Bob Barnard Track Engineering

The Mole, aka Peter Windsor I suspect, has a different take on Adams sudden departure. It still involves Bernie, but his take is that Bernie forced him out as Adam was one of very few who critized Bernie from inside F1. Bernie said recently that the reorganization of Williams should have started at the top, i.e. Adam. The scenario is Bernie needs Ferrari, McLaren and Williams to sign on, and knows Red Bull and Toro Rosso will go along for the money, and Sauber will do what Ferrari wants anyway. So offer Sir Frank a deal, Sir Frank says yes please, Adam says no, so no more Adam.

Another theory, but one of the comments suggested Adam would take "gardening leave" and turn up at CVC, along the lines I suggest. Bernie and Max Mosely had some famous disagreements, it did not stop them working together, and in my scenario Bernie is not there anyway.

Joe Saward has a piece about how our friends at CVC are going to be rewarded further for their investment in F1, with an extension of their loans maturity to 2017, the end of the next Concorde Agreement. In the meantime the return for investors is guaranteed at 5% over bank rate, and they can get ready for a float. Are we never to be rid of these parasites?

Now Thailand wants a GP, home of Red Bull why not? More the merrier. We'll be able to run the whole series in Asia soon.

So, did Sir Frank get up this morning and decide that Adam was below Parr, just when the team looks like regaining some form? Patrick Head has left the team to go run the flywheel hybrid system development, and Sir Frank was supposedly stepping aside with Adam the heir apparent. Now he has gone, with all the usual bumf about "pursuing other interests" and "spending more time with the family." We all know what that all means, and it's effective immediately, don't bother to collect your things we will send them on. 

What surprised me was the lack of comment from F1 observers, just reprinting the press releases. No surmising what happened? One scenario is of course Adam and Frank just fell out, but over what, the family silver? I have a much more devious thought, Adam got a better offer, but what could be better than running an F1 team? Running the sport. David Cameron was brought in, apparently by CVC, to run Allsport after Patrick McNally retired, and was being seen as the logical successor to Bernie. But not to be, he left a few weeks ago. Is it just my suspicious mind that just when Bernie wants to float F1, and the lack of succession is seen as a problem by some, that the only man to have overseen a public flotation in F1 is now on the market?

I did turn on the Indycar race yesterday afternoon out of professional interest, and I have to agree with Allan McNish's comment that the 2012 cars look like overgrown karts. Never mind the ugly noses in F1, these are ugly. Why leave the front wheels unprotected if you are worried about interlocking wheels? Let's shroud them as well, and then we will be back to the streamlined Mercedes F1 car of the 50's.

Just when you thought the British courts had settled the Force India/Caterham IP rights case, think again. The judge did dismiss most of the case, but notably found that some small parts of the first Caterham, then Team Lotus, did originate from the wind tunnel Force India used. So now Force India is saying to the FIA, the guys that fined McLaren $100m for possibly infringing Ferrari's IP rights, that Caterham should suffer a similar fate. This is all getting nasty. Hopefully this time the FIA will tell Mallya to get over it, but VJ is pretty desperate these days.

Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz has come out in defence of Mark Webber and said he will have a seat at Red Bull next year despite ignoring Horner last weekend. Where else is he going to go, and who else could be as good for the team, was his prescient comment. I'm sure Mark is very annoyed by the team orders, he is continuing to talk to the press about it saying he understands the team wants points, but so does he, and is confident that he and Seb can race each other without crashing. They managed to pass their other rivals so what's the problem? The problem for Mark is that a number one seat is not available at any team likely to give him a competitive car, so what do you do?

Rupert Murdoch's woes continue to mount and he has now been forced to withdraw his bid for the rest of BSkyB. This gives him a bunch of available cash, but the latest revelations are unlikely to persuade Jean Todt that he is a fit and proper person to own F1.

On the basis that any news coverage is good news Adam Parr has come out and said that the weekend's shambles over the blown diffusers is good for the sport. Not totally sure I agree, but as he said the fact that the press were all over it only reinforces how important F1 is. As he said to a journo, "you're not off in Wales covering darts are you." 

On the same basis the "Circuit of the Americas" aka Austin, must be important. Following on yesterday's news it seems the approval for the buildings is imminent. Let's hope so, it is now eleven months to the scheduled race, and therefore eight months before the FIA inspection. Now that is still time, we did the work in Daytona in less than six, but there was a greater sense of urgency than I am getting out of Austin. 

As was predictable the Indycar series has come out and poured cold water on Ron Walker's threat that the F1 tracks would go to Indycar if they did not get their way on the new for 2014 engine. Why would Indycar suddenly abandon their base and go trotting off around the world until the tracks got their way and dumped them? Yes we have seen that Long Beach did well by ditching F1 and going to CART, but that's here in the US. Surfers Paradise tried to take on the F1 GP with a CART/Indycar race, but gave up and are running their home grown V8Supercars series. Japan has not exactly embraced the Indycars even though they have Honda engines, and CART tried Europe a long time ago and failed. A far better threat from Ron would be to say they will all go with a breakaway series by the Teams, but I'm sure Bernie's contracts are all over that. Basically the tracks have no clout, there are always others waiting to take their place, that is why Bernie can get away with his outrageous fees.