Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Who would have thought! It rained in Melbourne, spoiling the fun and stopping us from seeing who is really fast. Mercedes looked good in both sessions, with the morning drying out enough to see some respectable times and Button fastest. It was really a story of who was out last to set a time as the track improved. Star of the day was Kobayashi who had a massive spin coming out of the last corner and managed to keep it off the walls, although Ricciardo managed the same thing at the Turn 11-12 complex with a bit more room available. Daniel did a lot of laps and put in some good times.

A lot of the big guns like Hamilton chose to do very few laps, and Vettel said he did not like his car today and was well down the order. The fact that Glock in the Marrussia was mid-field this afternoon tells you what was going on. Poor Pedro de la Rosa did one sighting lap all day in his HRT, while Karthikeyan did a few more, but the best that can be said is that the paint job looks better. Inside the 107%? I would think not, and I don't think they expect to race.

The Lotus boys did few laps, Kimi not liking his power steering, but throwing in a couple of decent laps at the end. Not sure what is going on at Ferrari.

Anyway, McLaren looked pretty confident that they have a good car and did not need to run much, and don't count out Red Bull. Mercedes said they were not running their new F-Duct, but there are photos of it. It is a hole in the rear wing end plate that is uncovered when the top element opens during the DRS deployment, allowing air into the rear wing mainplane which is then dispersed to stall the wing further. Ross says it is not a big gain on the DRS alone, but every little bit is gold in today's restricted rule book.

There is chatter about big news on the commercial side of F1, with a major announcement due soon. Joe Saward thinks it is that Ferrari and Red Bull have stolen a jump on their mates and done a deal with Bernie. This leaves the rest picking up the crumbs, divide and conquer. Pit Pass was hinting at something far more radical and comprehensive, a game changer for the future. Is Bernie going to try floating F1 again?

Over at Sebring the night practice saw a crash fest with the session extended due to so many red flags. Let's hope the race does not go this way. The Audis, despite being involved with two of the cars, still top the time sheets, with the Muscle Milk HPD and the Brabham driven JRM sister car next, but a few seconds off the pace of Kristensen. The Dyson Lola is surprisingly well down the order. In GTE Joey Hand snuck his ALMS BMW in front of the Bruni 458 Ferrari, and the two Corvettes, but you could throw a blanket over them on time. Should be fun. Qualifying today at 3:15 pm EDT. 

Now many of us "unlearn" most what we are taught in school or college, just stop using a computer program and see how fast you forget what to do. Not so with F1 engineers. Remember the F-Duct, banned, or so it seemed. No, only the way it was operated was banned with drivers using knees or hands to turn it on. So those clever chaps at Mercedes have worked out how to make it happen with no movable parts and nothing to do with the driver. It is somehow connected to the DRS system, although whether that is literally how it works or is it airflow induced I have yet to see defined. Anyway, they have it, stalling the rear wing and reducing drag, and Charlie Whiting has given it the thumbs up, so watch all the rest of the teams scramble to follow. Of course there is still that odd opening in the nose of the Mercedes, and the even larger one in the Red Bull "to cool the drivers feet." Oh yeh, designed by Newey? Don't think so.

Not long now until we get some answers. The Australian politician who called Bernie's daughter a "bogan," look it up, got an answer from Bernie. It seems that after seeing her on TV in all her indulgence and offering the opinion that if that's where their $50m is going that they spend on the race they had better things to do with it.  That's OK with Bernie, just don't renew the contract, he has plenty more mugs to pay like Argentina who are saying they will have a race in 2013. Someone has to miss out for that to happen, so one race in Spain for sure.

HRT say they are on the way up. From what I saw they are, up on stands trying to get the second car built in time for practice. They have already postponed scrutineering the car.

Over in Sebring the Audis are having it all their own way, with the Muscle Milk HRD LMP1 car and the Dyson Lola next. In GTE the 458 Ferrari is quickest, but expect the usual close race here, the one to really watch.

Well that is what Bernie thinks will have to happen to stop the "dreamers" with their rose colored glasses from spending too much. Is he talking about race promoters? No, it is the teams, those terrible people who spend so much money on going racing. Perhaps if Bernie "capped" what CVC took out of the sport there would be enough money for these dreamers, and perhaps the race promoters could make a quid too. Just a thought.

While mentioning Bernie, he is still unimpressed by the demonstrations in Bahrain, so we are still going. The question will then arise, will we watch it?

Cars and teams have arrived in Melbourne, and also in Sebring, so we are getting close to having some answers as to who has the magic formula for this year. Maybe not Sebring, as not many new cars there. But who knows, maybe the Dyson cars can give Audi a run for their money just as the Duncan Dayton Hondas did.

Oscar McIntyre, a 17 year old Queensland rider, died at Phillip Island on Saturday during a support event to the WSBK. Any death on a racetrack is tragic, and is more so to me if it happens at a track which I built. I have not seen the accident, but a friend who was there, Herod Lowery, e-mailed me to say Oscar went straight on at Turn One and crossed the track between Turns 2-3. Oscar was hit by two other riders who fortunately survived.

Now when I rebuilt the track I had an earth berm at the rear of the Turn One run off to prevent this, and somehow it has been removed. I would be very interested to know by who and why. Presumably the FIM Inspector OK'd this? It is hard to imagine the Turn One run off is not long enough if you saw Kevin Schwantz get off in 1990 due to a rear brake seizure at close to 200 mph and brush himself off and walk away. Large open run offs are a two edged sword, riders tend to try and "save it" rather than lay it down. I don't know if this is what happened, but if you can get hold of the video from 1989, first lap you will see some great on-board footage of Malcolm Campbell trying to ride out an off at Turn one, not successfully.

Oh, and the race? Checa crashed out of the first leg leaving his mate Biaggi to win it, but stayed on the bike to win the second with Biaggi recovering from a Turn One first lap incident to come through the field and finish second. Biaggi is leading the Championship, but it looks like a Checa/Biaggi veterans Championship. The bright note was the race form of the BMW.

Daytona 500 postponed for the first time in its history. That is amazing in itself given Florida's weather, and today does not look good apparently.

VJ Mallya looks to be getting further and further into trouble with his Airline, just when his F1 team is starting to fly.

The Gribkoswky trial has gone quiet, but Pit Pass has information that the lawyers are looking to do a deal and drop the bribery charges for lack of any real evidence. Gribkowsky still has a problem with the German tax man though. Where does that leave Bernie? Well it leaves him a lot poorer, and if Her Majesty's tax men want to know more about his trust then he could be even poorer. Still, always another would be F1 GP promoter to donate to the cause.  

Sebring Twelve Hour will be here in a couple of weeks. It should be an Audi benefit in the absence of Peugeot. Risi's Ferrari will also be absent for the first time in a long time. Sign of the times, economically, or a move to Grand Am? They managed to field a car at Daytona remember.

No not the kind you peddle, the business, economic, civilization rise and fall kind. I know this sounds all esoteric but bear with me. I think I have commented before on how "developing" countries are discovering motorsport and us "developed," or overdeveloped some would say, countries are struggling to keep the viewers attention. I receive lots of approaches from would be track owners, both here in the States and overseas, but not the south of France unfortunately. Here in the US, apart from Tavo over there in Austin, would-be owners have limited budgets and are afraid of committing to proceed. Not so in those developing countries where money seems easy to spend, like Croatia's F1 track. They are going to spend $450m in a country of  1.5 m people with an average wage of $17,500. I know it is close to other borders, but does this really make sense? Obviously it does to them.

I am supposed to be overseas now, but the bureaucrats cannot get a vise issued in less than two weeks, and this weekend I have had approaches from a Middle East and Far Eastern country about developments that include not only tracks but major tourist infrastructure. So what is going on? Well, the Bob Barnard theory is we are seeing a cycle where interest grows, just as economies and civilizations, and then peaks and falls down the back slope. I see the US particularly on the back slope in respect of motorsport. Just as Rome ended up consumed by "bread and circuses" so the young generation are consumed by virtual sports, fantasy leagues etc. In developing countries the opposite is happening, new found disposable income is letting them discover how much fun motor racing is. I went to Taiwan a long time ago to advise on a track and was told the children do not want to work all the time like their ancestors, they want time for fun and were basically racing on the streets.

So, am I in the wrong country? Not really, I like it here and still believe there is life in the sport, it is just changing to participation by rich guys in their Ferraris and Porsches on Country Club tracks. When you look at most racing in this country that is what is going on anyway.

Talking of developing countries, Casey Stoner won the Qatar MotoGP from Lorenzo on the Yamaha and a whole lot of Hondas. When I saw a photo of Casey out in front my first reaction was it was him and daylight, but of course it was moonlight. So we know the Hondas are the real deal and the Yamaha cannot be ruled out so we should have a good year. The Ducati was where we expected, and I know his shoulder is still a problem, but Jeremy and Vale need to get something sorted on that bike.

The debate over the Sebring live streaming coverage continues, check out the piece on Last Turn Club that echoed my thoughts that if it is not on live TV it cannot be important. It seems that the ABC "highlight" package either was not shown in some places or lived down to expectations. Can someone explain why some ISP's do not provide access to espn3.com? It will be interesting to see how many cars actually start at Long Beach now we are back to the ALMS, not many I suspect. I loved Duncan Dayton's comment that Sebring was a test for them and it was good of the other 55 cars to turn up! It is pretty amazing how that car ran faultlessly. Think back to last year with a "sorted" car. From my memory they had a bunch of problems, mainly electrical. As Pagenaud said, he'd better watch out for the Highcroft car at Le Mans where he will be back in the Peugeot.

The Lotus naming row is in court with things getting murkier by the moment with David Hunt now saying his deal with Tony Fernandes was not completed. Good luck to the Judge sorting this lot out. I'd tell them both not to use the name and to get on with it.

McLaren are going into this weekend with a revamped exhaust and floor in an attempt to find another second. Not a good way to start a season, but if anyone can do it they should be able to.