Todays F1 Race

[ls317]

INDIANAPOLIS – Formula One's bid to capture the American audience was crippled Sunday when only six cars participated in the United States Grand Prix. The other 14 drivers boycotted the event amid safety concerns with their Michelin tires.

The race was in jeopardy all the way up to the start after Michelin informed the seven teams it supplies that its tires were not safe in the final banked corner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?series=f1&id=2089850

[ls317]

1. Good- Bye F1

They killed there only chance to build a fan base within North America today.20 Drivers started the race 14 of them pulled out after one lap for safety concerns. So the race was between 6 cars.
This race had been held here for 6 years with no problems before.

[kenny blankenship]

5. This season's rules are particularly stringent on tires

no tire replacement unless the tire is punctured, or otherwise coming apart.

So what happened 6 years ago or even last year is irrelevant.

[MaineDem]

2. Why isn't anyone blaming Michelin? (nt)

[ls317]

3. Michelin reax

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Michelin's seven Formula One teams apologized on Sunday for a boycott that turned the U.S. Grand Prix into a six-car farce, insisting safety was paramount.
"The Michelin teams deeply regret the position that they have been put in today and would like to apologize to all the spectators, TV viewers, Formula One fans and sponsors for not being able to take part," they said in a joint statement.

The seven teams who use the French company's tires did not race due to concerns over safety after crashes in practice, leaving the race open to champions Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi who were on Bridgestone tires.

"All the teams are confident in Michelin and trust their advice as we know they are competent and responsible and their written instruction to us not to race unless changes to the circuit were made was accepted," they said.

The teams said final data from Michelin on Sunday morning made clear the company could not guarantee the drivers' safety.

Nine of the 10 teams asked for an additional chicane to be put in.

"Unfortunately all proposals were rejected by the FIA (the sport's ruling body)," they said. "Safety is always the first concern of any team and the FIA. Regrettably the teams were obliged to follow Michelin's requirements not to race.

[MaineDem]

4. Still, Michelin had the wrong tires and Bridgestone didn't

It was a farcical race. It wasn't good for the Speedway, nor for the fans, nor for the FIA but the blame has to fall on Michelin. That's my not-so-uninformed opinion.

[anakie]

6. F1 is as boring as shit anyway

even when they do race it is a procession with few if any overtaking moves made on the track. They fiddle with the rules every year trying to make it more competitive and this year 1 set of tyres per race. Sheesh - a million dollar machine and 1 set of tyres. Often at race end there is only a couple of cars on the lead lap and 30 sec gaps between cars is not unusual. At least with nascar, US open wheel series and even Australian V8 super car the races have some action on the track and everything is not decided on a fucked up pit stop.

[ls317]

7. F-1 Blame

Indianapolis Motor Speedway boss Tony George said complaints about the depleted lineup for the U.S. Grand Prix should be directed to Formula One, to the series’ governing body and to tiremaker Michelin.

All but three of the F-1 teams withdrew before the start of today’s race because of safety concerns with the Michelin tires.

The only cars that raced were the Ferraris of winner Michael Schumacher and runner-up Rubens Barrichello, the Jordans of Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan and the Minardis of Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher.

“The Indianapolis Motor Speedway shares in the disappointment with the loyal fans of IMS and Formula One that we did not see the exciting race we all anticipated due to circumstances beyond our control,” George said in a statement.


http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050619/SPORTS01/50619004

[jakefrep]

8. Of course...

..American racing fans are accustomed to NASCAR holding a gun to the drivers' and teams' heads and making them race under unsafe conditions.

I give the F1 teams credit for having the balls to stand up for the safety of their drivers. That wouldn't happen in NASCAR.

[frylock]

9. i guarantee that goodyear will address the problems with blowouts..

that plagued the race at Pocono last week, and a solution will be found before they meet at that track again in late July.

The tyres in F1 are as big a part of the league as development on the engines and aero. Michelin blew it big time in their testing and R&D. Yeah, the new tyre rules suck, but it's not like the track isn't available for testing.

[MaineDem]

15. I thought Goodyear was out of racing?

Aren't all the NASCAR teams on Hoosier?

I don't follow NASCAR so I could be very wrong about this.

[frylock]

16. hoosiers were used on cup cars in 88-89, then again in 94-95..

but they withdrew due to costs. Each manufacturer (both Goodyear and Hoosier ran in the series during those years) was required to supply enough tires to support ALL teams in case there was a safety issue. The costs were too high for a small company like Hoosier to bring 1200+ tires to each event.

[T_i_B]

10. farcical Kick

:kick:

[dr.zoidberg]

11. There is someone else to blame as well.

I won't dispute the blame being placed on FIA or Michelin for that farce of a Grand Prix on Sunday. However, their is one party that has not been mentioned here that should share some of the blame. Their was one racing team that said that if a chicane was put on the track, they would not race. That team was Ferrari. I guess we know now why FIA didn't want the chicane on the track after all now, don't we?

[MaineDem]

12. I've heard (fairly reliable source) that the FIA refused the chicane

...before Ferrari had made a decision. And, according to the rules is exactly the decision the FIA should have made.

But why should Ferrari agree to it? And why should the FIA agree to it? Why should they make a concession to some teams because they had defective equipment? It would be different if all teams were on the same tires but Bridgestone got it right!

Formula One is all about engineering and design as well as driver skill. This time the engineering was faulty for one equipment manufacturer. It wasn't for another.

[dr.zoidberg]

13. Well, if you want driver to go with defective equipment.

That's all well and good. However, In racing their is always their is always the possibility of one of two things: Serious injury or death. I wouldn't want to increase the risk of either with defective equipment.
I agree that Michelin should get the majority of the blame. F1 has been running at Indy for 5 years, I believe. Why are Michelin tires having problems now as opposed to the first time they ran at Indy?

[MaineDem]

14. Where did I say drivers should go with defective equipment?

Trust me...I'm all for driver safety. More than anyone here knows.

However, the FIA said they could go with different tires than they qualified on. Teams said no.

FIA said they could change the rear tire every 10 laps. Teams said no.

There would have been a penalty to all these teams but they got no points sitting it out anyhow. And the penalty would have been the same for each of the Michelin-clad teams.

If all teams had been on the same tire then the FIA would have had to do something. But when there are two different manufacturers and one got it right and the other didn't, the FIA had no option.

The fans got screwed! The sponsors got screwed! In my opinion, Michelin bears the blame for this.

[Zech Marquis]

19. yep

McLaren had qualified ahead of Ferrari, so they could have simply changed to new tires, and ater the race (especially had they won) appeal to have the points restored ro something. Nope, they pulled out.

Renault had Alonso in the top 2 rows, same thing. Nope, pulled out.

If there was ONE team whom I woldn't blame for not racing, it was Toyota, yet Trulli got the pole on the same Michellin tires!! :grr: Just for getting pole, I'm sure the FIA would have said,"okay change your tires and we'll take away some points..." or maybe just let him and Toyota keep the points. Nope, they pulled out.

Michellin has the lion's share of blame for this. I wouldn't be surprised if F1 gives them the boot after this season...

[ls317]

17. F1

The track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was resurfaced last fall. Firestone-Bridgestone made several trips just for testing. I have heard Michelin didnt come here at all for tire testing.
When the window for testing was open they didnt attend.

[dr.zoidberg]

18. From what I understand they Michelin sent two teams to test. n/t