[Gurj]

Guys, what a farce the USA Formula 1 race turned out to be. I can't believe the absolute debacle this was with only three teams racing. FIA, Bernie Eccelston, Michellin and Ferrari should hang there heads in shame. I think this may also be the death of F1 in the States.

 

[ivan]

I'm with you, what happened today is not with the spirit of the F1 (COMPETITION!!!)
We'll see their comments during this week.
BTW, I'm so Sorry for all USA fans. This is not F1

 

[Algiman]

It was not entertaining, but utterly fair (though I hate to see MS winning):

1. MS has lost races due to dodgy tyres.
2. You can't alter the race because most cars have one dodgy component (tyres)
3. That race was in the calendar from the beginning of the season so Michelin have no excuse.

I admire Michelin for having the balls to say “we can’t race”. However, if they were trying to stop the race, they have over estimated their own importance.

 

[Joe77fp`89]

I`ve always thought it was better with just one tyre manufacturer.

 

[ibanezrg520kid]

lol yeah i actually live like 40minutes away from the track and i was watching the race today and it was a poor excuse for a race! I too feel that this may have been the end to F1 in America....which saddens me cause i hate the indy 500 and nascar and thats all there really is. I doubt Michelin will be selling too many tires here in the states LOL! I was waiting for a riot or something cause that would have been intresting to watch! If only it would have been a soccer game than i would have gotten my riot. Oh well its a sad thing and i think the FIA was wrong for not allowing (one of those things like an S curve..i forgot what its called) because then most other teams would have raced.

 

[ryanb]

FIA did what it should have. There is absolutely no reason for them to alter the track because Michelin can't make the right tire. There have been plenty of races where the Bridgestones weren't up to par ... and nobody changed the track for them. If the Michelins can't handle that much speed in turn 13, the drivers will just have to slow down! There is no reason to expect the teams with good equipment to slow down too and wait for them. That's why it's called racing.

Michelin has no excuse for not having a valid tire. There was plenty of time for them to get it right. This isn't a new track. They simply dropped the ball here. I congratulate FIA for not caving in to the boycotting losers.

This is not the end for F1 in the US. People say that every year no matter what happens. This has absolutely nothing to do with the track at Indy.

The real losers here are the fans ... who paid their money to see a good race, and got screwed. Bravo to the three teams who actually went to work today.

And don't blame Ferarri for this either. Ferarri had agreed to the added chicane if it meant allowing the race to continue.

 

[Gurj]

I admit that Michellin must take the majority of the blame. Afterall, they have had a long time to get their tyre design right. And yes, there should only be one tyre brand. It is a well known fact that Bridgestone design and manufacture their tyres to suit the Ferrari, no other team get that kind of advantage.
What disappointed me most was Ferrari's (and only Ferrari) reluctance to agree for a chicane to be installed on the final corner. This would have allowed the Michellin teams to race. Also, all the Michellin teams had agreed to forefit any points they may have earned from this situation. So, again a Schumacher victory would have been the outcome! Although this is still a farcical situation, i much rather have seen 20 cars race instead of 6.

 

[Rich]

Everybody miss that the FIA wouldn't sanction the race if they put the chicane in? No points would have been awarded to anybody, but everybody would have raced and the fans would have gotten the show.

 

[ibanezrg520kid]

i yes but i feel that the FIA is also responsible for putting on a good show and by adding the chicane and awarding the points the race would have been much better and the spectators would have gotten their money's worth!

 

[Rich]

The FIA was between a rock and a hard place, it could NOT allow the chicane as that would BENEFIT the Michilin teams!

 

[themaidenmaniac]

Yeh, it was a right bugger today. Im not a hardcore F1 fan by any means, but i find it fair to say that just because the michelin tyres couldnt hold around the track, that is no means to stop the race as it is a single faulty component with a car. However, the problem here is that it ruined the race for so many spectators as so many of the teams use michelin tyres, and lots of money, fans and stakeholders may be lost overall.

Gurj, how did you find out that the bridges are designed for ferraris? Thats MADNESS!!! and tottaly unfair.

 

[ibanezrg520kid]

i feel that the only reason people get to race is because it is entertainment. These drivers would not have the oppoturnity to be there if it weren't for the fans, because without fans there is no race because a sponsor won't pay you to drive around when no one is watching. the racers owe it to the fans to give them the race they paid for and that is part of the FIA's job to sanction these races for the fans and if they are ****ing fans over like they did then that is a bad move. the point is the people on bridgeston would have won anyways because the other tires wouldn't hold up even with a chicane but i would have been better racing. Like i said the reason racers get to race is because of the fans and the big companies will put money where the crowd is no matter what sport so today was a bad business move.

 

[elcid]

Now where are people going to turn to see cars drive?

 

[geetarmonkey]

Now where are people going to turn to see cars drive?

hahahaha

 

[Gurj]

Gurj, how did you find out that the bridges are designed for ferraris? Thats MADNESS!!! and tottaly unfair.

That's hardly a secret bro. This has been going on for years and with the exception of this year, has helped keep the Ferrari team and M.S. at the top. It may sound like I have a problem with Ferrari, but I don't, I'm a fan. But I have to admit that seeing one team totally dominate a sport year after year gets a little bit boring. Obviously that's the other team's problem for not coming up with a design to beat Ferrari, until this year anyway. But to be the only team to have probably the single most important component part of the car designed for you, well simply takes the biscuit. There should be only one tyre company, Michellin, Bridgestone, Goodyear, whoever.

 

[Serratus]

I think Michelin knew that the FIA wouldn't allow a chicane and so suggested it as a way to pass some blame to the FIA. Think about it - Michelin said they could not re-create the tyre problem in the factory so they had no idea why it was happening - they also suggested that their tyre could only do 10 laps before it would fail - how can they possibly know that putting a chicane in will make the tyres safe? An F1 car gets back up to well over 100mph in seconds, so how can one chicane at the start of a 20 second straight slow the cars down enough that they can say the tyre will definitely be safe? I don't believe them, but by suggesting a chicane that they knew the FIA wouldn't do, they can shift some of the blame to the FIA for not sorting out the problem.

Also, there is no way the FIA can sanction sticking a chicane in at the last minute - what if there had then been a serious accident at the chicane? The FIA, or the track, would get so much grief, and probably get sued for putting it there.

It also really annoyed me that the other teams tried to blame Ferrari - it had nothing to do with Ferrari - the FIA had sent a letter on Sunday morning to everyone stating that there was no way a chicane would be put in - end of story. And Paul Stoddart (of Minardi) was such a hippocrit - he comes out of a meeting all high and mighty saying 9 teams have agreed that they wont race unless there's a chicane, then when he sees the chance to get some points he sends his cars out anyway - I don't blame him for going for the points, he just shouldn't try to be so pure about his motives and then do that.

Anyway, just my thoughts - I will wait to see what happens next.

 

[Rich]

US coverage must have been allot better.

Michelin had recreated and daignosed the problem early Sunday morning. The problem was the speed combined with the banking creating too much verticle sideloading. The chicane before the banking [wherever they would have put it specifically] would have forced the cars to have a slower speed through the banking.

It was also speculated that since the track had been resurfaced and ground before the 500, and that Firestone had sorted out allot of tire problems during testing for that race, that Firestone had shared what they had learned with their sister company, Bridgestone, and that was why Bridgestone had a compatible tire for this race.

 

[nickcoumbe]

I am a big F1 fan. Historically I have always supported Schumacher, and Ferrari, although being British I am really keen to see JB and DC do well. The competitive nature of this season makes it completely unmissable for me.

The real problem here is the ridiculous 1 tyre for the weekend rule. This is putting way too much pressure on the tyre manufacturers, and to bring this in in one season makes it impossible for anyone to develop that kind of reliability in such a short time span.

The FIA have made these kind of mistakes before. In Brazil in 2003 the teams were only allowed to bring one tyre compound to the race, and the tyre companies couldn't bring any intermediates (I think they had full wets). It rained, and parts of the track flooded, whilst other parts were dry. This caused another farcicle race, that should have been black flagged after lap 10, but went on almost the full race distance, with only about 6 cars finishing, and a very high attrition rate in terms of accidents. They had to scrap that rule then, and I hope that they see sense. I really can't see the problem with last years formula.

As far as yesterday goes I think that Michelin did a terrible job, but at least they stood up and admitted their mistake. I think that it is symptomatic of the political culture within F1 that these guys couldn't reach the obvious decision and put in the chicane. From the coverage I saw it appears that the stumbling block to that was Charlie Whiting rather than Ecclestone. Ferrari didn't object, but didn't exactly help to force the decision. I can't really blame them, or Minardi and Jordan. At least the fans got to see something.

Either way we all lost out yesterday, and I feel especially sorry for all the people that spent their hard earned cash to get tickets. I only hope that they get the refund they deserve.

 

[Serratus]

US coverage must have been allot better.

Michelin had recreated and daignosed the problem early Sunday morning. The problem was the speed combined with the banking creating too much verticle sideloading. The chicane before the banking [wherever they would have put it specifically] would have forced the cars to have a slower speed through the banking.

It was also speculated that since the track had been resurfaced and ground before the 500, and that Firestone had sorted out allot of tire problems during testing for that race, that Firestone had shared what they had learned with their sister company, Bridgestone, and that was why Bridgestone had a compatible tire for this race.

I heard all this, but also heard other people saying that they still didn't really know why it was happening - right before the race they were still saying it could have been a manufacturing fault for that batch of tyres, or the track surface, or the banking - they still weren't sure. Good public relations by Michelin to manage to shift alot of the blame to the FIA though.
I just heard a statement by the FIA saying that the tyre manufacturers are supposed to make sure that at least one of their allocated tyre types (for the teams to choose from at the start of the weekend) should definitely do the race without a problem, even if it's a bit slower - Michelin didn't do that. The FIA's stance is that they can't break several fundamental rules and the track because someone f**ked up - I can see their point of view completely, although I agree that if there was any way a compromise could have been reached to allow a race then it should have been done for the sake of F1 and us fans - I just don't like the way Michelin is trying to palm off as much blame as possible when I have serious doubts about their claims that they offered a perfect solution and the FIA refused it. But then understandably they're trying to limit the damage to their reputation as much as possible.

 

[Serratus]

I also think that, these days, to change the track fundamentaly (i.e. changing a flat-out section to a chicane) could cause far more problems that it would solve. The cars are so tailored to each track that to add an extra heavy braking zone could result in brake problems - imagine how we all be thinking if they had added a chicane at the last minute and then we had half a dozen cars in the wall after brake failures (one of the most dangerous accidents you can have). I think Michelin put the FIA in an impossible situation - unless a perfect solution could have been found - I don't know what that solution should have been though.
No matter what we all think about who's to blame, etc, it's the fans that got the worst of it - I can't imagine how I would have felt if I had saved to go and it had been my first GP and then that had happened. But still - F1 has gone through worse (Imola 1994 for example) - I think (hope) it will recover.