Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Spa did not disappoint and the world's best track turned on a world class race. DRS worked a bit too easily on the run up to Les Combes, but we saw some amazing passes all around the track, Rivage and Poohon, and even Blanchimont! The pass Webber made on Alonso on the entry to Eau Rouge has to rate as one of the best and bravest we have ever seen, certainly up there with Haikenen and Schumacher at this same track, but probably braver. How did Alonso make his car disappear? One nano-second his front wing is in shot with Webber's, the next it is gone, saving a huge accident. David Coulthard said he had to turn away from the screen! Pity Kobayashi could not show the same sense. Views will differ on who did what to who here, but Lewis's hands did not move on that wheel. Yes he was moving left relative to the track edge but he took a straight shot from the exit of Raidillon to the turn in at Les Combes. Kobayashi had been passed and it's OK he tried to come back, but he was never going to make that move, just back off and attack again. Spoiled a good race for us.

Button showed us that Hamilton is not the only McLaren driver who can pull off some great passes, quite out of character at times but great to watch. His pass on Massa at the last chicane should be watched by Maldanado as how two great drivers can run hard and close without taking each other out. As I predicted the odd qualifying made for some great racing with Michael coming through to 5th ahead of team mate Rosberg for once. Rosberg looked like running away with it in the first couple of laps, as did Alonso at one point, but the Ferrari and Mercedes fade at the end of races. The Ferrari still does not like the hard tires, but there has to be more to it than just that. 

It would be interesting to know what went on with Vettel's read out on the steering wheel on that last lap, along with that and the tire issues they had from the very start of the race they definitely not only dodged a bullet(s) but came up smelling of roses. Andrian Newey was almost crying with relief.

Pity about Ricciardo's HRT stopping, he was having a great race and running 16th. Not sure if this was due to good fortune in avoiding the crashes at La Source on the first lap, but even if it was he hung on to it until something failed. This is the sort of drive he needs. Senna was a prime suspect in the first lap crashes but at least he owned up to it unlike some other drivers out there, and actually ran a good race in the end, only finishing twenty seconds behind Petrov despite the stops for a new nose and a drive through penalty. Both Lotus cars and the Virgins finished the race, with the Lotus cars both beating the Williams of Barrichello.

And all this and it did not rain! Amazing. Looks like nothing is going to stop Vettel and Red Bull now, but let us hope for some more races like this.

The reported potential lessee of the Silverstone Circuit is the Qatar's Sovereign Wealth Fund, why not, it owns everything else?  Still does not make any sense, the BRDC lost nearly 2m pounds last year despite running the F1GP, MotoGP and WSBK rounds with crowds that many others would envy.

Stoner on pole for the US MotoGP from Indy, with Spies and Lorenzo snapping at his heals, so should be a good race, except for poor old Valentino.

Well I think the Stewards wimped out on that one. Five grid places for deliberately driving into someone? Joe Saward said it well, "less than severe given what happened." He should be excluded for at least this race. And Sir Frank should have the guts to fire him, deliberately damaging his car. I know he brings a lot of sponsorship, but also disrepute. How is Hamilton reprimanded? Why would he deliberately move right to hit Maldanado, or was it for the pass at the bus stop? That to me was clear cut, Maldanado was wallying around, slow, stayed right as if to give Lewis room and then when Lewis is alongside cuts back left, no problem for me. Has Maldanado been watching "Days of Thunder" too much? I can just see Sir Frank, "now I want you to go out and hit the safety car."

Vettel took pole from Lewis in his repaired McLaren at the last gasp, but tomorrow's race should be interesting. Button starting from 13th, Michael from the back after his loose wheel incident, lucky that was not at Eau Rouge, and Alonso down in 8th after an unhappy qualifying session. Senna drove well for his first drive on Pirelli's after a long absence and outqualified his team mate Petrov by over a second. Ricciardo needs to lift his game, over a second slower than Luizzi is not going to get him into Webber's seat. Mark has predictably re-signed for Red Bull for next year, so Daniel has another year to prove himself, but where? The new owners at HRT will want a Spaniard in at least one of the cars. Fortunately the Stewards waived the 107% rule and all cars will start, including Michael's three wheeler. Not sure what the point of having a 107% rule is if you are not going to enforce it. I can understand Michael, but the conditions were the same for everyone in that Q1 session.

Roman Grosjean predictably wrapped up the GP2 title after finishing third in the Saturday rain affected race, now let us see where he goes next year.

At Indianapolis for the MotoGP Casey Stoner is dominating practice despite being highly critical of the new track surface. It started out very slippery Friday morning and has improved as it cleaned up and has some rubber, but there are comments it is wearing tires very fast. "Most" of the bumps have gone, and Casey has this morning run the fastest lap around here, but still considers it his least liked track. Ben Spies is flying the Americans flag with second fastest, and Colin Edwards is inspired by home soil to be the quickest non-works bike. Lorenzo is not happy in seventh behind Colin, while the Ducati boys continue to struggle, Rossi being the quickest in eighth but over a second off the pace. Let's see what qualifying brings, although of course here in the US SPEED would rather show off-road racing or a chopper show than an actual MotoGP, so we won't see it.

Stories today that the BRDC, owners of Silverstone, are looking to lease the place out now they have spent all that money on it. A one hundred year lease term is suggested, although how anyone can predict what will happen in the next decade I don't know, let alone the next century. $400m is the asking price, so they can then spend all that on their grand scheme of hotels etc. So what does the lessee get, the track? And how does he make any money? I know it is only $4m a year, but then there is the interest or opportunity cost. The BRDC is not making money on the F1 GP at the moment, and I know the place runs all year, but then it costs money to run it all year. It was suggested Bernie might want it, but he know better than most that owning tracks and running races is not where the money is at, he makes his from the poor track owner, just ask him about how well Turkey is going. As I said before, do they not learn from history? Octagon went down this road and bought their way out of the deal, and the Nurburgring is currently in all sorts of trouble with their hotel/theme park/conference center development. Donnington should still be burned in everyone's memory, what a farce that was. Now Silverstone is not so remote as the Nurburgring, but it is not in the middle of Europe either. 

Well we at least have some GP racing going on at Brno, and Honda in the shape of Pedrosa is again leading the way. Stoner and Simoncelli are there as well so Lorenzo is running fourth fastest, but apparently working on race set up and doing consistent laps. Team mate Ben Spies was sixth despite a pinched nerve in his neck, can't be much fun. Rossi was happier with seventh, but still over a second off the pace. Rumors are that Ducati are thinking of going back to an aluminum frame instead of the carbon fibre. We've seen this before with the Cagiva in 1990. I can't help believing that a carbon frame and stressed engine is the way forward, it is just such a big step that it rewrites the set up and needs time to sort out. I'd hope they are given that time.

Suzuki are the surprise package with Bautista in eighth and ring-in John Hopkins right there in tenth. As Bautista said, nice to have John as long as he is slower than me. From there on down there are a bunch of guys making up the numbers. 

Elsewhere desperate web site are reduced to re-runs of THAT race at Dijon with Arnoux and Villeneuve, Gilles that is. Silverstone unveiled a very ambitious planning proposal for the site which will be great if they can fund it, but perhaps they should look carefully at what has happened at the Nurburgring with similar ambitious plans. Pirelli has raised the issue of qualifying tires for next year. Not sure I like the idea of going back to special tires, surely that is going to alter the set up on the car which has to be kept for the race? Anyway, the issue is teams saving tires during qualifying, so just give them extra sets of the race tires to use just for the qualifying rather than make something different.

Grand Am racing at Watkins Glen tomorrow, and Indycar at New Hampshire for something different.

Now I know team orders are OK now, but the decision by Red Bull not to let their drivers race robbed the fans of an even better finish than we saw between Lewis and Massa. Mark seems likely to be offered a new contract, but he obviously is not happy about being told to "maintain the gap" and it took a few messages before he complied. OK, so no team wants to see their drivers take each other out, but McLaren has a lot more confidence in the ability of their drivers to race each other and not crash than Red Bull. So does Mark want a new contract?

McLaren shot themselves in the foot again this weekend with Lewis not having enough fuel in the car and Button being released without the wheel nut on. Now you could argue that Lewis would not have been where he was if he carried that extra fuel, but we won't know will we? The old Lewis turned up for this race, the one we got to admire and love. Great drive from tenth on the grid and fourth was a poor reward. Now Lewis is saying he will not continue to do the excessive amount of PR required by McLaren, especially in the lead up to this race. Martin Whitmarsh needs to circle the wagons and refire the troops.

It would seem from the performance this weekend that McLaren were hit hardest by the diffuser shambles. The problems with the car in testing were masked by their ability to get the blown diffuser working, and now they are stuck with a poor car, but have been given a reprieve. As I said Ferrari were strangely silent and it is suggested they were the ones driving this all along. Somehow Bernie twisted enough arms to get the unanimous vote needed to return to the pre-Silverstone situation where the changes in the ECU from qualifying to the race are banned, but blown diffusers can still be used. Initially it was reported that Ferrari and Sauber, who run Ferrari engines, were not agreeing to the reinstatement, but then Bernie came out and said they all agreed. What did that cost? Presumably now they have all agreed there is no basis for a protest.

Engine reliability did not seem to be a problem for anyone other than Kobayashi in the Sauber, so perhaps it is a longer term issue over several races, or not really an issue at all. Pity to see the two Lotuses drop out so early, reliability is still an issue for them despite improvements in performance. HRT seem to have got on top of it with both cars finishing, albeit last, but Ricciardo gained valuable experience and stayed out of trouble.

Great drive by Alonso, you had the feeling that he had the measure of the Red Bulls even if Vettel did not have that wheel problem, it will be interesting to see if Ferrari can maintain this or if they were lucky and did not have to use the hard tires today due to the wet conditions at the start.

Interesting the amount of overtaking that went on away from the DRS zone, and how little impact it had when the front runners tried to use it.

Adding to the oddities of the new pit complex is the location of the winners rostrum. Looked like the US where they never face the crowd and it is a made for TV event. Pit Pass web site has a piece on the BRDC finances, the owners of Silverstone, which does not make for pleasant reading.

http://www.pitpass.com/44171-Exclusive-BRDC-depends-on-bank-funding-to-continue-as-a-going-concern

Speaking of oddities I received the June 23 rd issue of Autosport yesterday, takes a while to get here. Lo and behold there is a two page center spread in the middle advertising the Laguna Seca Historic Races. But what did they use for the centerpiece photo? Silverstone from the 60's. Go figure. 

Over in Brno Melandri and Biaggi shared the WSBK wins, with Checa in third and his points lead now down to 30. No time to panic, but it does not look as easy as it did at the start of the season.

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.