Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Following my comments on the "old guys" winning at Phillip Island, and my other recent comments on the lack of new blood in motorcycle racing in particular, I was struck by the difference over at NASCAR. Here we have a 20 year old rookie winning the biggest race of the year at his first try. Now NASCAR still has its fair share of "good ol' boys," Mark Martin and Bill Elliott to name two, but if you look at the field at Phoenix there is more younger than 30 than over it I would guess. Brad Keselowski. Joey Logano, Regan Smith, are just three names that come to mind as new boys. These guys not only get into the Sprint Cup they also get good rides and are able to stay there, unlike F1 which seems to suck in new boys with a bag of money and spit them out for the next one.

So why is this? NASCAR has a terrific farm system of short track races all over the US, and then the top tiers of ARCA, Trucks and Nationwide to bring these guys through. Obviously there are many more than those we see make it, but the chance is there, and you do not see the young guys buying their ride, they earn it. This is a very American thing with the NFL, NBA and NHL relying on the colleges as their farm system, and Baseball using the colleges and then their minor leagues to develop talent. F1 relies upon the myriad of open wheel formula to sort out the best, but at what cost to the drivers? At every step the driver has to bring money and it is ridiculous what GP2 costs. Even when they get there a competitive seat is not guaranteed and your time in F1 very short lived if you do not get in to a top team.

So what is MotoGP doing to nurture new talent? Nothing that I can see. Moto2 is expensive for a young rider, and like F1, there is no guarantee you can make the step up. OK, NASCAR is in one country and has control over much of the racing, and MotoGP is international, but through the FIM and the members they have the ability to do something. When I worked for Kenny in Spain we worked with the Spanish Motorcycle Authority, a promoter and the manufacturers to put together a "finishing school" to identify fresh blood, and it did for a while. So it can be done, just needs some foresight and commitment, not just taking from the sport. What is Dorna going to do when Rossi retires?

Nice article on Crash.net about Sir Jackie Stewart's views on the lack of overtaking and Mr. Tilke's tracks.

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/167041/1/stewart_tilke_tracks_to_blame_for_lack_of_passing.html

Joe Saward also has a piece about the Serious Fraud Squad, is there a "not very serious" Fraud Squad? Apparently A1GP is being investigated for losing all that money. It never made sense and the revival as A10GP does not either. There are always people who will look at what Bernie has and think they can do the same.

On a similar note the Two Wheels web site is reporting that the Jerez track is in trouble.

http://www.twowheelsblog.com/post/6050/jerez-de-la-frontera-circuit-may-shut-down-motogp-round-risk?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+twowheelsblog%2Fcom+%28twowheelsblog%29

The model is broken, tracks can no longer make money staging spectator races, even if a huge crowd turns up like they do in Jerez for the MotoGP. Unless a Government is paying do not even start down this road.

Casey Stoner continued his domination of testing in Malaysia with all the top Hondas under the track record. Yamahas made up places 5-7 with Edwards again in the mix with his factory team compatriots. Ducati is "sandbagging" really well if that is what they are doing, filling the 11-14th slots, Rossi being the quickest of them and nearly two seconds off the pace. Even the Suzuki is faster.

Back in Europe Valencia is now denying asking for a reduction in fees for the GP, and did not address the rumor that they have not paid for last year yet. The Minister also said he was not aware of other races pushing for a fee reduction. Why even raise these issues unless there is something to them?

Bernie is pushing for Bahrain to join Abu Dhabi and Brazil at the end of the season in back to back to back weekends of fly-away races. Not something the teams have done and a bit of a nightmare for them, especially if we have a situation like last year. Bernie obviously would like his fee. In the meantime he is not winning any friends with his comments in the new book about other personalities such as Jean Todt and Sir Richard Branson. Why would you say those things to a writer? Does he think he is invulnerable and can say what he likes? It seems so at times. It reminds me of when Kenny Roberts was running his team. On a slow news day journos would get a comment from Kenny as he was always good for something to stir things up, but never in this fashion.

If the Canadians are worried about the Renault JPS livery what are they going to say about the Williams Rothmans throwback?

Lord Paul Drayson has given up on ALMS for "greener" pastures, i.e. electric racing. His car will be missed if not Lord Paul, and good luck, I hope you have enough extension cord for your "zero emissions" vehicle. How much longer do we have to put up with this BS? He of all people should know that at the moment he is just moving the emissions elsewhere.  What now ALMS?

Glock is saying that the new Virgin is a second or more off the pace of the Lotus due to a problem with the rear wing. Nick Worth just needs to fix it apparently, oh if it were that easy. Presumably "I don't need a wind tunnel" Worth would have fixed it already if it was that easy, and just maybe a wind tunnel may have shown the problem.

On the home front it has been a busy and exciting week. More expert witness work, an overseas contact for a track, and a positive response on a major project I am trying to initiate here in the US. Hopefully I can tell you all about it in the next week or so.

So Bernie is being Mr. Nice Guy and forgoing the fee from the King of Bahrain for the cancelled race. The King is getting the "Royal Treatment." Bernie is apparently trying to reschedule the race and Abu Dhabi has come out and said it's OK with Bahrain sharing the limelight at the end of the season, so if things settle down that is probably the best option. Bernie's other side is being exposed in the new book on his life, "No Angel," so the King should be happy that his right side is on show at the moment.

Not much else going on. MotoGP testing continued in Malaysia with the Hondas 1-2-3, and Rossi missing with a cold. Spies and Lorenzo followed up the Hondas, while the sponsored Yamaha second team, how does that happen, were next up with Colin Edwards.

Kolles is still saying the HRT will beat the Virgin and Lotus this year and Luizzi says he is not paying for the privilege of trying. Not sure what Kolles is on, but it must be good. Trulli says that the Pirelli's not only wear faster, but their characteristics change suddenly from understeer to oversteer, while Massa loves them. Who ever said ask a driver's opinion? Trulli also comes out against the constant rule changes in F1, costs too much and us poor fans cannot keep up. Lot of truth in what he says.

Some interesting comments on the Crash.Net web site from a lawyer on "force majeur" clauses after the Bahrain cancellation. A force majeur clause is meant to cover unforeseeable events such as earthquakes, and there is an argument that going to places with potential unstable political situations it is entirely foreseeable that one day there will be a problem. But I suppose you could use the same argument about staging races in earthquake prone regions.

Not if you are Jean Todt it isn't, the British press are having a field day over the FIA's lack of leadership and direction during the Bahrain saga. The FIA are in a rock and a hard place as while they are a signatory to the Concorde Agreement, the real commercial problems of canceling a race are between Bernie, the teams and the promoter. Having the Crown Prince cancel makes Bernie's life easier. The big losers are the TV companies who have paid for 20 races and now have 19. It is very hard to see where a rescheduled race is going to fit in for 2011, the calendar was already the most crowded in F1 history. It will be an interesting sort out after this between all these parties, and the teams sponsors and insurance companies.

From comments made today it would appear that Valencia has not paid the fee for last years race. No comment. Melbourne's City Councillors have been polled and most are in favor of keeping the GP, but then again they are not paying for it.

F1 testing is over for a week or so, but MotoGP and WSBK are both in action. Stoner is fastest in Malaysia on the Honda with Lorenzo third on the unsponsored Yamaha factory team. What does that tell you about the state of MotoGP? A Japanese factory team could usually be relied upon to lean on one of its' fellow Japanese corporations to put something on the machine, but not this year. Of course it is done to allow Yamaha to celebrate its 50th year with the team in Yamaha blue, right. Rossi is still a second off the pace but at least in front of Hayden. Still not time to rule him out. Colin Edwards on the second string bike is in front of his old team mate Ben Spies who has the works machine, nice going Colin, let's see you stay up there this season.

Down at the Island Carlos Checa leads the way from the usual suspects and a high number of falls. It seems that despite no factory Ducati team the marque is still the one to beat. The debate on the GP date next year has gone quiet for a while.

Vettel has raised an interesting issue with Pirelli's and overtaking. I think it was Sir Isaac Newton who said "that for every action there was an equal and opposite reaction." So we add KERS and movable wings to make overtaking easier, and ask Pirelli to spice up the tires, and now Vettel says the amount of "marbles" coming off the Pirelli's will make overtaking impossible by half race distance.

Nice to hear that Kubica has started rehab. Best wishes Robert for a complete recovery.

A good friend, Allen Petrich, wrote a send up of the goings on in F1 like a French farce. As we say, who would believe it. Following my explanation of the rules for using the movable wings he added that we should make it a Monty Python script. We devise a movable wing to aid overtaking, the teams spend millions to put it on the car, and then we constrain its use inside painted boxes so overtaking is almost impossible. There are definitely mixed feeling about it and as Mike Gascoyne comments we would have missed that incredible race at Jarama when Villeneuve Senior held off all comers for the whole race. Yes we want overtaking, but not some video game, we want Hakkinen and Schumacher at Spa. Lewis says that the extra buttons will be more of a problem in practice and qualifying, when they have no restrictions on using it. That is really going to make qualifying a bit of a mystery for us spectators, almost like having qualifying engines again.

Hamilton also said he is not changing his driving style to suit different cars or tracks, this is who he is and that's how he is going to drive. Good on him, I for one enjoy watching him. Overtaking for Lewis and Kobayashi seems all too easy. Perhaps they could give lessons, or some "brave pills" for the others.  Lewis stirred the pot in Berlin when asked if he thought Schumacher would be better this year. He said he thought Michael would not be much different, but he was welcome to prove him wrong.

Bernie is apparently winging his way to Melbourne for the race this year with his daughters, girlfriend and entourage, to bring some "global prestige" to the event. If this is an unusual occurrence then it just shows how Bernie feels about the event.

Lotus, the green and yellow one, completed an untroubled private test yesterday at Valencia and ended up 18th and 20th on the time sheets in the 1 minute 15's. Not too bad, about two seconds off the quick times, so a big leap forward, and they say they had no time to set the car up. Glock in the Virgin was even faster, so just maybe we will see those teams up amongst the second tier this season. Will make for more interesting racing. Jerez will tell us more, I hope.

Nice to see young American Alexander Rossi moving up to FR3.5 with a top team, Fortec. He finished fifth at a one off outing in Monaco last year and has gone well in testing, so go get 'em Alexander. Bernie or Tavo should pay for a top notch publicist to get his name better known in the US. Then we might see the public wake up, like with Lance Armstrong.

Williams are to proceed with a stock flotation on the Frankfurt exchange. I think it was Joe Saward who suggested that this may not be such a good move. Stockholders care about returns, like CVC, and not results. I think the Washington Redskins are the most profitable NFL team, and this clearly is not related to on-field performance. Managing expectations could be a hard balancing act for Sir Frank.