Bob Barnard Track Engineering

I would guess that most of you have read the book "The Art of Racing in the Rain." Good book, and so popular the FIA have brought you a sequal, "Racing in the Slightly Wet." It is more of a serial, as it happens often during the year, the latest edition being Melbourne qualifying last night, for me anyway. I got up at 2 am to watch, and like so many I would guess gave up at 3 am and went back to sleep.

The FIA have regulated themselves almost into NASCAR where we cannot race if it rains a bit. NASCAR must laugh when they see the high tech brooms being wielded by marshals to dry the track. How did we get to a point where it is not possible to stay on the track when it rains? The stupid regulation putting cars into parc ferme when qualifying starts. Now I understand how that started, but like always they go too far. No one wants to go back to 1000 hp plus qualy engines good for two laps, but the current restrictions go too far. If teams could alter ride height and change wings for more downforce we might see some racing, instead of the medical car running around. Common sense is not very common it seems. Why not just draw lots for starting grid, the current system is just a lottery anyway, and is damaging cars.

No one wants to see drivers hurt racing in unsafe conditions, but there must be a happy medium here. And what's the idea of three sets of rain tires other than to save Pirelli money? Are we being "green?" We will get to a wet race one weekend where they use all the tires and the race is cancelled. If teams had more tires they could be out circulating and moving water off the track, instead of sitting in the garage saving tires.

Oh yes, then we have the 5 pm start time thanks to Bernie to suit European viewers. If the US is so important then why do we have to watch at 2 am? We saw in Malaysia a few years ago the problems a delay then causes, and we saw it again last night, because it was almost night in Melbourne by the time they gave up. The next call will be for two day GPs again if you can fit in Qualifying and race on Sunday.

I have commented over the last few months about the problems at Lotus Renault or whoever they are, and the stories continue about Lotus Cars and their funding needs. So we have an under funded team whose ownership is unclear being sponsored by a car maker owned by a Malaysian car company and spending money like there is no tomorrow.

So what do we hear now? The apparent owner of Lotus Renault, Genii Capital, is going to buy into Lotus Cars with possibly a majority position. Sort of reminds me of a snake swallowing its other end. I think they deserve each other.

This is part of a situation where teams will have to get approval for changing their name, which is a very big deal as the dole out of money from the Concorde Agreement is to the team that had the name when it raced. So if Team Lotus wants to become Caterham Tony risks losing the money he earned this year, which has been the stumbling block for resolving the Lotus name argument. Tony was willing to give it up if he was recompensed by Lotus Renault for that loss. HRT is in a similar position, but it is hard to see that they have much coming from the Agreement the way they have performed. So we have the prospect of three teams wanting a name change, and Bernie is really the one who has the say, and apparently he is eager to start the discussion. I bet he is, in this sort of deal there is only going to be one winner, Bernie.

Over in Suzuka we have Vettel on pole again by the slimmest of margins over Button who has been on it all weekend. Lewis had his last lap "destroyed" by Webber and Schumacher overtaking him at the chicane as he slowed to give himself some room to the car in front. So, did Red Bull give Mark the word to jump Lewis a la Ferrari? Mark was off the pace anyway, and I'm sure Michael would have taken the chance to screw Lewis with glee. He says Lewis put him onto the grass. Touche Michael, have you looked at any race film lately? I did not see it on the TV, and the Stewards have done nothing so far, so it cannot have been as bad as either Lewis or Michael are saying. So, we could be set for a great race tomorrow with Jenson and Lewis both looking very fast, and if someone can jump Seb at the start we could have fight for a change.

In Q3 we again saw four cars sit it out to save tires. This basically went on all weekend with the top cars sitting out the first 40 minutes of Friday morning. Pirelli and others are calling for a change to provide the paying customer something to watch. I think probably one more set of softs for Q3 would do it, and take them away afterwards.

In other series in action this weekend Kevin Magnussen has put himself on pole for both British F3 races and has won the first, so looks good for second place in the Championship. Where would he be if he did not have all those plug problems early in the season? Canadian Robert Wickens has won the first race of the FR3.5 finale weekend and extended his lead in that Championship, but only to nine points so it is all to play for Sunday.

Bathurst, the best tin-top race in the world, and yes I include Daytona. Never mind 500 miles turning left, how about 1000 km up and down a mountain? SPEED has it on this afternoon so check your local listings as they say. Rain shuffled the top-ten qualifying so the first few laps should be fraught with action.

And last but not least the Teams are to discuss the situation in Bahrain, which shows no signs of settling down. Bernie in his usual fine form said " I do not know if it is right or wrong, but we have it on the calendar for 2012."

I like Monza. It is crazy fast with chicanes as interruptions, and some great corners we don't see too many other places. The Parabolica and Curva Grande, and I like the combination of the two Lesmos, something I have wanted to replicate. It shows you do not need a lot of corners to make a great track, in fact less is more so to speak. Too often we see corners put in for the sake of it.

Nothing seems to slow down the Red Bulls. Going on this afternoon's times they are going to dominate again, much to the Tifosi's disgust. McLaren seemed somewhere this morning, but Ferrari are trailing with Massa faster of the two again. On the option tire and low fuel the times look quite equal, but when they were out on race fuel loads the Red Bulls looked a second a lap in hand. Still, early yet and we will see what Saturday brings.

At Silverstone we have the Intercontinental Cup for Le Mans cars this weekend. Peugeot snuck in a fast lap to top the timesheet ahead of the two Audis, so not much has changed there. What is interesting is the Rebellion driven by Jani and Prost the younger are less than a second off the fast time. Given the breaks the petrol cars have in the race they could cause an upset. Again let's see if they can continue this tomorrow. Ferrari look to have it all their own way in GT Pro, with America's Tracy Krohn doing well in the GT Am ranks. There is an amateur who takes his racing very seriously.

Going back to F1, Pirelli have asked the FIA to get involved to enforce the camber limits following the issues at Spa, particularly with Red Bull. Not that they became a problem, Red Bull won, no one blew a tire, so what's the problem? How many more parameters of the car design and set up are the FIA going to proscribe? The safety of the drivers is a concern for everyone of course, no less for the team involved, so why the need for the FIA to set the limit? What else that the teams do with set up, wing size or angle, brake cooling etc, are they going to limit? And before anyone writes in I know they set parameters for most of these, but the team can still go for an extreme set up within that. The tires are just the most visible. Trulli is still going off about his steering, how about making that a standard part too! Where is the line between competition between the teams designers and engineers and spec racing? Indycar anyone?

In a headline that just struck me as funny Pirelli announced it was changing the shape of its tires in 2012. Oval or square? Neither of course, just the profile on the rears to get more contact, but it gave me a laugh.

The big news is that Gribkowsky has finally been charged over the sale of the F1 rights and his role in it and the bribe. Now depending on which web site you read Bernie has been charged, accused or named for his role in this. It seems Bernie and his Bambino Trust collectively earned $66.5 m for commissions, and then paid Gribkowsky $44 m for his role. Now the legality or otherwise of any of this is for a court to decide, but Bernie says he is not bothered about going to the German GP this weekend, so must feel confident. Whichever way this goes, $66.5 m is a lot of money to pay to anyone for assisting in a sale. I should be so lucky.

Montezemolo has announced that Massa will be there in 2012, so the options for drivers at the sharp end seem to be drying up. Red Bull appear to be keeping Mark, and where else would he go? Similarly Lewis appears to have no option but to stick it out with McLaren. Mercedes have Rosberg and probably Michael, although I would move him over for Di Resta for all his promotional value. Renault aka Lotus Cars should have Kubica back and Petrov has earned his seat. What of Toro Rosso? Ricciardo has not been put in HRT for the fun of it, and who knows what the new owners of HRT will do next year, they are already clearing house.

Murphy the Bear has a new column today and suggests Kolles moving to Williams aimed at an eventual Audi takeover of the team. All very complicated, but makes for a good read, and Kolles did get the R10's to run after Audi replaced them. The rest of the column is a pessimistic take on where ALMS is going, if anywhere. I had a good discussion with Tom Kjos who writes the Last Turn Club web site the other week about what we thought should be the path forward for sports car racing here in the US, but who would listen to us anyway?

Pit Pass has a resident cartoonist who has a good take on the Murdoch scandal:

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_gallery_image_display.php

For those of you that do not recognize them the three in the background are Briatore and Symonds of "crashgate" fame, and Mike Coughlan of "spygate."

In other news Alguersuari is looking for a poor qualifying so he can save his tires! Great way to go racing, maybe he will like the new shape? McLaren are denying Martin Whitmarsh is in trouble, usually a sure sign someone is on the way out, and are looking forward to having their blown exhaust back after loosing what they believe to have been nearly a second a lap at Silverstone. We shall see if they are competitive in Germany.

 

 

Ben Spies breaks through and wins his first MotoGP at Assen today. I've been critical of Ben's performances this year, but perhaps he has just worked it out. I was in Hungary when Mick Doohan won his first race after trying for most of two seasons, and never looked back. Perhaps this is Ben's moment. His team mate had a Simoncelli moment and has called for a ban on him for a race or two. Sounds like the Hondas never got comfortable with the tires and Stoner had his mind on the Championship. Rossi's race went better than qualifying, so let's see what they do with this new chassis in future races.

Reminded me of when I worked for Kenny and we were at Assen. Schwantz led the race with Wayne Rainey in second and leading the Championship with Kevin no threat. I was foolish enough to compliment Wayne on running a smart race, and in Wayne's inimitable fashion he gave me an earful and said he wasn't being smart, he !!!!!! couldn't catch him.

In Valencia the engine mapping restriction made no difference it seems, with Vettel putting in the fastest lap ever seen here to take pole from his team mate Webber. Still with that half second or so over the McLaren of Hamilton, who has to be getting a bit tired of this. Rumor today of Webber to Renault, so a spare seat at RB? We again saw drivers sitting out or limiting their time on track to save tires, so let's hope common sense prevails and Pirelli get the OK to provide more tires for qualifying.

Watching the Nurburgring 24 hour on a German TV live streaming and listening to Radio Le Mans. As fun as it is I will not stay up for the 24 hours this time.