Bob Barnard Track Engineering

The head of the Bahrain circuit was in Silverstone and was not happy with the "temperamental" F1 Teams. They loved us one month and then did not want to come the next. Well perhaps that's because you were not shooting people before? He particularly took exception to Webber's comments and said Australia had a problem with it's Aborigines so why did they have a GP? Well, the last time we shot one was quite a while ago, and while I know there are still issues they do enjoy equal opportunity despite being a minority, unlike the majority Shiites. The outcome of all this is that their place on the 2012 calendar is by no means safe, and the teams apparently want it moved to a later date so as not to be so conspicuous.

He also had a swipe at the US over Guantanamo, but Austin still has it's own problems. It sounds as if Building Approval has yet to be given for the structures, pits and grandstands. Now there is still plenty of time, but why is this taking so long? A scheduled meeting of the Government Liaison Committee was postponed so a vote required for the Texas State Funds has yet to take place.

Following on from Mark Webber's reluctance to accept team orders the rumors have resurfaced that he will not be in a Red Bull next season. Even Kimi's name has been reported by a German newspaper as the man to replace him despite Horner earlier laughing off of the suggestion. Ricciardo's sudden elevation to a F1 drive also prompted stories that he will replace Mark, but that seems a bit far fetched as good as he is. Even Vettel did not make that jump. So is this the start of the silly season? Williams seem set to keep their two, Ferrari are always reported to be replacing Massa, and Michael slated to retire again. Hamilton may or may not jump ship, but where to? You can't see Lewis "maintaining the gap" however many times Horner tells him.

Curious report about Mercedes being happy with their new exhaust diffuser system they fitted for Silverstone. Didn't we ban these for Silverstone and beyond, so why would you come out with a new system if you did not know you were going to be able to use it?

Mark Webber has come out and said what I did yesterday, he could race Seb without crashing so they should be allowed to race. Maybe it is not Mark that Horner is worried about after Turkey? Whatever he thought I cannot help but be reminded of why team orders were introduced in the first place when Ferrari with a huge lead in the Championship cynically manipulated the Austrian GP finish. Seb and Mark both lead the Championship by a huge margin, as Red Bull does in the Team Trophy, so I'm sorry, but being scared about both cars crashing out is a bit rich. Both drivers had managed to avoid everyone else during the race till then.

I also said yesterday that Martin Whitmarsh needed to circle the wagons, but there is word today that it is "friendly fire" from inside that he should be worried about. I must say I always assumed he was a fixture, he fits the McLaren mould so perfectly, but perhaps the current level of mistakes is too much for perfectionist Ron.

So Ferrari and Sauber agreed to sign off on the blown exhausts "for the good of the sport." There has to be a good story in all this when someone can sort it out. Paddy Lowe from McLaren says it is not possible to police, but I thought that was what the common ECU was for?

I commented on the stories that Bernie had to be charged in the Gribkowsky case by last Wednesday, but it now seems that an extension of that time has been allowed under a loophole because additional charges were laid against Gribkowsky in May. Rumors are that Gribkowsky is now ready to tell all, should make for interesting reading.

Watched a lot of racing over the weekend on two and four wheels. The British GP was by far the most interesting, with the Tour de France a close second. Grand Am from Laguna didn't do much for me, and judging by the size of the crowd, it didn't do much for others either. I am still at a loss how a Mazda can outperform Porsches, Corvettes and Camaros, and BMWs. Some serious performance levelling here. Not my idea of a GT. Lime Rock ALMS wasn't much better, with effectively two LMP1 cars, and for once the GT's failed to put on a show. At least Grand Am has a field of Prototypes whatever I think of them.

Now I know team orders are OK now, but the decision by Red Bull not to let their drivers race robbed the fans of an even better finish than we saw between Lewis and Massa. Mark seems likely to be offered a new contract, but he obviously is not happy about being told to "maintain the gap" and it took a few messages before he complied. OK, so no team wants to see their drivers take each other out, but McLaren has a lot more confidence in the ability of their drivers to race each other and not crash than Red Bull. So does Mark want a new contract?

McLaren shot themselves in the foot again this weekend with Lewis not having enough fuel in the car and Button being released without the wheel nut on. Now you could argue that Lewis would not have been where he was if he carried that extra fuel, but we won't know will we? The old Lewis turned up for this race, the one we got to admire and love. Great drive from tenth on the grid and fourth was a poor reward. Now Lewis is saying he will not continue to do the excessive amount of PR required by McLaren, especially in the lead up to this race. Martin Whitmarsh needs to circle the wagons and refire the troops.

It would seem from the performance this weekend that McLaren were hit hardest by the diffuser shambles. The problems with the car in testing were masked by their ability to get the blown diffuser working, and now they are stuck with a poor car, but have been given a reprieve. As I said Ferrari were strangely silent and it is suggested they were the ones driving this all along. Somehow Bernie twisted enough arms to get the unanimous vote needed to return to the pre-Silverstone situation where the changes in the ECU from qualifying to the race are banned, but blown diffusers can still be used. Initially it was reported that Ferrari and Sauber, who run Ferrari engines, were not agreeing to the reinstatement, but then Bernie came out and said they all agreed. What did that cost? Presumably now they have all agreed there is no basis for a protest.

Engine reliability did not seem to be a problem for anyone other than Kobayashi in the Sauber, so perhaps it is a longer term issue over several races, or not really an issue at all. Pity to see the two Lotuses drop out so early, reliability is still an issue for them despite improvements in performance. HRT seem to have got on top of it with both cars finishing, albeit last, but Ricciardo gained valuable experience and stayed out of trouble.

Great drive by Alonso, you had the feeling that he had the measure of the Red Bulls even if Vettel did not have that wheel problem, it will be interesting to see if Ferrari can maintain this or if they were lucky and did not have to use the hard tires today due to the wet conditions at the start.

Interesting the amount of overtaking that went on away from the DRS zone, and how little impact it had when the front runners tried to use it.

Adding to the oddities of the new pit complex is the location of the winners rostrum. Looked like the US where they never face the crowd and it is a made for TV event. Pit Pass web site has a piece on the BRDC finances, the owners of Silverstone, which does not make for pleasant reading.

http://www.pitpass.com/44171-Exclusive-BRDC-depends-on-bank-funding-to-continue-as-a-going-concern

Speaking of oddities I received the June 23 rd issue of Autosport yesterday, takes a while to get here. Lo and behold there is a two page center spread in the middle advertising the Laguna Seca Historic Races. But what did they use for the centerpiece photo? Silverstone from the 60's. Go figure. 

Over in Brno Melandri and Biaggi shared the WSBK wins, with Checa in third and his points lead now down to 30. No time to panic, but it does not look as easy as it did at the start of the season.

That's the only way to describe what is going on at Silverstone, although when the smoke clears the "disadvantaged" Red Bulls are 1-2 on the grid. What a farce, it is way beyond a joke. The FIA are looking more and more like a group of indecisive individuals. Following yesterday's backtrack to allow Renault engines to use 50% off throttle engine mapping the "decision" was made this morning to rescind it and make Renault go back to the 10%, while the Mercedes engines can keep their allowance as that decision was made prior to Thursday. So Horner was madder than ever, but if it does not impact your performance what's the problem? Is it really a reliability issue with the cold blowing necessary to cool the exhaust valves? Pretty strange way to design the engine if you have to do that. So are we going to see Red Bull and the other Renault engined teams have engine failures in the race?

After qualifying the FIA have now "decided" that if all the teams agree then they can do what they like from Germany for the rest of the year. Who is running this show, and what is the likelihood of unanimous agreement? If as Charlie says this is not a new rule but an enforcement of an existing one then how do you let them keep breaking it? Surely someone like HRT is going to protest, which is why Charlie acted in the first place.

Where are Ferrari and Cosworth in all this? It is interesting that Ferrari is not asking for special dispensations, that is not their style, so what's going on there? You can sort of understand Cosworth not having a lot of clout, and Williams do not seem to be having problems as Maldanado qualified well.

Paul Di Resta put in another stellar performance to qualify 6th, beating his team mate again, and Ricciardo will start tomorrow even though he was the slowest out there, he still beat the 107% rule. It's pretty silly to see the likes of Eddie Jordan asking Daniel if he wants to be World Champion when he is starting his first race. I thought that was the sort of stuff Australian reporters asked.

McLaren have followed up their Valencia non-performance with another poor qualifying, despite their belief that Valencia was "a blip" and not a true indicator. Obviously they continue to make mistakes like sending Lewis out on used softs at the start of Q3 when there was a strong chance of rain, but all that did was keep him from Button's time, which is still 1.5 seconds off the pace! That cannot be a a happy camp tonight. They are probably praying for the rain to continue, but I'm not sure that is going to help tomorrow.

In other news and rumors it seems Bernie is close to doing a deal with South Africa for a GP, although the local governing body is not keen to see that money going out of the country to pay for it. It rightly wants money spent to develop local drivers and the sport, something other Federations should think long and hard about. Also it was suggested on a couple of blogs this week that Wednesday was the day when Bernie would be charged in connection with the Gribkowsky affair, but that seems to have come and gone.

In Brno Biaggi stole the pole on the shootout, so let's see if he can carry that speed into the race. Mark Aitchison continued his good run by qualifying for the superpole.

At Lime Rock we saw a depleted ALMS field practice and qualify, with three LMP1 cars, which are pretty cars and good teams, but are hardly what we are used to. The GT class is a bit better, 14 cars, and then there are the field fillers. Apparently Scott Atherton was on Bloomberg and managed to avoid giving any of the manufacturers in the GT class a plug, nor Mazda, nice going. 31 cars altogether, so at least they do not exceed the track density under the rules. 

Is it just me or is Silverstone getting to be like Spa? Rain and more rain. I watched the practices on the fromsportcom.com web site so was saved the Varsha commentary. First practice at least had cars on track thank goodness, I would have been very annoyed to wake up at 1 am to watch went on during the second practice where we had an empty track for all but about 20 minutes. If I were a fan sitting or standing in the rain having paid a lot of money to watch practice I would be really annoyed, asking for a refund. How can FOTA have fan forums and say they care about the fans when they let this happen? The message to me is they do not give a toss. You budgeted to run this session, so get out there and run even if at a pace that avoids accidents and does not give you data. The show must go on as they say. Apparently there are not enough wet tires and intermediates if it is wet the whole three days. Trying to be green by limiting the number of tires. Well then make the tires last so you bring less if that is what is driving this, otherwise it is BS, let the teams have as many as they need to run, as Pirelli is suggesting for qualifying. I thought Friday tires did not count anyway, but I guess wets are different as they do not expect to use that many.

Does anyone else out there think the new and expensive pit building looks weird the way it is set up? Never mind the funky "wing" how about the golf course as Rubens called it between pit lane and the pit wall? Only an architect could have dreamed this up. And what is with all the standing water? Is there no crossfall on the track.

Due to the wet conditions it was a lottery who ended up where on times. Red Bull are well down in the second practice, but they only did about four laps and the track obviously got drier right at the end. McLaren must have been pretty desperate to get some data on the revised wing and diffuser to send Lewis out on slicks in the first practice, I can't imagine you get much information tip toeing around like that, but I guess that is why I do not design and build cars. So we know no more about the impact of the blown diffuser ban, except that as I foreshadowed yesterday, not everyone is playing by the same set of rules. It seems the Renault engine users have convinced the FIA they need a 50% throttle opening instead of the 10% that the rules appear to require. This was after the Mercedes engine was given some leeway, so all is not sweetness and light between the main players. Martin Whitmarsh said the rules were "cloudy, ambiguous, and changing," while Horner said they were "right, fair, and equitable." I guess it depends on where you are  coming from. Tony Fernandes summed it up as "a bit of a shambles."You said it Tony!

Daniel Ricciardo had a very good debut, kept it on the island and ended up faster than his much more experienced team mate Luizzi, while Kovalainen out paced Webber, Alonso and Vettel! But as I said, that was the lottery. The current top ten would make for an interesting race though. 

Over in Brno normal service was resumed with Carlos Checa topping the first qualifying. Good to see Aussie Mark Aitchison moving up the time sheet to 15th with experience.