Bob Barnard Track Engineering

It's terrible to see what is happening in Japan and let us hope it does not get worse, one Chernobyl in this world is enough. If you want to read a great book about Chernobyl read "Wolves Eat Dogs" by Martin Cruz Smith, the guy who wrote Gorky Park. Japanese MotoGP is postponed for a second year due to mother nature.

Trouble of a man-made kind in the Middle east with the situation in Libya beyond description. As I said, why do troops do these things to their own people? Bahrain is getting there with a "peacekeeping" force from their neighboring states, particularly Saudi Arabia, coming in to help the Royal Family keep hold on power. That is never going to work in the long term. We need to look no further than Northern Ireland to see what a suppressed people will do when desperate. So, a rescheduling of the F1 race is impossible with a  three month "State of Emergency" being declared. More to the point, does F1 want to be seen in a country that so obviously is repressing its own people? Silly me, we are already doing that aren't we?

On a happier note, it is great to see the HPD LMP1 car doing so well in practice for Sebring. Despite only turning a wheel this last weekend the Highcroft run car is mixing it with the Peugeots and Audis. We are still off last years times, but not by much and that could be down to the restrictions placed on the diesels. Are we to see a level playing field at last? Looks like being a good race, if only it was televised live.

In what must rate as one of the most outrageous pieces of spin ever Colin Kolles, when asked if he thought HRT would feature in the top 10, he said: "I think so yes. I think that others are more desperate than we are to be honest with you." Colin was responding to Bernie's opinion that F1 really only needed ten teams, and of course the media had to ask HRT where that left them. Colin supported the idea!!!

Nice to see Daniel Ricciardo setting the pace in FR3.5 testing. Let's hope he can win the Championship this year and continue his progress to F1. That other Aussie, Casey Stoner looks on course to be the favorite for this year's MotoGP Championship with another chart topping test session in Qatar. But it gets real this weekend when the first race is run under lights. Ben Spies is not far off on the Yamaha and capable of mixing it with the Hondas on paper. Strange it is de Puniet on the private Ducati that is leading the way for the marque. Rossi had another get off and ended up thirteenth. If this is sandbagging it is world class.Sorry to hear Cal Crutchlow lost the tip of his finger, but he is in some illustrious company there. Let's hope it is a good omen.

In other news, Jean Todt in Melbourne for the GP says Australia should keep its race, but he is not paying for it is he? Horner is stirring the pot suggesting Lewis Hamilton will be looking to drive a Red Bull if he has another disappointing season. Is this to replace Vettel? Lewis meanwhile has a new manager and is reported to be open to "music and film" to expand his career. Whatever.

So Vettel has ended the going to Ferrari stories for now by signing a new contract through 2014, but what then? Well, Alonso may have said enough by then so who knows. While Red Bull can give Sebastian winning cars why would he leave? Surely money cannot be a reason, prestige? Vettel is concerned that the rules for the overtaking zone in Melbourne, that area where you can trim the rear wing, are confusing. Due to the short straight and the complex of corners leading into it the FIA have decided that the one second gap is to be measured at the third corner before the straight, not the last one. As Seb says, what if I close the gap through that last complex?

HRT are assuring everyone they will be in Melbourne with their "new" car. After people commented on the similarity to the old car they admitted the chassis was the same, "but 95% of the parts are new." So what does that mean?

In Qatar another World Champion is not having such a good start to the year, although Rossi says the Ducati is getting closer, even if he did fall off during testing. The Honda boys are having no such troubles and continues to dominate, but Yamaha are not so far away. This weekends GP should be interesting with the "semi works" bikes being closer in performance than it seemed last year.

With MotoGP and Sebring this weekend hopefully the news and gossip will increase. Of course if you actually want to watch Sebring you need a good cable to connect the computer to the TV, or just watch it on the computer.

Had a call from King Kenny last evening, very nice chat about old times and the current state of racing. I'm not really surprised, but he is still more in demand for appearances than the young guys, and he says he gets paid more now just to show up than he used to to race. Ah, the good old days. He says he is selling the ranch because he cannot stand still being quicker at his age than all the young guys who come there to train!

You know my thoughts on the failure of the spectator driven tracks as a business model, well New Jersey just filed for bankruptcy, how long has that taken? Good luck with Mid-Ohio boys. Silverstone reported a profit of 2m pounds on a turnover of around 50m. Richard Phillips the MD said “I think we are probably the only privately-funded grand prix circuit that does make a profit in the world but the UK is quite peculiar because there is a huge motorsport following, there's a lot of industry here." Well it is an achievement to make a profit of any sort, but given the level of investment in the facility, which is continuing with the new pit building which is costing around 28m pounds, that is not much of a return. Good job it is run by a club. Hard to see how the numbers stack up though. They run the British F1 GP and Bernie's fee has to be half that turnover.

HRT showed up in Barcelona with this year's car, well almost. Parts are stuck in customs apparently and it will not run today. Isn't the car made in Spain? Day four of testing is again all over the place. McLaren had an engine let go so Button has not done much running, but what he did was slow, only faster than the Virgin which has improved to being 6 seconds off the pace. Mercedes are showing their legs with Schumacher topping the charts, fastest of the four days thus far, and Rosberg carrying on where he left off in third place.  Ferrari still up there, but Red Bull stooging around today. One thing seems certain, race averages are going to be way off the qualifying times.

Daytona bike week is on but who really cares any more other than some die hards? How do you kill what was a real world class event at one time?

Happening that is. Rain at Daytona for the bikes and Sebring where Indycars are supposed to be testing. Barcelona is fine, certainly for Perez and Sauber who top the time sheet today, pretty close to Vettel's time yesterday. Massa is next and then Webber. No McLaren today, and times all over the place again. Lotus still have reliability problems and Williams had gearbox problems. I don't know if you have followed the Williams design this year, but the gearbox is so low the top wishbones are attached the bottom of the rear wing central support. Very novel and provides a huge hole for air to the back wing, but as someone said, you then have to use it.

Mercedes have some new parts and Schumacher is only 1.13 secs off the fast time, and both drivers say they are happier with the car, and Haug says they are not running low fuel. Williams and Ferrari have gone down the Red Bull exhaust road rather than the Renault as they think it is the best solution. Still feeding exhaust gas through the diffuser, but at the rear, not in front of the sidepods. I still have not heard or seen what McLaren have done.

The drivers met with the FIA, presumably Charlie Whiting, last evening to discuss their concerns about the movable wing, so watch for some tweaks to the rules, including not using them in the wet as the  change in downforce is thought to upset the car.

The most impressive thing in testing is the amount of laps Ferrari and Red Bull have put together, over 1000 not counting today, so their reliability is not a problem. Their quick too, not a good start to the season for the others.

There is a very funny Billy Connolly sketch in which he uses this expression, and in Barcelona it is all the same, just different drivers. Vettel is atop the timesheets and the rest are struggling. McLaren had car problems again this morning and appear to have some real problems with it. Hard to believe that all that equipment needed to be on the nose just to record some stress/strain information. They had easier ways than that I'm sure. Peter Geran sent me a photo off twitter of the Red Bull front wing dragging the end plates on the ground again a la 2010, so much for stronger tests. Petrov is doing well in the Renault, but Rosberg and the Mercedes are still struggling and Virgin are still 7 secs off the pace.

HRT have finally signed Luizzi so all the seats are filled now, and the new car is supposed to be at the track Friday.

Interesting that Suzuka has only extended its deal to stage the GP for one year? Bernie usually likes multi-year deals. Suzuka says it only makes a marginal profit, which is an achievement in itself, but is owned by Honda who quit F1 so is presumably reviewing the benefit of still staging the race, especially if Bernie is upping the fee.

Nice to see David Brabham confirmed to drive Duncan Dayton's HRD LMP1 at Sebring. Not much time to get the car shaken down, but Duncan's cars are always top class so it will be a great addition to the LMP1 field.