Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Hands up everyone who understands what next year's engines will have to do? I suggest not many of us unless we are very smart mechanical engineers, and how many fans are that? Yes we love F1 for the technology, but we also love the racing, and that has been a mess lately with all the aids to overtaking like DRS and Kers. Oh yes, and tires that don't last. Throw in Red Bulls domination and I have tuned out on a sport I have followed from almost the start of the World Championship.

So we had to have smaller engines, "more relevant" to what the manufacturers want. What about what the fans want? If you want to see what happens to a sport when the manufacturers dictate what we race and watch just look at motorcycle racing at all levels. Horse racing is not "relevant" and has not been for half a century, but we still do it. V6's are not the problem, turbos are not the problem, but the fuel flow restrictions and capacity balanced by an increased energy recovery to eke out the race distance will make for complicated races where I doubt few people will know what's going on. Is this racing?

I know Le Mans has energy recovery, but it is relatively simple to follow what is playing out, and there is no limit on the amount of fuel, you just have to stop more often, and we can understand that that may change the race result. They still race flat out for 24 hours. Porsche coming on board next year will liven up the top end of the field and make it more likely I will watch and I suspect many others. Growing up the World Sports Car Series was as important as F1, if not more. Maybe we will see it again. But let us not forget that manufacturers have screwed that up to by leaving when they have dominated and driven out the privateers. Sound familiar?

On another note it seems even Bernie has worked out what most of us already knew. New Jersey is not going to happen. Building a parking garage does not constitute a race track. Mexico needs a lot of work, which has not started, and no offence, I cannot see things moving that fast down there. 

No other way to describe the MotoGP from Phillip Island last weekend. Shades of Indianapolis F1 and Michelin. Bridgestone were there, so did they learn nothing. Of course not. PI has always been hard on tires, all those long high speed corners that load one side of the tire. So having been repaved for 9 months or so why did it take practice to discover their tire would not last, and not just by a few laps! Presumably someone tested there this spring? If I were a spectator and saw a half distance Moto2 and MotoGP with compulsory pit stops I would be asking for my money back, as they did at Indy and Michelin paid up. What about it Bridgestone?

So saturday saw the end of ALMS at Road Atlanta. Having been there at the start it was a sorry sight. Not that I saw too much, I don't get Fox 2 and to show an hour and a half about 3/4 distance on Fox 1 really does not give one an idea of what's going on, let alone how it ends. Watched a bit Sunday afternoon, but that was so disjointed it was worthless. Anyway, ALMS actually lasted longer than I expected, I thought Don would get tired of it sooner, but then again if it was not costing him money why not keep it going.

On to USRC and LMP2's racing DP's, whoopee. GT's put on the best show so America should consider a pure GT series like Blancpain. Gets the prototypes out of the way and there are no shortage of cars for those events.

Just spent two weeks touring Spain and looking at tracks, including private tours of Barcelona F1 complete with a Ferrari testing. Mid season testing being banned what were they up to? Also inspected Ascari Race Resort, the world's best private track. Brilliant if not perfect, but debt free and shows what can be done with a little commitment and high standards.

Sad to see we keep killing and maiming people here in the US. Two riders at Daytona last Friday, and Justin Wilson badly injured Saturday at California Speedway. Nice seams in that track.

You may wonder why I prattle on about track safety here in the US. Here is a photo of an incident at what is supposed to be one of our top tracks, owned by the largest track owner in the world.

The photographer suffered three broken ribs, three broken bones in his upper left arm along with two puncture wounds in his arm from the breaks, a small “brain bleed,” and multiple cuts and abrasions. Lucky to be alive. Not much in this photo is correct.

Meanwhile, NASCAR has made up new rules to prevent a recurrence of the "race" at Richmond, including the need for drivers to race at 100%. 100% of what? If a driver is leading but in fuel saving mode, is he disqualified? And then we had the Chicago farce. After sitting around for 5+ hours most of the few spectators that were there had gone home. So what did we do once they actually put cars on the track? Went to a pit stop under yellow. Why not start the race and let them take their chances with a green flag stop? The TV guys were even better, no sooner had the pit stops finished they went to an ad! At that point I turned off, as I suspect both the other viewers did too.

So JPM to Penske in IRL. It always struck me as odd that Ganassi sacked JPM from the NASCAR team and then suggested he might like him in his Indycar. Why not just transfer him? No wonder JPM said yes please to Roger. Should be interesting to see him next year, might liven up the racing.

No surprise that Baltimore is not back next year. Good riddance, awful track, and how they could say they had a larger crowd this year is beyond even most promoters imagination.

Kimi to Ferrari, you read it here.

So Michael Waltrip's team fixed the NASCAR race at Richmond with Bowyer spinning in response to a radio conversation? Shades of Renault F1 and Nelson Piquet Jr. There the driver had to leave F1 as did the team chief and chief engineer. What happens in NASCAR? 50 points deducted and a fine, a large fine, but that's all. Bowyer can still win the Championship. Helton says there was no conclusive proof, so how can you dock points and fine people? Either they did or they didn't. If they did why are they still racing? I know everyone pushes the envelope of the rules, but does this say cheating is just a part of NASCAR? This is stretching team orders a bit too far.

So the hot rumor is Kimi is going to Ferrari to join Alonso. That should be interesting, I doubt Kimi is going to move over when asked. Is Alonso staying? That is the next question. I am not surprised Kimi is going back, he did not want to leave and is smart enough to know to not cut off his nose to spite his face. So, Alonso to McLaren? No Lewis there 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.