Bob Barnard Track Engineering

As predicted by Murphy The Bear ALMS CEO Scott Atherton announced at Laguna yesterday a new series to support the ALMS, and it needs a lot of support. Not sure who is supporting who here as it is a remake of Can-Am with spec racers. If it is half as good as the original it will blow the current ALMS away. Car "owners" will get two 30 minute races at each ALMS event, for only $485,000 a season. No mention of how many cars will be available, but more important will be the number of gentlemen racers with $485,000 to spend a year.

Not that I think this is a bad idea, could be a good way of reviving sports car racing, if it gets any TV coverage, which even ALMS doesn't. But spec racing is not what Can-Am was about, no-rules was the original idea with innovation being the key to its success. Personally a GT series is where I would go, but I'm sure there are plenty who would disagree.

In Spain the lights and A/C were back on and so was Stoner who ran away with pole, despite laying the main bike down. He then went out on the spare and went quicker! Pedrosa is second with Spies recovering from whatever ailed him or his machine yesterday to complete the front row. Lorenzo is next but not confident for the race, while Rossi is playing with his aluminium frame which necessitates different engine bolt up points, so he has exceeded his six engines despite having two unused of the original. Not doing him any good though. Nicky Hayden and rookie privateer Karel Abraham qualifying ahead of him on their Ducatis.

The Dyson team have taken the two top spots for the Laguna ALMS race later today, with the works Aston Martin and the Muscle Milk sister car on the next row, but not by much. A whole four LMP1 cars, this should be exciting, roll on Petit. BMW are on pole in the GT class, but as usual the gap from second to ninth is less than a second, so this is where the fun will be.

In Paul Ricard the FR3.5 continues to put on a show with Vergne winning the first race and Wickens third, so Vergne is still in with a shot at the Championship. Further back Ricciardo and Rossi, Alexander that is, had a good fight with Ricciardo ending up in front but being penalised post race for putting four wheels over the track edge. He must have been watching the Monza race last week, but of course he was there!

On the cover of Autosport a few weeks ago there was a piece about Kimi coming back to F1. I looked to see if it was the April 1st issue just late, but no. Now Joe Saward reports Kimi as having been to see Williams, as has Sutil. Now I would love to see Kimi back in an F1 car, and Williams will have a Renault engine next year and a new design team, but somehow can't see he wants to put up with the BS and the travel again. He declined to fly to the Australian WRC Round, so how is he going to put up with the F1 schedule? Peugeot in the odd WEC race seems much more likely, but I have been wrong before.

Today we have video and photos of David Coulthard driving the Red Bull F1 car around the gravel pit called the Austin GP track. Glad i do not have to clean the dust and rocks out of that car. Now there was a planned Red Bull demo in the city as we have become used to, but apparently a filming permit was not forthcoming, the city must be right behind this! So we have seen Coulthard at a ranch with cowboys, a still photo in front of the Capitol building, and now at the track. Someone is working very hard to convince the sceptics or average American that this is going to be great, but so far as I have said before, it is like putting Frank Sinatra on in your local farmers barn. Why not put Travis Pastrana out there in his Red Bull rally car? 

Courtesy of ESPNF1 and Getty Images here is Turn Two.

http://en.espnf1.com/

 I particularly like the person crouched in the inside of the corner behind one plastic barrier, fat lot of use that would be, why not put him up on one of those high banks out of the way? And does this really want to make you go? Here is some video footage that gets better.

http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/Videos-Red-Bull-demo-at-the-Circuit-of-the-Americas,28426.html

Now I have done something like this at Eastern Creek with Dick Johnson's V8Supercar, but all the earthworks were done and most of the first layer of asphalt, the rest finished base course, so it actually looked like a race track.

The only other news on a slow Monday is Kimi possibly going to drive the Peugeot 908 at Le Mans next year. Kimi is currently still rallying his Citroen, which is part of the same group, so it makes sense and would be great to see. His interest in NASCAR seems to have all but disappeared.

 

The head of the Bahrain circuit was in Silverstone and was not happy with the "temperamental" F1 Teams. They loved us one month and then did not want to come the next. Well perhaps that's because you were not shooting people before? He particularly took exception to Webber's comments and said Australia had a problem with it's Aborigines so why did they have a GP? Well, the last time we shot one was quite a while ago, and while I know there are still issues they do enjoy equal opportunity despite being a minority, unlike the majority Shiites. The outcome of all this is that their place on the 2012 calendar is by no means safe, and the teams apparently want it moved to a later date so as not to be so conspicuous.

He also had a swipe at the US over Guantanamo, but Austin still has it's own problems. It sounds as if Building Approval has yet to be given for the structures, pits and grandstands. Now there is still plenty of time, but why is this taking so long? A scheduled meeting of the Government Liaison Committee was postponed so a vote required for the Texas State Funds has yet to take place.

Following on from Mark Webber's reluctance to accept team orders the rumors have resurfaced that he will not be in a Red Bull next season. Even Kimi's name has been reported by a German newspaper as the man to replace him despite Horner earlier laughing off of the suggestion. Ricciardo's sudden elevation to a F1 drive also prompted stories that he will replace Mark, but that seems a bit far fetched as good as he is. Even Vettel did not make that jump. So is this the start of the silly season? Williams seem set to keep their two, Ferrari are always reported to be replacing Massa, and Michael slated to retire again. Hamilton may or may not jump ship, but where to? You can't see Lewis "maintaining the gap" however many times Horner tells him.

Curious report about Mercedes being happy with their new exhaust diffuser system they fitted for Silverstone. Didn't we ban these for Silverstone and beyond, so why would you come out with a new system if you did not know you were going to be able to use it?

 

Monaco continued to give us some major crashes, and thanks to the design of the modern F1 car they all walked away, figuratively. A couple of things stood out in the race for me. "Controlled aggression" is what they say you need around here, but Lewis forgot about the controlled bit. I don't know if it was the mistake by his engineers in not sending him out early in the Q3 session started this, but I am beginning to wonder where his head is at. You know I am a fan and said after Turkey that Whitmarsh should not be asking him to avoid aggressive moves, but maybe he is seeing something we are not, until today. OK, that aggression got him past Michael, just, but his moves on Masssa and Maldanado where not smart. We saw it on the first lap in Monza last year, and just maybe we have gone over that fine line between great passing moves and stupid ones. I cannot help asking where he would have finished if he had just driven a calm race, probably fourth or fifth. His comment about being called in front of the Stewards 5 times in 6 races "may be because he is black" is a very unfortunate statement by someone not in control. Let's hope an apology is forthcoming.

The other thing I cannot understand is why under a red flag teams are allowed to work on the cars and change tires? Number one this robbed us of a great finish and penalized Alonso and Button. I know it is the rule, I am just at a loss at what that is trying to achieve? It was obvious that no one was going to pass once they all had new tires, the only thing the restart accomplished is Maldanado's car being damaged in a crash.  Vettel has to be congratulated on being able to get that many laps out of the soft tire, I for one could not believe he was not stopping again. The track helped of course, but the still had to drive faultlessly. Mark Webber's luck did not get any better with a delayed pit stop.

Aussie Daniel Ricciardo did his resume no harm by winning the FR 3.5 race, while Alexander Rossi seems to have had a good race before tangling with a back marker.

Kimi finished 27th in his Nationwide debut, and did not enjoy it much by the sound of it, complaining about how hot the cars are. The race was on the same time as the soccer, so missed it, but the commentators agreed he drove well, losing time with a pit exit speeding penalty and split splitter, if that does not sound too odd.

Checa is hot at a freezing Miller Park in the WSBK qualifying, nearly a second if front of second placed man Camier, and over a second on Biaggi.

Now I am going to crave your indulgence and talk about soccer and Barcelona. The Champions League Final was a great match, played in good spirit, but Barcelona were just too good for Man U, in fact too good for anyone. Watching the game it struck me that Barca play the game like a bull fight. Barnard's lost it I hear you say, but bear with me. If you have not seen a bullfight it is a mind game between the matador and the bull. The bull charges into the ring, going for anything and everything, much like Man U started. But as with the bull, that aggression is absorbed and gradually abates as Barca exert a little pressure back, controlling the ball and taunting the other team as happens in the ring with the bull. Eventually the matador uses his cape to mesmerize the bull, just as Barca's short passing game and ball control does to the opposition. At times Man U's defence were static, just watching until the "sword" was applied, the rapier pass through the gap to a player open in front of goal. So 3-1 is the result, and some team has to figure out how to match them at this game. Barca controlled the ball for 70% of the time, and this against one of the other great teams in the world!

If I may continue, I could watch Messi play all day, every day. Not only is he the best player in the world today, perhaps of all time, or will be, but his enjoyment at playing is evident whatever is happening to him. Lewis could learn something here. It does not matter if he has just missed a goal or been taken down by a cynical foul, he gets up smiling. Nothing fazes him. His mind must be amazing. I know mine is more like Lewis'.

Great live streaming pictures and sound from SPEEDTV.com this morning. Wish I could watch all the F1 like this, no ads, no idiot commentary, maybe ALMS has something here. No picture break up or lock up, and the quality was better than cable. Two interesting sessions today with some big accidents, two at the chicane after the tunnel. Rosberg lost the back end under braking and took off over the speed bumps put into the center of the chicane, presumably installed to slow cars down that short cut it. Thankfully these were removed before qualifying as they actually only make it worse, as demonstrated . I for one did not expect to see Rosberg back out in quali, not that he was hurt, he missed the center island between the track and the run-off, but the car had substantial damage. Great job by the Mercedes team to have him not only back out but competitive. Perez was not so lucky in Q3, hitting the island side on, and thankfully he did, a head on would probably have him under the TECPRO barrier. The jury is still out on these compared to tires, and they cost many times more. For me they are too light, as we have seen already cars go under them. Perez will miss tomorrow's race but fortunately his injuries are relatively minor.

Unlike the two HRT cars who despite not turning a wheel in qualifying have been given the OK to race, and they did not even have to buy a starting spot! The Stewards in an unfathomable piece of generosity will let them race, despite being 6-7 seconds off the pace in practice. Now on another track that may be OK, but around here there is no place for sentiment, and no room to overtake. Let us hope that decision does not turn around and bite someone.

Perez's accident showed the absolute necessity to get out early and bank a lap in these short sessions. McLaren failed Lewis and now he is stuck down in seventh despite being fastest in Q2. As I suspected, no one tried to save tires, starting position is everything here. It will be interesting to see what McLaren's pit strategy will be to try and leapfrog Lewis up the field.

I commented the other day on the efficiency of the Monaco track team in repairing the asphalt, and it was in evidence again today. Most of these incidents would have taken lesser crews a long time to clean up, and in some cases may not have repaired in time to finish a session. Indy, NASCAR et al need to go there and see how they do it. As Michael Schumacher was crashing Thursday at Ste-Devote you could see the crane operator start up. Having said that the "crest" coming out of the tunnel seems to have contributed to a few accidents this weekend and needs addressing. Given their usual rapid response it is surprising it was not planed smoother during yesterday's quiet day.

In other news it seems the Lotus sponsored Renault team is in a spot of financial trouble. The Marussia money is not flowing and since Kubica's accident interest from new sponsors has all but disappeared. The Geni Capital deal was a novel one for starters, and Lotus Cars is another work in progress. maybe Tony Fernandes just needs to wait this out. Story is Renault is owed big time for engines and may be looking elsewhere for 2012, like Williams.

I did miss a race from my list yesterday. The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars were at Charlotte last night, but got rained out anyway. Rescheduled for tonight, but will only be live streamed. Kimi qualified 15th for the Nationwide race! Outqualified not only his mentor Kyle Busch but his car owner Joe Nemechek! Need to watch that tonight.

Ferrari have now expressed their concern at extending the calendar to accommodate Bahrain. Has no one the guts to come out and say they will not go? I for one will not watch it if it is reinstated and encourage others to do the same. That is the only message Bernie and his cohorts will understand. This would be almost the last straw for me and I hope many others about what has become of our sport.