Bob Barnard Track Engineering

So Mark Webber is Australia's top earning sportsman, displacing Greg Norman from top spot. I would hope so, how long is it since Greg really played apart from cameos? Greg has been very smart and is making lots from developments, so he should be in the business section. Nice to see Mark being rewarded for years of effort, and he did it without a big sponsor backing too. I like Bernie's comment that Enzo would have loved Mark and Mark would surely have been a Ferrari driver back in Enzo's day, and a World Champion by now.

Maldonado has been confirmed as the second driver at Williams, probably the worst kept secret of this silly season. Let's hope he can live up to his GP2 winner status and his sponsors checkbook. The other seats remain open on the FIA entry list for 2011, so we still have some interest in who's going where. Lotus is still listed which the Team says is due to the public's positive response to Tony Fernandes Team, and it seems the Malaysian Government who owns the Proton/Lotus car group has told them to chill it on the public fight over the name. As Mike Gascoyne said, why are they fighting us, they are getting the exposure for free? I guess Lotus Cars has intentions of their own in F1, they seem to want to be in everything else. This smacks of overreaching, if large companies like Renault, Toyota and BMW cannot do it, then why try?

Bernie now blames Max for the poor showing of the new teams by bringing them in on the pretext that costs will be capped. But Bernie is happy for them to stay,"provided they don't walk around with begging bowls, it's good to have them."

Alonso thinks his margin over poor Massa shows how much better he is this year. Still had to get his team to ask Massa to move over in Germany though didn't he?

I trust all my American friends had a great Thanksgiving, I certainly did. Spent it with Aussie mate also from Adelaide and we watched the movie made of the set up for the first Adelaide F1 GP that I recently managed to obtain a copy of.

It is sort out time for the remaining seats in F1 next year, so let's look at who's where and who might be. McLaren is set with Hamilton and Button, and it looks like despite everything Webber and Vettel will be back at Red Bull. Christain Horner is tipping Mark for the title, so he must think he will be back. Ferrari will have Alonso, but is Massa safe? Who is available that is a better #2 to Alonso? Kubica and Webber have been mentioned, but neither look like moving and would not want to be a number 2 anyway. Mercedes has Nico, and maybe Michael. He says he likes the Pirelli's, and I don't think his ego is going to let him give up that easily. If they wanted a German driver there is Hulkenburg or Heidfeld, or even Glock, that would do as good a job or better, but Michael's name is great marketing for Mercedes. Renault has Kubica and looks like it might keep Petrov. The car is improving all the time so Kubica will stay, and Petrov did well at the end of the season, and with the Russian connection it seems smart to keep him. Force India is likely to keep Sutil, another German that Mercedes could take, but it seems Liuizzi might be replaced by Hulkenburg which would be a smart move.

Williams are retaining Barrichello, how long can this man go on, and I presume Maldonando with his sponsorship, although that is not announced.  Torro Rosso has given a big hint that Buemi is not coming back and could make room for Ricciardo. When was the last time Australia had two F1 drivers? Answers on a postcard please. Sauber has Mr. Overtaking, "I do not see the other cars" Kobayashi and the young Mexican driver Perez. Lotus, or whoever, will have Trulli and Kovalainen back, but the other two new teams are still up in the air. Glock will probably stay at Virgin, or whatever it is next year, with just maybe a Russian partner, Aleshin. HRT will take whoever has a big check book, and will anybody care?

So the GP2 winner may again not find an F1 seat, and drivers are bypassing it from FR3.5 and GP3 etc. Far from being a stepping stone it is becoming a support series for F1 for drivers that are not quite good enough.

On a final note, Bernie was mugged entering his home last night. Some journalists are unkind enough to repeat Bernie's comments after the attempted muggings in Sao Paulo, "They look for victims, they look for anyone who looks like a soft touch and not too bright," Bernie said in Sao Paulo. "People who look a bit soft and simple, they will always have a go at." I cannot for one moment subscribe to Bernie being "a soft touch and not too bright" so it seems no one is safe.

Congratulations to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull, it is nice to see that good guys do finish first. Red Bull had the guts to stand by their ethics and beliefs when everyone was telling them to do otherwise. I personally was wanting Webber to win for obvious reasons, but Vettel will do. Nice job by Button, and well done McLaren, second and third in the race to sew up second in teams Championship, not a year of failure. Congratulations to Renault, great drive by both drivers, did that win Petrov the second seat? It should, the pressure on him must have been tremendous.

So another season is over, and the next will start tomorrow. New rules, new engines and sponsors/owners for the new teams, so there will be changes, but you can expect the usual suspects out front. The big question will be Mercedes, is Michael coming back, will the 2011 car be better?

There can only be two stories today. Rossi rides the Ducati, which has Rossi fans lathering at the mouth. Could they really not have painted the bike red? Lot of discussion about how far off the pace he is, but it's November, so what does it matter. Vale will go off and have his operation and come back all new and refreshed, then we will see. Did Jeremy and all the Yamaha boys all just change shirts overnight as well? Sorry to hear Stu Shenton has been let go by Suzuki, he is too good to be walking the street, but then again aren't we all?

The other is Red Bull and team orders. The team owner says there will be no team orders, he would rather lose the championship than win it that way. Well said, but there are a couple of people asking if it were Vettel who was in front of the two on points would the answer still be the same? A few others have echoed my thoughts that Red Bull would rather Alonso have it than Mark Webber. Talking of Alonso, I would have thought he would have done well to keep his opinion to himself on team orders. No one commented on my questions as to team orders in motorcycle racing?

Murphy the Bear has his latest offering about the state of sportscar racing and the omission of the Petit from the Intercontinental Cup. I think we would all like to know what that is about, sanction fee, TV rights, dates? The TV schedule for the ALMS is whacko, I'll be watching on live steaming and listening to Radio Le Mans I think, if there is anything worth watching. Sounds as if the GT class will be the thing, even more than this year.

What is going on with the whole Lotus thing? Do the Lotus Group i.e. Proton and the Malaysian Gov't really dislike Tony Fernandes that much? Why would they sponsor the Renault team when by stopping the stupid fight over the name they can have the existing team running around with their name on it, or is it an embarrassment at the moment? That is likely to change, and with a Renault engine. As Mike Gascoyne said "If they want to advertise their road cars, why spend so much money on it?" he told Auto Motor und Sport. "With us, they could do it free of charge."

Then there is the rumor that Virgin might be bringing in Russian backers, Sir Richard's exit strategy?

How great to see a Williams on pole again! I must confess to a soft spot for Sir Frank's Team, as I think most people have. Mine started when Alan Jones won the championship and then to see how Sir Frank has battled his own personal problems and the struggle to stay competitive is an example to us all. Let us not forget it was Hulkenburg and not Barrichello that did it, well done Nico, and what a great way to repay Sir Frank's comments about your ability of just last week. Maybe it was the confidence boost he needed. Interesting qualifying session with nothing between the Red Bulls again, and if Nico had a wet set up then he will probably go backwards fast in the race. Interesting to read his comments of Friday that they would be lucky to make it into Q3.

Hard to see Lewis doing anything other than trying to stay in touch and Alonso, who knows, but both of these guys need the Red Bulls to break again. Mark looked in a determined mood, and it looks more and more like my predictions over the last few months may come true and Mark will leave at the end of the season. Horner's "Mark needs to focus on the job" sounds like a "shut the **** up" to me. Let us hope tomorrow is dry and we can see a straight fight.

On the engine front there are more opinions from Cosworth and Renault that the proposed 2013 engine regs need to be very tightly framed to prevent a runaway spending war, or leave the V8's alone. All is not settled.

HRT has a new partner to help with the money as was suspected, so let's hope for a better season next year. The talk of using the Toyota chassis does not gel with me as the rules change again next year. I think the discussion with Toyota is probably more about using their engineering consultancy they have set up at the old F1 base. I can be wrong though, after all I did not pick Hulkenburg for pole.

Stoner took pole in Valencia so we should be in for a good race tomorrow with Lorenzo, who despite being a Spaniard, says he does not like Valencia. Spain is a bit like Australia, not so much a country as a collection of States. Nice to see Checa managed not to be slowest, just. But he is getting closer to the top lap times.

In Zuhai the Peugeots start at the front. The really interesting thing at Zuhai was the announcement of the Intercontinental Cup calendar for 2011. No Petit, just a "race outside Europe TBA" in October? Sebring is listed. In the GT class the big story is the Porsche Hybrid qualifying second, although it does not actually qualify for points.