The FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the self-described "pinnacle of motorsport," covered itself in shame on Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as only six of 20 cars took the start.....The trouble started in Friday practice, when the Toyotas of Ralf Schumacher and test driver Ricardo Zonta both suffered failures of their left-rear Michelin tires....Michelin, after intense research, was not able to pinpoint the cause of the failures....The FIA denied requests, and refused to compromise....The 100,000-plus fans who paid hard-earned money to travel to Indy and see a race were cheated
http://www.thecarconnection.com/Enthusiasts/Motorsports_and_Racing/F1_Drivers_Drop_Out_of_Indy_in_Protest.S247.A8790. html

If that wasnt bad enough the guy that head up this flying circus had this to say about my dream girl Dannica Patrick...

Among the comments Ecclestone made in the interview and to Patrick was that “Women should be all dressed in white like all other domestic appliances.”
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050622/SPORTS01/50622015/1004/SPORTS

Bernie , do me and the rest of my country a favor and dont come back ...go back to france ...where you and your people belong , dont come into my country and insult us with your comments and behavior ...

Just so you all know , Firestone was the tire on this years Indy 500 winning car . Each set of tires going well over 20 laps @ 220mph before needing changing ...the "superior" michelins couldnt handle one high speed turn at indy at maybe 170-180 mph

on a side note , anyone see Andretti won the Infiniti Pro series race ?

Looks like Tony George is having a bad year. :helpless:

Let's all celebrate!! :lildevil:

Helping Tony out is Champ Car with their offer to accept the F1 tickets for their June 26th Cleveland race. :)

F1 IS the pinnacle of motorsports.
OK, the guy is a morAn. That does not make it a flying circus :mad:

Something was not ok. What would you like them to do? Race anyways so the fans could have a nascar-like experience?

And I'm not gonna comment on the "go back to France" part...

Sorry dude, but this time I don't agree with you.

Too bad what happened last weekend....now it will get even less coverage in the US (if that was even possible)

Personally, Danica doesn't do anything for me....

F1 IS the pinnacle of motorsports.
OK, the guy is a morAn. That does not make it a flying circus :mad:

Something was not ok. What would you like them to do? Race anyways so the fans could have a nascar-like experience?

And I'm not gonna comment on the "go back to France" part...

Sorry dude, but this time I don't agree with you.
well here is the issue , why wasnt michlein allowed to use another set of tires ?
why werent the teams allowed to run on another manfs tire ?
why wasnt a chincane simply instaleld to slow the cars down as requested?
why did michellin wait this long to finnaly announce tony george didnt give F1 any testing time ?

plain and simple F1 didnt care about the fans , Other forms of motorsport will make every effort to give the fans a good race ....they didnt want to make consessions , they didnt want to negotiate or come to some sort of comprimise to the fans would get a race , insated they took our money and went back to europe ....but before they did the insulted our forms of motorsport and our drivers ....

Looks like Tony George is having a bad year. :helpless:

Let's all celebrate!! :lildevil:

Helping Tony out is Champ Car with their offer to accept the F1 tickets for their June 26th Cleveland race. :)
is that true ?
hadnt heard it .....
they could use more than the 300 fans that had been showing up lately ... :histeric:

Here's what I have heard:

why wasnt michlein allowed to use another set of tires ?
I thought there was something in the rules about having to qualify/race on the same set the whole weekend....unless there's some safety issue (maybe this was one of them)

why werent the teams allowed to run on another manfs tire? sponsorship issues

why wasnt a chincane simply instaleld to slow the cars down as requested? Ferrari opposed it....they run Bridgestone's and they have been suffering all season because of it....this was their chance. Its a bit sleazy but I totallt understand. Why give up your advantage?

why did michellin wait this long to finnaly announce tony george didnt give F1 any testing time ? dunno

plain and simple F1 didnt care about the fans , Other forms of motorsport will make every effort to give the fans a good race ....they didnt want to make consessions , they didnt want to negotiate or come to some sort of comprimise to the fans would get a race , insated they took our money and went back to europe ....but before they did the insulted our forms of motorsport and our drivers .......yeah I tend to agree with you there, F1 needs more fan appreciation for sure.

Heres a well written perspective.

What happened, or perhaps more important, what didn’t happen at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on June 19th will have ramifications far beyond the events of that day. The prospect of Formula One ever racing at Indianapolis again, or even in America, is in doubt. The future of Formula One itself is in doubt. (http://www.motorsport.com/magazine/feature.asp?C=WindTunnel&D=2005-06-22)

However, the Michelin teams had offered to race for no points and were willing to let the Bridgestone runners start ahead of them -- anything to get the chicane built. But the attempts at compromise were rejected.

Apparently some would rather have a meaningless event -- I refuse to call it a race -- with only six competitors than make a compromise, which respects the fans, gives them what they came to see and retains a modicum of respect for the sport’s reputation. If a compromise could not be reached, it is much, much bigger than Michelin’s tyre mistake.

The rules are the rules and they have to be maintained for any sport to function. But when a sport implodes from its own inability to retain a margin of flexibility in a crisis, it’s putting itself in disrepute. The situation at Indianapolis was for F1 as a whole to deal with, not just Michelin. The tyre company may have initially been at fault but it became everyone’s problem.

For the good of F1 -- for the fans especially, the sponsors, the teams, the television companies, the circuits, for everyone involved and the sport itself -- a compromise should have been found. Nobody, including the governing body, should be so self-serving and disrespectful to not feel a duty to resolve problems for the good of all. But this has become the norm.

Something was not ok. What would you like them to do? Race anyways so the fans could have a nascar-like experience?

Before you badmouth NASCAR, take a look at the technical knowhow in use there. If you look at the weight of the cars, the engine size and the restrictions on carb size and heads, they get a lot of horsepower the hard way! They don't have pcm's, traction control, adjustable wings, ohc or fuel injection. Thier cars weigh 3 times what an F1 does and they have smaller tires, yet they still run over 200 mph on some 1.5 mile tracks. Without restrictor plates they would easily run 240 at Talladega. I don't see a Nascar experience as such a bad thing!:thumbsup:

I don't see a Nascar experience as such a bad thing!:thumbsup:

I've experienced Talledega, Daytona and Bristol! :thumbsup:

I've also experienced Long Beach, Suzuka and Monza! :thumbsup:

I hope to add the experiences of Le Mans and Bathurst to my dozen or so other tacks and series before I die. :cool:

Before you badmouth NASCAR, take a look at the technical knowhow in use there. If you look at the weight of the cars, the engine size and the restrictions on carb size and heads, they get a lot of horsepower the hard way! They don't have pcm's, traction control, adjustable wings, ohc or fuel injection. Thier cars weigh 3 times what an F1 does and they have smaller tires, yet they still run over 200 mph on some 1.5 mile tracks. Without restrictor plates they would easily run 240 at Talladega. I don't see a Nascar experience as such a bad thing!:thumbsup:
First off all, I said "NASCAR experience" meaning to see multiple crashes. I don't think that counts as "badmouthing. Do I make myself clear now?

That being said, even if I like all kind of racing, NASCAR stands low in my book. Specially due to tracks like Talladega.

Frankly, I don't like "plate racing" either, but watching glorified go carts with traction control and pampered drivers doesn't spin my wheels either. I watch very little racing anymore. At my stage in life, I'm finding things to do that don't involve huge crowds or hours in front of the boob tube!:)

Frankly, I don't like "plate racing" either, but watching glorified go carts with traction control and pampered drivers doesn't spin my wheels either. I watch very little racing anymore. At my stage in life, I'm finding things to do that don't involve huge crowds or hours in front of the boob tube!:)
Heh, heh!! I completely agree with you... and there is a 20 year difference between us.

Bernie , do me and the rest of my country a favor and dont come back ...go back to france ...where you and your people belong , dont come into my country and insult us with your comments and behavior ...

What exactly is that supposed to mean ? :hmm:

Bernie's a brit by the way. He does need to go, that's for sure.

yup i know hes a brit ...boy everyone here hated that line ....the next stop on the f1 tour was FRANCE ....oh well ....

maybe its not in style to make fun of france anymore ?

maybe its not in style to make fun of france anymore ?

France bashing is always in style!! Especially since they feel it's ok to bash us.

And the FIA is a French organization, isn't it? That's what I thought you meant.

The FIA is the real culprit in the situation at Indy. Any sanctioning body that allows more than one tire manufacturer is leaving themselvs wide open for such a fiasco. And by showing their unwillingness to make an exception to the rules or put a temporary rule in place they placed their "holy rules" above their respect for the paying fan base. Bad move on their part. Let them rot I say. Looks like it is time for a new series to effectively replace F1. The FIA is too big for their britches and obviously Bernie doesn't wield the power that everyone thought he did.

Michelin is certainly no hero for not doing their homework but the FIA is the sanctioning body that allowed this to happen and allowed it to progress to the point that it did. THEY are to blame, not Michelin. I would say that Michelin did what they had to with calling the tires unsafe and then went beyond the call to fly in replacement tires that they were effectively prevented from using by the FIA.

Having more than one tire supplier automatically puts the series at risk due to potential tire problems like this at some point. Having more than one tire supplier is just another example of the greed evident in F1. The whole thing is just marketing anyway so why not have a spec tire like every other pro series in the world and prevent this type of problem?? FIA greed. That is why. It is not like there is an unlimited technical playing field for tires anyway. The tire dimensions are carefully spec'd and controlled. The stupid grooving of the tires is mandated in the rules. So is rim width, rim diameter, etc.... None of it is open at all so there is really very little for the tire manufacturers to play with the optimize the tire so it is bound to cause the problem like at Indy. F1 tires are just another example of optimizing a certain part to a certain set of rules....nothing to do with "tire technology" or developing "better" tires for passenger cars or anything. That is why it is called marketing and not tire development....LOL.

Any one remember NASCAR's tire war when Hoosier got involved. Same same. The racing actually went to hell with the softer and softer tires causing problems and tremendous issues with marbles and one groove racing. At one race Goodyear had to pull their tires due to unsafe conditions and they allowed their teams to run on Hoosier's. NASCAR realized the problem was ultimately their making and responded with temporary rule amendments and changes to prevent it in the future.

F1 > NASCAR "America's Pinnacle racing"

But I love SCCA racing the best. I like seeing street cars racing from money out of their pocket then multi million dollar cars doing circles 400 times

France bashing is always in style!! Especially since they feel it's ok to bash us.

And the FIA is a French organization, isn't it? That's what I thought you meant.

Last I checked, they were based in Switzerland after having been based in Paris, though that didn't make them french, was merely a base of operations.

Stoneage, didn't realize the next stop is France. As to the bashing, I'll avoid the subject.

Bbob , i didnt know you were a race fan ....makes sense that you are but nice to know ..

Blackout ,if you ask me the IRL is the pinnicale of american motorsport ....well acutually it was pre 1996 Cart/Usac Indy cars .....I was sick when "tony the sellout george" admitted they were going to run nascar at indy ...Indy is hallowed ground for me and the past few generations of my famly....Indy is for the "Big Cars" as we call them ....But nowadays Nascar at indy is a show in itself , even my mind really changed after lap 2 when i attended the ingaural brickyard 400....same with f1 at indy ....and after 1996-97 the brickyard 400 is whats allowing Tony George to pay the electric bill ....

In 10 years the Indy tour bus will stop at Formula One turn 1 at indy and tell the tourists about the days when F1 ran at indy ....

Hotrod and eric , so the FIA was based in france ? so did it spring out from the whole Lemans deal ?I know nowadays they controll not only f1 but WRC , FIA GT and all them diffrent sportcars series and even have a hand in the american lemans series right ?

Ack you're asking too much. What I can say is that it's a non-profit international organisition which doesn't really have a home country as such. But for where it came from, I can only redirect you to www.fia.com

Found some interesting stuff there.

First, questions to Max Mosley, FIA President, about the US Grand Prix:
http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2005/June/220605-01.html

Then, there will be a press conference on Wednesday at 3 PM French time (That's 9 AM US Eastern time) following a World Motor Sport Council meeting because of this:
http://www.fia.com/resources/documents/1962994930__21_06_2005_wmsc_letters.pdf

Needless to say, this should be interesting.

Developments:

29.06.2005

The FIA welcomes the announcement made by Michelin of a compensation package for the spectators of the 2005 United States Grand Prix.
However, the FIA strongly contests the version of events detailed in Michelin’s press release of June 28 and rejects the views expressed in Edouard Michelin’s widely publicised letter to the FIA President of June 27.

The exchange of correspondence between the FIA President and the Chief Executive of Michelin was deliberately leaked to members of the Press, we are therefore placing the complete exchange of correspondence in the public domain.

To read the correspondence please click here (http://www.fia.com/resources/documents/952453833__29_06_2005_FIA_Michelin_letter.pdf).

29.06.2005

Following today’s hearing in Paris the FIA World Motor Sport Council has found the seven Michelin teams:

- guilty of failing to ensure that they were in possession of suitable tyres for the 2005 US Grand Prix; but with strong, mitigating circumstances;
- guilty of wrongfully refusing to allow their cars to start the race, having regard to their right to use the pit lane on each lap;
- not guilty of refusing to race subject to a speed restriction, having regard to the absence of any detailed plan for this;
- not guilty of combining to make a demonstration for the reason that they had hoped to race until the last minute;
- not guilty of failing to inform the Stewards of their intention not to start (Article 131) for the same reason.

The World Motor Sport Council has decided to adjourn discussion of any penalty to an extraordinary meeting of the WMSC to be held on 14 September 2005, when the WMSC will also examine:

- what steps have been taken by the seven Michelin teams and/or their tyre supplier to compensate the Formula One fans and repair the damage to the reputation of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and to the image of Formula One;
- what steps have been taken by the Michelin teams to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.

Link to the full press conference which explains the guilty/not guilty decisions + questions:
http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2005/June/290605-02.html

interesting .....still doesnt look like much is being done YET ...