Bob Barnard Track Engineering

I touched on the state of bike racing in my comments about my conversation with Kenny, and about Daytona. Kevin Cameron on the Cycle World web site elaborated, "In the press briefing, we were all reminded of racing’s shrunken state. Nineteen heads were turned toward the three riders. When the talking was finished, there were no questions. Two people clapped. That was that. The racing was grand. Where is everybody?" To read the whole piece go to;

http://blog.cycleworld.com/2011/03/daytona-2011-bad-day-at-black-rock%E2%80%94by-kevin-cameron/

Barcelona is basically rained out with going on two inches of rain. A few brave souls did some wet driving, but most packed up and went home. I know this is going to come as a shock but the dampers for the HRT did not arrive. So they will go to Melbourne, presumably, with the car not having turned a wheel, shades of 2010, and now we have the 107% qualifying rule back in play. So when did HRT know they needed dampers?

Sounds like David Brabham is going to be busy this year after not being sure of a ride, with plenty of air miles with rides in the Highcroft car, Sumo Power Nissan in GT1 and V8Supercar appearances. Go get 'em David.

It would appear that the rumors of Bernie's departure have been grossly exaggerated. Check out this nice piece on Pit Pass about CVC, Gribkowsky and Bernie.

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=43078

That should keep you readers happy for the day.

Had a call from King Kenny last evening, very nice chat about old times and the current state of racing. I'm not really surprised, but he is still more in demand for appearances than the young guys, and he says he gets paid more now just to show up than he used to to race. Ah, the good old days. He says he is selling the ranch because he cannot stand still being quicker at his age than all the young guys who come there to train!

You know my thoughts on the failure of the spectator driven tracks as a business model, well New Jersey just filed for bankruptcy, how long has that taken? Good luck with Mid-Ohio boys. Silverstone reported a profit of 2m pounds on a turnover of around 50m. Richard Phillips the MD said “I think we are probably the only privately-funded grand prix circuit that does make a profit in the world but the UK is quite peculiar because there is a huge motorsport following, there's a lot of industry here." Well it is an achievement to make a profit of any sort, but given the level of investment in the facility, which is continuing with the new pit building which is costing around 28m pounds, that is not much of a return. Good job it is run by a club. Hard to see how the numbers stack up though. They run the British F1 GP and Bernie's fee has to be half that turnover.

HRT showed up in Barcelona with this year's car, well almost. Parts are stuck in customs apparently and it will not run today. Isn't the car made in Spain? Day four of testing is again all over the place. McLaren had an engine let go so Button has not done much running, but what he did was slow, only faster than the Virgin which has improved to being 6 seconds off the pace. Mercedes are showing their legs with Schumacher topping the charts, fastest of the four days thus far, and Rosberg carrying on where he left off in third place.  Ferrari still up there, but Red Bull stooging around today. One thing seems certain, race averages are going to be way off the qualifying times.

Daytona bike week is on but who really cares any more other than some die hards? How do you kill what was a real world class event at one time?

Happening that is. Rain at Daytona for the bikes and Sebring where Indycars are supposed to be testing. Barcelona is fine, certainly for Perez and Sauber who top the time sheet today, pretty close to Vettel's time yesterday. Massa is next and then Webber. No McLaren today, and times all over the place again. Lotus still have reliability problems and Williams had gearbox problems. I don't know if you have followed the Williams design this year, but the gearbox is so low the top wishbones are attached the bottom of the rear wing central support. Very novel and provides a huge hole for air to the back wing, but as someone said, you then have to use it.

Mercedes have some new parts and Schumacher is only 1.13 secs off the fast time, and both drivers say they are happier with the car, and Haug says they are not running low fuel. Williams and Ferrari have gone down the Red Bull exhaust road rather than the Renault as they think it is the best solution. Still feeding exhaust gas through the diffuser, but at the rear, not in front of the sidepods. I still have not heard or seen what McLaren have done.

The drivers met with the FIA, presumably Charlie Whiting, last evening to discuss their concerns about the movable wing, so watch for some tweaks to the rules, including not using them in the wet as the  change in downforce is thought to upset the car.

The most impressive thing in testing is the amount of laps Ferrari and Red Bull have put together, over 1000 not counting today, so their reliability is not a problem. Their quick too, not a good start to the season for the others.

There is a very funny Billy Connolly sketch in which he uses this expression, and in Barcelona it is all the same, just different drivers. Vettel is atop the timesheets and the rest are struggling. McLaren had car problems again this morning and appear to have some real problems with it. Hard to believe that all that equipment needed to be on the nose just to record some stress/strain information. They had easier ways than that I'm sure. Peter Geran sent me a photo off twitter of the Red Bull front wing dragging the end plates on the ground again a la 2010, so much for stronger tests. Petrov is doing well in the Renault, but Rosberg and the Mercedes are still struggling and Virgin are still 7 secs off the pace.

HRT have finally signed Luizzi so all the seats are filled now, and the new car is supposed to be at the track Friday.

Interesting that Suzuka has only extended its deal to stage the GP for one year? Bernie usually likes multi-year deals. Suzuka says it only makes a marginal profit, which is an achievement in itself, but is owned by Honda who quit F1 so is presumably reviewing the benefit of still staging the race, especially if Bernie is upping the fee.

Nice to see David Brabham confirmed to drive Duncan Dayton's HRD LMP1 at Sebring. Not much time to get the car shaken down, but Duncan's cars are always top class so it will be a great addition to the LMP1 field.

There are a couple of interesting articles about CVC, the F1 rights owner, and Bernie, and the sale of the shares. CVC has instigated its own enquiry into the events surrounding the purchase of the shares from BayernLB and the supposed bribe paid to Gribkowsky. At the same time it is reported they are head-hunting a new Chairman for the holding company, Delta Topco. This is a non-executive Chairman, so presumably Bernie is still in control, but it points to a lack of confidence. Bernie may not be able to put a woman in charge if he is not calling the shots.

The other piece is in the Pitpass web site where Der Spiegel has done its own digging and come up with its opinion that the shares were not sold below market value. There was an auction with two other bidders and CVC's offer was the highest, so how could Gribkowsky rig the sale to assist CVC? This is Alice in Wonderland stuff. If Gribkowsky did not get a $50m bribe for this deal, where did the money come from and why? Bernie is going to have a field day with the magazines if this lot is true.

The World Motorsport Council met today and decided to give Bahrain till May to decide if it wanted to reschedule the race. All seems quiet to us, but there is a piece on Pitpass from a private citizen in Bahrain describing the ongoing and escalating demonstrations. It would appear that Libya has taken the spotlight off Bahrain whose news organizations are being prevented from covering the demos.

Other WMSC decisions involved the allotment of extra tires, both for Friday practice as "evaluation" for new Pirelli's, but also additional tires for the race. Does someone have a lack of confidence in how long the Pirelli's are going to last?The WMSC has also asked the "Circuit Design Group" to look at how exisiting tracks can be changed to increase overtaking. About time someone woke up that it's the tracks, stupid. Again Pitpass has a nice editorial piece, especially the last two paras:

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=43052

In Barcelona we have the first day of the last F1 test, as well as Arsenal playing in the Champions League. At least with the soccer we will know who wins. Today Webber is doing a lot of laps with the quickest at 1 min 22.5 secs, but most averaging 1 min 29 secs, so we can see how the tires are going to slow things down. Button is the only man anywhere near this time, most are 2-3 seconds off with the Virgin 9 secs off the pace! McLaren had everyone going with a weird nose and front wing which they took off after lunch and said it was just to measure the forces on the front wing. Ferrari had another of those "filming days" yesterday at Barcelona and featured a new exhaust layout, but these are all so tucked away it is hard to see what each team is doing. So nothing changes, thank goodness Melbourne is just under three weeks away and we will finally get real on who is doing what.