(Probably Won't See Stefan Suit Up For F1's Guest Steward Program Anytime Soon...)

JT- You have just come back from Europe where you went to the Salon QP watch show in London among other things, tell us about it.

It was my first visit to the Salon QP, and a new venue for them also, in the lovely Saatchi Gallery near my old stomping grounds on Kings Road in London. It was a great show, most of the big brands were there and quite a few independent brands also. The Media turn out was great, and it I think it’s great venue for watch enthusiast in the UK to go and see some of the beautiful pieces displayed by the various brands. They also held a number of very interesting forums and seminar so it was a big feast for anyone who’s into watches.

JT – As last week ended it was made public that the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas – scheduled to hold a US GP in Novemeber 2012 – had failed to meet the deadline for payment of the required sanctioning fee to Bernie Ecclestone and FOM, putting the future of an F1 Grand Prix in Texas in doubt. What are your thoughts?

SJ – The moment I heard the announcement of the proposed Grand Prix there I said, “I’ll be astonished if that happens.” Lo and behold, here we are and it’s not surprising. When I heard the announcement and they indicated that it was a privately funded effort I was 99 percent sure it was not going to happen. If you remember we talked about it in one of the blogs earlier this year, and my prediction turned out to be correct. It’s not because I am a genius or knew anything about the people involved which I don’t, they may be great people but the reality is that it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible to make the numbers work to build a GP track from scratch and then host a Formula One event with private funding today. This is why you see all these tracks being built in new regions around the world where the local governments are putting in the majority of the funding if not all of it. It’s a shame Austin didn’t work out because it will now make it even more difficult to get a solid fixture for the US on the GP calendar.

JT – The recent Abu Dhabi Grand Prix saw Lewis Hamilton take the victory ahead of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button. It was obviously a great shot in the arm for Hamilton but it looked as if Sebastian Vettel might have prevailed yet again if not for a tire puncture on the first lap. What did you think of Abu Dhabi?

SJ – Well it may be unfair to say that Vettel would have won after just one corner but it certainly looked like he could have. Still, Lewis was quick throughout the weekend. In fact, he was quickest in every session except qualifying so one would have to assume he had a pretty decent set-up for the race as well.

I think the more interesting trend that has now crept in from about halfway through the season is that the wild overtaking due to the DRS (drag reduction system) and the extreme tire wear that we saw happening near the beginning of the year is completely gone. The races are back to being complete yawners. Most of the guys are in basically the same finishing position as the position they started in. In one of our earlier blogs I did say I thought this would happen. Once everyone figured out how to use the DRS, the KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) and the tires in the most efficient way the races were bound to go back to being fairly close and predictable again. This is quite a normal pattern every time a new and radical rule change is introduced. It is more evident in the early races nowadays since there is very little testing allowed, which means the teams have to effectively conduct their testing during he race weekends.

JT - Hamilton’s win seems to have brightened his outlook.

SJ – Absolutely, it was great to see him get the win. As we’ve mentioned before, it’s just small nuances that make all the difference. Lewis has been quick all the time. He’s just had some unfortunate circumstances on the race track combined with a slight bit of self-doubt. But he’s back on top of the podium and he deserves it. He’s had speed all year.

I think Red Bull [Racing’s] situation is interesting. When Vettel is not winning, [Mark] Webber is clearly not in a position to pick up the pieces. Again, that would lead you to believe that Vettel is pretty special this year.

JT - I know you’ve heard the rumors of Kimi Raikkonen’s return to F1, most likely with AT&T Williams. What do you think of that prospect?

SJ – I think it would be exciting if he did it. I think he’s got a lot of unfinished business and he’s probably had some time to reflect over what he wants to do with his racing and life and everything. Kimi’s a great guy and I think he’ll definitely get the job done. The question is whether Willams is ready to give him a car that he can compete with.

Simultaneously, I think it’s interesting to follow the [Rubens] Barrichello soap opera in all the papers. He’s quoted just about every day somewhere, telling the world why Williams should keep him. I’m not an expert but I’d say it might be better to just stay quiet for a while and not air everything in the press. I’d be astonished if that would influence Frank [Williams] or Patrick [Head] or anyone else to change their minds.

The people who own and run these race teams know the score. I don’t think you have to use the press to help them make their minds up. There are smarter ways of doing that. Don’t get me wrong, I know Rubens well and he’s a lovely guy. It just sounds a bit desperate to stay in F1 just for the sake of being in F1. There’s so many other categories in racing that is very competitive and a lot more fun, he should come join us in sports car racing. He’ll have way more fun than he ever knew he could have in a race car.

JT - I know you’re eager to comment on the guest steward program that F1 has in place this year in which ex-F1 drivers are called upon to be a driver-steward to offer the driver’s point of view regarding on-track incidents. Not a fan?

SJ – I think it’s getting more and more ridiculous every race. For instance, the blue flag penalties that were handed out in Abu Dhabi; they were just silly. It’s like the guest stewards have to somehow justify their presence. I mean the drivers were getting penalized for not moving over for cars lapping them after just a couple corners. You can’t just stop if you’re in a racing situation. There has to be a little bit of balance.

If you block someone lap after lap, that’s one thing. But lapping back-markers is a part of racing. It’s something you always have to do. This issuance of penalties all the time this year is over the top. The racing should take care of itself. Clearly it’s gone a little too far the other way in NASCAR recently, but essentially they have it right.

If you leave drivers to their own decisions, generally that kind of thing gets taken care of. Over the course of a season the drivers even it out. What F1 should do in my opinion is to have one guy, there should be one official who goes to all of the races and is there and committed all the time so that they don’t feel the pressure of making decisions during just one race. Less is often more whatever you do in life. More than half the penalties issued this year I think were given without any good reason.

JT – Do you have any thoughts on the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship which was won by Tony Stewart last weekend?

SJ – I thought it was fantastic and it’s typical Tony Stewart. He’s got such a spirit. I’ll never forget, when I lived in Indianapolis and I had my indoor go-kart track there (Stefan opened his Stefan Johansson Karting Center in Indianapolis in 1996) Tony was still racing in IndyCars. He was injured one of those years and he was at my go-kart track from nine in the morning until ten at night every single day, pounding round and round and round to try to get fit again.

He was relentless. I bumped into him at an airport a month or two later and we were talking. He said, “Look, I’ve got a huge offer from Team Kool Green to go to Champ Car.” It was a lot of money. But he told me, “You know the Champ Car guys, they only do 16 races a year. But with this NASCAR stuff I can do 35 races a year!”

He didn’t care about the money, it was just about how many races he could do. I thought that was so refreshing. I think he’s fantastic and he can drive anything. He’s an acrobat in a race car.

JT - The FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) just released its 2012 schedule. The eight-round series will include the 12 Hours of Sebring as a joint round with the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) as before. However, the ALMS’ season-ending Petit Le Mans will not be on the WEC calendar for 2012 with a race in Bahrain scheduled on the same date instead. The WEC is already drawing some teams away from ALMS, particularly in the prototype categories. What effect do you think this might have on prototype racing in the U.S.?

SJ – To be frank the ALMS hasn’t done a good job with prototypes in recent years anyway. I think the ACO (Automobile Club de l’Ouest) has done the best they can to support the thing but they’re down to two LMP1 cars and one P2 car. What’s left to fight over?

When things slow down, if you have a series and you want it to stay alive, sometimes you have to invest in it. Don’t think for a minute that there hasn’t been help from Bernie [Ecclestone] for certain F1 teams in the past when they were a bit shaky or that IndyCar didn’t put some money into certain teams when they were struggling. If you want the series to survive sometimes you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do.

In this case, whatever they’ve done clearly isn’t enough. There’s absolutely nothing in it for the teams, nothing that would give you an incentive to join the series. And the cost of running the P1 cars in particular is astronomical. You could run an IndyCar program for the same amount of money or less probably.

I love ALMS and I love that format of racing and the cars. But what’s the point in racing one other car in P1?