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This article first appeared in GP Racing magazine.
Jo Bauer arrives at the FIA's Yas Marina hospitality building and, without preamble, sits down and says: "I don't have much time." From anyone else that might seem a little brusque but Bauer, the FIA's technical delegate, is always in a hurry.
For want of a better description, Bauer is Formula 1's policeman - and in the F1 pitlane everyone is guilty of something. Probably.
Bauer's job encompasses an eclectic range of responsibilities but in the public eye it's scrutineering that holds the attention. Verifying the legality of cars is largely a bureaucratic process, though there's the occasional hand grenade buried within the paperwork: a floor out of compliance; a laggardly clutch response on the grid; a tank mysteriously containing more fuel than expected. A couple of innocuous lines in a report is the equivalent of a heavy hand on the collar and a polite enquiry of what's all this, then?
