Holy $4!+ F1 SPOIL(ED/ER)

[Dean]

Only 6 cars take the start!

All the Michelin teams pitted after the "warm up" lap because the tires Michelin brought were basically defective, and they would not certify them for use.

Welcome to the US; Let the lawsuits begin...

[Dean]

The FIA response letter to Michelin's Letter regarding their tires is a classic.

Expect Michelin stock to tank Mon.

[zpeed]

I'm just walk away from TV and here I'm infront of the computer on the race day.

[Dean]

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN REPRESENTATIVES OF MICHELIN IN INDIANAPOLIS AND THE FIA FORMULA ONE RACE DIRECTOR
19.06.2005


Letter from Representatives of Michelin to Charlie Whiting, the FIA Formula One Race Director:

Saturday June 18 2005
Indianapolis

Charlie Whiting, FIA Race Director and Safety delegate

Dear Mr Whiting

Having analysed and fully evaluated the tyre failures that have occurred over the Indianapolis Grand Prix practice sessions we have been unable to identify a root cause.

The current rules and timescale do not permit the use of an alternative tyre solution and the race must be performed with the qualifying tyres.

Michelin has in the sole interest of safety informed its partner teams that we do not have total assurance that all tyres that qualified the cars can be used unless the vehicle speed in turn 13 can be reduced.

Michelin very much regrets this situation, but has taken this decision after careful consideration and in the best interests of safety at the event.

We trust that the FIA can understand our position and we remain at your disposal if you want any further information.

Pierre Dupasquier
Michelin Motorsport Director

Nick Shorrock
Director of Michelin F1 activities

Cc:
Bernie Ecclestone
Michelin teams
Ron Dennis (West McLaren-Mercedes)
Flavio Briatore (Mild Seven Renault F1)
Frank Williams (BMW WilliamsF1 Team)
Peter Sauber (Sauber Petronas)
Christian Horner (Red Bull Racing)
Nick Fry (B-A-R Honda)
John Howett (Panasonic Toyota Racing)


Letter from Charlie Whiting, the FIA Formula One Race Director, in reply to above letter from Representatives of Michelin:

19 June, 2005

Dear Mr Dupasquier,
Dear Mr Shorrock,

We have received your letter of 18 June.

We are very surprised that this difficulty has arisen. As you know, each team is allowed to bring two different types of tyre to an event so as to ensure that a back-up (usually of lower performance) is available should problems occur. It is hard to understand why you have not supplied your teams with such a tyre given your years of experience at Indianapolis.

That the teams you supply are not in possession of such a tyre will also be a matter for the FIA to consider in due course under Article 151c of the International Sporting Code.

No doubt you will inform your teams what is the maximum safe speed for their cars in Turn 13. We will remind them of the need to follow your advice for safety reasons. We will also ask them to ensure their cars do not obstruct other competitors.

Some of the teams have raised with us the possibility of running a tyre which was not used in qualifying. We have told them this would be a breach of the rules to be considered by the stewards. We believe the penalty would not be exclusion but would have to be heavy enough to ensure that no team was tempted to use qualifying tyres in the future.

Another possibility would be for the relevant teams repeatedly to change the affected tyre during the race (we understand you have told your teams the left rear is safe for a maximum of ten laps at full speed). If the technical delegate and the stewards were satisfied that each change was made because the tyre would otherwise fail (thus for genuine safety reasons) and that the relevant team were not gaining an advantage, there would be no penalty. If this meant using tyres additional to a teams’ allocation, the stewards would consider all the circumstances in deciding what penalty, if any, to apply.

Finally, it has been suggested that a chicane should be laid out in Turn 13. I am sure you will appreciate that this is out of the question. To change the course in order to help some of the teams with a performance problem caused by their failure to bring suitable equipment to the race would be a breach of the rules and grossly unfair to those teams which have come to Indianapolis with the correct tyres.

Yours sincerely,

Charlie Whiting
FIA Formula One Race Director

cc: Bernie Ecclestone
Ron Dennis (West McLaren-Mercedes)
Flavio Briatore (Mild Seven Renault F1)
Frank Williams (BMW WilliamsF1 Team)
Peter Sauber (Sauber Petronas)
Christian Horner (Red Bull Racing)
Nick Fry (B-A-R Honda)
John Howett (Panasonic Toyota Racing)
Jean Todt (Scuderia Ferrari)
Colin Kolles (Jordan Grand Prix)
Paul Stoddart (Minardi F1 Team)

Formula One Press Corps

[Dean]

Dear Mr Dupasquier,
Dear Mr Shorrock,

Thank you for your letter of today's date.

As explained in our earlier letter, your teams have a choice of running more slowly in Turn 12/13, running a tyre not used in qualifying (which would attract a penalty) or repeatedly changing a tyre (subject to valid safety reasons).

It is for them to decide. We have nothing to add.

Yours sincerely,

Charlie Whiting
FIA Formula One Race Director

cc: Bernie Ecclestone
Ron Dennis (West McLaren-Mercedes)
Flavio Briatore (Mild Seven Renault F1)
Frank Williams (BMW WilliamsF1 Team)
Peter Sauber (Sauber Petronas)
Christian Horner (Red Bull Racing)
Nick Fry (B-A-R Honda)
John Howett (Panasonic Toyota Racing)
Jean Todt (Scuderia Ferrari)
Colin Kolles (Jordan Grand Prix)
Paul Stoddart (Minardi F1 Team)

[Dean]

Michelin air freighted in replacement tires which the teams could have run with a penalty, but they decided to be babies and not play. IMHO the 7 teams are equally to blame for the outcome with Michelin. I hope Speed Channel, the sponsors, and a class action for the fans sue the pants of of the teams and Michelin.

[Pat R.]

1. Michelin couldn't guaranteee that the FedExed tires were any safer.

2. There seems to be a lot of blame directed at Ferrari for not going along with the chicane nonsense. The FIA would have nixed that idea with or without Ferrari's vote.

3. Rules are rules and I think the FIA did the right thing- had they built a chicane the race would have ended with just as much controversy and pissed off fans as they have now.

4. I think this all boils down to the teams that are trying to breakaway from F1 are seizing a golden opportunity to make Bernie, Max and Ferrari look bad while they themselves hide behind the white flag of "Safety".

[skimonkey30]

Originally Posted by Pat R.

1. Michelin couldn't guaranteee that the FedExed tires were any safer.

2. There seems to be a lot of blame directed at Ferrari for not going along with the chicane nonsense. The FIA would have nixed that idea with or without Ferrari's vote.

3. Rules are rules and I think the FIA did the right thing- had they built a chicane the race would have ended with just as much controversy and pissed off fans as they have now.

4. I think this all boils down to the teams that are trying to breakaway from F1 are seizing a golden opportunity to make Bernie, Max and Ferrari look bad while they themselves hide behind the white flag of "Safety".

Exactly as I would've put it number 4 being the main reason. All these damn F1 politics suck

[Dean]

Originally Posted by skimonkey30

Exactly as I would've put it number 4 being the main reason. All these damn F1 politics suck

From what I heard on Dave Despain, almost nobody is holding anyone other than Michelin, and the teams responsible, so I'm not sure this was a good play if #4 was there true alterior motive.

I think they bluffed, and the FIA called it, and Michelin and the 7 teams will be the losers in the long run.

[MattR]

OMG!

[MikeK]

Originally Posted by Dean

Michelin air freighted in replacement tires which the teams could have run with a penalty, but they decided to be babies and not play. IMHO the 7 teams are equally to blame for the outcome with Michelin.

I disagree. From what I heard during the commentary in the race, the new tyres had the same defects as the race tyres. The only safe option was to slow the speeds at turn 13. I think the teams on michelins made the right choice. Michelin had proven that the available tyres could fail on turn 13, where Ralf Schumaker cracked his spine when he went off last year.

The fault lies with michelin for causing the problem, then the FIA for not being willing to compromise to keep all the cars in the race.

[Dean]

Originally Posted by MikeK

I disagree. From what I heard during the commentary in the race, the new tyres had the same defects as the race tyres. The only safe option was to slow the speeds at turn 13. I think the teams on michelins made the right choice. Michelin had proven that the available tyres could fail on turn 13, where Ralf Schumaker cracked his spine when he went off last year.

The fault lies with michelin for causing the problem, then the FIA for not being willing to compromise to keep all the cars in the race.

The teams chose not to run. They could have changed tires every 10 laps, or changed their suspension/alignment to reduce the load on that edge of the tire, but they didn't.

People run uncompetitive cars all the time in different series from Autocross to F1. Heck, 4 of the cars on the track Sunday fall into that category. Drive slow, and lose like the other teams do every week, babies.

Heck, I bet the teams could have picked up some lightly used Bridgestone's cheap if they really wanted to race...

Asking a sanctioning body to change the rules when there are no provisions to do so is just silly. You can't change the rules because the majority of the teams don't like them.

One of the best things to think about is if it had been reversed, tire brand and teams. Th FIA made the right decisions.

[AtomicLabMonkey]

I don't really blame the teams for what happened. If someone wants to err on the side of caution when it comes to their driver's life, that's just fine with me. Michelin is the one who brought a shitty tire to the race track, plain and simple. They've been running the USGP for years now and never had a problem before; they made a mistake with what they brought this year, and it cost all of their teams a race, plus championship points. Colossally stupid.

Not to mention the damage this will do to the US F1 fan base & attendance for that event next year... people that spent $1000+ to fly in to see 6 cars tool around will not come back.

[sperry]

While I understand the difficult situation that the FIA was placed in, I can't help but blame anyone but FIA for the farce that was the '05 US GP.

Let's break it down:

Michelin supplied a crap tire. That's their bad. Usually, that means all the Mich teams get boned 'cause the Bridgestone teams are much faster. However, in this particular situation, this was *not* a performance issue, it was a *safety* issue. Michelin did the only thing they could do, and pull their tires from the event. If someone had crashed and died, and if Michelin had known about the defect before hand... well just imagine the cluster fuck that would have been. I have tremendous respect for Michelin for doing the right thing and pulling the tires. (One more thing to note about the issue... Indy was just recently repaved, raising the speeds/loads in 13. Firestone (Bridgestone's sister company) ran their tires there for the 500. There's a good chance the only reason Bridgestone didn't have a tire issue was because they had data that Michelin didn't have.)

Now for the blame on the teams... People say "the teams could have run, and just gone slower in the turns, or changed tires over and over"... yeah right. You put a driver in a car in a race, there is *no* way he's gonna slow because they're supposed to... All it takes is one Michelin team to push it to beat the other Michelin teams, and suddenly all bets are off and someone gets themselves killed. But that's not the important reason w/ the teams shouldn't be faulted for not racing... Michelin told them the tires are not safe... not "the tires are not safe after 10 laps", or "the tires are not safe above 100kph"... Michelin plain old pulled their recomendation for the tires. The teams simply could not race on those tires with the track in the configuration that allowed a full speed run through turn 13. They were not given a viable alternative option.

So it comes back to the FIA. I understand their stance... of course they can't change the rules just because some of the teams have crap equipment. But again, this was a safety issue. I find it *pathetic* that FIA's answer for the safety of 14 of their 20 drivers is "go slower". The FIA's total lack of willingness to even discuss the issue blows me away. At every step they seemed to stonewall any possible compromise. It's like they *wanted* only 6 cars in the "race".

Look at it this way. The FIA attempts to enforce its rules for what reason? Answer: fair competition. If the rules aren't enforced, or if they're enforced unequally, then the trophy they award at the end of the season becomes worthless. If the rules change arbitarily, then what's the point of rules? I can totally understand why they wouldn't budge. But they missed the bigger picture. What good are rules for fair competition if there's no competition!? The only race out there yesterday was to see which loser would end up on the 3rd place podium... and even then, we all knew it wasn't gonna be a Manardi, or that Karthikeyan guy... . Essentially, the FIA's rediculous dedication to the rules eliminated the competition. Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees.

But here's the real bottom line: The FIA is a business. It's a business that's having a hard time succeeding right now. They're constantly changing the rules (irony alert!) to attempt to reduce costs so that the teams can continue to afford to compete. The one market that FIA hasn't been successful in is the US market. This year's US GP had one of the largest crowds ever for a GP here in the states. So what do they do? They take a difficult situation, and totally fuck themselves with it. What's Bernie thinking? "Gee, we've got a pretty big issue w/ this tire thing... I know! How about we use it to completely alienate the US spectators that, for the 1st time in decades, we're just starting to reach!" Not the best way to run a business.

So, while the situation was caused by the poor tires that Michelin brought to the event. The problem was caused by the FIA. They could have simply added the chicane, and guarenteed the top 6 points positions to the Bridgestone teams. Let the drivers race to see who gets to stand a top the podium, but penalize the Michelin teams by only putting 2 points positions out there for 'em to race for. At least then we would have had a race.

[Dean]

Simply adding a chicane... That is crazy talk.

How would you propose to do that, and how do you know it won' cause further issues, and how do you know the tires won't now blow due to the raw acceleration that they will now be under in that turn...

And by the way, NO ONE HAS EVER DRIVEN ON THAT COURSE WITH A CHICANE!

Adding a chicane was never a solutiuon.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Dean

Simply adding a chicane... That is crazy talk.

How would you propose to do that, and how do you know it won' cause further issues, and how do you know the tires won't now blow due to the raw acceleration that they will now be under in that turn...

And by the way, NO ONE HAS EVER DRIVEN ON THAT COURSE WITH A CHICANE!

Adding a chicane was never a solutiuon.

Originally Posted by Dean

Simply adding a chicane... That is crazy talk.

I believe Indy already uses a temporary chicane on that track for other series to keep the speeds down through turn 13.

Originally Posted by Dean

How would you propose to do that, and how do you know it won' cause further issues, and how do you know the tires won't now blow due to the raw acceleration that they will now be under in that turn...

The tires are safe under acceleration, braking, and latteral G's, they are not safe under the high *verticle* G's generated by the banking. Going slower through the banking takes the verticle element out of the equation. Also, if the tire gives up, now it's at 100kph instead of 240kph.

Originally Posted by Dean

And by the way, NO ONE HAS EVER DRIVEN ON THAT COURSE WITH A CHICANE!

If an F1 driver can't adapt to an extra chicane on the course, they should quit their job for a year and run a Solo2 season because they don't deserve to drive a the "top level" of motorsports. Also, by that logic, Rally is an unfathomable sport.

In addition, there was a proposal to allow a 3 lap practice session before the start to let the drivers see the chicane at speed... but Jordan refused because they would have run out of gas during the practice because their qualifying fuel load was so light.

Originally Posted by Dean

Adding a chicane was never a solutiuon.

If may not be a good solution, but it's certainly better than what we saw. 2 Ferraris, 2 Jordans, and 2 Menardis does not a Grand Prix race make.

[Dean]

The gotcha is that from what I understand, there is no rule allowing any of the above. Chicane, practice laps, etc. And like the letter says, it would be unfair to the other teams that brought usable equipment.

The FIA would have been crucified if it had not followed it's own rules, and maybe that was what the 7 teams and Michelin were really hoping for from a political perspective.

I realize it was no grand prix, but the fault lies with the competitors, and equipment suppliers, not the track, or sanctioning body.

And I'm sorry, these are professionals. If you tell them to drive slowly, and they don't, you fire their ass, or get the programmers to slap in a speed limiter.

If I tell someone I am paying 6-8 figures a year to drive my car to go out and lose with dignity, then they better damn well do it. I have no sympathy for any of the 7 teams, or Michelin. They F'd up, and rather than losing with dignity, they took there toys and left. Not very professional IMHO.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Dean

The gotcha is that from what I understand, there is no rule allowing any of the above. Chicane, practice laps, etc. And like the letter says, it would be unfair to the other teams that brought usable equipment.

The FIA would have been crucified if it had not followed it's own rules, and maybe that was what the 7 teams and Michelin were really hoping for from a political perspective.

I realize it was no grand prix, but the fault lies with the competitors, and equipment suppliers, not the track, or sanctioning body.

And I'm sorry, these are professionals. If you tell them to drive slowly, and they don't, you fire their ass, or get the programmers to slap in a speed limiter.

If I tell someone I am paying 6-8 figures a year to drive my car to go out and lose with dignity, then they better damn well do it. I have no sympathy for any of the 7 teams, or Michelin. They F'd up, and rather than losing with dignity, they took there toys and left. Not very professional IMHO.

NASCAR changes the rules mid-race all the time. They take flak for it, but the spectators get a good race. Plus, the solution I proposed means the teams that did show up w/ the proper equipment still get the top six points positions! The official results would be exactly the same as they are now... but at least there would have been a race!

Now, I'm not absolving the teams from any wrong doing. The way they took the warmup lap then parked was clearly a ploy to make FIA look bad in front of the audience. However, the teams tried to come up with a solution and a compromise so they could run, and FIA just gave them the finger in response.

What would FIA have done if both tire manufacturers had realized there was a problem? Just had an empty track on TV for 2 hours? Rules are rules, true, but when you're the sanctioning body, you make up the rules! I have a hard time understanding how guarenteeing the top 6 points positions to the Bridgestone guys, but letting everyone race for the glory is a worse decision than what they ended up doing. So what if FIA gets "crucified" for changing the rules to adapt to the situation? Those fuckers pretty much just destroyed F1 in America. And the next race is in France... what do you think the fans are gonna do at the next GP that's being held in Michelin's home country? You think you saw a lot of trash on the track at Indy... How could the chicane solution have left F1 worse off than it is now?

And I don't understand how you can blame Michelin or the teams. Yes, they brought a bum tire. They only figured it out at 5am the day of the race. What do you suggest they do? Just go ahead w/ the event and get someone killed? The mistake was an honest one, and the decision to stay off the tire in response was the correct decision. What made this a fiasco instead of a footnote was 100% FIA's reaction to the situation. Everyone but them attempted to make sure a race occured, and FIA stonewalled them all.

As far as telling the drivers to back off and expect them to... that's bullshit. Those drivers are paid *because* they're competative. They're paid *because* they're fearless. If you want a driver that will go slow, put an engineer in the car. If you want to "lose w/ dignity" then you park the car... and that's exactly what happened. As a team manager, there's no way I'd bother sending my car out there on unsafe tires w/ instructions to "go slow". I park it. I'm not gonna risk my driver, or my equipment when there's nothing in it for me. With the chicane deal, at least I can race for the remaining 2 points positions, I can give my driver a shot at victory, and I can race to get my sponsors some TV time.

F1 is dying, and FIA is the reason... this issue is just a symptom of the disease.

[Dean]

I agree that F1 is killing themselves, but I think it is a group effort, the FIA cannot do it alone. The politics are huge because the money is huge, and nobody wants to spend that kind of money and lose.

The agreement/contract between the teams and the FIA (Concord or something like that) is some insane piece of legaleze that has little or no flexability as I understand. If the FIA had done anything other than what it did, they would likely been in breach.

If this was a new track, I can understand Michelin's screw up, but it isn't. The track has been around for about 100 years, and the GP has been run in that configuration for 6 years.

OK, maybe I'm pissed at the teams, while you are pissed at the FIA.

The bottom line from my perspective is that Michelin is ultimately responsible for the tire they brought to the event, and the entire fiasco that followed. They started the fire and nobody else was willing or able to put it out, but start it they did none the less.

Another interesting rumor I heard was that not all the teams were showing the wear... Sounds like a setup issue.

[ShawnS]

Anyone know if Michelin's stock took a hit today because of this issue?

[Nick Koan]

Their stock fell 1.3%

Significant, but not horrible.

[MikeK]

Michelin are now offering to refund tickets, as well as buy 20,000 tickets to the 2006 race to give to people who were there this year:


http://sports.chron.com/default.asp?...BGN3966498.htm

[sperry]

Originally Posted by MikeK

Michelin are now offering to refund tickets, as well as buy 20,000 tickets to the 2006 race to give to people who were there this year:


http://sports.chron.com/default.asp?...BGN3966498.htm

Nice...

...course the next news story will be that Indy has decided to raise the price of tickets to $2000 each.

[Dean]

Interesting... This detial in the article is still of interest to me, and I can't find a definitive answer...

"Michelin air-freighted a new compound tire to replace the questionable ones, but F1 officials would not allow them to be used. F1 rules require a team to race on the tires they used during qualifying. "

As I understand, they could run on the air freighted tires, but would be subject to a penalty. I think it was Scott that said they couldn't guarentee those tires either.

I think this is one of the key points. If they could have run on the replacements at speed, then I place the more of the blame on the teams for not wanting to take the penalty and deciding not to race instead. Anyone got any more details on that bit?

[doubleurx]

I just read that the teams were found guilty and will be fined in September. They couldn't find blame with Michelin because they have no contract with Michelin and can only fine/sanction the teams that used the Michelin tires.