I think i'm the only Formula One fan here on MB.com, but i'm sure a lot of you will be interested in what happened at the USGP today. In practice on Friday, both Toyota's spun and crashed within minutes of each other, it was first thought to be a tire failure which it was. Well it turns out that every Michelin tire had serious safety defects and with the massive sweeping turn 13, it was guaranteed almost every Michelin car would eventually fail over the 73 lap race distance.

 

It then turned into a huge political battle with all 7 Michelin teams saying the only way they will participate in the race is if the FIA puts a chicane in the middle of turn 13 to slow the pace down which would most likely prevent any tire failures. The officials at Indy said they would gladly put a chicane in but the FIA stepped in and said if they do that, they will revoke their sanction of the race.

 

Micheline even offered to have new tires flown in immediately for all their Michelin teams, but because they were not FIA certified the FIA rejected that basically leaving Michelin teams no choice but to not race.

 

The Michelin teams have a large majority with 7 teams (14 cars) over Bridgestone who has only 3 teams (Ferrari, Jordan, Minardi), so if the Michelin teams dropped out, there would be only 6 cars racing.

 

The FIA, Michelin, Indy officials, and team principals all negotiated up to the second that the race started and none could reach an agreement, as a result all Michelin teams pulled out. The race began with all cars on the grid, they all did their formation lap and all 14 Michelin cars pulled into the garages leaving only 6 Bridgestone cars on the grid and the race began.

 

What happened was a complete disgrace and it could not have happened at a worse time. The FIA is dominant in every part of the world, the only place they're struggling to develop a solid fanbase is in America, and just so it turns out, this years crowd at the USGP was the largest in history. There were more people in attendance than any Brickyard or Indy 500 race and what do the fans get to see? 6 cars leisurely doing 73 laps. The fans were pissed and rightfully so, many were throwing trash and debris and all sorts of stuff onto the track and the boos never ended.

 

The FIA basically shot themselves in the foot with this move, if this happened ANYWHERE else it would not have been as big of a deal. The largest USGP in history turned into the biggest farse in Formula One history and today is a sad day for the sport.

No you're not. I was actually supposed to go to Indy but backed out since I needed to travel last week and next week.

 

The race was utter bulls*** and this is the end of F1 in the USA. Almost all the fans in the country were at Indy today, and after what went down they will never go back. Its the typical old school european bulls*** politics and it doesn't fly.

 

f*** Bernie.

You are not the only Formula One fan in this forum, what happen last Sunday was a turning point in formula one , i think it would be the last gp for a long time in america. I wasent sure to go or not, heck i think i made the right choice, had i gone i would probably had spend 1000 dls to see two cars practice against a bunch of backmarkes.

 

 

BTW Schumacher Fan right here what about you?

I'm an F1 fan too. The FIA is so stupid and slow to make changes. The fact that they wouldn't let Michelin bring in special rubber for the track was such crap and never would've happened if this was NASCAR. The FIA is run by idiots, but these are the same people that took like 5 years to realize the cars were driving themselves and making the racing boring.

 

Anyway, I'm a Honda fan. Even though they suck. A LOT.

I like to watch F1 just because I'm amazed with the cars... the racing is less than spectacular.

 

Looked like 'dega, didn't it? Well, I bet the folks at Indy weren't under the influence of Budweiser.

 

 

 

 

This is the advantage of having ONE tire for a series.

You are not the only Formula One fan in this forum, what happen last Sunday was a turning point in formula one , i think it would be the last gp for a long time in america. I wasent sure to go or not, heck i think i made the right choice, had i gone i would probably had spend 1000 dls to see two cars practice against a bunch of backmarkes.

 

 

BTW Schumacher Fan right here what about you?

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I'm a Mclaren fan.

 

The fans are going to be getting a refund, but now there's a huge dispute as to who is responsible for it. Tony George wants the FIA to deal with it and the FIA is demanding that Michelin refund the fans, this will probably end in a lawsuit and I wouldn't be surprised to see the FIA end the tire rivalry and allow the highest bidder exclusive rights for next season.