P-Car fanatic

main reason is that i've been to indy twice now, neither race was that great. Montreal will be new to me. I may well go to indy as well - depending if I have got over my pout

Translog

The FIA failled to see the big picture. They are essentially in the end puting on a show and are in the entertainement business. The fans rule. Yes Michelin f..up, that can and probaly will be dealt with in the future ( 1 tire manufacturer in the future ) but Max M. should have installed the shicane and had the race striken from the championship and still have put on the show despite any protest or the lack of total agreement amoungs al teams ( Ferrari ). For the sake of F1 and the fans and not for the sake of the championship and the rules. He took a much to bureacratic approach. You must be able to see beyond the Box.

Pierre

STRSHP

I look at it this way, Tony and Bernie are two of a kind. Don't really care about the fans, just their own little (very wealthy) worlds. Combining IRL and Champ Car specs while sanctioned different races would reduce Tony's influence. Good for the fans, bad for Tony. With the GPWC in the wings, what does Bernie have to loose by being a total jerk about "the rules"? Michelin have done a Lorena Bobbit on themselves by not doing the engineering required, which so obviously was done by Bridgestone. So we have historically divisive racing figures and a company that can't get it right. And the fans get screwed. I agree with the comments had this happened at Imola, Catyluna, Brazil, or other venues, the fans would not have been as restrained as those at Indy. The potential for serious damage at Monaco is far greater than that at Indy, but for other reasons. Can you really believe the loading at turn 13 is that much different than the Parabolica?

It stinks and I blame in order; Michelin, Michelin, Michelin, Bernie, Tony. I was going to call into Wind Tunnel last night and ask Despain to take the Michelin tire off his desk.

Translog

STRSHP

"It stinks and I blame in order; Michelin, Michelin, Michelin, Bernie, Tony. I was going to call into Wind Tunnel last night and ask Despain to take the Michelin tire off his desk."

I wouls tend to agree with you on that one.

Pierre

peachboy

I didn't really followed on what happen..all I know is that if this would have happened in Montreal, the fans reactions would have been very very ugly.

Fast40th

I'm still shaking my head in disbelief... this was absolutely surreal. I am a serious F-1 fan. And have been lucky enough to work as a track official at several F1 races held in Mexico in the early 90's. Michelin f'd up big indeed... but at least they had the cojones to admit their huge mistake. On the other hand, lets not forget, Bridgestone/Firestone didn't react fast enough in replacing their crappy Wilderness AT tires installed on Ford Exploders. It took several deaths to remedy this. And that is why I'll continue to use Michelin tires in all my vehicles.

The damage done to the image of F-1 in the US is probably irreparable. But imagine if a driver's life was lost instead...

It has been tough educating my NASCAR fan neighbors about F-1... Now I won't even bother...

Davidmichael

I'm going to wait to hear the real story. M did send new tires in plenty of time but the powers that be didn't allow them.

I've been to F1 Indy four times. Luckily didn't go this year.

There is a very cozy relationship betweem Ferrari, F1 and Bridgestone. Too Cozy, and Bernie can't be trusted. I've never trysted Firestone/Bridgestone anyway.

My gut tells me there's a whole lot more to this than reported thus far. I hope Michelin bows out of F1 next year.

STRSHP

The new tires is an interesting wrinkle. Bernie says,"the rules are the rule. No changing of tires". They could have allowed both tire manufacturers to put on new tires for the race and then its even. Chalk it up to a screw up and fine Michelin big money. Fans are happy the race goes on. But Ferrari cries foul and F1 agrees with them. Ferrari get the win handed to them, boos from the fans not with standing. So 10 points goes to Scheuy, who is not going to refuse them, and 10 to Ferrari. Now they have some sort of chance of saving their season. The tifosi are probably really happy about that turn of events.

Smacks of the days when Porsche was winning everything and the rules were changed to make sure they could not dominate. Everything is politics. US F1 fans are the runt of the litter, no power no influence with Tony talking for us. OOH boy. what a cocked hat

P-Car fanatic

I actually read that even the new tires was deemed not safe! apparently they shoulf have useed the barca-spec tires

interesting commentary well articulated

http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press...200605-01.html

LanceK

The FIA is the governing body of F1.

They're job is to enforce the rules....why should they be blamed for doing so?

houldsworth1

My understanding is that the FIA said that Mich. had alternatives. You can't tell me that the cars can't be programmed not to exceed a specific RPM so that is what they should have done to limit the speed of the cars. It is really no different than having bad aerodynamics that won't allow you to take a corner beyond a certain speed.

Bottom line - Michelin screwed the pooch and, as a result, F1 got a huge black eye.

I would not be surprised if this signaled the end of the U.S. GP.

Barry

STRSHP

"interesting commentary well articulated".

P-car fanatic. Not sure I agree. While interesting commentary, it is one sided and attempts to shift all blame to Michelin. While I am on board with that particular sentiment, the fact that the FIA did not anticipate this issue before Sunday is beyond belief. Seems that after the Fri session with the failures, someone should have stood up and said something needed to be done. Think is shows disregard for the US market (they would not have taken that chance at Imola for instance) by Michelin.

I will just buy Toyo, Yoko, Bridgestone, BFG, and might even consider Goodyear, though I doubt that.

dadc4s

I had the good fortune to be a guest of a team sponsor this weekend in Indy and was in the garage, in the luxury suite and able to access team members and hear/ask what was going on. It was fascinating and the media still hasn't got most of this story correct.
The problems were evident Friday, after Schumacer and Zonta of Toyota suffered tire-related accidents (Schumacher was scratched from the race and dispatched home to Germany). That afternoon, Michelin did autopsys on all the teams tires and things didn't look good. There was hope that new tires could be flown in but Michelin stated they could not vouch for the safety of those tires either. By Saturday afternoon, most teams already knew there would be no race! I saw this because of two observations. First, Toyota won the poll. They did this by running a very light fuel load in the qualifying. The rules state that you must start the race with the fuel you had in the tank at the end of qualifying but with no race expected, this was not a problem and Toyota wanted to get a poll(their first) to try and salvage some pride and excitement for their sponsors. In other words, they knew Satruday their would be no race so they went for a poll and got it.
Secondly, their were thousands of loud, singing, vocal Columbians at the track on saturday, there were very few on Sunday. Every other year, the Columbians have been loudly rooting for Montoya on Sunday but not this year. The talk in the pits was that somehow, Williams mangaged to get word to them that there would be no race so they didn't come. I don't know for sure if that is true but their abscence Sunday was very noticeable.
In short, the Michelin teams knew on Saturday they weren't going to race on Sunday, they should never have sold tickets for Sunday, it was an act of bad faith to say the least.
I still had a blast drinking Champagne, eating foie gras and hanging with the Euro Swells, but the race itself was a farce.

P-Car fanatic

it does seem one-sided but I cannot see how anyone but michelin is at fault

STRSHP

dadc4s, thanks for the insight. Peter Windsor or someone said much the same thing about Toyota just before the start. Something about the "important US market" and the pole being important. Your story really does fit well with the "facts" as they seem to be. There was an interesting picture of 5 of the team mangers, sans sound, talking amongst themselves right after a discussion with Bernie. Probably making sure no one broke ranks.

The absence of the singing Coumbians just adds to the feeling of betrayal.