Bob Barnard Track Engineering

There are a few realignments going on with the F1 teams. Williams announced that they are going to use Renault engines from next year, so Renault increases its hold on the F1 engine market, despite supposedly being down on power. Let's hope this improves the performance of the team. HRT's ownership and management just got cloudier, with a buyout of Carabantes by Thesan Capital, which is a venture capital group backed by Nomura Bank of Japan. They say they will move to base the team in Spain with the current Directors and Team in place. So presumably Colin Kolles is still on the outer. This all begs the question who really is minding the store and who owns it? And will it make any difference?

HRT's arch rival for being last, Marussia Virgin, has confirmed a technical tie up with McLaren Applied Technologies, so look for an improvement there and perhaps Mercedes engines? Cosworth are going to be left with HRT, so it is highly doubtful they are going to invest in a new for 2014 engine with just one customer.

Speaking of engines, Clive Pollock is reportedly going to push on with his proposed engine for 2014 despite the u-turn by the FIA, and Bernie is now threatening to sue the FIA if the 15,000 rpm limit impacts on the poor promoters and their ticket sales drop. Of course his concern is that the promoter will not then have the money to pay the fee to stage the race, but since when has that ever been a concern for him? Bernie is famous for not being fond of drivers in general, they are like buses, another one will be along shortly. That is why he has cleverly promoted F1 as a team sport and built Ferrari and McLaren etc as the stars. It also seemed that promoters enjoyed the same stature as drivers, as there is always someone else waiting to pay him to lose money whenever a promoter wakes up or runs out of it. Bernie has also been having a bit of a verbal spar with Williams CEO Adam Parr. Adam was crass enough to point out that sports such as NFL enjoy considerably larger TV fees and suggested Bernie could be doing better for them all on this front. Bernie of course then pointed out how well Adam was doing on the sponsorship front for Williams. Touche.

The leakage of top staff continues at the other Renault, which isn't, Lotus Renault, with designer Tim Densham reportedly heading for Ferrari. Is everything really well at Renault as Boullier continues to tell us?

I took a day off yesterday so have not commented on the racing. Lorenzo scored a great win at Mugello so perhaps the Championship will not be a Stoner/Honda procession after all. Simoncelli managed to finish a race while Rossi dragged his Ducati up to sixth. In Imola the Peugeots gained revenge for Le Mans with an easy win over the Audis

This is my last blog. Just kidding, but it is my last blog on Wordpress. I have revamped my personal web site where I always intended to base my blog, and it will be launched today. The link should not change, so you should go straight to it, but if not go to www.bobbarnardtrackengineering.com and go to the blog page. See you there.

The Tour de France kicks off, or should that be rides off, today. One of my most favorite events and this year should be as interesting as ever. It is not only a long race for the riders but also for us viewers with three weeks straight of TV coverage for several hours a day. Good job I'm not working full time!

Some predictable pole positions today with Stoner capturing the MotoGP at Mugello, Marquez the Moto2, and yes it is still raining on and off. Rossi continues to struggle down in 12th. Puts Stoner's performance on the Ducati in some perspective doesn't it?

It did rain in Imola yesterday, the results from FP2 were slow in being posted. Peugeot are on pole by a slim margin from the Audi, with Peugeot and the McNish Audi locking out the top four places. The Oak racing Pescarolo-Judd are 3 seconds off pole, but only 1.5 behind McNish, so at least they may catch a glimpse of them. The BMW's were quickest in the GTE class with three Ferraris hard on their heels.

Vergne took pole in Hungary for the FR3.5 and went on to win the first race, while Kevin Magnussen took his first British F3 pole, two in fact, following nicely in Dad's footsteps.

So, off to watch the Tour.

No not the vegetable drink but the Australian Supercar Series that is now going to Austin in 2013, having raced in the Middle East the last few years, although no one came to watch. I was told when Austin was first announced that ISC, i.e. NASCAR, were not likely to give them any races, so no NASCAR, Grand Am or AMA Motorcycles. So what were they going to run at this expensive facility to justify it other than F1, which is unlikely to make money for anyone but Bernie? The answer is to bring in other overseas series such as the V8Supercars. I bet Tony Cochrane is laughing all the way to the bank. Can you imagine what it costs to air freight these cars? They weigh at least twice what an F1 car does and cannot be broken down to a nice size to put in a plane. Volume is as big an issue as weight for planes. So this cannot be cheap for Tavo and the boys, they had better hope they pull a better crowd than the Yas Marina Circuit does.

I also heard a suggestion that the new World Endurance Championship US round might go to Austin rather than Sebring or Road Atlanta. Another great series, and one that can pull a crowd as we have seen at Road Atlanta. Sebring pulls a crowd even when the race has been cancelled, spring break and all. But again an expensive deal to put together, so a hard way to make a dollar, but I guess if you've spent the money you may as well use the place.

Martin Whitmarsh says he thinks that the US should have two F1 races, just like the old days, one on the east coast and one on the west. Not sure where that leaves Texas. Martin said he "had nothing against Texas and hopes they have a successful race,  but the natural hinterland for us is us the east coast and the west coast," which does not sound very supportive, so good luck Tavo.

It must be a very wet summer in Europe as it seems just about every MotoGP has problems with wet tracks. In Mugello hardly anyone went out in the second session due to the rain. In the morning dry session Simoncelli did his usual by now fastest lap, very closely followed by Stoner. Rossi broke down and is way down the field of only 16 bikes.

Imola seems to have missed the rain and the ILMC teams had dry conditions, Peugeot and Audi sharing the top four places with Pescarolo fifth but 3.5 seconds adrift. Look out for live streaming of the race on one of the European sites, and Radio Le Mans for live commentary.

Strange goings on at HRT, and not just in the driver line up. Colin Kolles is apparently leaving/being squeezed out, but he is the one that has the team and the workshop, so how is this all going to play out?

Ben Spies breaks through and wins his first MotoGP at Assen today. I've been critical of Ben's performances this year, but perhaps he has just worked it out. I was in Hungary when Mick Doohan won his first race after trying for most of two seasons, and never looked back. Perhaps this is Ben's moment. His team mate had a Simoncelli moment and has called for a ban on him for a race or two. Sounds like the Hondas never got comfortable with the tires and Stoner had his mind on the Championship. Rossi's race went better than qualifying, so let's see what they do with this new chassis in future races.

Reminded me of when I worked for Kenny and we were at Assen. Schwantz led the race with Wayne Rainey in second and leading the Championship with Kevin no threat. I was foolish enough to compliment Wayne on running a smart race, and in Wayne's inimitable fashion he gave me an earful and said he wasn't being smart, he !!!!!! couldn't catch him.

In Valencia the engine mapping restriction made no difference it seems, with Vettel putting in the fastest lap ever seen here to take pole from his team mate Webber. Still with that half second or so over the McLaren of Hamilton, who has to be getting a bit tired of this. Rumor today of Webber to Renault, so a spare seat at RB? We again saw drivers sitting out or limiting their time on track to save tires, so let's hope common sense prevails and Pirelli get the OK to provide more tires for qualifying.

Watching the Nurburgring 24 hour on a German TV live streaming and listening to Radio Le Mans. As fun as it is I will not stay up for the 24 hours this time.

Practice for the Valencia F1 race and qualifying for the Assen MotoGP this morning. Caught the second F1 practice, but not much to excite there, can't say I like this layout. Most interesting thing so far is Schumacher's continued good form following Canada. Tomorrow will tell if the engine mapping restrictions will have an impact on Red Bull's qualifying speed. The back end of the grid is the usual suspects, HRT, Virgin and Lotus, and surprising to see Lotus still over 4 seconds off the pace, as is Kobayashi. There is a big gap to his team mate Perez of 1.5 seconds, did Kobayashi not use the super soft option?

Over in Holland the works Hondas all had crashes in the morning which left them a bit tentative in qualifying. Simoncelli had no such worries, it is the race that's his problem. Ben Spies nearly pipped him for pole in a reversal of form which saw him outqualify Lorenzo for the first time. Rossi's switch to the 2012 chassis does not seem to have done him miuch good as he is down in 11th, outperformed by Abraham on the privateer Ducati in 7th.

The news out of Austin continues to suggest ongoing problems with local politics, but the organizer's attorneys statements seem designed to scare the locals into supporting the project, so not sure how bad this really is for Tavo and the boys.