Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Sorry folks, Tuesday was very hectic and hence no posting. Sol Real became "real" last evening, sign on the door and open for business. Not the track of course, but our "office" come toy store in the hanger. It looked great with a couple of special motorcycles and cars, posters on the walls, an RV to look like a paddock set up, and projection on the wall. An invited audience of twenty from a cross section of racers, tuners and enthusiasts were treated to the first showing of the promo video and a presentation on the project and memberships. All were excited by what they saw and heard and fired up to find a way to become involved, so a great "kick off." Now we will fine tune some things based on the feed back and move forward with one-on-one sessions and more group presentations.

On the wider scene there was not a lot from the motor sport world to make ones juices run and stir the pen. We enter the enforced F1 shutdown period when the factories close, but you can imagine they cannot shut off the brains. They will be going full bore with ways to catch up or stay in front.Last Turn Club has some great scuttlebutt on Grand Am's moves to take over the sports car world here in the US, "The World Turned Upside Down." Check it out on their web site.

In the motorcycle world the worst kept secret is out with Valentino Rossi going to Ducati, that's according to Ducati. Nice chance to sell a lot of merchandise Valentino. Biaggi has apparently re-signed to ride Superbike next year. They will have to have wheelchairs to get these guys to the grid soon , and trainer wheels. Soon the rookies are going to be in their mid thirties by the time they get a chance.

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.

The word of the day is web. Sol Real, pronounced like the Real Madrid soccer team, Real meaning "Royal," went live this morning. Log on to www.solrealmotorsportresort.com and check it out. First steps in a long road, but all important.

Mark Webber made it another 'web" day with his win in Hungary, against all odds as they say. When he did not pit with the others I stupidly assumed his race was done, he was going to have to pit and would come out last, but someone knew better than me, or I presume they did. Was it smart strategy or pure luck? "More a.. than class" as we would say in Australia? Those soft option tires are not supposed to go 43 laps, and certainly not at the pace Mark was going. Maybe the team knew from practice that they would last, but I do not recall them using them for very long runs. Good luck or good strategy, either way it was an inspired drive by Mark, and it is great to see him getting recognition and results at last.

Vettel has gone from child star to spoiled brat. His after race comments were so stupid. He did not know the safety car was coming in as he had no radio! I guess he was so far behind it he could not see the lights go out on the car? At first I thought he is doing the team thing and letting Mark open a gap so he could come in and change tires without losing too many spots, but that cannot be it. Unless he starts to get his head sorted he is never going to be  a World Champion.

One nice touch from the pre-race was Bernie giving Massa a big hug and some personal words. Didn't know he had it in him.

Schumacher's move on Barrichello was nothing short of criminal. I do not know how Ross Brawn can defend it, but I guess he has done it for ten years or more. Michael got away with the same move on Massa in Canada, but the Stewards have at last done something and given him a ten place grid penalty for Spa. I know some of you like him, but I never have done, and the sooner he retires again the better. Poor Nico Rosberg, he deserved so much more from this race, but well done Petrov and Hulkenburg.

It was pretty amazing that Vettel could not get around Alonso given the pace of the Red Bull, but they are not quick in a straight line, which is both their strength and their weakness. How do you explain Button's drive? Hamilton was on pace with the Ferraris and heading for fourth before he broke, very unusual these days, and Button seemed incapable of passing anyone. He is a bit of a mystery, just seems to lack that "tiger" that Lewis has.

The FIA has stepped in to try and end the flexi-wing debate with a doubling of the test load for the next race. Was this the trick wing that caused the debacle at Silverstone for Red Bull? And is it just the wing? The FIA are also looking at floor fixing details, as it is suggested that is part of the problem too. If this wing and/or floor was only introduced at Silverstone how did Ferrari develop it so fast? Or were they working on it at the same time?

American driver Alexander Rossi won the second GP3 race in Hungary from pole. In these classes where they have two races in a weekend they invert the top eight finishers, so finish eighth in the first race and you start on pole for the second. It shows how even the cars and drivers are when eighth can win the next day. Not sure of the points, but I know Alexander is close to the top of the championship standings in his first season.

Over at Spa the 24hrs was won by a Porsche after the leading BMW had an off in the last hour, and Michael Waltrip, yes the NASCAR driver, finished third in the GT2 class in a Ferrari!

The flexible front wing saga is growing given the dominance of Red Bull at Hungary today. Shades of the ground effect days when the FIA mandated a 6mm clearance below the car to reduce the venturi effect under the car. They could only measure it when it was standing still, so the boys came up with suspension that lowered the car when out on track, pretty hard to measure it at 100 mph! Now clearly the front wings on the Red Bull, and the Ferrari, are touching the track at times, so they are moving when in motion, even though they pass the FIA static test.

Ideas of how they are doing this vary between laying up the carbon fibers in different directions in the wings or the floor somehow moving. It demonstrates the problem the FIA has, and always has had, of making rules that are clear, cannot be got around, and can be enforced. They are up against the smartest guys on earth it seems at times, who do nothing but sit and scheme how to beat the rules, legally of course. Bernie always said it is better to have no rules, so you cannot go around them, just decide yourself what is fair or not. Sort of what we did with the Spanish Motorcycle Championship back in 1993, keep the rules simple. No works bikes, we all knew who had them, no carbon brakes, and no trick tires, again we knew what they were with the help of the tire technicians.

The importance of ground clearance on these cars was brought home to me in Adelaide in 1986. For the first race we did not repave the main straight, it looked really good until the cars went down it at 200 mph. There was a long "hump" halfway down it that made the cars bottom out, and their titanium skid plates sent a shower of sparks skyward every time, very dramatic, but made us look bad. So between races we planed and repaved it. Come the race and the cars are sending sparks out all around the track. I was distraught, how could the track have moved that much under traffic in just one year! Saturday I woke up, the track was so smooth they had lowered the suspension so that the cars were basically sliding along the asphalt, which one of the engineers quickly confirmed.

Some surprises in qualifying at Hungary. Button not making it out of Q2, but Hamilton 5th. Confirms what we know, Hamilton will wring a cars neck, not always pretty, but effective. Button strokes it around, which has worked for him often, so let's see what the race brings tomorrow. Rosberg qualifies 6th, but his world champion team mate cannot do better than 14th. Yamamoto brings up the rear, how long can this go on, or should I not ask? Some good drives by rookies Petrov and Hulkenburg, both out-qualifying their more experienced team mates. This track is notorious for lack of overtaking, so tomorrow could be very boring, unless the Red Bull pair put on a show, or Vettel makes a mess of the start again.

Spa 24 hr going on as I write, but a long way to go, and it is raining. It is Spa after all. Love that race track.

Still waiting for the projects web site to go live, so you will have to wait another day. Remember, manana, which I learned in Spain means "not today."

A last word to Bob Varsha. I would like to think you read my blog, but thank you for the periods of silence today to just listen to the cars. See, that was not so hard was it?

Bob Varsha was in fine form today during practice for the Hungarian GP. As he said himself most of it was useless trivia, designed to show his extensive knowledge of things none of us actually care about. And then there are all the promos for things coming on Speed, which if I really cared about I would go to the guide to find. In between this we did get a bit of the practice. Bob needs to learn that if you have nothing to say then keep your mouth shut. Commentators do not have to talk all the time, we are quite happy looking at the pictures. If not we would be listening on the radio. I particularly liked his put down of how Andrian Newey designs his cars. Oh my gosh, he still uses a pencil, like a "cave man drawing on the cave walls with a stick" to quote Bob. So what does Bob use? I happen to use a pencil to draw my tracks, it is a process of creation, it is a tactile thing. The "design" that the two hundred guys behind Adrian are doing on computers is pure mechanics, if they could create what Adrian does then they would be doing it. Inspiration comes in its own ways.

Whatever Adrian is doing it is working much better than anyone else at the moment, the Red Bulls being in a different class to everyone except the Ferrari, and you suspect there was a bit of sandbagging going on there. Lotus again had hydraulic problems. C'mon all you tech guys out there, how can that continue for all these new teams. Mike Gascoyne is no newcomer to this, so why all the issues at every race?

Interesting to hear Ron Dennis say how ticked off he is to hear his drivers complain about lack of speed in qualifying. According to Ron, McLaren have purposely gone for race speed not qualifying, and seeing as how they have both won races and are leading the Championship, then he would like to hear a lot less complaining thank you.

Cypher have announced they are not pursuing their F1 entry, no money. Not surprising given the USF1 debacle, they cruelled it for anyone following for a while I suspect.

Nice piece on www.lastturnclub.com about ALMS and Lime Rock, well worth reading as it raises some broader issues with tracks being selected on purely commercial grounds despite their unsuitability, and the lack of any centralized or coordinated licensing system for tracks in the US.

World Superbike at Silverstone this weekend, and nice to see someone other than Biaggi on pole. In fact five different makes in the top five grid spots, interesting.

Here in Arizona the project web site is due to go live tonight, so watch for the address here tomorrow. Another overseas approach for a track overnight, and another here in the US. If only a couple of these come about I am in trouble, busy enough as it is.