the track in Goiania in Brazil is not ready. Then I see MotoGP announcing a race in Argentina in 2013, provided the track improvements are done. See a pattern here? Next year's MotoGP calendar has been announced, with several tracks to be decided or races to be confirmed. Germany is one where the track is to be nominated as it seems the Sachsenring is unwilling to pay the 4m Euros Dorna want for the race. Dorna taking a leaf from Bernie? Then there is the comment "Despite doubts about its future, the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island is also on the provisional calendar." Any of my Aussie friends want to shed some light on this? Is it racing in October that is the problem, or is it something more, like 4m Euros?

The row continues over the tax on the Indian GP competitors. I originally believed that this was about the teams earnings, and it may still be, but ESPNF1 has an article about the customs duty on importing the equipment.

http://en.espnf1.com/india/motorsport/story/58975.html

Now this is usually handled by international carnet, guaranteeing what goes in comes straight back out, but the Indian Authorities do not see this as a sport or an event of "National Significance," so they are not playing ball! Seems cricket and the Commonwealth Games are significant. Tells you how far motorsport has to go there.

Joe Saward's excellent F1 blog has a piece about a street race in Cape Town, how many GPs is Bernie going to put on a year? Starting to sound like NASCAR. Check out Joe's blog at:

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/

Then there is the proposed New Jersey F1 street track which rates a mention by Murphy The Bear so must be getting serious:

http://murphythebear.com/blog/index.php/2011/09/13/unlimited-racing-championship-rands-go-to-jail-national-press-club-bust-leading-proto-teams-go-public-with-demands/

As always a good mix of rumor and gossip with always a grain of truth.

Some people just do not know when to shut up. We have some great examples today.

Bernie said that his mate Briatore was "In no shape or form .... involved in this." He then went on to tell the Daily Express. "He did make a payment for me but only because I asked him." ? I know when to say nothing.

Then there is Adam Parr, he who is telling disgruntled fans how expensive it is to run a team. He does it again today and I'm sure the fans appreciate being told that if they just accept the need for budget cuts in F1 then the teams would not need all that money and the TV and admission costs would go down. Well, he did not actually say the last piece, and we all know that the money will just go somewhere else. The teams could reduce the cost of the show whenever they want, just getting rid of those monstrous "hospitality" units would save a few million, each. No, Adam goes on to say that if each team spends 100m pounds a year to run then the cost of the show is 1.2 bn pounds. Well it is a lot more than that Adam if you add in the cost of building the tracks and staging the races, but let's just look at his maths. Each team has sponsors who foot part or all of that 100m pound bill, but let's say half, so now we are down to 600m pounds by his reckoning. Then there are the fees paid by the poor promoters, say 25m each by 20 races, that nearly covers the rest. You could almost put this on TV for free, but that does not include Bernie's cut or the CVC rape.

Adam continues with his "racquets and plimsoles (tennis shoes to you and me)" analogy, and then makes it worse by comparing the cost of admission to Crique de Soleil" at 100 pounds to the local circus for 10 pounds where you only get to see "a couple of mangy elephants and a rather droopy clown." Nice one Adam, just endeared yourself to the circus industry. Anyway Adam believes the fans will understand. I would not bet on it. At least F1 does not have a slogan of "For the Fans." The next FOTA forum in England should be a doozy, they could sell the rights to that for a lot of money, help defray the cost of running the races. 

Then there is India and the GP, which yesterday had 6000 workers going day and night with 250 engineers to finish the track. Today we are told its all done bar the top layer of asphalt and they were ready for and expecting Charlie last Monday, but he decided to leave it till August 30th. Now I am happy it is ready, but why tell us a story?

Last but not least we have another reported intent to stage an F1 race in the streets of New Jersey with Manhattan as the backdrop, with a race in 2013. Bernie and Martin Whitmarsh must be pleased. It is a private investment, so the question must be why? These are smart businessmen and must know what the costs are, but perhaps know better than I what the income will be, but I would check with Melbourne first. It is one thing for the City to fund this and reap the "economic benefits," but unless these guys own a bunch of real estate in the area it is hard to see the rational.