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.