Bob Barnard Track Engineering

A belated happy new year to all my readers. News pretty thin on the ground and my travels continued unexpectedly with hopefully more to come with a project in China on the horizon.

Nothing much seems to have changed from 2011. Bahrain still in trouble over human rights, and saying the race will not be disrupted does not address the problem. Valencia and now Barcelona are saying they cannot afford Bernie's price any more, but the French can every other year if they share the losses with Spa. Bernie's legal problems are still hanging around with the Gribkowsky case ongoing and the case in London pending. The teams are still arguing and some are reported to have signed the new Concorde Agreement already, although that is not supposed to be possible until the old one runs out this year.

On the driver front Buemi gets the reserve driver role at Red Bull even though Helmut Marko says the Toro Rosso drivers were not winners. That must make you feel loved. Williams have lost their main sponsor and are still looking to fill the other seat with Senna and Brazilian sponsorship being suggested as favorite for it. Alguersuari says he does not want the HRT seat, so that is still vacant. Kimi is back, fitting for seats and getting ready to test a 2010 car in Valencia later this month to get his eye back in.

Not much else going on, so see you tomorrow.

After another week of traveling I am finally home for a while, I hope. Or maybe I don't, as that will mean one of the potential projects is firming up. be careful what you wish for.

2012 looks like being a better year than this one, with another expert witness case and four potential tracks to work on, and Race Resorts getting set to take off after a year or more of hard work. We have changed the name to Race Resorts International as that is where our focus will be, on the best resorts here and overseas.

With Christmas nearly here the sport is fairly quiet, but that will change soon with the testing season starting up in February. Audi are already testing next years Le Mans/WEC car at Sebring, the car as yet un-named. Sahara Force India have dropped Sutil in favor of Hulkenburg, a little surprising as Adrian had a pretty good year, but does not bring much sponsorship, and the way Mallya's airline is going he needs the cash. So where will Sutil go? Williams could use him, but again need the cash. Story today that Ferrrari could be interested to have him in 2013, so Massa is on the way out. Toro Rosso cleaned house with both drivers going and Ricciardo and Vergne getting the nod. The quick and the dead at Toro Rosso as the stepping stone to the Red Bull Team. Both the new guys will be fun to watch.

Not many seats left now, HRT are not announcing the second driver yet, and Williams are still to decide whether to keep Rubens or not.

Bernie has come out and said that he "doubts if the US will embrace F1." Well he has been trying for fifty years since Watkins Glen, Long Beach, Dallas, Phoenix, and Indy, did I miss any? So he has reason to doubt. F1 has a following, it is just not that big in terms of the population, and they have to do a lot more to grow it. Buy prime time air time for a start, and get some decent commentators, and oh yes, a successful American driver.   Having said that Bernie is saying that the size of the US and its economy could support the same number of races as Europe. He is also touting South Africa to be back in 2013, and Argentina wants a race, so maybe we will have as many races as Europe, two.

Joe Saward has a piece today about our friends at CVC. It seems that they bought most of the Packer Empire, the other Australian media baron, including Channel Nine, and things aren't going so well on that investment. So selling F1 might just be a bit more attractive than it seemed?

More rats leaving a sinking ship in Sauber and Toro Rosso, not many left in FOTA to man the lifeboats.

On the personal front I worked out I have traveled over 15,000 miles since mid November, 3,500 of that driving, and another 5,000 to go next week! No wonder I feel a bit jaded. Lots of interesting things happening though, including several expert witness cases which will allow me to push the track safety agenda. Race Resorts of America is finally gaining traction and has been rebranded as Race Resorts International to reflect the level at which this is going to operate.

So the boys from Texas have sent Bernie a check for $35m for next years race fee, $10m more than Tavo's deal. So where is Tavo in all this? Good money after bad. The Track President says ticket interest is strong, it had better be, but what are the ticket prices? Nothing on the web site to say, but if it is what Americans are used to paying it will probably just cover the extra fee, let alone running the event and paying back on the track construction.

Austin is not alone, The World Motorsport Council confirmed the 2012 calendar with Austin, Bahrain and Korea, so let's see which of these actually make it. Lots of little adjustments to the sporting code governing F1.

Joe Saward has a great blog today, so log on and have a read: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/

The driver "silly season" is closing. Lotus, i.e. Renault, has Raikkonen but Petrov looks in trouble. Trulli could make way for Ricciardo as he does not have a seat for 2012 yet. Pic is in at Marussia with Timo Glock. No one is safe at Sahara Force India or Toro Rosso. HRT has Pedro de la Rosa and an empty seat. Williams have an empty seat, so who will go there if Rubens doesn't get to stay? Lots of good drivers with no seat, including Grosjean. 

Finally getting some sense of order in my life. The trip to Orlando for the Professional Circuit Owners Convention went much better than Germany, great speakers and great information to a quality audience. Finally unpacking the house but still waiting for a load of our stuff to be delivered that National failed to fit on the truck!

FOTA seems to have imploded while I was away, Bernie is laughing all the way to the bank over this. Bernie got control in the first place by telling the teams association, of which he was a member through owning Brabham, to let him do the deals. Have they such short memories? As I always say, do not fight over the last piece of pie, make a bigger one.

How do supposedly smart businessmen get themselves into the mess that is the US F1 GP in Austin? Bobby Epstein as the money guy presumably is smart as he has made enough money to build the track, but is not smart enough to do the research on people who try and get Bernie to change his terms for a GP. When I worked for Kenny promoting the US Motorcycle GP at Laguna in 93 Bernie ran the bike GP's, and the contract was 44 pages and Bernie would not change a single word, not even for his mate Kenny. So good luck Bobby, especially as you want Bernie to agree to your contract.

Bernie says he will not replace Austin in next years calendar, and Bahrain and Korea will happen as he has a contract. Well he had a contract this year for Bahrain and that did not happen, and Korea may think it cheaper to default than lose another $36m next year. I have to laugh when I read in Autosport that the Indian GP will be with us for a long time. Just long enough for Jaypee to work out they will never make any money. 

I have been MIA the last week as my wife and I have moved from Phoenix to Raleigh NC, and drove 2250 miles in three days, about 31 hours, and basically never got off I 40. All this in a 13 year old Honda Accord with 150,000 miles on it, never missed a beat, amazing car! Unfortunately the movers are not so amazing. National Vanlines managed to do everything wrong that we told them the last movers did, and then some, so no I do not recommend them to anyone, and no we did not take the lowest quote.

I am off this week giving three presentation at the Orlando Professional Circuit Owners Convention and moderating the whole of the second day, so will be a tired boy at the end of it. Looks like a great convention though, and then the PRI show the day after. 

Oh yes we had the last F1 GP today in Brazil, and no surprise a Red Bull won, and Webber finally broke his duck for 2011. I have no TV or internet yet so could not watch, but let's hope that in 2012 someone can give them a run for their money.