Bob Barnard Track Engineering

In the years leading up to the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games the Australian Broadcasting Company, the PBS of Oz, ran a series called "The Games." which spoofed the preparations. It was extremely funny with John Clark as the lead. At one point he makes the comment on F1 that they are the fastest cars in the world but you can't pass, the race is decided by parking! He meant pit stops of course, and we saw it again today. Not that it was not an intriguing race. It reminded me of the Gilles Villenueve win at Jarama many years ago when he had a train of five or six cars right behind him, who could not pass for the whole race. His win was helped that day by the fact there were no pit stops in those races. The tension of watching drivers strain for every inch, and striving for perfection of braking and placement, is sometimes more exciting than non-stop passing.

So, the question of who chose the correct downforce setting was answered. Hamilton I believe was forced into the mistake by him knowing he had to get to the front to make his setting work, which they did for Ferrari.  But, if only McLaren could have matched the pit stop time, but that is why you run the race. A simulation would probably have Button winning. Vettel's race was weird, with the inevitable suspicion that his "engine trouble" was a team orders ruse, but then he goes and beats Mark anyway. Apparently it was a sticking brake that fixed itself. Very clever strategy to keep him out, the super softs do not seem to wear out anymore. I thought for a moment they were going to try the "pit on the last lap" trick and roll across the timing line in pit lane. Didn't Ferrari do that at Silverstone for Schumacher some years ago? Is that a legal move does anyone know?

And why does Hulkenburg get away with not only cutting the chicanes but clearly blocking? Alguersuari gets a drive through for cutting the first chicane without gaining an advantage, where clearly Hulkenburg gained the advantage of not losing a place. Seems it is OK as long as you do not gain a place, you can avoid losing one. Isn't that the same thing?

It seems to be the World Championship no one wants to win. Every time we seem to get a clear leader or leaders, they screw up and it all closes up again. No one is taking it by the scruff of the neck and making it their own. Keeps it interesting for us, but as Lewis commented, not for the guys involved.

Bob Varsha was back to his best form, or worst if you have to listen to him. I muted the race because he would not shut up, which is very annoying as I like the sound of F1 cars, but if you cannot hear them for Bob rabbiting on then what's the point?

Peugeot won the inaugural Intercontinental Cup race of the Le Mans Series at Silverstone as I predicted, although McNish suffered the first mechanical breakdown of the Audi since the R10 days. Dindo says they learned a lot in their preparation for the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, so we should look forward to a cracking race as usual. At least I can listen to Radio Le Mans commentary, which I know some of you do not like, but I do.

Pruett and Rojas won the final race of the Grand Am series, no surprise there. Who is going to step up and challenge these guys next season, Dyson?

Monza is an anachronism of a race track. Great history and atmosphere, but a bit like the old Hockenheim and Silverstone, long straights interrupted  by a couple of corners, and then we throw in  a couple of chicanes to slow the cars down, but only a little. We all know, except Bob Varsha, despite the fact he had just told us, that it is in a Royal Park and very limited in what it can do, much like Brands Hatch. So why does Bob wonder why "they have not done more with the infield of the old oval?"

What surprises me is the lack of serious accidents. We saw yesterday how Massa narrowly avoided hitting the wall at the Parabolica, and with the extreme speeds and lack of run off I would expect many more incidents. Now I would suspect that that would mean that the drivers are not at ten tenths, leaving a bit on the table, but when you watch that is very hard to believe.

Interesting technical session, especially between the McLarens, and Lewis may yet have made the right decision. OK, he will lose a bit of time in the corners, but you are not going to overtake there anyway. It is at the end of the fast straights where the overtaking will happen, especially Turn 1, and if Lewis can get through the Parabolica OK then he should be in a good place to go by. I mentioned yesterday how fast he was back on the gas at the entry to the Parabolica, and watching today it was noticeable how the quick cars only went back to fifth and were immediately on the gas, whereas the slower cars were going down a lot of gears.

Interesting the Red Bull pair were not in the hunt for the pole. Mark continued to have bad luck in practice, and the commentators questioned the decision not to put a fresh engine in his car for the race. Is Red Bull still playing games? Vettel was never a factor, despite being quick yesterday. Mercedes struggling badly, but Williams continue their good form, and Kubica does wonders with the Renault.

So Rome has done a deal for an F1 GP starting in 2012 or 13. Bulgaria again gets a mention. Where is this going to end? Who are we going to lose? There are a few I could suggest, but I doubt Bernie is going to give up the income from them.

Talking of failed stupid GP bids we had the Donnington Park saga which never made any sense except as a whipping post for Silverstone. So Simon Gillette tears the place up and then goes bankrupt. Along comes Adroit, an engineering company to take over the promotion and fix the mess. Now I am a Civil Engineer who made the transition to Promoter, so gave them the benefit of the doubt, but again I had my doubts to give them the benefit of. Lo and behold after fixing the track they gave the place back to the Wheatcroft's. Robert Fearnall, the tracks long time promoter, said "Adroit is a construction company that realised running a race circuit was outside it's experience." Perhaps they could have realized that before they took it on? This sport is full of people who know nothing about it but think it is glamorous and that they can be successful where others fail.  It would be interesting to know who paid for fixing the track, or was it a freebie from Adroit?

I know I wrote off Allan McNish yesterday after practice, and now he is on pole, but I do not think it is quite that straightforward. It sounds as if the Audi squad got the strategy correct and Peugeot did not, but Davidson is still not worried about the race, and nor would I be. But I have underestimated both Allan and Audi before though.

Busy weekend on the motorcycle front. MotoGP at Misano with the Honda's quickest today and the Ducati's struggling. Can Pedrosa catch Lorenzo? Not without a few DNF's for Jorge, which seems unlikely given his reliability thus far. Stoner says he is not watching the Honda, but he must be dying for the season to end to get on it. Does not sound as if Dovizioso is willing to vacate the seat quietly, will Honda run three bikes? Misano was the scene of Wayne Rainey's unfortunate accident this weekend in '93.  Some days you do not forget. I had the privilege of getting to know Wayne and Shae when I lived in Spain and worked for Kenny, and then in the planning for the USGP at Laguna. A great Champion and individual.

World Superbike is at Nurburgring with Checa quickest, but good to see Troy Corser has the BMW right behind him. Troy seems to struggle over a race distance so let's hope he can hold it together this weekend for a podium. A young Australian, Mark Aitchison, is making his debut in the  Supersport class and is tenth in practice, not bad for a guy who probably never saw the bike or the track before. WSBK needs some fresh blood, Checa, Biaggi etc are a bit long in the tooth now.

AMA is at New Jersey in time to meet Earl, but it is supposed to clean up for the weekend. Tommy Hayden is quickest thus far, but with this series would anyone but the diehards notice.

Elsewhere a few series are restarting after the summer, like the F Renault 3.5 who are at Hockenheim with Australian Red Bull protege, Daniel Ricciardo, fastest in practice. F3 Euro are at Brands Hatch with the DTM and Audi leading practice. It is odd that either Mercedes or Audi dominate at a track, their characteristics must be quite different. BTCC are at Knockhill in Scotland, and F2 are at some place unpronounceable in Germany where most drivers have not been before with a Russian with an equally unpronounceable name quickest in practice. Tony George's stepson, Ed Carpenter shocked everyone with pole at Kentucky Speedway, let's see if he can make something for the race from there.

Over at F1 it is "back to the future." Korea is still trying to finish the track and the date for inspection by the FIA is Sept 21. As Tilke says, it is always tight building a track as the race date is fixed, not like a normal construction project where you can delay the opening if you get in trouble, but that has been the way since I built Adelaide, so why is that news? Korea had one go at running a GP and had to pay Bernie not to run it once before. Chandook is supposed to run a car on the track this weekend, so it will be interesting to see if he has the off road tires on it. What happened to the 90 day curing time on the track surface?

On the car front it seems we are to have 1.6 liter turbocharged cars with ground effects for 2013. Works for me, we had 1.5 liter screamers before, and ground effects and some great racing. The fuel flow to the turbo is apparently going to be regulated, and presumably the boost level, so we do not have 1000 hp grenades like before that basically made all the run off too short when the ground effects stopped effecting.

Sebastian Vettel still thinks he is going to win the Championship this year. I want some of what he is on. It is one thing to have confidence and I do not knock him for that, I guess all drivers need to think that they will win, but Webber and Hamilton have to have an amazing run of bad luck for Seb to get up from here. Bit like Pedrosa, maybe they should compare notes.

Back in Arizona we move forward on Sol Real with the land in escrow and a meeting with the City next week. Legal docs should be available this coming week so we can get serious. Membership applications will be available as well for those who want to reserve a place, with no money required until there is a track to drive on, although we are setting up a simulator, so that should be virtually very soon. Texas reconnected today, so should be making a trip there later this month. The program is out for the Forum in Cologne in November on track construction and ownership, so if you want one sent by e-mail please contact me, I can also provide a discount on the fee.

What a weekend! Crashes marred almost all the racing, and unfortunately took the life of an up and coming young American rider, Peter Lenz, at Indianapolis. The description of the incident shows that whatever we do with a track as designers the worst can still happen, and does, when two cars or bikes get together. The number of falls at the MotoGP, Rossi fell four times in the weekend, begs the question of what is wrong with the track surface? Indy has a history of problems with grip and tires for NASCAR, F1, and now MotoGP. From looking at the race I was amazed at the extent of the cracking on the infield track, which is not really that old. I know Indy has some bad weather in winter, but that seemed strange. The bumps cannot be bad asphalt laying, it must be movement in the base, but again, why?

The Moto2 race looked insane, with riders going down everywhere. Looked like a GP2 race! Speed did their usual bang up job, replacing the regular commentators with Larry and Mo, Diffey and Russell, and was more interested in giving us "background color" than showing us the race. Not that the race was very exciting, but more than Nicky Hayden at the dirt track!  I thought Australians were jingoistic, but American commentators beat us hands down.

I see that Valentino is calling for the removal of the electronic aids from the bikes to make the show more exciting. It certainly needs something. Apart from Ben Spies leading for a while, there was little to keep me watching except for professional interest. Not sure just removing the aids will do it though. It needs a group of equally good riders on equivalent machines, no not spec racers, but manufacturers all producing good machines. Suzuki certainly is not, Ducati is not on par, and Honda is up and down. And not just two from each either. Back when we saw Yamaha for instance with KR, Ago, and Sarron's team, six "works" bikes with good riders.

Spa turned on its' usual show. We moved house over the weekend and for some reason my DVD did not record, so will have to watch the replay Wednesday, but from the accounts it was a very good race. Well done Lewis and McLaren. Red Bull shot themselves in the foot again. Webber's anti-stall kicked in at the start which let Hamilton jump him and never look back, and Vettel did his now accustomed self-destruct, this time taking Button out instead of his team mate. Barrichello ran into Alonso and put himself out early, while Alonso took himself out later. Good result for Kubica and Renault. What would he do if he had a McLaren or Red Bull? Mercedes continue to be the mystery of the season. Season is building to another close finish, but now I have a problem. I have always liked Lewis, but I love Mark's grit and he is an Australian. So I cannot lose whoever wins the Championship, but who do I want to win?

And then there was Mosport, that 50 year old jewel. Well those 50 year old pine guard rail posts did not take kindly to being smacked by a 2010 Porsche. I told Don that they needed changing when I inspected the track after he bought it in 1998! Timber posts can be used if already in place, but are supposed to be rectangular hardwood, not old, round, pine. As soon as I saw that crash I knew they were never going to get that rail repaired. Even steel posts would still have given, that is the way rail is supposed to behave, and that is why I personally prefer a concrete block wall. It still moves, but is easy to pull back into place. The race? Shades of Lime Rock with cars running into each other all over the place. Interesting rather than exciting.

Good to see Boris Said finally win a NASCAR race, even if it was a Nationwide event. Sounds like a good race with Papis and Villenueve right there at the end.

Those of you who have followed my blog will know my views on the English Autosport weekly magazine as the best there is. It turned 60 this week, nearly as old as me, and celebrates with a whopping 330 page issue looking back on those 60 years, the cars, the drivers and the tracks. It is a keeper. Have not read it all yet of course, but a look through is enough to see the quality of what they have produced, so make sure you get a copy wherever you are.

The article on iconic tracks is interesting, and they did a great job on Adelaide, but then again I am biased. I'm sure Ron Walker from the Melbourne GP is getting ready to sue them over their comments that Melbourne has yet to reach the standard Adelaide set. It is interesting to see the other tracks from each decade. I would have got them wrong. 50's Pescara, 60's Suzuka, 70's Paul Ricard, 80's Adelaide, 90's Texas Motor Speedway!, and 00's Algarve. Of course the word "iconic" does not necessarily translate to the best, but there are some interesting omissions.

I forgot for instance that Suzuka was built in the sixties. You tend to think of it in terms of its' F1 life. What a track it must have been when built, quite unique, and still is. Paul Ricard is a good choice for the seventies, but Texas for the nineties? I am trying to think of its place in the development of the 1.5 mile tri-ovals of that period, and why that one is particularly special. Guess I will have to read that article. Then the noughties. I would have picked the Chinese F1 track for sheer extravagance, and the grandstand/pit complex is certainly iconic. But there you are, we each have our own opinions, and thank goodness for that.

Of course these are tracks built in those decades, so Spa, Monza or Monaco pre-date the magazine.

Talking of Spa, it is raining, imagine that. Spa is notorious for rain. It is one of those places where that old saying, "if you can't see the hills it's raining, if you can see the hills it is going to rain" is most apt. Makes for interesting races on an already amazing track. Hamilton is still confident there is more to come out of the McLaren, and he had better be right if he and Button are going to maintain a challenge for the Championship.  The real interest is still going to be the fight inside the Red Bull team, and the FIA's latest moves to beef up the testing of the front wings and floors. There are heavier test loads at Spa, and apparently even more stringent tests to come at Monza, especially on the floor. It will be interesting reading when someone finally explains how they did this.

In a previous issue of Autosport they had a half year review of how the F1 teams were doing, and of course the RB6 was the class of the field. Gary Anderson makes the point that it is just better everywhere, it is not just the exhaust blown diffuser or the front wing, it is the skill of Newey. I have a 90/10 rule that works for lots of things, and Gary uses it here. He believes Adrian understands 90% of what makes a car work, because no one can know 100%, where others only know 80%. So the 90/10 rule, you can calculate 90%, but the last 10% is instinct, experience, call it what you like.

Roll on tomorrow when we have F1 and MotoGP practice to get our teeth into. Can Valentino win at Indy, or does Yamaha want Lorenzo to be the new hero?