Bob Barnard Track Engineering

So Red Bull let their drivers race, as they should, but I cannot help wondering if they are happy with the Constructors Championship, and congratulations for that, and do not mind if Alonso is the driver's Champion. They probably figure if Mark wins he will leave or retire anyway, so who cares, we've got Vettel who will definitely win it one day and that is who we really want. Helmut Marko looked very happy with the way it finished. It was actually a pretty predictable race, let's hope Abu Dhabi is a bit more exciting, although from last year's example do not hold your breath.

The biggest news out of Brazil is the attempted hold up of Button and the robbery of the Sauber mechanics, which should not be a shock to anyone who has been there. Bernie seemed very concerned, he laughed it off as "someone trying to sell him a hat." I think Bernie was talking out of his. Nice that he cares so much about his stars who have to drive around in bullet proof cars and police escorts. What is it going to take for him to wake up, someone getting shot or kidnapped? And the 2016 Olympics is in Rio!

Peugeot won in Zuhai with some squawking from Audi about the second Peugeot holding them up, but personally I do not see the problem. If Audi could not pass it how were they holding them up, and isn't that allowed, it is hardly a "team orders" issue. The big news is the hybrid Porsche was sixth, ahead of all the GT cars. I checked on the Petit situation for 2011 and my information is that it is not a part of the Intercontinental Cup, wither Petit now?

Lorenzo mad a miracle save and went on to win the race in Valencia, a worthy Champion. Roll on next season when the music stops on the changes in the seats. Ben Spies did well to finish fourth, so watch out for Ben on the works Yamaha next season. Checa finished last and you know my thought about where he should be riding, or not riding, next year.

Just as a reminder I will be in Cologne, Germany, all the week of the 15th speaking at an International Forum on circuit design, construction and operation. It is a very busy week with sessions for me on two of the three days and I am not taking my computer, so you are going to have to find your daily fix elsewhere. If you want to check it out go to http://www.professionalmotorsportcircuit-forum.com.

How great to see a Williams on pole again! I must confess to a soft spot for Sir Frank's Team, as I think most people have. Mine started when Alan Jones won the championship and then to see how Sir Frank has battled his own personal problems and the struggle to stay competitive is an example to us all. Let us not forget it was Hulkenburg and not Barrichello that did it, well done Nico, and what a great way to repay Sir Frank's comments about your ability of just last week. Maybe it was the confidence boost he needed. Interesting qualifying session with nothing between the Red Bulls again, and if Nico had a wet set up then he will probably go backwards fast in the race. Interesting to read his comments of Friday that they would be lucky to make it into Q3.

Hard to see Lewis doing anything other than trying to stay in touch and Alonso, who knows, but both of these guys need the Red Bulls to break again. Mark looked in a determined mood, and it looks more and more like my predictions over the last few months may come true and Mark will leave at the end of the season. Horner's "Mark needs to focus on the job" sounds like a "shut the **** up" to me. Let us hope tomorrow is dry and we can see a straight fight.

On the engine front there are more opinions from Cosworth and Renault that the proposed 2013 engine regs need to be very tightly framed to prevent a runaway spending war, or leave the V8's alone. All is not settled.

HRT has a new partner to help with the money as was suspected, so let's hope for a better season next year. The talk of using the Toyota chassis does not gel with me as the rules change again next year. I think the discussion with Toyota is probably more about using their engineering consultancy they have set up at the old F1 base. I can be wrong though, after all I did not pick Hulkenburg for pole.

Stoner took pole in Valencia so we should be in for a good race tomorrow with Lorenzo, who despite being a Spaniard, says he does not like Valencia. Spain is a bit like Australia, not so much a country as a collection of States. Nice to see Checa managed not to be slowest, just. But he is getting closer to the top lap times.

In Zuhai the Peugeots start at the front. The really interesting thing at Zuhai was the announcement of the Intercontinental Cup calendar for 2011. No Petit, just a "race outside Europe TBA" in October? Sebring is listed. In the GT class the big story is the Porsche Hybrid qualifying second, although it does not actually qualify for points.

There is action across the globe this weekend with F1 in Brazil and the first practice saw the usual suspects at the top of the time sheet, except for Ferrari. Is this just the normal Friday laid back approach? Massa apparently fought his set up all morning, when you would think he would be on top of this place from the get go, and Alonso stopped at the end of the session with engine problems. Ferrari said they were going to change it anyway before the second session. Really, that's a lot of work between practice sessions. Are they so short on miles they could not run one session on that next engine? Both cars are way off the pace, but we have seen this before.

Mark Webber used some choice Aussie language when asked about the team and Vettel. He said it was ******** obvious that the team emotionally supported Vettel, and Horner immediately emotionally hit back that both drivers had had equal treatment, not quite what Mark said. Can Mark really stay at Red Bull next season?

Responding to Bernie's "cripples" quote, Virgin Team Principle John Booth asked if Bernie said it " to embarrass Sir Richard Branson, one of the country's leading entrepreneurs?" I would have thought Sir Richard had embarrassed himself.

In Zuhai for the final round of the Intercontinental Cup the weather is bad, rain and fog, or is it smog? Oddly the second Peugeot is three seconds slower than its pace setting sister car, that's a lot on a short circuit like this. The two Audis split them, so we could be in for an interesting race, particularly as the weather is not supposed to get any better. It is the monsoon season, nice scheduling.

In sunny Spain Lorenzo leads the way after second practice just ahead of Casey Stoner. Colin Edwards is doing well so far, and Ben Spies is sixth despite his ankle problem. Rossi is not doing so well, sandbagging or just cruising to finish his time with Yamaha? Just perhaps Yamaha would rather the guy wins who is staying next year?

In Korea, for those of you that did not follow up that story, it seems $50m is unaccounted for during the development, and the Government would like KAVO to tell them where it went. It also seems that the "mobile" stands, I presume the temporary seats, do not meet code for the F3 race. Funny code that. The seats were OK for an F1 race, but not for an F3 race?

To all my English fans "Happy Guy Fawkes Day." Where is he when you need him?

So the attorney for Austin says that it is not true that they will not be ready for 2012, but they may not meet the 90 day inspection requirement. That is cutting it fine, two years to go and you can tell that closely that you will not make it? Personally I would feel happier if the construction manager told me it was going to be finished, not the attorney. I have never had two years to finish a track, or needed it. My last construction job was a $3.5 billion oil refinery that was built in just over two years, so what's taking so long? Adelaide was a year, Phillip Island nine months, Eastern Creek a year, Road Atlanta six months, and Daytona 364 days from first contact to done.

Korea was not quite the success some people want to paint it. In this weeks Autosport is an article about the "challenges" facing the track. It seems they "papered the halls" to use the industry term for giving away seats to make it look full. The F3 Superprix scheduled for later this year has been canceled due to "force Majeure," some objections have caused the Korean Motorsport Authority to cancel the event at the track. I'd like to know what that is all about. If you would too go to http://ht.ly/19NGTp and read.

Closer to home Dover Downs has closed their track in St Louis, Gateway International. " We are simply unable to operate it with an acceptable return," said Denis McGlynn, CEO of Dover Motorsports. This oval was built not that long ago, 1997, and I never understood how they thought it would work without a NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Dover are lucky to hold on to their race at their main track "The Monster Mile" seeing as how the France or Smith families do not own it, yet. Making money with spectator events in the US gets harder every day. The Milwaukee Mile has gone through promoters trying and that track is in the center of the city.

On a completely different subject it seems Jorge Lorenzo has learned the secret of turning the mind games Rossi usually employs around to his advantage. Riders are commenting on how in the past they would have crumbled after Valentino took a commanding lead like he did at Estoril, but Jorge not only caught but went by him. Valentino said afterward, " I had no way to fight with him. I tried to stay with him but he was too fast." I just love the mind games of riders particularly, and watching the eyes, they are the window to the mind. If you look at photos of Rainey, Gardner and Lawson you will read the determination written large there.

To close, who thinks that if Alonso wins the Championship it will be "tainted" by the actions of Ferrari in Germany. Answers in a closed envelope please.

It seems tracks come and go. Austin is coming, but not quite as fast as was predicted. The latest report is 24 months to build, and they are not scheduled to start until December, and there are planning issues hanging over that date, so that puts us into 2013 for the first race. The way Bernie is going there will be a race in Bangladesh by then.

Edmonton is going, or gone according to reports. It seems the airport wanted to keep one runway open during the IRL race and this required a couple of million to be spent to adjust the track layout. It seems the IRL and the promoter assumed the City would just roll over and cough up, but no. In the US and Canada getting Governments to pay for racetracks is much harder than say Mongolia, or Spain.

McLaren and Red Bull will both let their drivers race this weekend, so we will see if Massa will roll over for Alonso at his home GP. What will we see if Massa is in front of Alonso?

The anticipated shuffle of engineers and team bosses appears to be underway at Mercedes with new race engineers to be brought in to the team next year for both Nico and Michael. Ross Brawn's role is to be "defined."

The rumors are that De La Rosa is going to HRT, with Williams gearbox, next year, and they say they now have a chassis "based" on this years unraced Toyota. HRT must have found some money.