Bob Barnard Track Engineering

So Daniel Ricciardo topped the tests in Abu Dhabi and one second under Vettel's pole time! Someone sign this guy up. He did very well in FR3.5 this year so he is not just a flash in the pan, winning Championships on the way up. As I said let's hope he gets the financial backing to keep moving up, and if Red Bull let him go they must be mad. Place him in GP2 next year and let him take Mark's seat when he retires. Or maybe Vettel's seeing as how he has would prefer Mercedes or Ferrari. How can you come out and say that after Red Bull have just made you World Champion, or are you so egotistical to think it was the other way around? What an ass. Is Sebastian going to be another of those drivers that you respect their driving but not them as a human being?

Great week away in Cologne, but nice to be home in some sunshine. How do those Europeans put up with that long, grey winter? Excellent Forum with tracks and speakers from 5 continents and top people Like Salman Al Khalifa, CEO of Bahrain Circuit, and Sharmila Nadrajah, COO of Sepang Circuit in Malaysia. Add to this the new track in Moscow, NRing, a new country club in Germany, all the top track designers and suppliers then you have the best and latest information being made freely available. Not to mention kart circuit operators and local tracks like Oregon Raceway Park who all learn vital information on how to operate successfully. This forum should be a must do for anyone involved in or planning to be operating tracks. Derek Muldowney, the head of ISC's facility development group, gave us some great insights into planning and developing a major speedway and repaving Daytona, and we had attorneys giving us good advice on sponsorship contracts and branding. The next forum is in Los Angeles in April, so book your time to attend.

I was appreciative of the reception to my presentation and the session on track engineering that I put together. The session on the future of track design went well, but as an open forum it covered a wide range of topics not necessarily about the future. It seems that we are going back to the future with the old tracks like Spa and Nurburgring providing the basis. To make tracks more interesting to drivers it seems we need to go outside of the FIA guidelines in respect of maximum grades and cross fall to match these great old tracks, without jeopardising safety of course.

While I have been away it seems CAMS and Australian GP have kissed and made up, at least for this year. Sad to say as an Australian but I cannot see they will have a F1 GP for long, there are too many other countries with far larger markets wanting races so someone has to go. The political backlash on the ongoing losses is growing and will result in what happened to Adelaide, Bernie will see the writing on the wall and move it.

Seems the Pirelli tires met with approval from the drivers so now we can get on and finish next years cars, which could be quite different without the F-duct and diffuser. Are they really going to use a moveable rear wing? Perhaps we will see who is finally driving for who next year.

On a final note, does anyone else think it is weird for a team to put a solid wall between their two riders? I can understand Rossi and Lorenzo this year, but Spies and Lorenzo? Just tells me there are two teams at Yamaha again next year. As much as Senna and Prost did not get along, and Vettel and Webber this year, they were still one team.

There is action across the globe this weekend with F1 in Brazil and the first practice saw the usual suspects at the top of the time sheet, except for Ferrari. Is this just the normal Friday laid back approach? Massa apparently fought his set up all morning, when you would think he would be on top of this place from the get go, and Alonso stopped at the end of the session with engine problems. Ferrari said they were going to change it anyway before the second session. Really, that's a lot of work between practice sessions. Are they so short on miles they could not run one session on that next engine? Both cars are way off the pace, but we have seen this before.

Mark Webber used some choice Aussie language when asked about the team and Vettel. He said it was ******** obvious that the team emotionally supported Vettel, and Horner immediately emotionally hit back that both drivers had had equal treatment, not quite what Mark said. Can Mark really stay at Red Bull next season?

Responding to Bernie's "cripples" quote, Virgin Team Principle John Booth asked if Bernie said it " to embarrass Sir Richard Branson, one of the country's leading entrepreneurs?" I would have thought Sir Richard had embarrassed himself.

In Zuhai for the final round of the Intercontinental Cup the weather is bad, rain and fog, or is it smog? Oddly the second Peugeot is three seconds slower than its pace setting sister car, that's a lot on a short circuit like this. The two Audis split them, so we could be in for an interesting race, particularly as the weather is not supposed to get any better. It is the monsoon season, nice scheduling.

In sunny Spain Lorenzo leads the way after second practice just ahead of Casey Stoner. Colin Edwards is doing well so far, and Ben Spies is sixth despite his ankle problem. Rossi is not doing so well, sandbagging or just cruising to finish his time with Yamaha? Just perhaps Yamaha would rather the guy wins who is staying next year?

In Korea, for those of you that did not follow up that story, it seems $50m is unaccounted for during the development, and the Government would like KAVO to tell them where it went. It also seems that the "mobile" stands, I presume the temporary seats, do not meet code for the F3 race. Funny code that. The seats were OK for an F1 race, but not for an F3 race?

To all my English fans "Happy Guy Fawkes Day." Where is he when you need him?

Saturday morning and it is pretty quiet on the motorsport front apart from Phillip Island. Must be the end of the season. Weather sounds wonderful down at the Island, cold, wet and windy. Did not stop Stoner from capturing the pole from Lorenzo and Ben Spies doing a great job in third despite not running much Friday. Capirossi having a bad day despite the fact he won his first 125cc Championship on such a weekend in 1990. Rossi is down in eighth and not happy, and Pedrosa has thought better of it and stopped racing this weekend. Could be a race between Stoner and Lorenzo. Gone are the days when five guys were duking it out, how sad. Lookout though, some new blood is coming, Carlos Checa is making a return at age 38! Can they really not find anyone under thirty to ride these bikes?

Elsewhere our would be F1 driver, Danica, had her best Nationwide Series finish. "Danica Patrick finished 21st on her ninth NASCAR Nationwide Series outing at Charlotte, taking her best career finish in the the series thus far." The fact that she started 18th should not spoil a good news story.