Bob Barnard Track Engineering

It is still the "silly season" it seems, with a Spanish web site sending false messages about Santander buying in to HRT. So not to be left out I will pass on a bit of fun I read in Nigel Roebuck's piece in this month's Motor Sport about a pilot coming in to land at Gatwick and announcing to the passengers "Welcome to Gatwick, the only building site with its own airport." That struck a chord with me, it seems every airport in the world, at least the ones I go through, are building something. You hear about problems for airlines making money, but the amount of travel must keep going up to warrant all this building.

Seems like no one is happy about what is happening to the Nurburgring, and nor should they be. A friend, Allen Petrich, asked the question about how the current drivers would fair on it against the likes of Nuvolari and Fangio, especially if they had to drive those old cars. He suggests building a new Auto Union and letting the youngsters try to match the times the old guys set, but it occurred to me that some bright programmer must be able to simulate a race between these guys. There is always going to be talk about who was really "the best" which is usually defined by whoever is doing the talking, and it makes for good discussion and often argument, so maybe we do not really want to find out?

In other bits and pieces Adrian Newey says the RB7 will be an evolution not a revolution, but Red Bull might build its' own engine one day. Don't know why you would want to do that with the new regs being sold as the way to bring the likes of VW and the Japanese companies in. Ferrari is really the only chassis/engine manufacturer that has succeeded on a consistent basis, but perhaps Mercedes will change that, and what of McLaren? BMW, Honda, Toyota and Renault tried it, with Renault the only modern success story, but even they really did not build the chassis.

HRT's engineer says KERS is an inefficient system and is only being used in F1 for the manufacturers to sell it on their road cars. If it is inefficient on F1 cars why is it not the same on road cars? The Williams flywheel system seems efficient enough for Porsche, so perhaps he is just talking of the electrical systems. I am all for using the energy out of the current engines as efficiently as possible and think we are still scratching the surface. Gordon Murray's town car just did London to Brighton on less than a gallon, which must be getting close to 100 mpg, and not an electrical cord in sight. But if we are going to all the trouble and cost of developing these systems and putting them in a race car why are we limiting the amount they can store and when they can use it? It just seems another "push to pass" deal, why not just use the energy as efficiently as you can whenever you want? That rewards the best engineering, which is what most of us want to see, until the FIA ban it.

Talking of HRT they are going to use the 2010 car for the first test so they can try out drivers. Yeh right.

Niki Lauda wants Sutil and Hulkenburg at Force India. Well I suggest he buys Force India, then he can have who he wants, until then who cares and why do we keep reporting what Niki wants? It's like Mosley, just fade away.

I saw a piece today that said Mark Blundell and Martin Brundle, say that a few times fast, are teaming up for next months Daytona 24 hour! That's pretty scary, time goes by so fast. We have just finished this season and we are talking about next month's races. I know it is late in January so it is closer to two months, but still. Only 90 days to the Bahrain F1 GP.

F1 news still centers on drivers and teams with HRT reported in big trouble following the falling out with Toyota. Seems Toyota wants paying, how rude of them. So no new chassis, no drivers, no money, but a Cosworth engine, presuming they have paid them. Petrov is being told to move to England near the team and improve his English, that will improve his consistency apparently. I suppose being around the team can keep an eye on him, but not sure really how it improves his consistency. Hulkenburg is being tipped to fill one seat at Force India, let's hope so, he is good enough to stay in F1, unlike some.

Interesting that Mazda is setting up a scholarship to help young drivers step up from Star Mazda to Indy Lights and then Indy Car. They have a big motorsport image here in the US so this is part of that, but what about a Mazda engine in Indy Car?

Alain Prost regrets the Renault sale of it shares in the F1 Team and believes that France has become "auto-phobic." It would appear so with no French F1 GP, but what about Le Mans, Peugeot and Citroen in WRC? Vergne is on the brink of an F1 drive and Renault are still producing engines for F1 and reviving the young driver program that was so successful in the past. So things are no quite as gloomy as Alain would see them.

The "green" engine rules are due to be approved by the FIA World Council today, and it seems it is Jean Todt who has pushed this through against the protests of the engine manufacturers. I was never quite sure why we went away from turbo cars in the first place. I know the power was getting out of control, but presumably that is being addressed now, so why not then? In an Autosport piece about how this green engine will be better for the sport David Tucker, director at sports agency KTB, told Brand Republic: "The potential rule change will allow F1 to appeal to a wider potential sponsor audience, and demonstrate to fans F1 is still at the cutting edge of technology." Seeing as how we had 1.5 liter turbo engines in the eighties I'm not sure how cutting edge this is. Turbo cars running around in some sort of efficiency run may appeal to would be "seen to be green" sponsors, but what about the F1 fans? If Tucker is talking about all the energy recovery systems, we did not need a new engine to do that, just ask Williams and Porsche. It seems we are headed to a world engine of 1.6 liters, turbo charged, with fuel monitoring in F1, Touring Cars and presumably sports and rally cars. Where is the "cutting edge" in that? All looks like "Spec Racing" to me. Common ECU, common chassis in BTCC and V8Supercars, where is this all going? Tony Dowe said the other day, go back to big block V8's that will run a season and put them in F5000 and Can-Am style cars. Cheap, fun and people want to watch.

As Joe Saward pointed out in his blog the entry of the Lotus Cars Group into the Renault F1 team actually signalled the departure of Renault the manufacturer from the sport. They have come and gone ever since motor racing started, so no doubt will be back again one day. Until then they will continue as Renault Sport to supply engines, perhaps the correct role of manufacturers in F1. More than a few commentators are questioning if Group Lotus are over reaching themselves, but maybe the Malaysian Government has given enough backing to do it all, or is it enough rope? Petrov looks more and more likely to stay at Lotus-Renault, which leaves very few seats left.

Tony Fernandes has decided to stick with Lotus green and yellow after lots of calls from fans to do so, so Bob Varsha will have an easier time of it. I think there is a lot of goodwill for Tony and Mike Gascoyne to do well next year.

The Junior Trophy added to the World Superbike for 2011 looks like a good initiative. Around $30,000 for the six race European season which includes a pre-season training camp in Spain. This does not cover travel and accommodation so for a non-european it is still a lot to find, but still a worthwhile series supporting WSBK. Nice to see someone trying to find the next generation riders, but the problem remains of where to then without serious personal sponsorship?

On the home front the land for the track here in Arizona has had it's comprehensive plan amendment approved, so now to look at how to lay it out. If you have looked at the web site previously this is a new location and larger site so the layout will be new.

So the genie is out of the bottle, Genie Capital that is, and the worst kept secret is out. We now have two Team Lotus in F1, both with Renault engines and gold and black livery. Let's see Bob Varsha handle that lot. Neither side is going to back off obviously, so either the Malaysian Government, FIA, or the British High Court are going to have to decide this. Sad that it has come to this for such a great name.

Renault is also in the news with the settlement of the Piquet libel suit following the Singapore "crashgate" affair. What a miserable, cynical, exercise that was, and the architects of it are looking to stay in the sport. It is still unfathomable that a professional driver, however desperate to keep his drive, would do such a thing. Sad end to a promising career and a blot on a Champion's heritage. And the guy who won the race because of it still keeps the win! Same problem as Hockenheim this year. When is the FIA going to have the guts to take the result away when something like this happens?

So Dorna is now blaming the manufacturers for the loss of entries following the move to 800 cc MotoGP. ""The manufacturers wanted the 800cc class, so it was them causing the escalation of costs that, because of the (financial) crisis, forced them to take a step back. Now not all of them can maintain their commitments because of financial problems." As I have said for a very long time, the manufacturers should not be making the decisions about racing, they will make decisions based on what they want to sell, not what we want to watch, and they will leave whenever it suits them. Dorna also wants to look at new tracks outside Europe, like Abu Dhabi. Right, let us know how that works for you, and the riders. They want less races in Spain, so now we are going to have four in the Gulf States instead?  And let us not forget Austin. We have Laguna and Indy now, so which one of those are we going to lose?

I see that World Superbike is instigating a "Junior Trophy" based on 250cc machines. This is definitely back to the future, not necessarilly a bad thing, but what will it cost a rider?

So Patrick McNally is retiring. Most of you have probably never heard of Patrick or Allsport Management, but you have seen their work. For nearly thirty years Patrick has controlled the signage at F1 races, and he is a master at placement. David Campbell is going to take over and the rumor is David is being groomed to take over from Bernie. They are some mighty large shoes to fill David, good luck. That succession is likely to look like the "War of the Roses," the English dispute over the crown, not the movie.

Great story on Kenny Roberts on Superbike Planet http://superbikeplanet.com/2010/Dec/101207alancarter.htm. Kenny proves it is not a problem with the bike, and you have to think he could still do this today over a lap or two.

So the music is stopping and the chairs are being filled one by one. Glock says he is almost certain to stay at Virgin, where else is there to go and Virgin would be silly to let him go. HRT are apparently impressed by Davide Valsecchi following the young driver days at Abu Dhabi, but Colin Kolles says that Italy needs to get behind him, i.e. come up with some cash. Not too many seats left now. Luca Badoer is leaving as the Ferrari test driver, not that anyone is testing much these days, so that will leave an opening and Ferrari are giving some Italian F3 drivers a try out. So we have one seat at Virgin, still two at HRT at the moment, one at Renault, but probably Petrov, and Force India still has one, maybe. Not many left.

Luca di Montezemolo has a press conference scheduled for December 16th for a major announcement, which some of the Italian press think will be a move to politics. Maybe it is who is driving the second Ferrari?

Toyota is back in motorsport with an engine for LMP1 with the Rebellion squad, should be interesting. Let's see if they can give the diesels a run for their money.

Cape Town is back on the rumor mill as another potential F1 Grand Prix. How many does that make now?

Proton nee Lotus Cars are confirming a takeover of the Renault 25% stake in the F1 team that still bears its name. This is what is driving the dispute with Tony Fernandes and the existing Team Lotus. Proton have some big ambitions. I wonder if they have read the book "A Bridge Too Far?"

An excellent interview with Alonso in this month's Motor Sport. It restates what I have been saying about how to make F1 interesting to Americans. Spain was motorcycle mad, despite having an F1 race at Jerez and Barcelona for years, until Alonso won the World Championship. It is not having a race that will make F1 popular, it is having an American kick ass. In the days when Phill Hill, Dan Gurney and Mario were doing it the TV coverage was probably non existent.