Bob Barnard Track Engineering

I spent an entertaining evening yesterday with Dick Hahne, late of Daytona International Speedway and now with MUSCO Lighting. Phoenix International Raceway has been given a facelift with a revised configuration and new paving, and Dick was there to check out the lighting on the revised layout. Derek Muldowney and his team have done a great job of improving the track without losing its unique character. It will make for some interesting race lines when NASCAR comes later this month.

In other news Kevin Magnussen continues to impress by topping the time sheets on the first day of the FR3.5 test. Vergne is to get a run in FP1 for Toro Rosso for the remaining races so looks set to take a seat from one of the regulars next year. Robert Wickens is tipped for Virgin next year, but is looking for Canada's corporate world to get behind him.

VJ Mallya has finally owned up and confirmed he has sold part of Force India despite his vehement denials of recent rumors. The Indian Sahara Group, go figure, has bought 42.5% and now we have another team who wants to change its name to Sahara Force India. Watch this space for the rest of the sale.

Other than that it is pretty quiet with F1 stooging around Asia prior to the Korean race this weekend, and the MotoGP boys on their way to Phillip Island. 13 degrees and windy is the forecast so the riders will probably complain again. Let's see Casey wrap up the title at his home race.

I have commented over the last few months about the problems at Lotus Renault or whoever they are, and the stories continue about Lotus Cars and their funding needs. So we have an under funded team whose ownership is unclear being sponsored by a car maker owned by a Malaysian car company and spending money like there is no tomorrow.

So what do we hear now? The apparent owner of Lotus Renault, Genii Capital, is going to buy into Lotus Cars with possibly a majority position. Sort of reminds me of a snake swallowing its other end. I think they deserve each other.

This is part of a situation where teams will have to get approval for changing their name, which is a very big deal as the dole out of money from the Concorde Agreement is to the team that had the name when it raced. So if Team Lotus wants to become Caterham Tony risks losing the money he earned this year, which has been the stumbling block for resolving the Lotus name argument. Tony was willing to give it up if he was recompensed by Lotus Renault for that loss. HRT is in a similar position, but it is hard to see that they have much coming from the Agreement the way they have performed. So we have the prospect of three teams wanting a name change, and Bernie is really the one who has the say, and apparently he is eager to start the discussion. I bet he is, in this sort of deal there is only going to be one winner, Bernie.

Over in Suzuka we have Vettel on pole again by the slimmest of margins over Button who has been on it all weekend. Lewis had his last lap "destroyed" by Webber and Schumacher overtaking him at the chicane as he slowed to give himself some room to the car in front. So, did Red Bull give Mark the word to jump Lewis a la Ferrari? Mark was off the pace anyway, and I'm sure Michael would have taken the chance to screw Lewis with glee. He says Lewis put him onto the grass. Touche Michael, have you looked at any race film lately? I did not see it on the TV, and the Stewards have done nothing so far, so it cannot have been as bad as either Lewis or Michael are saying. So, we could be set for a great race tomorrow with Jenson and Lewis both looking very fast, and if someone can jump Seb at the start we could have fight for a change.

In Q3 we again saw four cars sit it out to save tires. This basically went on all weekend with the top cars sitting out the first 40 minutes of Friday morning. Pirelli and others are calling for a change to provide the paying customer something to watch. I think probably one more set of softs for Q3 would do it, and take them away afterwards.

In other series in action this weekend Kevin Magnussen has put himself on pole for both British F3 races and has won the first, so looks good for second place in the Championship. Where would he be if he did not have all those plug problems early in the season? Canadian Robert Wickens has won the first race of the FR3.5 finale weekend and extended his lead in that Championship, but only to nine points so it is all to play for Sunday.

Bathurst, the best tin-top race in the world, and yes I include Daytona. Never mind 500 miles turning left, how about 1000 km up and down a mountain? SPEED has it on this afternoon so check your local listings as they say. Rain shuffled the top-ten qualifying so the first few laps should be fraught with action.

And last but not least the Teams are to discuss the situation in Bahrain, which shows no signs of settling down. Bernie in his usual fine form said " I do not know if it is right or wrong, but we have it on the calendar for 2012."

What is it with Bernie and Bahrain? Apparently he had a meeting with the Teams and said "They are happy, but there is a problem with the date: that is the only thing." Oh, that's the only thing is it? When asked about safety he said "I don't know. I've no idea. It can be safe on the Friday of the race and on Sunday...I don't know." So how on earth can you "hope" that the new date will get approved by the FIA? All this supposes India is going to give up its date in October and move to a December date. December 4th is the one being bandied about, but flying the circus from Brazil to India in one week is a stretch. It probably can be done, although some teams doubt it. That would put the race back to Dec 11th, which really stretches the friendship for the workers, so expect a push back on that. All this cannot just be about the money? By the time October comes around Bahrain may as well wait until the start of the 2012 season.

There is scuttlebutt that Bernie may be assembling his own group to buy back F1. It is like a pea and thimble game the way he sells and buys it, and makes money every time. Can it be related to Bahrain?

It has been an odd day, that's why the blog is late. Woke up at 1 am to watch the live streaming of first practice to see if the asphalt patch worked, which it did nicely. Hats off to the Monaco team. Only problem with the track was a water main leaking in the middle of the start straight, so a little man from the water board had to come out with his large valve key and tighten it up, under a red flag of course. Back to sleep at 2:30 am so recorded the second practice and have not had time to watch all of it yet. Working on the next venture to construct a couple of country clubs here in the US. So, I will have to rely on the results and reading the blogs. Monaco is interesting in that it has so much less reliance on aero and more to do with the drivers skill and attachments, if you get my drift. It levels the playing field, except that the top teams have the best drivers. But there is Alonso in the Ferrari that was lapped last week. No problems with hard tires this week. Mark Webber's bad luck continued with gearbox issues keeping him in the garage this morning and KERS issues keeping him down in eighth this afternoon. As Barry Sheene would say "If he had a duck it would drown!" Mind you Vettel is only in fifth at the moment, with Rosberg looking very racy today. Everyone moved to the super-soft compound this afternoon, their first experience with these. It was said they waited to try them until the track had "rubbered in," but one trait of these Pirelli's is that they do not lay rubber, so go figure. What is hard to figure is that with no testing you would think the teams would be on track from the green light in the first session, but no, those that ventured out did one lap and came back to the pits. OK, so they want to make sure the car is good to go, but it was the last half an hour before they all got serious, and then of course they were being balked by traffic. HRT at nearly 7 seconds off the pace again look in trouble with qualifying if one of the top teams goes for it in Q1.

Daniel Ricciardo had a busy day, driving the Torro Rosso in the morning and then taking pole for the FR 3.5 race.  Canadian  Robert Wickens was second fastest and American Alexander Rossi fifth. GP2 qualifying sounds like a real crash fest due to drivers slowing at the end of a lap to try and get a clear run. Massa nearly caused Alonso to run into him doing the same thing. Something needs to be done to stop this around here as most corners are unsighted.

It seems we are to find out who really is Lotus tomorrow. Did they bring spare bodywork with different colors?

Nice to have a comment from an old friend. Larry Spektor worked with me on the '93 US Motorcycle GP at Laguna. Thanks for the comments Larry and glad you enjoy the blog. Yesterday was another technology frustrating day with the log in page not wanting to load and then my cable/internet/phone went out for most of the day.

Not that there is much going on. I don't know how they expect us bloggers to keep going. MotoGP from Estoril is the most interesting with Lorenzo snatching the pole. Seems he has the Yamaha how he likes it, but not perhaps how Ben likes it. Spies is disappointing  us this season, with Colin Edwards on the non-factory Tech 3 bike showing him the way at times. Running his boot camp seems to have given Colin a new lease on life. Rossi is back off the pace after threatening in practice, but Nicky Hayden is even further off. Still, the forecast is for rain for the race, so who knows where they will all end up.

FR 3.5 is at Spa with Canadian up-and-comer Robert Wickens winning race one from the pole. Australian Daniel Ricciardo is not faring so well despite his good runs during Friday F1 practice with Torro Rosso.

Bahrain is hoping to have a race "in the near future." With the FIA sticking to the May 1 deadline that appears to be 2012. But do we really want to go there just because they have had their Saudi mates suppress their subjects?

Indycar is in Brazil. Let us hope the debacle of last year is avoided.

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