Bob Barnard Track Engineering

There are two related items today about the economics of staging an F1 race. Valencia it seems has had enough of subsidising Bernie with four years left to run on their contract. Bernie of course will not let them out of the contract so they are trying to find someone to take it over, which you would think would be easy with the number of countries who want one. If you cannot make it pay in an Alonso mad country like Spain where can you? It is costing them 30m euros, about $45m, to stage the race, including Bernie's fee, which must be a cut rate, and they are only recouping 10m euros from ticket sales, so they lose about $30m a year. Why could they not work this out before they did the deal?

On a similar note Alain Prost is frustrated that France does not have the political will to "buy" a GP. He knows they will lose 8m euros, even with a reduced fee from Bernie, and no government wants to spend that, on top of building a new track. Austin, are you listening? So if Alain could work it out beforehand why is Valencia surprised?

It seems there might be moves afoot to put Daniel Ricciardo into Buemi's seat at Torro Rosso. Not sure that is a great move for either party, one season in GP2 would probably be better for Daniel than being thrown in the deep end with a mid-field car. I know Vettel made the transition from Torro Rosso, but I would not like to bet my future on that happening again. Look at the Hulkenburg situation for a driver without a big personal sponsor.

Interesting that it has been announced that HKS, an architectural firm, has been added to Tilke for the Austin Track. Whatever you say about Tilke's tracks, his architecture has been good, so why bring in another architect?

So Daniel Ricciardo topped the tests in Abu Dhabi and one second under Vettel's pole time! Someone sign this guy up. He did very well in FR3.5 this year so he is not just a flash in the pan, winning Championships on the way up. As I said let's hope he gets the financial backing to keep moving up, and if Red Bull let him go they must be mad. Place him in GP2 next year and let him take Mark's seat when he retires. Or maybe Vettel's seeing as how he has would prefer Mercedes or Ferrari. How can you come out and say that after Red Bull have just made you World Champion, or are you so egotistical to think it was the other way around? What an ass. Is Sebastian going to be another of those drivers that you respect their driving but not them as a human being?

Great week away in Cologne, but nice to be home in some sunshine. How do those Europeans put up with that long, grey winter? Excellent Forum with tracks and speakers from 5 continents and top people Like Salman Al Khalifa, CEO of Bahrain Circuit, and Sharmila Nadrajah, COO of Sepang Circuit in Malaysia. Add to this the new track in Moscow, NRing, a new country club in Germany, all the top track designers and suppliers then you have the best and latest information being made freely available. Not to mention kart circuit operators and local tracks like Oregon Raceway Park who all learn vital information on how to operate successfully. This forum should be a must do for anyone involved in or planning to be operating tracks. Derek Muldowney, the head of ISC's facility development group, gave us some great insights into planning and developing a major speedway and repaving Daytona, and we had attorneys giving us good advice on sponsorship contracts and branding. The next forum is in Los Angeles in April, so book your time to attend.

I was appreciative of the reception to my presentation and the session on track engineering that I put together. The session on the future of track design went well, but as an open forum it covered a wide range of topics not necessarily about the future. It seems that we are going back to the future with the old tracks like Spa and Nurburgring providing the basis. To make tracks more interesting to drivers it seems we need to go outside of the FIA guidelines in respect of maximum grades and cross fall to match these great old tracks, without jeopardising safety of course.

While I have been away it seems CAMS and Australian GP have kissed and made up, at least for this year. Sad to say as an Australian but I cannot see they will have a F1 GP for long, there are too many other countries with far larger markets wanting races so someone has to go. The political backlash on the ongoing losses is growing and will result in what happened to Adelaide, Bernie will see the writing on the wall and move it.

Seems the Pirelli tires met with approval from the drivers so now we can get on and finish next years cars, which could be quite different without the F-duct and diffuser. Are they really going to use a moveable rear wing? Perhaps we will see who is finally driving for who next year.

On a final note, does anyone else think it is weird for a team to put a solid wall between their two riders? I can understand Rossi and Lorenzo this year, but Spies and Lorenzo? Just tells me there are two teams at Yamaha again next year. As much as Senna and Prost did not get along, and Vettel and Webber this year, they were still one team.

As amply demonstrated at Suzuka, drainage is a key factor in building a track, and a most difficult thing to achieve. It is one of the featured topics in my Track Engineering session at next months Professional Circuit Owners Forum in Cologne, and we have the right guy presenting the latest designs, as we have for every topic. If I were building a new track I would take this team of presenters to do it for me.

Now Suzuka did some upgrading before the Japanese GP came back from Fuji, but they obviously spent all the money on the important stuff like the pit building, corporate suites and press room. I do not know how much rain they got, but 50mm was the forecast, which is not a lot where I've been living, but the topography of Suzuka, which makes it such a great track, also presents a huge challenge for drainage. Tomorrow morning is forecast wet as well, so we are in for an interesting day. Lewis Hamilton's weekend went from bad to worse with a gearbox change, so he is going backwards at the moment. Still, Kimi won it from 17th once, so anything is possible.

It seems the flexi-wing saga is not over, with comments about how low the Red Bulls are running resurfacing. Martin Whitmarsh said he was too busy to notice, I bet he was.

Bernie is as always in the news guaranteeing the Korean race will go ahead amidst photos of a track with a top course and curbs. I will be the first to congratulate them if that surface stays down, and will be in the queue to ask what they used. Bernie also said the Russian F1 GP is a done deal, the only potential stumbling block being the annual promotion fee, apparently comparable to the approximately $40 million paid by Singapore and Abu Dhabi. Oh, is that all? Bernie says he will sign the deal with the resort city Sochi the day after they sign it. For $40m I bet he will. So who is being dropped from the calendar? Is Austin in trouble? According to the local American Statesman newspaper the planning authorities have issued a four page list of concerns about the project. Tavo is apparently some way from satisfying the bureaucrats who have to approve it before groundbreaking can occur, which is scheduled for December. Couple this with the recent report that the design has not been submitted to the FIA as expected, not that they have missed a deadline, just an opportunity, and you wonder where this going. Tavo welcomed the inclusion of Perez in the Sauber Team, saying it will add 20,000 to the crowd.

In Malaysia Jorge Lorenzo is obviously out to prove himself a worthy champion by taking pole for the MotoGP ahead of Nicky Hayden, Nicky's best qualifying for a long time. Maybe Jorge figures that being in front is the safest place to be with Valentino back in sixth spot. Ben Spies qualified well, maybe he is going to run rear guard for his future team mate?

In the FRenault 3.5 final round Australian Daniel Ricciardo won the first of the weekend's two races to tie for the lead in the Championship with Russian Mikhail Aleshin, so Sunday's race will decide the title. Nice going Daniel, let's hope you have the backing to keep going unlike most Australian drivers. Perhaps Mark Webber's performance and potential F1 title will spark more sponsorship interest. Tonight's race , for us in the US, from Suzuka should clarify the F1 Championship picture, and not hopefully not "muddy the waters," couldn't help that. Whatever happens it will be a great few hours of TV thanks to the qualifying postponement.