Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Well is seems the summer season has woken up and we have some news to comment on. Casey Stoner is off to Honda next year in MotoGP, not a surprise really, and the other shoe to drop will be Rossi to Ducati to get away from Lorenzo.

Over at F1 at Silverstone the HRT Team have put Yamamoto in to replace Bruno Senna, only for this race they say, and only for money is what they are not saying. Yamamoto has raced in F1 before but made such an impression I cannot remember. In practice he is was not the slowest, but only because Trulli's Lotus broke after three laps! Red Bull have led both sessions today with Vettel quickest in the morning and Webber this afternoon. Times are all over the place with Ferrari struggling in the morning and second fastest in the afternoon. Teams working out the new layout. Eddie Oliver, you mentioned the bike times were slower than the simulation, can you tell us how much? It would be interesting to know the prediction for the F1 cars. Drivers not saying too much about the new section, mainly worried about the high curbs at the Maggotts/Becketts complex and are asking for them to be removed. I can understand why being a really high speed corner, and that style of curb is used for slow chicanes. Why would you put those in and why did the FIA OK them? Nice quote in one report that Rosberg was half a second quicker than his "elderly" team mate!

Bernie is calling for tire with a maximum life of 100km so the cars have to stop twice and spice up the show. You know my thoughts on that sort of idea, a circus is entertaining but that is not what we are running here. Seems that Bernie did not keep his mates at the FIA informed of the deal in Austin, with both Jean Todt and Nick Craw, head of ACCUS, and I know no one knows what that is but look it up, reported as saying they knew nothing and still do not. Todt is saying it is a "project," i.e. not yet real. This all comes from an article in the Austin Business Journal, seems they are still sceptical of the whole deal. Tavo Hellmund is reported off in South Africa, at the World Cup or raising money? Tilke say they will have a track layout in September, but no one knows where the site is yet.

Jonathon Summerton seems to have become the spokesperson for Cypher, the latest would be US F1 team. Jonathon tells us there is a lot going on and he is learning a lot from these ex F1 guys. Hard to see how they are keeping this so secret, surely someone out there knows who these guys are? Tony Dowe, you always know everthing.

Sir Frank Williams is handing over the CEO role at Williams to Adam Parr, but will remain the Team Principal and front up at the shop every day. Amazing man, it would be great to see Williams bounce back. Not that they are doing bad at the moment, but we remember the glory days and their innovations.

Over at the Rally of Bulgaria there are two headlines almost side by side, have to laugh, "Raikkonen for a podium," "Raikkonen crashes and stops special stage." Just about sums up Kimi's year. I hope you are enjoying it Kimi.

Bernie is up to his usual tricks. No room for FOTA in F1. This is the man who got his power by taking over what was FOTA and with Max Mosely wresting the commercial control of the sport from the FIA. Seems there is a fight going on in the background over teams showing their sponsors logos at the track. What a cheek! In Canada it was about trackside, and at Silverstone it has moved into the paddock. The teams have been forced to take their prime movers with their logos off the trailers and park them outside. What petty BS. Of course Bernie says it is not him, it is Allsport, Patrick McNally, who is the signage rights holder who is doing it, and of course Bernie has no connection to "Paddy", just as he does not with Tilke. You just cannot have an F1 race without Alllsport having the signage.

Chris Pook is reported to be involved with the New Jersey aka New York F1 GP bid. Now Chris ran F1 at Long Beach and gave up trying to make money and went to CART. Chris told me in Detroit in '85, "If Bernie thinks you are making money he will put the price up." So why is he involved again? Most promoters have found out what Chris learned the hard way, and now Bernie has a built in escalator of 10%, so he makes sure you cannot make a profit. There is a great article in the June 10 Autosport about the money in F1, and a telling number is that it takes $250 from every spectator just to service the debt of the rights holder CVC. The average cost to buy the rights is $30m, and Abu Dhabi apparently paid $50m. Now do you fans understand why Austin does not seem a smart idea?

I am forever surprised at the naivete of fans, God Bless Them, but if you are into a sport so much then take the time to find out how it works, who runs it and who is getting the money. Yes, what happens on the track is the key, but it is only the end result of everything else that has got them to that point.

Emanuele Pirro is to step in for Lord Drayson in his Lola as the Lord has hurt his foot. It is a blessing in disguise, and it will be very interesting to see Emanuale and Johnny Cocker in that car at Miller Park this weekend. Not that there is much opposition, but that car has been struggling to beat what there is. GT's should put on the best show as always lately.

The Cypher would be US F1 team has come out at last and said it has lodged an official application for 2011. Still no details of who or where other than these are supposed to be the engineers and designers who have the knowledge and can make it happen this time. Confirmed that Jonathon Summerton is their driver if they get in. Good luck to you all, you are going to need it.

Saw an article by Jonathon Ingram about how F1 is not making a foothold here because the US has so much other motorsport that there is too much competition. My comment was have a look at Europe, there is way more going on over there, so that argument does not wash. I still stick to my premise that the US needs a very successful driver and/or team. No one here took much notice of cycling until Lance dominated, not just won, Greg Lamond had won, and then nothing. No one here cares about soccer until the US gets into the World Cup Finals and wins a game or two, then it is headline news. TV audiences in Germany bounced back when Schumacher returned. Sport is about heroes, forget that at your peril. IRL will struggle until an Unser or Andretti reappears. No one cares about a bunch of Brazilians, Englishmen, Australians or Frenchmen.

Rossi was back on a bike yesterday for the first time since he broke his leg. Seems it went OK, did a bunch of laps and his shoulder seemed to be more of a problem than his leg. His Father is counseling him to go easy, but Champions do not know how to. Good advice though, the last thing he needs now is to fall again.

Showed my partners the Ascari club in Spain, which is one of the few outside the US. Certainly sets the standard we are looking for, even though the track is a bit odd in places. Facilities are great so check it out, this is what we are looking to build here in Arizona, without the nice scenery of course.

Off to look at a building to use as a base and display area till we get on site, somewhere to bring prospective members with a few "toys" around.

ART have announced they are not pursuing the last F1 team slot for 2011. This is Jean Todt's son's team, and was thought a front runner for the place. Can't raise the cash it seems, and as a very successful team in the lower categories that must tell a tale. Time is getting late for the FIA to make a decision if we are not going to see a repeat of this years scramble to be ready by a new team.

The mysterious US group, Cypher, that is supposedly putting an F1 team together and has a bid in, has kept very quiet of late. Not that this is a bad thing, we saw way too much horn blowing from Mr Windsor last year, but it would be nice to know something. They are apparently talking to  a young American driver, which would be good, just not sure he is the right one.

Kubica has resigned for Renault for the next couple of years, no surprise there, and as I predicted, the drivers market will be very quiet this year.

Hi everyone and sorry for being late, but it's been a busy day. Started with a trip to the County seat and a meeting to go over the project with County Staff as a first run through. No red flags, some good info and all we need to start the rezoning. That will take a few months, but in the meantime we can be promoting the memberships and getting our plans finalized and contractors sorted.

Followed that with a meeting of the partners to go over our program for the next few weeks to finalize the name and logo, web site and promotional material. Oh yes, and move my furniture to Arizona. Xan is busy organizing that so that when the movers come we are ready. Interesting times.

Had a contact from Serbia about the FIA guidelines for a track. It is so hard for someone who has no background in this and the country has no history to even know how to start, had to feel sorry for him. Hopefully gave him some places to go and learn. Poor guy has been given this task because the client cannot afford to hire someone like me. How do they think they are going to afford to build the track if they cannot afford my fee? Like I said with Palestine, this sport just keeps on growing. I'm probably crazy, but I'll likely lay him out a track, my good deed for the year. What can I say, I love the sport.

Still not a lot of news to comment on. We have ALMS at Miller this weekend, not that you'd know it. British F1 GP which should be a great race. Lots of teams and drivers really wanting to win here, and it will be interesting to see what the new section does for the racing. World Cup Final, Holland already there, but sorry to my Dutch friends, I fancy Spain or Germany will beat them. Tour de France continues on its crazy way, the first week never usually this fraught. A lot of sore bike riders out there, and some just out.

Bernie says he is still trying for a race in New Jersey, overlooking Manhattan. When asked about what would happen if Austin did not come through he said that there were penalty clauses, but that he remains confident that this will not happen and says that the government "won't lose their money". However, he does sound one note of caution: "It's hard to promote anything in America. It will either get a following or it won't." Never a truer word spoken, after all he has been trying for thirty years. Long Beach, Detroit, Dallas, Phoenix, Indianapolis and now Austin?

Holiday Monday and not much happening, despite a weekend of racing. Had a great evening at my partner's last night for July 4th. Really nice temperatures and no humidity, lovely.

Happy Birthday Tony Dowe, may you have many more. New blog by "Murphy The Bear" always funny, and some suspect Tony of at least feeding the rumor mill.

The good news for Mark Webber is that he is getting a new chassis after his accident at Valencia, the bad news it is Vettels old chassis. OK, they say they have fixed it, but what message does that send to a driver?

Is F1 well on the way to being a spec series? We have strict rules on engine specs and they are trying to equalise horespower, common ECU, spec tire, and now they are saying they should mandate the weight distribution. Why? To stop teams getting it wrong when they design next years car without knowing exactly what Pirelli is going to provide. Isn't that what this is all about? We will soon have a spec chassis, but wait, wasn't that what Max Mosely wanted? Let's just go with GP2 cars and save probably $200m a team. But who would want to watch?

Talking of spec series and who would want to watch, someone wants to resurrect the A1GP series that lost about $200m the first year and struggled on for a couple more. Why would you want to revive this? They propose to run it like GP2 this time around. Don't we have a series called that? Who else thinks we have too many series already?