Bob Barnard Track Engineering

I know you all think F1 cars run on gasoline, petrol, but they really run on money, and lots of it. As promised the Pit Pass web site has come up with the goods to explain why 2010 was harder for F1 to make money, but make money they did because the bad economy lowered the interest rates on the debt. And when you have that much debt, as CVC does, then you are quids in. For the full explanation go to;

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=43328

As Mrs. Barnard said last week when the original story broke about the huge loss, it looks like money laundering, but no, it is good old tax avoidance, and all quite legal I'm sure. Most of the expenses must be in lawyers and accountants fees to work all this out and manipulate it. It does show however that the income from race fees may have peaked, with tracks no longer willing or able to pay up. If that is true, and if as Jean Todt suggests the TV audience is down, then when interest rates go back up there could be a problem. Bernie is telling us though that the debt will be repaid by 2014, so maybe not. I have learned that Bernie is a lot smarter than anyone else I know when it comes to making money.

In a related story it seems his henchman, Patrick McNally, his signage cohort, is retiring. I hope he has trained someone well to replace him as I do not know anyone who can place signs like Patrick, truly amazing. If you do not think that this is an art stop watching the cars next race and just look at the signs and where they are placed. Remember, in most countries the TV cannot be placed or shot to maximise the signs, the signage has to be "incidental." There is nothing incidental about where Patrick puts them, the cameraman cannot help but shoot them.

Lots of discussion about a "confusing" race yesterday, and if the drivers found it confusing how about your average fan. I did not find it confusing, but as I said yesterday, I found it unsatisfying. I did not comment yesterday on the amount of rubber on the track off-line as it did not seem to stop a lot of overtaking, but Perez said that his crash could have been caused by picking up a chunk on his tire, and drivers have come out about being hit by flying pieces. This is not a good situation.

Well the Malaysian GP has been run and won, and I do not know how I feel about it. Vettel and Red Bull could get as boring as Schumacher. You have to admire them, they find a way to win even when the KERS does not work, but I will show my bias when I say it does not thrill me. Pirelli say their tires made for an interesting race, but call me a purist, but I don't find this fun to watch. As Michael said, this is a lottery, and he should know, he seemed more off than on.

The rain stayed away, but teased everyone to add to the lottery, and the DRS did work on occasions, but not always, so not sure about that either. We saw a lot of overtaking at other points around the track, mainly Turn 15, which tells me it is more about the track than messing about with the car. The slow cars seemed to stay out of the way, so well done, and Lotus actually did OK, so maybe we will see them mixing it in the mid-field. Williams had a terrible day, one to forget, while we ponder what would Kubica be doing with that Renault? Very odd steering column failure on the Petrov car, but then he did get very airborne thanks to the hump in the run-off. Not good.

So in all a dissatisfying race for me, but not really sure why. Lewis probably feels the same, and what was Alonso thinking? The pace of the Ferraris in the race was surprising, and Massa seems to have recovered his speed and determination. Mercedes are in trouble.

Bernie is reportedly trying to get the teams to oppose the 2013 engine, and Malaysia is pondering whether to renew after 2015. At least there was a crowd today, it was empty for Friday and Saturday which must be disheartening for the drivers, and the organizers.

Chip Ganassi did not quite sweep Barber, but won the Grand-Am race of course, and finished second and third in the Indycar. Not too shabby.

Colin Chapman would have been proud. Sir Stirling Moss said that the front uprights were always on the margin, so both Lotus Renaults failing in the same way in first practice in Malaysia is totally consistent with the real Lotus legend.

Webber has bounced back from his slower than expected form in Oz, leading both sessions, but with the McLarens hot on his heels. Who knows who had what fuel load though, and I hope the Ferraris were working on set up because they are a long way off the time so far. There are some big gaps to the bulk of the field who are all two-three seconds off. The other Lotus continues to disappoint, and the sight of the HRT leaving the pits trailing a plume of oil smoke sums up their day. They are seven seconds off the pace so far, right on the bubble of not qualifying again.

Tire feel and wear is apparently totally different to Australia. At one point in the first session Button went out and immediately radioed in to ask if there was something wrong at the back of the car as he had no rear grip! Pirelli believe that anyone starting on the softs will only get eight laps out of them, and between the potential rain and the tires Button is expecting "mayhem." Well they wanted to make the races more interesting, or as Michael said, "a lottery." Not sure that is what I tune in to watch.

Following on from yesterday's piece on fuel consumption going up with the exhaust driven diffuser, it seems the Red Bulls are very marginal on fuel. We saw Mark pull into pit out as soon as he crossed the finish line in Australia, and it is now apparent he did not think he had the fuel to do the warm down lap. The Red Bulls also only did one lap prior to the start, so they are cutting it fine. They are running the KERS system at the moment, but it sounded to me like it was not working for Vettel in first practice. Whatever was wrong he was not running well and finished well down the order. It is reported that they will make a decision to run it or not, but by their own admission they need it here. A chink in the armor? The others can only hope as McLaren think Red Bull are still keeping half a second up their sleeve.

We have Indycar and Grand-Am at Barber Motorsport Park this weekend. Another Chip Ganassi benefit?

Well the two events on this weekend produced some crazy action. If you have not seen it look at the youtube of the start of the LMS race.

There is a saying, "there are lies, damn lies, and statistics!" One of my favorites is "my heads in the oven and my feet are in the fridge, but on average I feel pretty good." If you look at the F1 race fast laps you see that Massa set the fastest lap in the race followed by Alonso. If you did not see the race you would perhaps assume they won, but Massa had a dreadful time and Domenicalli is "dissatisfied and disappointed" at their performance and is heading back to Italy to look for more downforce. Just shows that being fast over one lap does not win races.

Everyone, including Pirelli, are trying to work out how Perez did the race on one stop. Is his driving style that different, smoother than Button's? Perhaps it was the illegal rear wing. It was not as if he was stooging around at the back, his fastest race lap was quicker than Petrov and Hamilton.

The FIA, aka Charlie Whiting, admitted that the DRS system did not really add anything to overtaking, but blamed the short straight and fast corner onto the straight. Now the last corner is the second of a left/right combination that I would not have thought that fast, especially if you compare the situation at Monza. The logic is that in a fast corner the car following cannot get close enough to effect a pass at the end of the straight, but where do we see passing at Monza? At the end of the straight which follows the parabolica, a scary fast corner. Malaysia will tell us, the corner leading on to the main straight is very slow and the straight longer, but then again it might rain.

Dario Franchitti won an accident marred Indycar race at St Petersberg, despite being last in practice the other day. Perhaps being at the back is a good place to be at an Indycar start. I have asked before and will do so again, why take your show to a place that does not show it off to its full potential? Perhaps Indycar fans just want the crashes? After all Paul Tracy still has a drive.

Montoya failed to convert his pole speed into a race win yet again, another example of one lap speed not getting the job done, which I guess we see in NASCAR most of the time. I saw the last few laps while at an Aussie mates place for a barbie, no not a doll, and was probably the best piece of the race to watch.

David Brabham had a difficult first FIA GT Championship baptism, but showed good pace in practice in the Nissan. Personally I can't see a future for this series, especially when you look at the quality of racing in GT2.