Bob Barnard Track Engineering

So Daniel Ricciardo topped the tests in Abu Dhabi and one second under Vettel's pole time! Someone sign this guy up. He did very well in FR3.5 this year so he is not just a flash in the pan, winning Championships on the way up. As I said let's hope he gets the financial backing to keep moving up, and if Red Bull let him go they must be mad. Place him in GP2 next year and let him take Mark's seat when he retires. Or maybe Vettel's seeing as how he has would prefer Mercedes or Ferrari. How can you come out and say that after Red Bull have just made you World Champion, or are you so egotistical to think it was the other way around? What an ass. Is Sebastian going to be another of those drivers that you respect their driving but not them as a human being?

Great week away in Cologne, but nice to be home in some sunshine. How do those Europeans put up with that long, grey winter? Excellent Forum with tracks and speakers from 5 continents and top people Like Salman Al Khalifa, CEO of Bahrain Circuit, and Sharmila Nadrajah, COO of Sepang Circuit in Malaysia. Add to this the new track in Moscow, NRing, a new country club in Germany, all the top track designers and suppliers then you have the best and latest information being made freely available. Not to mention kart circuit operators and local tracks like Oregon Raceway Park who all learn vital information on how to operate successfully. This forum should be a must do for anyone involved in or planning to be operating tracks. Derek Muldowney, the head of ISC's facility development group, gave us some great insights into planning and developing a major speedway and repaving Daytona, and we had attorneys giving us good advice on sponsorship contracts and branding. The next forum is in Los Angeles in April, so book your time to attend.

I was appreciative of the reception to my presentation and the session on track engineering that I put together. The session on the future of track design went well, but as an open forum it covered a wide range of topics not necessarily about the future. It seems that we are going back to the future with the old tracks like Spa and Nurburgring providing the basis. To make tracks more interesting to drivers it seems we need to go outside of the FIA guidelines in respect of maximum grades and cross fall to match these great old tracks, without jeopardising safety of course.

While I have been away it seems CAMS and Australian GP have kissed and made up, at least for this year. Sad to say as an Australian but I cannot see they will have a F1 GP for long, there are too many other countries with far larger markets wanting races so someone has to go. The political backlash on the ongoing losses is growing and will result in what happened to Adelaide, Bernie will see the writing on the wall and move it.

Seems the Pirelli tires met with approval from the drivers so now we can get on and finish next years cars, which could be quite different without the F-duct and diffuser. Are they really going to use a moveable rear wing? Perhaps we will see who is finally driving for who next year.

On a final note, does anyone else think it is weird for a team to put a solid wall between their two riders? I can understand Rossi and Lorenzo this year, but Spies and Lorenzo? Just tells me there are two teams at Yamaha again next year. As much as Senna and Prost did not get along, and Vettel and Webber this year, they were still one team.

So here we are in Singapore, metaphorically speaking, getting ready for an important race in the World Championship. They are all important of course, but as we get closer to that last race the ability to recover from a bad race is much more difficult. McLaren say they have fixed the Hungary problems, let's hope so, we want a good close race not a Red Bull benefit, even though they are capable of losing anywhere even with the quickest car.

The engine limitation rule is about to bite someone.  Pedro de la Rosa has already had to use his ninth (Ferrari) engine in his Sauber and take the ten grid spot penalty, and Alonso and Massa are both on their eighth engine. Now Sauber had to go to the ninth as they had blown the others, which is not Ferrari's situation, but even though they say they are not worried there has to be a glimmer of concern. At best the engines might be a bit tired, at worst ready to grenade. Just when you thought it was all complicated enough with five guys still in the running, then we add this little twist. Red Bull are in the best condition with engines, despite the fact that they seemed to have a lot of problems this year, but I guess they were not terminal.

Rain is the other wild card this weekend. We've seen what happens in Malaysia when it decides to rain, and apparently that is what is going on each afternoon this week. The forecast is for more rain, which is always an issue with tracks anyway, but throw in the night race under lights and it gets us into the unknown. Now NASCAR runs under lights but not in the rain, and Le Mans does not have enough lights to potentially be a problem, but the Rolex 24 hour at Daytona does. I cannot recall it creating a problem for drivers, but then they are only turning left on the oval which drains well anyway and the infield is not lit. We have seen how spray hangs in the trees at say Monza, can you imagine it under the lights?

Water on a street track always creates it own problems, Adelaide was shortened at least once because it was impossible to drive on. Drainage on any road is a key element, but on a race track it is magnified ten times both in importance and difficulty of doing it. That is why I have included a presentation at the Cologne Forum specifically on drainage of tracks. Let's hope that Singapore is not marred by rain and we have a good straight shoot out. I know rain effected races can throw up some fun results, but it is not what I would be looking for at this time.

Bernie is quoted as saying he would welcome France back on the calendar, provided a promoter can be found to stump up the cash and someone can provide a track. Is that all? On that basis anyone could have a race, but where would you find space in the twenty race calendar we have now? Who is on the short list to be dropped? While we are talking about Bernie, he is raising his medal system again instead of points. As he said, the new points system did not change anything, but not sure I like the winner takes all approach a medal system implies, and who is going to buy the gold and silver for them? The Promoter I suspect.

World Superbike is at Imola, one of those great tracks that no longer host an F1 GP, despite upgrading the facilities as requested. It will be good to see it again. Imola was home to some of the best signage, large painted logos on the grass run off that was in perspective and looked like it was standing up looking at you, like the signs in Italian soccer if you watch it. Very clever.

The driver situation is heating up, even though there does not appear to be too many options. Paul di Resta is tipped to have a full time seat at Force India next season, so is Liuzzi out, or is Sutil off somewhere, or is Mallya just hedging his bets? Heidfield's ride is just to the end of the season, so is Massa really going back to Sauber as part of the Ferrari engine deal? All will be revealed soon I guess.

Had a great audience for our presentation last evening, room was full and buzzing. Nice to see the interest level, and it spurs a good performance by us presenters. The lap record for the Rahal BMW on the simulator was lowered to 2 minutes dead, and the ultimate record lowered in a BMW Sauber F1 car, which seemed easier to drive on this layout than the touring car for some reason, to 1 minute 50 seconds. Top speed was where I thought it would be at over 180mph, and saw over 170 at several other points. The average lap speed is now up to 111 mph even with some very tight and slow sections. I am sure that this time will be lowered as the driver was no expert, but drove surprisingly well. It will be fun to upgrade the model with the cross-falls and elevation changes I have designed.

Otherwise we are moving on with the permitting process, which seems to be going well, but it is early days. It is looking like next April/May to break ground, so end of 2011 to run on.

Been making the final arrangements for my travel to the International Circuit Owners Forum in Cologne (Koln) Germany in November. Some great sessions covering all aspects from conception, design and construction through operations and how to make money, the hard part. If you want to see the program log on to:

http://www.professionalmotorsportcircuit-forum.com/downloads/2010_programme.pdf

I can arrange a discount on the forum fee, so if you are interested in going contact me via a comment and I will respond.

Elsewhere the F1 circus is setting up camp in Singapore. Singapore says it wants to be a "must have" F1 race. Good luck with that, ask the French who invented this stuff, and Spa, Imola and other great tracks how that works and they will tell you it's all about the money. So, as long as your Government is happy losing megabucks every year then you probably can be a "must have" with CVC.

Rumors resurface about Kubica to Ferrari. As I have asked before, why would he want to do that? Alonso is not going to relinquish his number one status, and certainly not welcome someone as quick as Kubica. I can't see Kubica going there a number two, can you? I know he says all drivers want to drive for Ferrari, but is that correct, and under what situation? I can't quite see Lewis at Ferrari can you?

I thought the announcement of a new Russian sponsor for Renault would have secured Petrov's seat for next year, but it turns out they are only in for the remaining races this year, so maybe Kimi can still spring it. Or is Kimi replacing Kubica? The plot thickens.

It seems the boys in Austin are not getting the smooth ride through the planning process as they probably expected, bringing all that economic benefit to Austin after all. Seems the road system needs $15m spent on it to allow for the huge crowd that's going to turn up, and the State DOT wants to know who's paying. The Planning Board is also saying they do not have enough information to even start considering the project. I liked the lawyers comment, "We heard loud and clear … the information flow is going to open up." As they want to break ground by the end of the year you would have thought it would have been flowing thick and fast by now. You can read the whole story on ESPNF1 web site.