Bob Barnard Track Engineering

The reports this morning are that the FIA is close to reaching agreement on the 1.6 liter 4 cylinder turbo engine for 2013. Agreement with who? Previously the engine manufacturers were pushing back to keep the current engine due to the cost of designing and build new ones, so what happened? A Ferrari spokesman confirmed that he would be "surprised" if it did not now take place, adding: "An agreement is there, and when there is an agreement you work accordingly." Bernie still has his doubts that there should be a change, but it appears his opinion does not count on this issue.

The final round of the FIA GT Championship is being held at the San Luis, Argentina, track, Potrero de los Funes. This is a beautiful location around the bowl of an extinct, they hope, volcano, but the track basically has no run off. Peter Dumbreck said after the opening free practice session: "It's like Macau because you are constantly s****ing yourself as you try to keep it out of the wall." So how does the FIA approve this?

It seems even the cost conscious Moto2 is too expensive for American rider Kenny Noyes' team. Kenny was the only American in the class which is designed as a stepping stone to MotoGP, and according to the Superbike Planet web site, fellow American rider Roger Lee Hayden was offered rides for 2011 with no salary and he had to come up with nearly $400,000 to pay for the privilege.

So the music is stopping and the chairs are being filled one by one. Glock says he is almost certain to stay at Virgin, where else is there to go and Virgin would be silly to let him go. HRT are apparently impressed by Davide Valsecchi following the young driver days at Abu Dhabi, but Colin Kolles says that Italy needs to get behind him, i.e. come up with some cash. Not too many seats left now. Luca Badoer is leaving as the Ferrari test driver, not that anyone is testing much these days, so that will leave an opening and Ferrari are giving some Italian F3 drivers a try out. So we have one seat at Virgin, still two at HRT at the moment, one at Renault, but probably Petrov, and Force India still has one, maybe. Not many left.

Luca di Montezemolo has a press conference scheduled for December 16th for a major announcement, which some of the Italian press think will be a move to politics. Maybe it is who is driving the second Ferrari?

Toyota is back in motorsport with an engine for LMP1 with the Rebellion squad, should be interesting. Let's see if they can give the diesels a run for their money.

Cape Town is back on the rumor mill as another potential F1 Grand Prix. How many does that make now?

Proton nee Lotus Cars are confirming a takeover of the Renault 25% stake in the F1 team that still bears its name. This is what is driving the dispute with Tony Fernandes and the existing Team Lotus. Proton have some big ambitions. I wonder if they have read the book "A Bridge Too Far?"

An excellent interview with Alonso in this month's Motor Sport. It restates what I have been saying about how to make F1 interesting to Americans. Spain was motorcycle mad, despite having an F1 race at Jerez and Barcelona for years, until Alonso won the World Championship. It is not having a race that will make F1 popular, it is having an American kick ass. In the days when Phill Hill, Dan Gurney and Mario were doing it the TV coverage was probably non existent.

Don't often find anything interesting to write about Indy Car, but the announcement that they are going to trim the funding scheme from 24 to 22 cars "in a move aimed at boosting the quality of the field" has caught my eye. You are going to stop paying $1.2m a car to the bottom two teams to improve the quality? And you do not expect the size of the field to reduce, so presumably those two cars are going to have "pay for ride" drivers to make up the loss. That will improve the quality. Randy speaks with fork tongue methinks, he just wants to save $2.4m. Maybe he got this Bull from his previous job, which he is somehow still listed as holding.

It seems the American motorcycle world is in need of some financial assistance with comments today about the number of good riders without a ride for 2011. "Hopefully, this is the bottom," said one team owner of the current situation. What is going to change to make it the bottom?

Not much else to report, 100 days to the start of 2011 F1 season, hang in there. V8Supercars at Homebush in Sydney this weekend, is this the last race of 2010? Still, gives me time to finish the book, Chapter Nine under way, back in Oz after the '93 USGP.

So Mark Webber is Australia's top earning sportsman, displacing Greg Norman from top spot. I would hope so, how long is it since Greg really played apart from cameos? Greg has been very smart and is making lots from developments, so he should be in the business section. Nice to see Mark being rewarded for years of effort, and he did it without a big sponsor backing too. I like Bernie's comment that Enzo would have loved Mark and Mark would surely have been a Ferrari driver back in Enzo's day, and a World Champion by now.

Maldonado has been confirmed as the second driver at Williams, probably the worst kept secret of this silly season. Let's hope he can live up to his GP2 winner status and his sponsors checkbook. The other seats remain open on the FIA entry list for 2011, so we still have some interest in who's going where. Lotus is still listed which the Team says is due to the public's positive response to Tony Fernandes Team, and it seems the Malaysian Government who owns the Proton/Lotus car group has told them to chill it on the public fight over the name. As Mike Gascoyne said, why are they fighting us, they are getting the exposure for free? I guess Lotus Cars has intentions of their own in F1, they seem to want to be in everything else. This smacks of overreaching, if large companies like Renault, Toyota and BMW cannot do it, then why try?

Bernie now blames Max for the poor showing of the new teams by bringing them in on the pretext that costs will be capped. But Bernie is happy for them to stay,"provided they don't walk around with begging bowls, it's good to have them."

Alonso thinks his margin over poor Massa shows how much better he is this year. Still had to get his team to ask Massa to move over in Germany though didn't he?

The long dark days of winter are upon us, with a lot of people getting snow already, but thankfully not in Phoenix. Working hard to set up the sessions for Los Angeles which will be set up slightly differently this year, a lot of engineering sessions with great information. Racing is closing down, but we have the snippets of new cars and drivers.

Hamilton has "driven" the MP4-26 already, in the simulator, with KERS and movable rear wing and pronounced himself very happy. As I have said in my presentations, if simulation is so good why not just give each driver one and have them compete in cyberspace, very green. Very safe too, but I suspect not much fun for most of us, but who knows maybe that is the future? Not one I wish to see.

Sir Frank Williams is not one that would wish to see it either I suspect. He is not happy with sixth in the Championship. What a great warrior he is despite all his difficulties both personal and with the team, "never give up."

In a similar vein, Richard Petty has taken control of his NASCAR Team again after the collapse of the Gillette sports empire. Richard is 73 and still very much involved. His famous team has struggled for years to recapture the dominance of his years. I well remember as a boy in England reading Motor Sport and their one page reports on NASCAR. About the only thing I understood about NASCAR in those days was that Richard Petty was the man, and Wood Brothers the team. And they are both still fighting to compete.

Our young F1 Champion just cannot keep his mouth shut about Ferrari and Mercedes. Can you imagine the feeling in the Red Bull camp? What an ungrateful bastard. No wonder Christian Horner is tipping Webber for the Championship next year, I would nobble Vettel's car, if he is still in it.