Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Now I was pretty good at mathematics at school and college, so I have to wonder what subjects the new COO of Nurburgring took? He used to be the COO at Hockenheim and negotiated the "good deal" for that track with Bernie. He is looking to do the same at Nurburgring to save the race now the Government is not footing the bill. What is this deal you ask? Well Bernie reduces his fee but the track gives him a % of the ticket sales, which is basically their only revenue. Now isn't this just paying Bernie his fee another way? OK, Bernie may be taking some of the risk if no one turns up, but in my world Bernie is pulling a pea and thimble trick here.

In similar news the Oz GP is reporting a loss north of $50m again, which is strengthening the calls to let it go. I wonder if Bernie can do them a nice deal like Nurburgring? I know we do not have six drivers, but we have two good ones. Bernie is actually very busy with tracks, saying he is talking to Barcelona and Valencia to alternate the GP in Spain. Is there a GP that is not in financial trouble? And I do not see the point of alternating, yes you only lose money every other year, but then you only reap the benefit every other year, and if there is no benefit why are you running it in the first place? There is a report today that there is a "serious" buyer for the Spa circuit, and they do not even have a driver. Has he done his maths on this?

The driver silly season is hotting up. Red Bull are saying they are keeping their two drivers, well Horner is anyway. Should be announced this weekend in Hungary. Renault nee Lotus appear to be running out of love for Heidfeld and Grosjean seems to be heading back to F1. Williams are being coy about whether Barrichello will be back in 2012, so who else would they bring in? Frank seems to like Maldanado but is he ready to be a number one? HRT appear to be favoring a Spaniard for Luizzi's seat, maybe before the end of the year, but where will Ricciardo go for 2012? Toro Rosso? Paul di Resta did not seem sure of where he will be next year when interviewed in Germany, but unless Michael retires why would he go anywhere else? Michael is doing OK as a back up to Nico, who must be wondering when he is ever going to get a competitive car. Ferrari seem to be keeping Massa for one more year, waiting for Bianchi to get experience in GP2? Italian drivers in Ferrari are under enormous pressure though, but if he could do the business can you imagine! Virgin have Glock but D'ambrossio is not a certainty to stay. Team Lotus are playing musical chairs but Kovalainen should be safe, Trulli must be a question mark, and I'm not sure Chandook really has what it takes. Sauber should keep their two and Sutil will stay at Force India as there is nowhere else to go, and why would he? McLaren will surely have Lewis and Jensen. All Lewis needs is a fix of winning now and again to keep him there, and as with Sutil, where else can he go? The are a lot worse situations to be in in life.

A great day for Australian sport! Cadel Evans is crowned as Tour de France winner and Casey Stoner wins the US MotoGP. Now if only Mark Webber could have converted pole position in Germany to a win we would have had a trifecta! But it was not to be, Lewis Hamilton and McLaren were not to be denied today, and as we saw in Silverstone, Lewis is back to his old self. Still going for it but without the rush of blood. A very good race to watch and I did not have to wait till noon to watch it thanks to live streaming. Vettel struggled and only took fourth on the last lap. So, is Red Bull vulnerable, or is this just a blip? Alonso carried on his Silverstone form and Massa had a good race, so it seems the Ferrari is back in the fight, although their performance on the hard tire is still suspect. Not sure about McLaren with Button struggling all weekend and finally retiring with a hydraulic problem.

Pirelli seem to be improving the durability of their tires, a lot less marbles to be seen, and the softs lasted well here today. A lot of overtaking and most of it not down to DRS or the tires thank goodness, just good racing. Our other Australian, Ricciardo, finished the race and beating Chandook in the Lotus, not too shabby.

Glock has re-signed with Virgin or Marussia or whatever they are, for another three years, so apart from the problem of not having many options, he must see some daylight at the end of the tunnel. Lotus Renault had a pretty bad day, while Sutil and Force India had a very good one. Poor di Resta was spun on the first corner by Heidfeld and was playing catch up all race. Heidfeld ended up being taken out by Buemi in dramatic fashion, for which Buemi has earned a five place penalty for the next race in Hungary.

Over in Laguna Casey Stoner played it cool for half the race and then took Pedrosa and Lorenzo in two passes that displayed his determination,skill, and guts. After Germany he needed to reassert himself, and he did emphatically.  Lorenzo showed his ability to ride through pain after a massive high side in practice Saturday morning to take pole and then finish second today. I would have given any money he would not ride after that strange accident that took place after the checker and while doing a practice start. 

Elsewhere I was able to watch Grand Am from New Jersey, ALMS from Mosport and Indycar from Edmonton thanks to multi-tasking. Apart from a professional interest all of these were underwhelming. Edmonton's revised track layout is worse than the original and these guys continue to drive into each other at every opportunity. Mosport appear to have repaired last year's damaged guard rail with the same round pine posts that are not to spec and caused the problem last year. Does no one ever learn? Hopefully the new owners will do what is necessary to upgrade the safety at this great layout.  

Going back to F1, it seems the teams were as surprised as I was over some of the rules for 2014 and are saying that they did not go through the correct channels to be approved. So maybe some sense will prevail. There is a suggestion that Bernie paid the money to Gribkowsky not because the lawyers fees would have been more, but the resulting loss from tax on the trust following a court challenge would have been substantial. That would presume that Bernie died before his wife had lived in the UK for less than 18 years, the time to gain residency. Now that is an argument, but given Bernie does not plan to die soon it is still hard to accept.

Great morning! Cadel Evans continued to show his guts and strength today by blitzing the Schleck brothers in the time trial to take the yellow jersey by over a minute and win Australia its' first Tour de France! Right up there with the Americas Cup and Gardner's 500cc Championship! Well deserved after his showing in the Alps where his team seemed to go missing on him. Where was George Hincapie? He always seemed to be there for Lance, but I guess in his 16th Tour he might be losing it a bit.

That other Aussie Mark Webber took pole in Germany, but Hamilton was the real surprise, only missing pole by 6/100ths of a second. This is the guy who said yesterday that pole was out of the question, and the McLarens certainly looked that way in practice. Lewis and the team somehow dialed in a lap to knock Vettel off the front row for the first time this season. Let's see how Seb deals with it. Forecast is for rain tomorrow, what else in that region, so all bets might be off. Ferraris filled the next two spots with Button struggling down in 7th behind Rosberg. The usual suspects were in the last six places with Ricciardo avoiding the cut just 2/100ths behind Luizzi, and surprisingly Kobayashi in the 7th elimination spot. Chandook qualified less than a second behind his Lotus team mate, and it was interesting that the commentators could not work out what was going on there any more than I could. They did ask the pointed question about how he liked the power steering that Trulli keeps complaining about and Chandook said it was OK for him.

The rumors persist around Bernie and Gribkowsky with comments that "Bernie does not get blackmailed." It does seem out of character for Bernie to succumb to threats, but he says his lawyers told him to. That seems out of character too. There are suggestions that he could take a sabbatical while it gets sorted with his mate Max saying it might happen, but then he again he said it was not Bernie's style. Bernie is talking nice about cutting Nurburgring a break with their fees for the new agreement. Maybe he is getting soft hearted, or is it the six German drivers on the grid? 

Domenicalli says that the "electric" cars in pit lane is still to be agreed by the teams, lots of technical issues, not the least of which is getting run over because you can't hear them coming! Still no explanation of what is driving this, except that it is to be seen "green." How? They cannot be saving that much fuel, and if they do they will just dial it up on the track, and noise can be the only other issue. But how does that work with cars going by on the track? Perhaps it is so the Paddock Club people can talk business?

The closed cockpit for F1 cars continues to be discussed despite the fact I thought I read it had gone away on safety grounds, too hard to get a driver out after a crash. Maybe they are not only going to fit aircraft style canopies they are also fitting ejector seats? They'll need windshield wipers too, in fact why don't we just borrow some LMP1 cars from Le Mans? Maybe this is why Audi are interested? Seriously, are they really trying to alienate the F1 fans? Has anyone got an answer for the single set of gears for a season? Can't be a cost deal surely, how much do a few extra gears cost? Do they think that with eight ratios they can cover all the tracks? Are they really trying to remove the technology? We have spec tires and ECU's, severe limits on the engines, now gear ratios, and Max did suggest once we go to a spec chassis. Formula Ford anyone? Oops, they allow more than one chassis.

In other news the Indycar race was washed out in Edmonton yesterday, so much for flat airfield tracks, and Lorenzo took fastest time at Laguna in the second practice. He could sneak the Championship from under Hondas nose if they do not put all their effort into Stoner. Not team orders, but focus. Poor Ben Bostrum, why did they bother with a wild card when he has had no testing or practice? Just makes him look bad and I can't believe it made any difference to the crowd. Spies, Hayden and Edwards are much more likely to get American fans to go. Rossi continues to struggle on the Duke, but that's hardly news. Following my comments on when SPEED is showing qualifying it seems our friends in England will get to see it earlier than those of you on the East Coast. I will be watching on fromsportcom.com live, just as I am now watching the practice. 

You have to wonder at the lack of news when there is an item about how the FIA have made three teams change the labeling on the collar of their driving suits from screenprint to embroidered! I know that is what the rules say but seriously, is this news?

In a similar vein I personally do not care who sponsors Niki Lauda's cap, but journalists obviously do.

Meanwhile, back with the real world, Bernie has admitted he paid Gribkowsky the money. He insists it was not a bribe over the sale of the shares, but paid to keep Gribkowsky quiet about his financial dealings, mainly the Bambino Trust, and the British Inland Revenue, or tax man. Bernie says that there was nothing irregular, he had been dealing with the IRS and their enquiry over Bambino and did not want Gribkowsky making the IRS open that up again. His lawyers told him it would cost a lot of money. Well they were correct weren't they, it did, $44m worth! I can only imagine what Bernie's lawyers fees are, but is it possible they could be more than $44 m?  And why would Gribkowsky know anything of Bernie's financial dealings anyway? Bernie was a middle man in a sale of shares from the bank to CVC, not the buyer or seller. There is a lot more to this story yet to come.

In Germany Mark Webber topped the time sheets for Red Bull with the Ferraris of Alonso and Massa sharing the top four places with them. Next comes Mercedes, with McLaren not looking good at the moment. Ricciardo needs to find some time tomorrow to avoid missing the cut at 9 seconds, or 10% off the pace. Lotus are not showing their improved form with Kovalainen 4 seconds off the pace, but in front of the usual suspects at the rear.

I confess I did not watch much of this, the final day of the Tour de France in the Alps was on, and some great TV it was too. What these top riders do is nothing short of amazing. Their mental toughness let alone physical endurance is a yardstick for any athlete. I have to comment on Aussie Cadel Evans who has shown just how strong he is the last two days, and after Andy Schleck complaining about Contador not waiting last year when he had a machine problem I thought it a bit rich that he and Contador rode off and left Cadel today.

Anyway, back to the powered sports and Stoner is in his usual spot at the head of the first practice at Laguna. SPEED obviously prize having the coverage of the MotoGP with qualifying being shown at 11 pm EST tomorrow, and the race delayed to 5 pm Sunday, but we can show Grand Am live?

The FIA have published the rules for F1 for 2014, the year of the V6 engine. There are some very interesting rules here that make you wonder what they are trying to achieve. KERS can now use waste heat from the exhaust, about time, but the cars must use that electrical energy to run in pit lane, no gasoline allowed. Also required is an on-board starter. So, presumably the car must exit the pit box on the KERS energy, and when the driver gets to the end of pit lane start the engine? Now having seen how complex it is to start one of these engines how is that going to work, or is that the real point? The running on electric power follows on from the ACO requiring hybrid cars to be able to run the length of the pit lane on the electric power, but presumably this is a safety reason, they do not actually require it during the race. So what is the FIA trying to achieve here, reducing the fire risk?

Anyway, the on-board starter should reduce the number of problems with stalled cars out on the circuit, so better for the spectators. The other odd requirement is the eight speed gearbox ratios must now be declared and set for the season. In 2014 a driver can change these once, but cannot change back. Now given the variety of tracks from Monaco to Silverstone can anyone explain what this is about? Some of this seems just plain bizarre.

Over at Team Lotus there are also some mixed messages being sent. Chandook is to drive Trulli's car this weekend, which Trulli says it is not a problem. Yeh right. Fernandes says he looks forward to extending Trulli's contract, yet Chandook is saying he hopes to have a full time drive next year. So, is Tony being a good guy and providing the Indian GP with some PR here, preparing Chandok for a drive at that GP, or are they just trying to see if Trulli really does have a power steering problem. Kovalainen does not seem to be complaining about it, and I can't see that he will lose his drive next year as he has out driven Jarno all season. All very strange. 

In other news Abu Dhabi has sacked 61 staff, makes you wonder how many they have to start with? Staff costs must be one of the biggest components of running a track, and I am continually amazed just how many people tracks have. VP's and Directors for everything. Big weekend of racing coming up with the German GP at Nurburgring, last one? ALMS at Mosport, how much longer is that going on, and Grand-Am at New Jersey. MotoGP, or one third of it, at Laguna, with still rooms available in the area. King Kenny will probably be the biggest draw.