Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Monza is an anachronism of a race track. Great history and atmosphere, but a bit like the old Hockenheim and Silverstone, long straights interrupted  by a couple of corners, and then we throw in  a couple of chicanes to slow the cars down, but only a little. We all know, except Bob Varsha, despite the fact he had just told us, that it is in a Royal Park and very limited in what it can do, much like Brands Hatch. So why does Bob wonder why "they have not done more with the infield of the old oval?"

What surprises me is the lack of serious accidents. We saw yesterday how Massa narrowly avoided hitting the wall at the Parabolica, and with the extreme speeds and lack of run off I would expect many more incidents. Now I would suspect that that would mean that the drivers are not at ten tenths, leaving a bit on the table, but when you watch that is very hard to believe.

Interesting technical session, especially between the McLarens, and Lewis may yet have made the right decision. OK, he will lose a bit of time in the corners, but you are not going to overtake there anyway. It is at the end of the fast straights where the overtaking will happen, especially Turn 1, and if Lewis can get through the Parabolica OK then he should be in a good place to go by. I mentioned yesterday how fast he was back on the gas at the entry to the Parabolica, and watching today it was noticeable how the quick cars only went back to fifth and were immediately on the gas, whereas the slower cars were going down a lot of gears.

Interesting the Red Bull pair were not in the hunt for the pole. Mark continued to have bad luck in practice, and the commentators questioned the decision not to put a fresh engine in his car for the race. Is Red Bull still playing games? Vettel was never a factor, despite being quick yesterday. Mercedes struggling badly, but Williams continue their good form, and Kubica does wonders with the Renault.

So Rome has done a deal for an F1 GP starting in 2012 or 13. Bulgaria again gets a mention. Where is this going to end? Who are we going to lose? There are a few I could suggest, but I doubt Bernie is going to give up the income from them.

Talking of failed stupid GP bids we had the Donnington Park saga which never made any sense except as a whipping post for Silverstone. So Simon Gillette tears the place up and then goes bankrupt. Along comes Adroit, an engineering company to take over the promotion and fix the mess. Now I am a Civil Engineer who made the transition to Promoter, so gave them the benefit of the doubt, but again I had my doubts to give them the benefit of. Lo and behold after fixing the track they gave the place back to the Wheatcroft's. Robert Fearnall, the tracks long time promoter, said "Adroit is a construction company that realised running a race circuit was outside it's experience." Perhaps they could have realized that before they took it on? This sport is full of people who know nothing about it but think it is glamorous and that they can be successful where others fail.  It would be interesting to know who paid for fixing the track, or was it a freebie from Adroit?

I know I wrote off Allan McNish yesterday after practice, and now he is on pole, but I do not think it is quite that straightforward. It sounds as if the Audi squad got the strategy correct and Peugeot did not, but Davidson is still not worried about the race, and nor would I be. But I have underestimated both Allan and Audi before though.

So, depending on who you believe, there was either not enough evidence to penalize Ferrari for team orders, or they did use team orders but the rule is ambiguous and others do it so you should not penalize Ferrari more. If there was not enough evidence how did the Stewards decide to fine them $100,000, and if they were wrong, why did Ferrari not get their money back? Same goes if everyone is doing it why uphold the fine? As Sir Frank Williams said, he supports team orders, maybe only in the second half of the Championship, some basis for that, but he asks as I do, how do you appease the die hard fans? This will be a test for diplomacy.

Nice comment during the Monza practice about how long the concrete banking has survived. Seeing as how the Romans invented concrete, and most of their structures from 2000 years ago are still standing, I cannot see why anyone is surprised.

Practice was pretty uneventful, except for poor Mark Webber, he seems to have bad Fridays, but good races. The most interesting moment for me was Hamilton's on-board going into the parabolica. The merest of lifts off the throttle and then straight back on it, incredible. How Massa missed that wall no one will know, especially Massa. Tomorrow's qualifying should be interesting, six cars potentially going for pole, do not count out Webber.

Peugeot quickest in practice for the first round of the Intercontinental Cup Le Mans Series race at Silverstone, no surprises there. Audi are going to have to hope Peugeot have not fixed the engine problem, but do not hold your breath.

Grand Am have their last race of the season at Miller this weekend, with Ganassi on pole, surprise, surprise.

Spent the day revisiting the site layout for Sol Real now we have land in escrow. Even though it is still the same size the orientation is now north-south, much better for the sun angle, and the views to the east are spectacular, so obviously with the afternoon sun we want most of the buildings facing east. There is a small section of flood plain too across the NE corner, so flipped the track vertically to make that the run off at the end of the straight. The net result is a anti-clockwise track instead of clockwise, and a few other bonuses to improve the overall site layout. All part of refining the design. Checked out the run off at key points too and all looks more than enough, which is just as well with the speeds we are seeing on the simulator. Haven't got the heart to tell the programmer I've changed the layout now he has it in the computer. Hope everyone remembers to turn left and not right now at the end of the straight!

The only thing running this weekend seems to be sports cars, although we do have BTCC at Silverstone, which I am sure is fun to watch, but we do not see it here in the US. The most interesting thing from them is that they are going to a common body shell, and one made by Toyota at that, even though Toyota does not compete in the series. Other manufacturers, if there are any works teams left, or privateers can add their own or the series motor and accessories, with presumably a silhouette body shell, a la "the car of tomorrow" from NASCAR. Makes the racing more affordable for the teams, but is it any more than another one make series?

Le Mans Series is at Hungaroring this weekend, but practice is starting today so no results yet. Big news is the return on "El Leone", and the Mansell boys. Let's hope they get a better run than at Le Mans.

ALMS is at Road America with private testing yesterday. The Dyson car, fresh off it's win at Mid-Ohio, is quickest, with the Cytosport Porsche, with Timo Bernhard added to the driving line up, is second. That car could be the potential winner now they have an all pro driver team. Corvettes quickest in GT2 with BMW and Porsche right behind them. The Risi Ferrari did not get a mention, did they not test? Anyway, we do get to see it live this time on Speed at 3 pm Eastern.

That's all folks.

After watching as much as I could take of the ALMS offering of the race from Mid Ohio yesterday, which was not much, I asked my mates Tony Dowe and Tom Kjos their view, just to make sure I was not over-reacting. Most of you were saved this latest idea from the brains trust. It looked and sounded like a movie, aimed at the complete idiot who knew nothing about the sport, and mimicked a NASCAR offering featuring the team radio traffic. As Tony said "They are trying to attract the “casual” viewer that has little or no knowledge of what racing is about for the lowest possible cost, they will kill it!"

Following my comments in yesterday's blog about Dorna and Moto3 I had to ask is motorsport dying as a spectator sport? Tony in his usual fashion was blunt. "Yes, thanks to the suits and accountants who think they know what the public wants." It seems they most care about what their bottom line wants, what the TV wants, what the manufacturers want, and least of all about what we want to watch.  With even NASCAR struggling to fill the stands you have to ask where is this going? OK, some will say it is the economy, but can they tell me that soccer and football attendances are down? What about the TV figures, it does not cost most folks to sit at home and watch.

Is motorsport turning into a "hobby" for enthusiasts? For years the joke has been that to make a small fortune in motor racing start with a big one, but it is true for almost everyone except a fortunate few, and very few, who make money at this, so yes it is a hobby. That would account for the rise in country club tracks to cater for this growing number that want to drive fast and not go racing, at non-spectator tracks. For most series you may as well say they are non-spectator events now, look at Grand Am.

FOTA has just staged a fan town hall meeting so at least they recognize the need to address what the fan wants, but their hands are tied for most of the changes that we want by the "powers that be."

There seems to be general agreement that the Czech MotoGP was a pretty boring event. So what went wrong? Motorcycle GP's used to be the most exciting form of racing. We know what went wrong. The manufacturers wanted four strokes, Dorna wanted to make it "cheaper" and no one invested in young talent, so now when the Doctor retires it is basically done. Oh Yes, Valentino and Yamaha et al confirmed what we all knew, he is going to Ducati. That will spice things up for a season, maybe, but what then.

In other news Mr. Schumacher is blaming the car for all his woes, I guess it steered itself into Barrichello? Bahrain is to revert to the original track layout for next years GP, it seems you can have too many corners after all. Korea has delayed the obligatory race meeting prior to the F1 GP, so they are cutting this fine, although with a street race like Adelaide we had no "dress rehearsal." Jean-Eric Vergne clinched the British F3 title with a win in the third race at Silverstone, so presumably is free to go off and try his hand at something faster.

Saw TV footage of the desert race that claimed the lives of eight spectators. To say it was totally out of control would be complimentary. It looked like a cross between Spring Break on Daytona Beach and the Portuguese round of the World Rally Championship. People right next to the course  and on it, not that the "course" was defined in any way. How do the organizers, and I use the term loosely, live with themselves?

Elliott Sadler's massive crash at Pocono yesterday brings home the danger built in to some tracks. The answer will undoubtedly be, "no one has crashed there in ...years." That changes nothing, it was sitting there for someone to hit, and eventually they will. He was a lucky boy to walk away from that, and obviously NASCAR have made strides in their car safety, but this should not have happened. Someone from NASCAR must approve their tracks, so why was this there?

Following yesterday's Hungarian GP and my comments on Vettel, I read my latest edition of Motorsport. Nigel Roebuck writes a great opinion piece each month called "Reflections," and this month he reflected on the situation at Red Bull and young master Vettel. I like his quote from film maker Sam Spiegel, "You make a star, you make a monster." Reminds me of comments from Gary Howard who runs International Racers and manages most of the American motorcycle stars of the last few decades who talked about how you find great young talent, and you only have yourself to blame for what you create.

Nigel goes on to say that "while Vettel is hardly that (a monster), still it's been clear for a while that the impish schoolboy is receding swiftly into the memory. When things go wrong for Sebastian, I'm told, it's as well to stand well back as the toys come flying out of the pram." Not a great basis for winning Championships. Now as most people who know me well will attest, I have been known to throw the odd thing, especially hats. But I am not racing in F1. Lewis Hamilton has also been known to wear his heart on his sleeve at times, as has Mark Webber as recently as Silverstone, but there is something different about their response. They grit their teeth and get on with it, while Seb hangs his head and loses focus. There is also the denial thing, "I had radio problems." Lights are visual for a reason, he did not need the radio to tell them they had gone out. If you screw up say so and get on with it.

Hope you have had a chance to visit the Sol Real web site. This will update regularly, and there will be new renderings of the site layout and details of some of the buildings being added in the next couple of days.