Bob Barnard Track Engineering

For the last few years we have seen the Red Bull/Vettel Dynasty rule F1, and now it appears we are to have a Mercedes period. A few people are probably already saying that this is going to be boring, but I for one welcome the change and applaud the engineering behind the car.

At least it is about the car. No one is suggesting that Lewis is suddenly a superman, above all other drivers like we had with Vettel. When he kept winning a few of us were unkind enough to suggest that put any one of the top drivers in that car and they would dominate. But no we were told, it is Sebastian, he is so much better than the rest. Well this year the Emperor has no clothes.

Despite being told that this complex new formula would suit his intelligent driving what do we see. "Struggling with set up." A four time World Champion struggling with set up while his novice team mate is "faster than you are." We are also told Daniel is faster because he is more used to cars with less downforce than Vettel. Didn't Ricciardo race a F1 car with diffusers for the last couple of years? Hasn't most of the field raced cars with diffusers, including Hamilton, Rosberg and Alonso etc? No, now he no longer has a dominant car we are seeing what we suspected, he is very good but no better than them with a  spoilt brat attitude and he is a sore loser. As Mark Webber used to say, "the toys are coming out of the pram."

In contrast we see other top drivers just getting on with it. Lewis is totally focussed, not god like, and while Nico hates coming second to him there is no whining to be heard. Alonso is arguably doing the best job in a second class car, as he has for some years now. Yes he occasionally has a moan, but who wouldn't driving your guts out with little or no reward.

So another good race in China, not quite Bahrain, but Nico made it interesting with a bad start, and Massa with a too good one. Pretty stout suspension on these cars. What is interesting is how Lewis is using so much less fuel while running away from the pack. We have seen before that getting out in front allows you to run your own race and choose the ideal race lines, part of Vettel's secret.

Interesting WEC race at Silverstone. Pity I did not have access to live streaming and of course a World Championship does not warrant coverage here in the US. Still, with Radio Le Mans who needs pictures. They paint the scene extremely well, and actually provide far more information as to what is happening throughout the field than TV does. Well done Toyota, and Porsche. Audi uncharacteristically had both cars DNF. Crashed out through what appeared to be driver error. We have seen this before at Le Mans a couple of years ago. I am not saying they are not great drivers, but perhaps the pressure put on them by Toyota is part of the story. Of course there could have been something involving the car that led to Treluyer spearing right at Copse and hitting the inside barrier, which in a way is worse if there is an issue with the car. Both tubs damaged and Audi working against the clock to have them ready for Spa. 

Interesting discussion on Radio Le Mans about a WEC round in Oz, and where to stage it. Adelaide and Phillip Island were the two first choices, both a Barnard track, so very chuffed.

We have other dynasties going on with the Brabhams and the Gardners. Grandsons of Sir Jack Brabham and sons of David are both continuing the family tradition. Mathew Brabham is a rookie in Indy Lights here in the US, and doing OK, and Sam is racing in British Formula Ford with some success over the weekend. Watch out for these two.

Then there are Luca and Remy Gardner, both racing in the Spanish National Championship, the CEV, which is the proving ground for young hopefuls making it into MotoGP. Both learning their craft amongst tough opposition and stepping up each year under Dad's guidance. I hope to see something of them in Spain later this year. Pity Australia cannot produce the kind of racing that would develop talent to make the top tier in the world.

Many years ago when I lived in England I went to a waxworks which featured among other things a history of torture. One that stuck in my mind was "the death of a thousand cuts." These were just small flesh wounds, on their own not much problem, but 1,000 eventually bled the person to death.

Is this is what we are seeing in the new "unified" sports car series in America? This was no merger between ALMS and Grand-Am, the Doctor sold out to the ISC, and presumably to keep the fans and teams happy we were to see both series cars included with balance of performance. The DP is of course a NASCAR style derivative, and the LMP1 of Le Mans was way too quick to have a place, so we had LMP2 cars in the prototype class with the DPs. Last year the LMP2s were a lot quicker than the DPs, so we had to have a balance of performance to even things out, except as we have seen in the three races so far the DPs have won and the LMP2s struggled.

So what do LMP2 car owners, who are largely doing this for fun remember, decide when they are having no fun? They take their bat and ball home. Was this the plan all along, the death of a thousand cuts? Small nicks that seem slight at the time but in the end kill the class? So Grand-Am wins in the end.

Sure we have the GT Le Mans class, and thank goodness for it. They produced the best racing in the last few years of ALMS, and that's where the manufacturers are, so I don't see ISC killing that off, but you never know. Their GT class was modeled on the NASCAR culture of tube frame cars, so why would they kill that off. Just maybe the owners of those cars might feel like the LMP2 owners and just fade away.

Dyson racing have teamed with Bentley to go race in the Pirelli World Challenge. Got to be more fun than being beaten in Tudor Sports Cars. Strange decision though by Bentley. The Dyson team has been conspicuous for its lack of reliability and results in recent years. Still, it will be great to see the Bentley here in the US.

Back in the real world the WEC kicks off this weekend with the 6 Hours of Silverstone. First chance to see Porsche go head to head with Audi and Toyota. F1 is in China and Ferrari's new Team Principle is at hand, although what he is going to bring to the team other than another politician I don't know. Alonso seems to have pulled his finger out in the first days practice, new manager syndrome? It is early days though and we will see tomorrow just how close he can really get to the Mercedes.

Many spectators and not a few drivers equate noise with power. When asked to put on a muffler competitors complain it will cost them horse power, even though my mate Tony Dowe tells me they put mufflers on one of the Jaguars and it increased power. This is totally possible if you ask the top muffler specialists.

Anyway, when I grew up F1 cars ran around with about 200hp, and were loud. Jack Brabham suffered from a common complaint called "Coventry Climax Ear," i.e deaf on the side the single exhaust came out. Now Helmut Marko is suggesting Mercedes have around 900hp, and people are saying they are too quiet. Have they not been to a WEC race lately and heard, or not heard in this case, the Turbo Diesel Audis. Despite the whispering whistle they are mightily impressive. Yes we like race cars to sound "sexy" as the Oz GP guys are saying, but that does not mean we all have to go deaf. I drive an Infinit G35 as much for the exhaust note as anything. Like organ music, sweet, but not intrusive.

So Melbourne are saying the new cars breach the contract to stage the race. I doubt there is a clause that says that they have to have a certain noise level, or degree of sexiness. Try writing a spec for that, worse than fuel flow. Is this just a negotiating ploy to reduce fees, or get out of a major loss for the Government altogether? Or is it Bernie's mate Ron Walker just stirring it up for his old mate.

Talking of fuel flow, a lot more has come out since I wrote yesterday. Red Bull are being pinged because they did not follow FIA instructions as the other teams apparently did. There are some questions about how accurate the sensors are, so the FIA said whatever you are seeing, do as we tell you. Red Bull may have been trying to prove a point, but it just cost them 20. This could go on for a while with the appeal, but this is not about whether they exceeded the flow rate but about not following FIA directions as stated in the regulation.

It was a busy weekend for us in the US what with F1, Sebring and NASCAR. NASCAR was in Bristol, a 100,000 + seat half mile bull ring that you used to have to wait for someone to die to get a seat. Not yesterday. It was a sparse crowd last year, but Sunday there were a few thousand brave souls. It rained, and it was forecast to rain, so the "commentators" suggested most of the crowd were waiting to see if it would start. Really? These are the same folks who sat in a thunder storm and tornado warning at Daytona for six hours? Well when we did start they did not rush in, and those that stayed until nearly 10 o'clock must think twice about doing it again as the race went under caution with two 15 second laps to go. Unbelievable.

No wonder NASCAR keeps promoting itself at every ad break. Never understood that. I am already watching so why advertise to me? Same goes for the Tudor Sports Car series, but of course that is run by NASCAR too now.

Well it would be if it wasn't so serious for the teams that have to repair the cars. I asked the question a while ago why anyone watches Indycar, a rhetorical question, but the one that follows is why would Baltimore want to stage a race on a terrible race track that has for three years now shown the city in nothing but a bad light. Some people would give them a pass in year one, not me, but some would and did. But by the third year they have learned nothing, and done nothing to resolve the safety issues. Doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result is the basis of stupidity. 

So we have damaged cars, lost points, and short "races." The cost to the teams would pay for the improvements, and if I were a spectator I would be asking for my money back for the amount of racing I saw. The Indycars were hard pushed to do a lap before running into each other, and let's not talk about the ALMS start! If possible there were less spectators on Sunday than Saturday, maybe they saw enough Saturday to know what to expect Sunday. As Gordon Kirby rightly says on his race report for Motor Sport magazine, when are Indycar going to realize that putting your show on at bad tracks does no one any good. I think I have said this a few times myself. Like staging Sinatra in a pig stye. 

It was a big weekend of racing with WEC at Sao Paulo, MotoGP at Silverstone, and NASCAR at Atlanta. WEC lacked any real interest once the Toyota was punted off. The most exciting time was the Ferrari catching fire, and being destroyed due to the lack of effective fire response. Not good enough for a World Championship. MotoGP put on their usual good show, but let's hope there are more competitive machines next year. Marquez is an obvious worthy Champion and following in Kenny Roberts footsteps in what he is achieving in his rookie year. NASCAR was the usual biff and barge, but good to see Kyle Bush winning. With Tony Stewart a real racer. Good to see Kyle Larson getting a ride too, well deserved, he has driven just about anything he can get into this year. Chip Gannassi has had him under contract for a while it seems, but still not sure why Ryan Newman is out when Danica can only run midfield at best. Checkbook race politics. Kurt Busch deserves the chance after what he has done with the Denver Mattress car this year. 

Not sure Daniel Ricciardo has done enough, but I hope to be proved wrong. At least it answers one question about who goes where next year. Kimi was never going to Red Bull, but Ferrari? He was pushed out if you recall, so he might enjoy going back to prove them wrong, but will Alonso really want him? Alonso had everyone going last weekend with the tweets on a big announcement, and great to see him support his local cycling team and hopefully get them up winning with the top teams.

We are still waiting to find out about whose tires F1 is using next year, and where we will be racing, and of course the new engine and car package will shake up the pieces. In the meantime we have Monza to look forward to.

Well the racing season kicked off with a marathon. F1 practice in the middle of the night Friday and Saturday, Sebring all day Saturday, and the F1 race at 2 am Sunday. Thank goodness Sunday was quiet.

Thankfully it was all worth watching. The F1 race threw up a few surprises after qualifying. McLaren looked like they would run away with it, 0.7 seconds a lap quicker than the Red Bulls who recovered from some poor practice sessions, as we knew they would. Jensen basically did, jumping Lewis at the start, and apparently both cars fueled light in anticipation of cruising to the win. Not sure what went on with Lewis unless he was conserving fuel. I can understand him not catching Jensen, but he seemed to be able to manage the gap to Vettel until the safety car deal. I know good athletes make their own luck, but Vettel sure seems to get more than his fair share. Still, I expected Lewis to go back past as the McLaren was faster in top speed anyway, and with DRS you would expect him to blow past. Not to be, struggled to stay in front of Webber and not at all happy with third.

A lot of drivers would have been, Grosjean for one, and Maldanado after a very strong drive in the Williams which looked good. Not sure what happened to Senna who could not produce the same performance. Ferrari, well Alonso, recovered from a disastrous qualifying to show that the Ferrari still seems to have trouble getting heat into the tires. I expected Montezemolo to have fired them all overnight Saturday. Let's see what Malaysia brings. Massa had another shocker, how long are they going to put up with him, and who is there to replace him? 

Great to see Kimi fighting back after mistakes in qualifying, but presumably they don't have blue flags in rallying or NASCAR. Force India were disappointing after last year and what seemed to be a good test season. HRT. What can you say? Please just go away. Marussia at least qualified, but that's the best you can say, and Caterham must be disappointed after also looking like they made a big step in pre-season. Ricciardo and Vergne acquitted themselves well and well fought Daniel after a fraught start. 

Sauber are about where they were last year, which is not so bad, and it would have been interesting if Michael's Mercedes had not broken so early. Strange how Rosberg was off the pace. The F-Duct is still creating some controversy, but on this showing is not doing a a lot for the Mercedes.

A good entertaining race though, even if Button was not really challenged, and he already seems to be the teams focus for the Championship judging by Whitmarsh's comments. On to Malaysia, and watch out if McLaren put enough fuel in the cars this time.

Much angst in the paddock apparently over the reported special deals done with Ferrari and Red Bull. My assumption that Bernie is planning to float F1 seems to be at the center of this as to float he has to secure the major assets. Why this does not include McLaren and Mercedes I don't know, unless Ron is too much of a straight shooter to agree to a deal that shuts out the rest of the teams. We all know Ferrari have done this before, and Red Bull is all about money. Mutterings of the other teams taking their bat and ball home if this is true.

Sebring produced an interesting race, even with the Audis obviously going to win and duly did. GT's put on their predictable great show, with the Ferraris being fast and fragile, and the local BMWs still capable of producing the goods. The LMP1 HPDs kept the Audis honest though, a good showing for brand new cars. The Dyson Lola was never in the hunt and the ALMS season will have to be all about the GTs on this showing, Muscle Milk will have it all their own way. Still early days. Way too many cars out there this year, we could have done without the LMPC and GTC cars to get in everyone's way. The early story was the FIA/ACO were not going to allow non-WEC cars at Sebring, and that is the word for next year. I can't see Don and the boys being happy with that. It would be nice to see some money spent on the track before then.