Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Sorry to not post yesterday but life got in the way, not that there is much prompting me to comment at the moment.

Big weekend of racing coming up though with the British F1 race at Silverstone and no blown diffusers, well none that can be proved I bet. Grand Am at Laguna, ALMS at Lime Rock, WSBK at Brno and Indycar in Toronto. Throw in the Tour de France and it will be a busy TV weekend.

In a related story that has a few journalists frothing at the mouth is the News Of The World scandal which has led to the closure of the paper that broke Max Mosley's little secret. I'm sure Max is happy about that, but Murdoch is still there and of course motorsport is still thinking of his supposed F1 bid and the fallout from this latest scandal. I don't know why anyone is shocked by all this, when I grew up the paper was renowned for it.

Obviously for me the British GP is the most interesting. What will the changes to the engine mapping bring us in terms of competitiveness between the front runners, and will it let the smaller teams catch up as they think? Then there is the race debut of Aussie Ricciardo, let's wish him well, he is going to need all the help he can get in that car for all his obvious talent.

Both are in the motorsport headlines today. The hot rumor going around is that Rupert Murdoch, that other Australian, is going to buy F1 from CVC with the help of the Mexican Billionaire Slim. Now Bernie is denying this vehemently which probably means it is true. Slim is involved with Sauber and Perez and his son is an FIA Senator, so deeply into motorsport, particularly F1.  Rupert's Fox owns SPEED, Sky etc and shows the F1 events, so owning it is going to make some sense. The general impression seems to be that even if this is not true there is something going on and people are leaking stories to help in whatever negotiation is going on. Meanwhile the Gribkowsky investigation continues.

Meanwhile the Texas Senate voted not to provide $25m to subsidize the Austin F1 race on the basis that money would pay for a lot of teachers. There are suggestions that the lower house will reinstate the money, but then it will have to be reconciled with the Senate so good luck Tavo. There are signs Governments are waking up that they are subsidizing multi-millionaires. The latest is Germany where elections have given the "greens" a greater say and control, and while they do not mind F1 cars running around in Germany, they do not see they should pay for the privilege. Bahrain is still in turmoil even though the US news at least has forgotten it, but the British papers have not, and with two weeks to the reschedule deadline they hope the FIA are taking notice.

No blog yesterday as I was traveling again to promote my new consulting service, Motorsport Services International. We have a group of world class individuals and companies that cover the complete range of racing activities from track design through construction and operation, insurance, merchandise, food and beverage, and car and motorcycle preparation and management. A one-stop-shop for anything you might need and did not know where to find it.