Formula 1 farce in Indy

[Haltickling]

The worst Formula 1 race of all times is going on now while I'm writing this. What happened?

During the training sessions on Friday and Saturday, the Michelin tires turned out to be unsafe. They lost pressure, particularly in the typical Indy high speed bend. As a result, one of the drivers crashed into the wall.

However, the Formula 1 regulations forbid a change of tires once the qualification has started. Lots of discussions between the teams, Michelin, the FIA Racing Board and the Formula 1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone erupted. The FIA refused to change the rules for the Michelin users, so Michelin put out an official recommendation for the teams not to run the race. As it happens, all but 3 teams are on Michelin tires.

The Indianapolis race organizer threatened to sue heavily if the race was cancelled, so all the teams rolled through the introduction lap as usual. But then, all the Michelin teams withdrew from the race.

So now there are only 6 cars running in this race. It's a big farce, nothing else. The spectators are outraged and throwing bottles on the track, and the sponsors are fuming. Just as Formula 1 was gaining a little more popularity in the States, this scandal is a huge slap in the face of the fans.

I'm furious!

 

[theshire]

I saw this. Just terrible organisation on the part of everyone involved. But it could have all been resolved amiably if Ferrari had just allowed a chicane to be built on the offending bend. Sure, they were right in principle to reject the thing since they were running Bridgestone tyres and thus it didn't affect them, but they should have allowed it for the benefit of the sport and the spectators.

And why is it that when something like this happens, Michael Schumacher ALWAYS benefits from it? He must be the luckiest sportman alive.

 

[Haltickling]

Well, just let's imagine the alternate scenario: Would McLaren or Renault (both Michelin) have agreed to a track or rule change if the problem had been on Ferrari's/Bridgestone's side? I guess not. Actually, the FIA denied it first, and Ferrari just agreed with the decision because it was convenient (and profitable) for them.

Michael Schumacher hasn't had much luck in this season yet, as the Michelin tires were superior so far. But I agree that he was rather lucky during several consecutive years before. And I'm sure that his 50 million € income per year can be considered a huge streak of luck... 😉

 

[german]

Plz man, Schui himself could not refuse or allow the chicane to be built. I woke up at 3.30am (living in Sydney) to watch that and nearly died when the field turned into pits.

I agree with Bernie Ecclestone and his comments made on the offical formula one website stating there is no reason for him to abide by a demand that was made an hour before the race start. It was common knowledge with the Michelin teams on friday (us time) after the Ralf Schumacher incident that there was no chance of a race going ahead in normal fashion, so with Michelin having two some what days to arrange something the blame should not sit with Ferrari nor Schui and for that matter Bernie Ecclestone.

The brigdestone tires havnt been that great even due his dominant period, only due to his knowledge of the car he was able to control the tires more so then others and dont forget the pit crew which no doubt is the best in F1.

 

[Oddjob0226]

I know how it is! I felt the same way in '99 when Lauren Bacall lost out to Juliette Binoche for 'The English Patient' at the Academy Awards.

 

[red indian]

Wel what do you know!!....

.....the bloody French are always causing trouble!

 

[nenezinho]

I felt it was a really dumb and coward thing to do from Michelin and from the 7 teams.

If they had poor tires, they simply had to run slower, place more wing force in the car to spare the tires, take out a lot of top speed if needed, reduce engine power.....whatever! But simply, they failed to do it to the end with what material they had in hands!

If teams start getting out from races simply because they can´t go as fast as the best...then next time we might have Jordan or Minardi asking to borrow some car chacis from the top teams so that they might be able to be as fast as them because if they tray to run as fast with the cars they have.....maybe their pilots will also be risking their lives.

Racing is what you can do with what car you have and ultimately bring it to the finish line.....even if finishing last!

It´s pretty obvious no michelin team could have matched the ferraris but maybe they could still go as fast as the jordan or the minardis.....hell....even if they couldn´t go as fast as none of those, it would be better to go slower and score some points...they would at least place more pressure on the 3 bridgestone teams and some of those 6 pilots could get out of race.....even if the 6 pilots could finish on top, there would be some more points there to take....and 2 or 3 points are better than 0.

I really don´t get it......either the tires were completely f***** or they were all afraid to loose hard to ferrari and tried to pull it away in the office. If the tires were really that bad and could not stand not even 10 laps has they said.....then I believe Michelin should be forced to leave competition cause it´s a tremendous mistake!!! It´s only by their fault that any lives were at stake......

After all....what would happen to any of us if we could manage to completelly ruin some really important task at our jobs??? How many seconds would any of us remain in said job?

 

[Haltickling]

Racing is what you can do with what car you have and ultimately bring it to the finish line.....even if finishing last!

Spoken like a true racing fan, nenezinho, muito obregado!

Each tire supplier was allowed to bring along two completely different sets of tires, and they could have switched to the harder variety before the qualification. But their tires didn't vary much, so they had no real alternative at hand. The race stewards even conceded that nobody would be disqualified for a change of tires, only heavily fined money-wise.

The rest was the usual political power game between Ecclestone, the teams, and the tire producers. Everybody feared horrendous damage payments if somebody got hurt. So Michelin ORDERED their teams not to run the race. Maybe they reckoned that USA wasn't an important market for their products anyway, so let's dump it and blame the FIA for the desaster.

But the damage is bigger than imagined: Many sponsors will sue Michelin for the bad image. A huge potentially new market for the Formula1 was lost, along with all the incomes for the commercials during the TV coverage. Michelin stocks have dropped two points, and I'm quite sure that someone at Michelin will have to leave. And the damage to the image didn't happen in USA alone. This could turn out as a coffin nail for Formula 1 as a whole.