Bob Barnard Track Engineering

The quote of the weekend was "it is a week's holiday at the end of which they run a race." And what a race we were treated to this year! Xan and I both had no trouble staying awake for the 24 hours. Fourteen seconds separated first and second, Audi and Peugeot, at the end of 24 hours. There have been closer finishes, but all staged. A slow down lap was added after the 24 hours were up as the last lap was full out racing, not the usual parade for the cameras.  You could say the race was won by the length of the pit lane, as that is what it came down to with both cars stopping with about 30 mins to go, the Peugeot just for fuel, the Audi for a dash of fuel but then new tires, so a longer stop and he got out 6 seconds in front, thanks to the Peugeot being at the opposite end of the pit and Audi being close to pit out.

All four classes saw some great tussles, most of them cleanly fought. I'm not sure I am happy about the antics of the Peugeot drivers, despite their claims they were innocent and it was down to bad visibility out of the closed cockpit cars. Davidson and Gene knew all too well where the Lotterer Audi was and being laps down on the Audi should have have had more respect for the leader. It is one thing to make things hard for the overtaking car, it is another to deliberately move over on him on a straight piece of road after you have just collided in the second chicane on the Mulsanne Straight. We had already seen all to graphically what happens when a car moves over on another at those speeds, and I for one expected better from Gene. I still have not forgotten Davidson putting the Corvette into the wall at the Porsche curves.

Yes the Audi guys were aggressive too, they had to be, and the changes to the rules had an unintended consequence. The ACO reduced engine size and air intake size to slow the LMP1 cars down, but in the usual fashion the engineers worked out how to recover some of that speed by reducing drag, and therefore downforce. So the cars were more on the limit when it came to cornering and avoiding traffic, and needed to keep up the momentum, so they took chances and had less control when they did not work out. We saw two massive accidents to the Audis which thanks to the design of modern cars both drivers survived with virtually no injuries. As I said a week or so ago, car design is where safety has improved. The walls and tires did their job too, especially for McNish's accident where there were a lot of marshals and photographers. We had two long safety car periods to repair damaged guard rail, and great job by the track to get it fixed, but it showed why I prefer concrete as the hits in the Porsche Curves with the Corvette and Ferrari required no repairs at all. Guard rail is made to give, and is probably a bit better for the drivers in that respect, but McNish almost went over the guard rail perhaps due to the fact it did give and provided a ramp?

Unlike almost any other form of racing Le Mans does not red flag a race except for exceptional rain or fog, so we saw a one hour and a two hour procession. They have three cars due to the length of the track, and this makes for some interesting strategy. The race goes on, albeit at a reduced speed, and a lot happens. Drivers make mistakes due to cold tires or boredom, teams with a slower driver take advantage of this time to put him in, therefore meeting the time requirements for drivers but not losing any time. Refuelling stops have to be made and tire changes can be done without the normal loss of time, but who is behind which safety car has to be considered, and when to stop. At the start of the period, yes if you are low on fuel, or at the end to maximise your next run and if you actually wait until the final moments you can actually make time as you can leave under green without waiting for the next safety car. Great strategy games.

The strategy between Audi and Peugeot was fascinating. This year Audi were the fast cars but used more fuel, so more pit stops. So which was better, a fast pace and more stops or a slower pace, relatively, and less stops? As it turned out there was no difference. 14 seconds in 24 hours, 0.016%! Tire wear also played a part. Audi, despite running faster could run four or five stints between tire changes, and the poor drivers did those stints too! The Peugeot although slower could only run three and sometimes four stints. Either way they ran about twice the distance on one set of tires as F1 does on three or four, so who's green?

The standards applied by the Stewards both here and at Montreal make me scratch my head. Robert Kaufman who made contact with Rockenfeller in the Audi in the dark and when taking the racing line, as the slower drivers were told, is ejected from the race. Gene who deliberately moved Lotterer over almost to the barrier in broad daylight while racing with him and on a straight does not even get called to the Stewards! Hamilton gets called to the Stewards in Montreal and Button who took him and Alonso out while winning the race does not? Now, that is probably due to the past problems of Hamilton as much as anything, but it is still inconsistent.

I did not see too much of the Canadian GP. After getting up at 5:30 on Saturday and staying awake until 7:30 Sunday and being emotionally wrung out by the Le Mans race, I went to sleep and set the alarm for Montreal. Speed had given the race over to Fox who dd their usual stellar job, starting the coverage as the race started despite a paid for ad being on the half hour prior, and thankfully for them it was behind the pace car due to the rain. I got up for this? We had the usual BS from Bob Varsha and the boys. This is network so we must have a whole lot of new viewers who know nothing about F1 so we have to talk to us like we are children. Then we start, and it is all crazy, Hamilton more than most, and the outcome was all too predictable. I personally thought Button put him in the wall, but I guess his explanation stands up, that would have been out of character. Then we had the red flag, so I gave up and went back to sleep. I wrongly thought Fox would give up after the mandatory two hour broadcast but apparently no. I'm glad I did not wait up though. I have read it was an exciting race, but from what I have read it was a crap shoot. Give me Le Mans every weekend.

The coverage of Le Mans was great. I had Radio Le Mans on one computer so had all the action and information on what was happening, not a load of infomercials, FromsportCOM.com live streaming on the TV via the other computer, and SPEED if I needed it, when they were actually on and following the action. The Eurosport Director went to the same school as the SPEED guy, he would at times rather show someone asleep in the pits or media center rather than two cars racing their hearts out.

Needless to say I did not watch the MotoGP or the WSBK, both predictably won by Casey Stoner and Carlos Checa respectively. Great gutsy ride by Colin Edwards though.

Finally a word about Lewis who is reported to have met with Red Bull's Christian Horner at the weekend. A very smart man, Warren Willing, told me years ago that when a rider or driver is struggling with a slow machine one of two things will happen. Either he will get depressed and stop trying, or drive over aggressively and crash. This seems to be the consensus for Lewis' problems at the moment. The McLaren is almost there, but never quite there when it comes to beating the Red Bull, so he tries to make the difference up by driving harder. It cannot be easy to watch Vettel in that car and know you could be there too.  Something needs to change before his career will be remembered as a great talent wasted. Maybe a change of team is it?

A few coincidences in the last few days have prompted me to write about motorsport safety. I was due to join a panel discussion after a showing of the Senna film in London next week, but the technical difficulties of doing it from Phoenix proved too much. One of the things I was asked to comment on was the impact Senna's death had on safety.

It is true the events of that weekend prompted Max Mosley to re-light the need to improve safety that Sir Jackie Stewart started and which had perhaps lost momentum. Senna's was the last death in F1, so perhaps it worked, but it made me consider what had really changed.

The biggest steps have come with the cars themselves, and as we saw at the weekend in Monaco drivers can now survive virtually intact some huge accidents thanks to the “survival cell” that surrounds them, but what of the tracks themselves? Have we really seen such a great improvement, and the real question for me is what has been done for the bulk of competitors at National level and below?

Safety costs money, and most competitors and track owners do not have any. As a track inspector here in the US I face the problem of telling an owner he needs to fix something, only to be told he cannot afford it, and he can’t. I had a track manager tell me the other day that they subsidize track rentals by around 40% because that is what the market will bear.

The Tecpro barrier is a case in point. They may be better, but only tracks run by Governments can afford them. Jarno Zaffelli sent me information the other day on an installation he is supervising at Imola, but said that cost was not an issue. Well for most of us it is, and having tires is better than nothing. There is also a better mesh available for the debris fence, at a price, but I cannot get proper fences built now, let alone the best one.

Even for F1 tracks we still see corners like the last one in Sao Paulo, which cannot be changed till next year despite two deaths there in other events, and we have street events in Valencia and Singapore which by their nature have to be a compromise. The last corner in Korea was not a great example either, as was the wall that Webber hit. Yes we have asphalt run off everywhere these days, but again at what cost? You probably add about 200% to the area of asphalt at a track, and that is probably the most expensive piece. It was said in Abu Dhabi that the walls were moved closer to give it more of a street track feel. And now they are going to bring MotoGP there?

The cost of most tracks is about one tenth of what is spent on F1, they have to make money, so how is safety going to improve? This does not even take into account the thousand or so little tracks here in the US that operate on a shoestring without basic knowledge of safety in most cases. It’s OK having helicopters, fast intervention vehicles, surgical units and loads of fire fighters and doctors for GP’s, but what about Joe Bloe on a Saturday night in his sprint car?

All the effort is being made at the top level, but there are huge numbers of competitors at risk below that who are not receiving enough attention. Here in the US the Sports Car Club have been trying to improve things through a track review program with limited success, and they have great training for their officials and safety teams, but that is the real extent of it.

On a different note, it seems my prediction of Nick Worth's departure came true very quickly, and the lifting of the state of emergency  in Bahrain did not change much on the ground.

Hot on the heels of the concerns raised about Lotus Renault finances there is a very interesting piece by Joe Saward today on the goings on behind the scenes.

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/

As I said, Tony Fernandes only has to wait this out. It also seems the question of drivers is far from over with Grosjean's name being mentioned despite a less than stellar performance last time out in F1, and a falling out between Kubica's manager and Lopez from GenII Capital.

Reports are coming in that the crane at the chicane in Monaco is to be moved so the run off can be moved back another 20 meters. The logic is that an accident there will bring out a red flag or safety car so there is no rush to move a car, but that is not necessarily true if it is down the escape road. Still, as often is the case it is a choice between less than perfect options. I forgot to comment on the removal of Maldanado's car in less than a lap last weekend, that's less then a minute from when the leaders were expected, so great job. If you read the comments my view on tires is "old fashioned'" but perhaps so am I and glad to be. At the Circuit Forum in Cologne last year Hubert Gramling, scientific adviser to the FIA Institute, proved that straw bales actually worked better, how old fashioned can you get! No one is suggesting going back to them as they of course catch fire and make a mess when you hit them, but it goes to show that not all new ideas are better. Remember when catch fences were all the rage, and then gravel, ploughed this way and that, and now we have asphalt everywhere.  Yes you can go under tires, but Perez was not so far from going under the Tecpro, especially if he went in nose first. Anyway, I am happy to spark debate and will publish all comments even if they disagree with me.

It seems that Rosberg is re-signing with Mercedes up to 2016. He must believe Ross Brawn when he says the 2012 car will be "excellent."

Someone not keen to extend a relationship seems to be Virgin who are reported to be looking to tie up with McLaren in a similar way as Force India. Sorry Nick Worth and Cosworth. Still, Cosworth look like picking up Lotus Renault next year. Lotus Cosworth? Now that has a familiar ring to it.

Bahrain's "state of emergency" is lifted today. Now what? The FIA says it will listen to the teams, who object to the calendar being extended but will not come out in public and say they do not want to go. Gutless.

Great live streaming pictures and sound from SPEEDTV.com this morning. Wish I could watch all the F1 like this, no ads, no idiot commentary, maybe ALMS has something here. No picture break up or lock up, and the quality was better than cable. Two interesting sessions today with some big accidents, two at the chicane after the tunnel. Rosberg lost the back end under braking and took off over the speed bumps put into the center of the chicane, presumably installed to slow cars down that short cut it. Thankfully these were removed before qualifying as they actually only make it worse, as demonstrated . I for one did not expect to see Rosberg back out in quali, not that he was hurt, he missed the center island between the track and the run-off, but the car had substantial damage. Great job by the Mercedes team to have him not only back out but competitive. Perez was not so lucky in Q3, hitting the island side on, and thankfully he did, a head on would probably have him under the TECPRO barrier. The jury is still out on these compared to tires, and they cost many times more. For me they are too light, as we have seen already cars go under them. Perez will miss tomorrow's race but fortunately his injuries are relatively minor.

Unlike the two HRT cars who despite not turning a wheel in qualifying have been given the OK to race, and they did not even have to buy a starting spot! The Stewards in an unfathomable piece of generosity will let them race, despite being 6-7 seconds off the pace in practice. Now on another track that may be OK, but around here there is no place for sentiment, and no room to overtake. Let us hope that decision does not turn around and bite someone.

Perez's accident showed the absolute necessity to get out early and bank a lap in these short sessions. McLaren failed Lewis and now he is stuck down in seventh despite being fastest in Q2. As I suspected, no one tried to save tires, starting position is everything here. It will be interesting to see what McLaren's pit strategy will be to try and leapfrog Lewis up the field.

I commented the other day on the efficiency of the Monaco track team in repairing the asphalt, and it was in evidence again today. Most of these incidents would have taken lesser crews a long time to clean up, and in some cases may not have repaired in time to finish a session. Indy, NASCAR et al need to go there and see how they do it. As Michael Schumacher was crashing Thursday at Ste-Devote you could see the crane operator start up. Having said that the "crest" coming out of the tunnel seems to have contributed to a few accidents this weekend and needs addressing. Given their usual rapid response it is surprising it was not planed smoother during yesterday's quiet day.

In other news it seems the Lotus sponsored Renault team is in a spot of financial trouble. The Marussia money is not flowing and since Kubica's accident interest from new sponsors has all but disappeared. The Geni Capital deal was a novel one for starters, and Lotus Cars is another work in progress. maybe Tony Fernandes just needs to wait this out. Story is Renault is owed big time for engines and may be looking elsewhere for 2012, like Williams.

I did miss a race from my list yesterday. The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars were at Charlotte last night, but got rained out anyway. Rescheduled for tonight, but will only be live streamed. Kimi qualified 15th for the Nationwide race! Outqualified not only his mentor Kyle Busch but his car owner Joe Nemechek! Need to watch that tonight.

Ferrari have now expressed their concern at extending the calendar to accommodate Bahrain. Has no one the guts to come out and say they will not go? I for one will not watch it if it is reinstated and encourage others to do the same. That is the only message Bernie and his cohorts will understand. This would be almost the last straw for me and I hope many others about what has become of our sport.

The story of today has to be the on and off restrictions by the FIA on feeding exhaust gasses to the diffuser. This "trick" has been the big idea to maintain downforce that the FIA keeps trying to reduce. As I mentioned a few weeks ago this involves keeping the engine on full song during braking to keep the gas flow constant and therefore keep the downforce. This increases fuel consumption at a time when the sport is trying to reduce it by 35%. The FIA came out yesterday and said that this basically constituted a movable aerodynamic device and the set a limit of 10% throttle opening during braking, effective Friday! Now I don't know if this is driven by green feelings, or reducing downforce, or just responding to complaints from teams that are not doing it, but like most good ideas in F1 it is eventually banned.

The FIA then had a change of heart and delayed the introduction of the measure, agreeing that changing the engine mapping might not be possible in the time. I can't see why? These engines have been around for a few years now, so just dig out the old map from before you started doing it. The problem probably is in how the FIA are going to police this. As always, it is easy to say don't have flexible front wings, it is something else entirely to write a rule and tests to police it, as we have seen. Still, with a common ECU, you would think they could control or monitor this.

No one answered my question on where the Sutil/Lux case would be heard. The story now is that Sutil had a drink spilled on him and went to throw a drink over Lux, the glass broke and he hit him in the neck. I presume he thought Lux spilled the drink on him. Still all seems  a bit odd, but more believable than Sutil doing it on purpose. Of course Sutil has the teams complete support, at least for this weekend's race.

Bernie damned the new Silverstone with faint praise as they say in the classics, "very nice, pity they did not do it ten years ago." Still, he did say he could now bring would be tracks there to see how you spend 28m Pounds on a pit building!

Barcelona Circuit is speaking out of both sides of its mouth. In one breath it is saying if the current F1 cars still cannot overtake there then they will spend money to change the track. Then they add they are still in negotiations with F1 and MotoGP about future contracts, i.e. should we spend the money to keep them, as suggested a couple of months ago the State may not view this as a good investment . The changes that were made a few years ago to the last corner complex certainly improved things, not.

That brings me to Sao Paulo and the changes proposed to the last corner there. It has been decided to wait until after the GP at the end of the year as they cannot get the work done in time! They plan to take down part of a grandstand and move the wall back. How hard is this! Just keep your fingers crossed there is not another accident there.

Bahrain says it is "ready" to have the Grand Prix back. Define ready? The troops and tanks are in place? All the ringleaders are now in jail? The question is, is the world ready to have you back. The jury is definitely still out on that question for most of us.