Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Just when I am saying that Williams should be worried about a lack of pace and reliability Barrichello goes and bangs in the quickest time of the test session. So we may as well wait till the first race to find out anything useful. Only 28 days. McLaren has everyone tricked about where the exhaust exits, the poor photographers are going mad trying to get a shot of it. Senna is in the Renault doing respectable times, but not matching Heidfeld and spinning it. Alonso and Massa have put the most miles on a car so the Ferrari looks pretty bullet proof, and close to the pace.

NASCAR's season kicked off last night with the Bud Shoot Out, and we saw in practice and the race what to expect from the repaved track. It has given a new dimension to team orders as cars ran in pairs like two love bugs tied together. If you don't know what love bugs are then you are lucky. They invade parts of the southern US and once mated cannot uncouple, so fly around like a "push me, pull you" until they die. Odd thing was that the motors did not die with the high revs and overheating from running so close, but it will be interesting how long they can sustain it in a 500 mile race. Makes for weird racing though, not sure that this was what NASCAR wanted. And who decides which driver is going to sacrifice himself to push his team mate over the line? Yes we've seen that before, but this was something different.

Christian Horner says that a budget cap is back on the table in F1. This time as a true overall amount by the sound of it, "We agree with restricting activity but don't cherry-pick ... let's do a transparent once-and-for-all deal with this," he said. I still cannot see the big teams cutting back to the level of the small teams, so the level is going to be set above what the small teams can raise anyway. Is this about "fairness?" Are we trying to "level the playing field?" I know the NFL does this stuff, not sure that it works though. This sport is about competition, both on and off the track. By all means stop teams spending more money than they have so they are stopped from going broke, but if they can raise it why should they not spend it? Perhaps there should be controls on excesses like the crazy "motor homes" that add nothing to the racing, but you could argue add to the spectacle. It would probably be cheaper if the teams funded the building of permanent structures like we see at overseas tracks, rather than pay for the cost of transport and erection, for what is now less than half the season anyway. Has anyone suggested Peugeot and Audi should be limited on what they spend on sporstcars?

Talking of fairness, Flavio's mate Pat Symonds is OK to be a consultant to Virgin. Now I am a consultant, and the only difference to being an employee is how you get paid and benefits, so let's cut the BS and hypocrisy.

Reports of Robert Kubica's progress are encouraging, but the injuries sound pretty dreadful. Reminds me of Mick Doohan's problem with blood flow to his foot and Alex Zanardi's loss of blood following his accident in Germany. We all hope for a full recovery. He is too good a driver to lose from F1.

Boullier is saying it is too soon to talk of his replacement. Honorable sentiments, but sentiment does not play much part in F1, ask Liuzzi and Hulkenburg. Boullier needs to find a replacement and fast, Bahrain is just 33 days away.

Elsewhere MaRussia Virgin launched their 2011 car with Nick Worth saying it is better in every way. It had better be after finishing last in the constructor's championship in 2010. One can only hope it is better, it is hard to see it could be worse. The most obvious feature to an untrained eye is the profile of the nose which is quite different to any we've seen this year. Perhaps CFD "nose" something Adrian Newey does not? Sorry, could not avoid that.

Anyway, all quiet other than Ferrari defending their less than aggressive approach to this year's car. Let us hope for continuing good news from Kubica. And oh yes, I cannot believe that a "well known British photographer" called Kubica irresponsible. Have you seen where photographers will stand to get a shot? No offense to my many photographer friends, but that is a bit rich, and who asked his opinion anyway?

A good friend, Allen Petrich, wrote a send up of the goings on in F1 like a French farce. As we say, who would believe it. Following my explanation of the rules for using the movable wings he added that we should make it a Monty Python script. We devise a movable wing to aid overtaking, the teams spend millions to put it on the car, and then we constrain its use inside painted boxes so overtaking is almost impossible. There are definitely mixed feeling about it and as Mike Gascoyne comments we would have missed that incredible race at Jarama when Villeneuve Senior held off all comers for the whole race. Yes we want overtaking, but not some video game, we want Hakkinen and Schumacher at Spa. Lewis says that the extra buttons will be more of a problem in practice and qualifying, when they have no restrictions on using it. That is really going to make qualifying a bit of a mystery for us spectators, almost like having qualifying engines again.

Hamilton also said he is not changing his driving style to suit different cars or tracks, this is who he is and that's how he is going to drive. Good on him, I for one enjoy watching him. Overtaking for Lewis and Kobayashi seems all too easy. Perhaps they could give lessons, or some "brave pills" for the others.  Lewis stirred the pot in Berlin when asked if he thought Schumacher would be better this year. He said he thought Michael would not be much different, but he was welcome to prove him wrong.

Bernie is apparently winging his way to Melbourne for the race this year with his daughters, girlfriend and entourage, to bring some "global prestige" to the event. If this is an unusual occurrence then it just shows how Bernie feels about the event.

Lotus, the green and yellow one, completed an untroubled private test yesterday at Valencia and ended up 18th and 20th on the time sheets in the 1 minute 15's. Not too bad, about two seconds off the quick times, so a big leap forward, and they say they had no time to set the car up. Glock in the Virgin was even faster, so just maybe we will see those teams up amongst the second tier this season. Will make for more interesting racing. Jerez will tell us more, I hope.

Nice to see young American Alexander Rossi moving up to FR3.5 with a top team, Fortec. He finished fifth at a one off outing in Monaco last year and has gone well in testing, so go get 'em Alexander. Bernie or Tavo should pay for a top notch publicist to get his name better known in the US. Then we might see the public wake up, like with Lance Armstrong.

Williams are to proceed with a stock flotation on the Frankfurt exchange. I think it was Joe Saward who suggested that this may not be such a good move. Stockholders care about returns, like CVC, and not results. I think the Washington Redskins are the most profitable NFL team, and this clearly is not related to on-field performance. Managing expectations could be a hard balancing act for Sir Frank.

Renault with its forward exhaust is fastest on the last day at Valencia, so obviously they have something working. So much for Helmut Marko's assertion after day two that "If we had run a race today we would have lapped the field." Helmut also vehemently denies they overspent, but even if they did the fines should go to charity, not the smaller teams who came in expecting some equality in spending. Not so fast Helmut, and why don't you just shut up and go away. A friend sent me a link to an F1 technical blog which showed how Newey has used a different way to use the exhaust gas through the diffuser, through a loophole in the rules. You have to love these guys. Apparently this did not show up until the second day. Here is the link.

So Kubica was quickest over the three days, and Lotus are back to having hydraulic problems, this time with the power steering. How does that happen, surely you buy this stuff from a specialist? Glock in the Virgin was well up, but Force India still continued to shine with Sutil second fast. Now, it is all very early days, but it is still interesting. McLaren are to unveil their car tomorrow in Berlin, and Lewis says it looks different to the other teams and is not sure if that is good or bad. The Mercedes is having teething troubles, with the HRT faster at this point. Ross Brawn says he is encouraged though, but is sitting on another payout from Mercedes for his remaining shares, so is probably feeling pretty good about life at the moment. So it is all over the place. Next test Jerez in a week.

The FIA have set the rules for the movable wing for the first three races. A line will be painted on the track at the entrance to the last corner onto the straight where the car following will have to be within one second to allow the wing to be triggered, and another line 600 m from the corner at the end of the straight to show is plebs where the wing can be used by the driver. Ferrari have suggested that 600 m may not be enough, but the FIA say they will tweak it once we see how it works. As I said, are we going to see processions waiting to get to that point?

Mike Gascoyne blames the tracks, as he should, especially the boring desert tracks, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi. As Mike says, they had a clean sheet and as much money as they wanted and still got it wrong. Let's include Korea in that, and wait to see how India works out, if they can sort out their corruption problems. Apparently the first layer of asphalt started being laid yesterday.

In Malaysia Simoncelli on a non-works Honda ended the last day fastest, with Stoner a hair's breadth behind. The Hondas all populated the top of the time sheet with Lorenzo and Spies mixing it with them. The Ducatis improved to 8th and 10th, with Hayden again the quicker, but Valentino thinks his shoulder is costing him 7 tenths or more, so he feels they are closer than it seems. Nice to see that a second string Honda is not too shabby, could make the racing more interesting this year. Some of us can recall when there were several "works" teams out there, especially Yamaha, which definitely made it more fun.

So Mother Russia is taking a bigger role in Virgin. Ian Phillips comes in as COO and brings many years of experience with him, but the new Technical Director is Nikolay Fomenko, President of MaRussia, who has no experience, despite the claim that "MaRussia's wealth of knowledge and experience provide us with a solid foundation with which to enter the second season." Wealth of knowledge and experience? They were only formed in 2007 and most of us had never heard of them until they bought into Virgin. I've heard some spin, but this is a good one. Maybe I am missing something here, did Nikolay work in F1 before starting MaRussia?

So Melbourne GP has the Government's full support? As has been said before, that is sometimes the last sound anyone hears before being fired. I have questioned before the benefit to sponsors of being in Australia, and The Mayor of Melbourne might just have given Bernie the opening he wants. Bernie has also come out and said that having two races in Spain is a problem, so which one is going? Meanwhile the Indian GP is having further management changes as the head of the company promoting it has stepped down over corruption allegations. Don't you just love going to these new and exciting places?

The Renault exhaust is directed to come out in front of the sidepods to increase the airflow under the car to the single diffuser as I suggested, and apparently McLaren has a similar arrangement, with Mercedes considering it. This must take some plumbing to get it there. Does not seem to be doing Renault that much good in testing, but it is very early days. Force India are still sitting around the top of the timesheets with Di Resta and Hulkenburg third and fourth.

Over in Malaysia Danny Pedrosa laid down a lap two thirds of a second quicker than team mate, make that rival, Casey Stoner. Ben Spies was third fast amongst a gaggle of Hondas. Nicky Hayden and Rossi were 11th and 13th respectively, but not respectably, not even being the quickest Ducati's. It would seem that test times in the world of MotoGP are more representative of what to expect for the season than F1, or am I wrong?

Down in Sebring Audi have been testing both the R18 and the old R15, but no details seem to have emerged. Anyone out there get a whiff of times or other goings on?

On a serious note our thoughts go out to my Australian mates who are suffering through Cyclone Yasi, and my American ones who are experiencing blizzards and freezing rain. It froze overnight here in Phoenix and will be colder tonight, but nothing to compare with these problems.