Bob Barnard Track Engineering

So Paul Di Resta survived the Shanghai track to win the DTM for 2010, well done. Pity the race had to start behind the safety car for three laps and then have yellow flags at the first three corners to try and make it safe at the start. DTM needs to have a serious look why it is racing at such venues when there are perfectly good permanent tracks to go to, even in Shanghai.

The GP2 musical chairs ended today with the results being mixed up again. Alexander Rossi ran 4th in the last session after an 8th place in the morning. Surprising to see Karun Chandook so low down in the timesheet, and Joylon Palmer struggled to repeat his form of yesterday. This is the end of the testing until next February, by when I guess we will know who has taken their checkbook where.

Bernie said  that the muggers went over the top, he would have given them the money, watch and the jewelry without the agro. One of my friends was bad enough to suggest that the muggers were a promoter trying to get some of his money back.

DTM is staging their season finale in Shanghai. Yes I know it is the German touring car series, go figure. They sell a lot of Mercedes and Audis in China, probably more than Germany. This is not their first visit, and the street track was used previously by A1GP I think, with similar results. Problems with the layout. Lots of crashes during the last two practice days, including one terrible one by Maro Engel hitting the end of the pit lane wall. Maro is OK, but most of the front of the car is gone. They changed this and a few other barriers Friday night, and the DTM is going to make more changes tonight. Did they not look at this track before they started? Did the Chinese learn nothing from previous years? Who designs/inspects this? There are a few of us who have done this before, there is no excuse just because it is in China or one of their first races. It is a sad way to finish a season with the race potentially decided by an accident caused by a bad track.

I am organizing a session at the Professional Circuit Owners Forum in LA in April next year to look at the responsibilities and liabilities of designers/owners/inspectors, and the role of the insurer/sanctioning body and the legal profession. This is an ongoing problem here in the US and we need to air it out instead of ignoring it. The program will be out in January so book some time mid April to be there.

GP2 try outs going on with drivers swapping seats faster than musical chairs. Young Joylon Palmer has stepped up from F2 and is running well, while a lot of the usual suspects are up the top of the time sheets whichever car they are in. Brendon Hartley is still tyring to make it past GP2, but I fear he is one of those I mentioned yesterday that are destined to not quite make it. Roman Grosjean, the great French hope that had a shot at F1 is mid pack, while rising American star Alexander Rossi is setting similar times. With the swapping of cars and drivers, are the drivers with money auditioning the team, or is the team looking for the best driver?

Speaking of rising stars, Daniel Ricciardo has been announced as the Friday driver for Torro Rosso at every race next year, so he will get a good bit of seat time. Buemi therefore seems safe, until he messes up. Daniel is to continue in FR3.5 with the aim of winning it in 2011. This is a better deal than going to GP2 and does not throw him in the deep end. Where to in 2012?

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.

No, not the things that go around in your engine, The Confederation of Australian Motorsport. They are having a major bust up with the Australian GP organizers, particularly one Ron Walker, mate of Bernie's. Ron is complaining that CAMS is charging the GP too much for providing the race control and marshal services now that they are losing so much money. He says they are a monopoly and should be made to bid for the work like all the other "service" providers. So CAMS is threatening to tell their mates at the FIA not to let Ron have the race next year if he does not stump up. Ron has gone to Abu Dhabi to tell his mate Bernie and the FIA what a nasty monopoly CAMS are. Hang on, isn't the FIA a monopoly? And aren't they the ones who dictate that there can only be one recognized motor sport body in each country? That other well known monopoly, Bernie, says he is the only one who can say if Ron has a race or not. This is getting funnier by the minute.

My contacts in Australia have been keeping me abreast of CAMS and their goings on. Unfortunately like most of these bodies they come to think they exist for the good of the staff, and not the members. This is basically a big club, a "Confederation" of States and clubs. There has been ill feeling between members and CAMS since before I left Australia, and a rival body has been set up ostensibly to provide an alternative to CAMS insurance, but has grown to be a problem for CAMS, which has just said it will ban any senior official who works at a rival event. Shooting yourself in the foot time.

Now when I ran the Motorcycle GP for Kenny at Laguna Seca the AMA did not want us to run at that track on that date, conflicted with one of their National Rounds! What is important here? Fortunately Bernie and DORNA controlled motorcycle GP's with the FIM rubber stamping, and I did not need AMA's approval, did not ask for it and did not get it until halfway through the year when they rang me. I arranged the race control staff and marshals which suited me, I could pick who I wanted. So, if I could do that with an FIM race, why cannot Ron do it in Oz? He probably can, CAMS are saying they have to provide these people because of their expertise, but they cannot have a monopoly on that can they?

Is it just me or does the Abu Dhabi circuit look like a container terminal or industrial park this year? When I saw it today during practice it seemed to have lost its' "glitter", which is all it had last year. It just seemed a dusty parking lot with a lot of light towers, a lot like the Port of Miami container terminal where I worked back in 2003.

I know Alonso says he does not care if he wins the Championship by seven points or less, but it will be a very cheap title if it only cost Ferrari $100,000 to win it. I said at the time that Germany equated to $14,000 a point, cheap at the price, but a title, priceless. The Stewards should have taken the points away, that is the only thing that made sense, then we would not have this situation.

Robert Kubica refuses to predict on how he will go in Brazil this weekend as he predicts it will be unpredictable. Aren't there a few too many "predictable" comments? Sounds as if rain is predicted, which is predictable in Brazil this time of year. I predict it will be interesting whatever the weather, it usually is. They have made the last turn safer by putting in a "soft" wall after a driver was killed there. That last turn and pit entry have always scared me, they need to change the track, not mess about with "soft" walls.

Bernie says that the three new teams have been an embarrassment this year, and should go away, except Lotus, and, as I have been saying, Bernie thinks maybe Sir Richard needs to tip bundle of money into Virgin, like Red Bull, or go away.

It looks like Chevrolet is going to win the World Touring Car Championship against the likes of BMW and SEAT (VW), and no, not with a Corvette or Camaro, with a sedan, the Cruze, that I do not see much here in the US, and I doubt most people here have ever heard of the WTCC. Well done GM, now tell the US about it.

Decent weekend of racing coming up with the Brazilian F1 GP, Intercontinental Cup from Zuhai, and Valencia for the MotoGP final round.

Getting sorted to go to the Professional Circuit Owners and Investors Forum in Cologne in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to meeting up with Dick Hahne, ex Daytona VP Operations, and now with Musco lighting, and some guys from England with a potential new series. Should be a great week.