Bob Barnard Track Engineering

For a fast sport it is a very slow news day. In the absence of news I will share with you a response from Olaf about the problems of sprinklers:

"- ideally you'd want the water to be applied low at the track surface, so you'd need closely spaced sprinklers with robust heads (embedded in little concrete pits). Never mind the pipe and control infrastructure needed.
- pipe size and amount of water would to a degree depend on how much of an area you want to flood (or wet), and by how much. at the same time weather conditions would also have an impact - you would need more water during summer (when the supply may be low), and possibly less in spring / autumn.
- i suspect you would be talking about quite a large volume of water - easily a few hundred cubic metres. question is where do you get the water from, and where do you store it? could you use the rainwater attenuation system nowadays part of most schemes? something used for test tracks are self-contained systems, whereby the track run-off gets collected in a drainage system and then routed through the storage tank. though you'd always have losses, and would need to top up the system very regularly. not very cost-conscious or sustainable.
- you'd have to probably change the approach to the engineering design - usually we except that under heavy rainfall track operations get suspended for a while, until water clears. with this proposal your drainage collection system would have to work very well at all times, with no standing water, no soil etc being washed onto the track (an issue with sprinklers if slightly misaligned), no sheet flows across the track. again, costs would increase.
- i'd also be concerned about maintenance. if you applied this system say in the middle east, all their drainage infrastructure and operations would have to change - usually everything is just a sand trap after a short while... similar issues apply elsewhere (for instance need to bleed the supply system prior to winter and frost damage).

The whole thing would be rather expensive, and inevitably would also throw up safety questions."

And guess who would be paying, the poor old promoter just like the lights. And placing the sprinkler head so it is not going to be hit would be difficult, I'd be interested to see how tracks have done it so far.

The season has not started yet and the amount of words being written about Pirelli tires rather than the cars is not right. When you have a single tire supplier the tires should not be a factor, but it seems that this year they will be the main factor. There is a great piece on pitpass website about the huge balls of rubber that are accumulating on the track, and being thrown over the debris fence! Catch one of these in your helmet and you will know it.

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=43040

Now Martin Whitmarsh has come out and said the drivers should shut up about it, that being the tire supplier is a "thankless task," but Pirelli wanted the task. Whitmarsh is one of those who go on about the sport being relevant and more environmentally friendly. What's environmentally friendly about using masses of tires every race, when we know the tire manufacturer could make one that lasts the weekend? And what is relevant about a tire that lasts 40 or 50 kilometers? Us average motorists would like to see 40,000 k out of a set thank you, that is what is "relevant." If you need pit stops to make the racing exciting, as NASCAR seems to do, then there is something wrong with your sport.

That goes right along with the sprinkler idea. London's Daily Telegraph offers up even more ideas for Bernie to spice things up.

That's Bernie's latest idea to spice up the show. You never know if he is winding us up or is serious, but I fear he is serious most times these days. So, short cuts at corners did not get a vote and he does not think the wings will work, so let's install sprinklers at tracks and then turn them on with a couple of minutes notice, just for a little while to mix up the order. Why stop there? Why not just turn them on at one corner unannounced, that would really make it interesting. Better still, we could make some money with those viewer texts to choose when to do it or where. This really is getting to be a circus and it is time the Ringmaster retired gracefully.

It seems we do not need rain to spice up the show, the top drivers are now all saying it will be a circus thanks to Pirelli anyway. Three or four stops for tires and a huge drop off in performance that even Jenson Button will not be able to manage. If you read about the World Supersport race at Phillip Island you will know that the Pirelli's had punctures, almost unheard of in motorcycle racing these days.

Bernie is also saying that the Bahrain race needs to be rescheduled before the first GP which is just 25 days away. Mid-season break seems to be favorite, but who's to say the problems will go away by then?

Proton, the parent of the Lotus Cars Group, the sponsors of Renault, are being subject to doubts over the foray by their sibling into F1. Their share price is dropping and the forecast profitability of the Lotus Group questioned. What happens if they lose the court case against the "other" Lotus. All of this smacks of Dany Bahar's ego.