Bob Barnard Track Engineering

There are a few realignments going on with the F1 teams. Williams announced that they are going to use Renault engines from next year, so Renault increases its hold on the F1 engine market, despite supposedly being down on power. Let's hope this improves the performance of the team. HRT's ownership and management just got cloudier, with a buyout of Carabantes by Thesan Capital, which is a venture capital group backed by Nomura Bank of Japan. They say they will move to base the team in Spain with the current Directors and Team in place. So presumably Colin Kolles is still on the outer. This all begs the question who really is minding the store and who owns it? And will it make any difference?

HRT's arch rival for being last, Marussia Virgin, has confirmed a technical tie up with McLaren Applied Technologies, so look for an improvement there and perhaps Mercedes engines? Cosworth are going to be left with HRT, so it is highly doubtful they are going to invest in a new for 2014 engine with just one customer.

Speaking of engines, Clive Pollock is reportedly going to push on with his proposed engine for 2014 despite the u-turn by the FIA, and Bernie is now threatening to sue the FIA if the 15,000 rpm limit impacts on the poor promoters and their ticket sales drop. Of course his concern is that the promoter will not then have the money to pay the fee to stage the race, but since when has that ever been a concern for him? Bernie is famous for not being fond of drivers in general, they are like buses, another one will be along shortly. That is why he has cleverly promoted F1 as a team sport and built Ferrari and McLaren etc as the stars. It also seemed that promoters enjoyed the same stature as drivers, as there is always someone else waiting to pay him to lose money whenever a promoter wakes up or runs out of it. Bernie has also been having a bit of a verbal spar with Williams CEO Adam Parr. Adam was crass enough to point out that sports such as NFL enjoy considerably larger TV fees and suggested Bernie could be doing better for them all on this front. Bernie of course then pointed out how well Adam was doing on the sponsorship front for Williams. Touche.

The leakage of top staff continues at the other Renault, which isn't, Lotus Renault, with designer Tim Densham reportedly heading for Ferrari. Is everything really well at Renault as Boullier continues to tell us?

I took a day off yesterday so have not commented on the racing. Lorenzo scored a great win at Mugello so perhaps the Championship will not be a Stoner/Honda procession after all. Simoncelli managed to finish a race while Rossi dragged his Ducati up to sixth. In Imola the Peugeots gained revenge for Le Mans with an easy win over the Audis

This is my last blog. Just kidding, but it is my last blog on Wordpress. I have revamped my personal web site where I always intended to base my blog, and it will be launched today. The link should not change, so you should go straight to it, but if not go to www.bobbarnardtrackengineering.com and go to the blog page. See you there.

The Tour de France kicks off, or should that be rides off, today. One of my most favorite events and this year should be as interesting as ever. It is not only a long race for the riders but also for us viewers with three weeks straight of TV coverage for several hours a day. Good job I'm not working full time!

Some predictable pole positions today with Stoner capturing the MotoGP at Mugello, Marquez the Moto2, and yes it is still raining on and off. Rossi continues to struggle down in 12th. Puts Stoner's performance on the Ducati in some perspective doesn't it?

It did rain in Imola yesterday, the results from FP2 were slow in being posted. Peugeot are on pole by a slim margin from the Audi, with Peugeot and the McNish Audi locking out the top four places. The Oak racing Pescarolo-Judd are 3 seconds off pole, but only 1.5 behind McNish, so at least they may catch a glimpse of them. The BMW's were quickest in the GTE class with three Ferraris hard on their heels.

Vergne took pole in Hungary for the FR3.5 and went on to win the first race, while Kevin Magnussen took his first British F3 pole, two in fact, following nicely in Dad's footsteps.

So, off to watch the Tour.

No not the vegetable drink but the Australian Supercar Series that is now going to Austin in 2013, having raced in the Middle East the last few years, although no one came to watch. I was told when Austin was first announced that ISC, i.e. NASCAR, were not likely to give them any races, so no NASCAR, Grand Am or AMA Motorcycles. So what were they going to run at this expensive facility to justify it other than F1, which is unlikely to make money for anyone but Bernie? The answer is to bring in other overseas series such as the V8Supercars. I bet Tony Cochrane is laughing all the way to the bank. Can you imagine what it costs to air freight these cars? They weigh at least twice what an F1 car does and cannot be broken down to a nice size to put in a plane. Volume is as big an issue as weight for planes. So this cannot be cheap for Tavo and the boys, they had better hope they pull a better crowd than the Yas Marina Circuit does.

I also heard a suggestion that the new World Endurance Championship US round might go to Austin rather than Sebring or Road Atlanta. Another great series, and one that can pull a crowd as we have seen at Road Atlanta. Sebring pulls a crowd even when the race has been cancelled, spring break and all. But again an expensive deal to put together, so a hard way to make a dollar, but I guess if you've spent the money you may as well use the place.

Martin Whitmarsh says he thinks that the US should have two F1 races, just like the old days, one on the east coast and one on the west. Not sure where that leaves Texas. Martin said he "had nothing against Texas and hopes they have a successful race,  but the natural hinterland for us is us the east coast and the west coast," which does not sound very supportive, so good luck Tavo.

It must be a very wet summer in Europe as it seems just about every MotoGP has problems with wet tracks. In Mugello hardly anyone went out in the second session due to the rain. In the morning dry session Simoncelli did his usual by now fastest lap, very closely followed by Stoner. Rossi broke down and is way down the field of only 16 bikes.

Imola seems to have missed the rain and the ILMC teams had dry conditions, Peugeot and Audi sharing the top four places with Pescarolo fifth but 3.5 seconds adrift. Look out for live streaming of the race on one of the European sites, and Radio Le Mans for live commentary.

Strange goings on at HRT, and not just in the driver line up. Colin Kolles is apparently leaving/being squeezed out, but he is the one that has the team and the workshop, so how is this all going to play out?

Daniel Ricciardo is on the fast track to an F1 drive, if driving an HRT can be called fast. Be careful what you wish for Daniel. Red Bull have bought Daniel a ride in the HRT Team to replace Karthikeyan, who will presumably get the ride back at the Indian GP later this year. So Helmut Marko wants Daniel to get more F1 seat time, but is not yet ready to ditch either of the Toro Rosso drivers. Who does Helmut want to groom Daniel to replace, that is the big question? I did ask a while ago when was the last time we had two Australians in a GP, if ever, and the answer was we have, but I think only once about thirty years ago in the Alan Jones era. I think the other driver would be Larry Perkins, but I am ready to be corrected.

Following the Red Bull pull out from NASCAR we now hear of another drinks company doing the same. Crown Royal has pulled the plug on the Roush Fenway team. Rats leaving a sinking ship?

A ship that certainly is not sinking is Le Mans and the ACO, with the announcement of the new World Endurance Championship, and now Porsche committing to build an LMP1 car for 2014. Not sure how you design a car for that far in the future the way the rules change, or why it is going to take so long? Porsche must have some information from the ACO on what those rules are going to be. Do we know? Is there some change that will take effect then? Anyway, presuming Peugeot and Audi are still running, and running diesels, we may see of the first time if what they have been saying is true, that a properly funded and designed car can compete with them without all the "equalization."

Talking of engines, no surprise here, the WMC ratified the V6 engine for F1 from 2014.

Trulli lamented the fact that all 24 cars finished the Valencia GP, the first time that 24 cars have finished a race, ever! As I said the race was only the third in history where every car finished, but previously we did not have 24 start and all finish. Trulli says it is a victory for technology over humans, a sad day. The quality control is so good now a small team cannot rely on cars breaking down to move up and score points.

It is said of Le Mans that it is now an all out sprint, not an endurance race, although we do see failures like the Peugeot last year, but barring accidents this year we would have seen the top seven cars all run to the end. The Nurburgring is said to be the old Le Mans where attrition is still a factor, so is inheriting that allure.

But is it true that reliability is a bad thing? How often have we had a great race spoiled when the competition breaks down, last year's Le Mans was a case in point. Wouldn't we like to see wheel to wheel racing to the finish? Technology is a huge part of why I watch F1 and Sportscars, and why Grand-Am and Indycar do nothing for me, and building these machines that push the envelope of performance and yet last the distance is something to admire, not decry.

F1 is about being the best on merit, not inheriting it, and long may it remain, however unjust it may seem in some ways. No "draft" here to equalize the competition. Reward success.