US Grand Prix

[rchadd]

What a joke!

I'll never buy a michelin tire ever again!

all the cars with michelin tires were forced to retire due to safety concerns.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/4109292.stm

[GGKoul]

Yep.

[Felsir]

Watching the TV as I type (2 laps to go)
It's a disgrace! I'm a fan of the sport for several years, watched all races the last few years. I was hoping to watch a great race - the competition is intense this season.

I wonder what this will do for the US race fans (I understand that F1 is a minor thing in the US while it's the king of the racing sport in Europe). I mean: I'm still a fan of the sport - I understand the fact that Michelin is to blame (well actually it's the FIA with their stupid rulings regarding the tyre thing) and not the teams and drivers. Nonetheless - it's a big failure and a huge dent in the Formula One's reputation in the US. What do you US race-fans think about this?

[GGKoul]

There won't be another F1 race at Indy.

Its not the FIA's fault, its Michelin fault.  As they could not guarantee the safety of their tyres.  So what else were the teams suppose to do.

[rchadd]

I think it was the FIA's fault

all they had to do was put a chicane in to slow the cars down before turn 13 - they wouldn't because it was against the rules!

bend the rules and give the fans a real race

[GGKoul]

But how fair would have it been to Bridgestone runners?  As you making a change to the track to help some runners out?  What if Bridgestone had the tire issues and wanted the change?  Eveyone would have been against it and nobody would have cared in Ferrari, Jordon or Minardi were out of the race... and thats a double standard.

The funniest part of the Speed's F1 broadcast was that the broadcast was brought to you by Michelin -- A Better Way Forward... hahaha

[rchadd]

nine teams demanded a chicane only ferrari was exception...

http://www.formula1.com/news/3198.html

michelin teams make a statement on this farce...

http://www.formula1.com/news/3201.html

still not everything was bad ...

http://f1.racing-live.com/en/fun/pitbabes/index.shtml/

[Felsir]

Agreed GGKoul, changing the track would solve this issue but possibly create more problems in the future.

Still the FIA is to blame for the whole tyre thing this season. If they didn't introduce the 'one set of tyres for the weekend' rule, this debacle probably wouldn't have happened - Michelin would fly in new sets of tyres.

[GGKoul]

nine teams demanded a chicane only ferrari was exception...

http://www.formula1.com/news/3198.html

And how many times have the nine other teams been against a change that Ferrari requested??  Lots...

It comes to this.. Michelin had in inadequate tires for the race...  Michelin's fault

[Bones]

Yeah the tyre rule was changed to add more interest/competition to the worlds "quickest game of chess" and I agree it is debatable as to if this makes the sport better or not.

But.... Michelin had the same notice to get their tyres right. I agree with GGKoul, nothing to do with the FIA.

This would never have happened at Melbourne. 

[patrickl]

What I understood from Paul Stoddarts comments was that Jordan and Minardi also agreed not to race. Then there wouldn't have been a race at all (apparently with only one team entering there is no race). The teams probably hoped that that would make FIA and/or Ferrari change their minds, add a chicane and then race later that day with allt the teams. Jordan broke the deal by not going in the pitlane and the race was on (so Minardi stayed out too).

With the extra points for Schumacher, he's in with a shot at the title again. So all this does add some excitement for the rest of the season. Renault seem to have lost their edge and Ferrari seems to be coming back a bit (pure luck in the Canada result and now again in the US, but they are getting faster too). This could end up in a three way battle for the championship after all.

I'm glad I didn't go to see this race though. There was a cool deal on a 2 race holiday (Canada and US), but instead I opted for Imola (I'd say that was the greatest race yet) and Monza.

[Dexter]

What should have happened was that a chicane was put in but the michelin teams would not pick up championship points. The teams and drivers (with the possible exception of Ferrari) wanted to give the fans a race. The FIA should have done the same.

[Bones]

What should have happened was that a chicane was put in but the Michelin teams would not pick up championship points. The teams and drivers (with the possible exception of Ferrari) wanted to give the fans a race. The FIA should have done the same.

Ahhh... But then some (potentially all) of those teams would have had to make their engines last another race, or start further back in the grid should their engines needed replacing or failed in this race.

Michelin have been to Indy on numerous occasions. They had all the data they needed to make a reliable tyre suited to this circuit and the potential corner speeds. It's a shame we as the public missed a good race but the blame can only fall on the manufacturer who couldn't cut it on the day.

[HoopstarsGarage]

Michelin have been to Indy on numerous occasions. They had all the data they needed to make a reliable tyre suited to this circuit and the potential corner speeds.

The tyre data from last year was throw out the window when the FIA changed the rules to state that they must last for qualifying and the entire race.  The tyres are very different to last year in a lot of areas, with the side wall structure being very different - it is here that most of the heat is generated in the tyre and also the point that failed on the Michelin left rear - TWICE.

As much as I am disappointed in what transpired, I think it took balls for Michelin to put the saftey of the drivers in front of the everything else..

I think the stupid "fans" that decided to protest by throwing bottle and cans onto the track are the are the truly stupid ones..!  I do not care what happened there - to put a drivers (and potentially other spectators or officals) lives at risk by doing that should is the most stupid thing that occured yesterday..!!

[Bones]

As much as I am disappointed in what transpired, I think it took balls for Michelin to put the safety of the drivers in front of the everything else..

Agreed, although it's difficult not to disregard Michelin's liability had they said nothing. I am sure the decision was based on liability as much as driver safety.

Not that the decision was purely financially minded, but you can bet somewhere the was a bean-counter doing the maths.

[rchadd]

FIA blame the michelin teams

http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2005/June/200605-01.html

a quote:

"What about the American fans?  What about Formula One fans world-wide?  Rather than boycott the race the Michelin teams should have agreed to run at reduced speed in turn 13.  The rules would have been kept, they would have earned Championship points and the fans would have had a race.  As it is, by refusing to run unless the FIA broke the rules and handicapped the Bridgestone runners, they have damaged themselves and the sport."

[rchadd]

A fan shows his anger as Bernie Ecclestone leaves during the United States Grand Prix

[DrewKaree]

Now, I don't even WATCH the friggen sport, but from the uproar here, I found out several things that lead me to believe it doesn't MATTER if it's a tire (the race was in America, it's TIRE here, dagnabbit! ) issue, if Ecklestone (dunno if that's right) wanted to piss off the casual-ish fan and drive the sport in America even FURTHER into the ground, he did so with flying colors.

Here's also what I know.  They resurfaced the area where the crashes were happening.  They added a diamond cross-hatch pattern to the track, causing the tires to wear prematurely.  Since this wasn't determined to be THE problem until qualifying, there was NO way for Michelin to know this in advance (although a French tire manufacturer causing surrenders? )  The cars going out for ONE lap and three quarters of the field quitting the race was a flat disgrace, and Ecklestone should have done something to "apologize" to all the fans that showed up and spent upwards of $100/ticket and to foster goodwill with those same fans.

That Ecklestone did nothing of the sort makes this fiasco and the resulting bad publicity HIS fault.  From the reasoning I've heard (contract up for renewal, ego, etc), I expect to see a lawsuit filed by Tony George (that's the dude, right?) and a few more nails pounded in the American F1 coffin.

But I don't even like NAS-KAWR, so what the heck do I know?

[Felsir]

(the race was in America, it's TIRE here, dagnabbit!)

I'll keep that in mind

[rchadd]

Bernie Ecclestone has been very quiet on this - usually he has a lot to say for himself.

[Samstag]

Here's also what I know.

[patrickl]

Michelin has decided to refund people their tickets and they will even give away 20.000 tickets for next years event. Good move I guess. They should have had working tyres to begin with, but at least they try to set things straight. Must cost them a fortune.