F1 Wtf?????

[VJ]

It was a sad day... Both on the f1 part, but also on the behaviour of the crowd.

Of course, there wasn't much room for a solution: Paul Stoddart (Minardi team boss) compared it to the first race of the season, where he requested to use the 2004 car. All teams agreed (!), FIA agreed, but the stewards didn't allow it.
The essense of the situation yesterday was the same: one or more teams have issues, and the rest and all governing bodies have to agree. So putting in a chicane thus allowing everybody to race would seem to indicate some double standard. Yet, credit where credit is due: Stoddart was willing not to race if Jordan didn't race either. (Imagine a 2 car race....)

As weird and tough a choice as it may seem, I think what happened was the most honest solution: putting in a chicane would disadvantage the Bridgestone runners, who have nothing to do with the matter. Of course, it wasn't much of a spectacle...

Button stated that F1 showed that they are sensible, and put safety over entertainment; even though it will hurt F1.

M|x: The formation lap is part of the race, so more than twelve cars showed up at the start.



Jörg

[Fat Tone]

Yes, the FIA screwed up, big time. The whole thing was a farce, an utter disgrace. RichL's summary seems accurate to me and shows where the blame lies. Michellin cocked up, but FIA were as usual too inflexible for words, and Ferarri, well, they were just Ferarri

BUT, I can't believe some of your attitudes, especially you Doc. Do you really want half of the world's top racing drivers dead just so you can see a show and not have your dollars wasted? Ridiculous.
And cost? I saw one guy interviewed saying it was $85 for race day and $25 for the practice days...if only the European races were so cheap I'd be at half of them. Sure there's all the time, ancilliary costs like travel and acommodation etc but you guys have it easy.

I can hear it now: 'Alonso is dead and Button is in hospital, but at least they had the balls to put on a show.'

To be perfectly honest, I don't care if F1 doesn't go back to the states. There are plenty of other world-leading circuits out there, countries begging to get on the calendar.

That said, lets hope this never happens again. The powers that be in F1 really need shaking up...perhaps this will be a catalyst for some positive change.

[VJ]

What I found weird is that according to CNN, "because no chincane was put in to slow down a high speed corner, 7 teams decided to boycott the race".
That is just misinformation!!! The 7 teams weren't boycotting, they were unable to race.


Jörg

[Dr Mordrid]

All of this whining over speed vs. tires and today during the MIS NASCAR race most the cars were running on their cords before the last two pit stops.

This at twice the speed that would have been achieved during that F1 turn and in cars that weigh twice as much

I still think they're wimps, and yes I've driven in fast races where I finished on skins (or less!).

Personally I think that a lot of F1 drivers would have a s***-stroke if they had to spend 3.5 seconds in a top fuel rail.

Dr. Mordrid

[KvHagedorn]

I wonder if Lime Rock would do for a venue. It's rather small.. 1.53 mile road course, but it's a pretty cool track.

[Dr Mordrid]

My vote goes to Road America, which is located halfway between Green Bay and Milwaukee Wisconsin.



4 miles w/14 turns. This might even be enough turns for Michelin, though turns 1 and 5 might give 'em the heebie-jeebies

If you enjoy real wheel-to-wheel racing RA is a great place, and I've seen it from both sides of the steering wheel.

Dr. Mordrid

[VJ]

There is talk of F1 returning to Las Vegas...


Jörg

[Dr Mordrid]

Maybe the 3/8 mile bullring at the LVMS or its 1.5 mile tri-oval?

Dr. Mordrid

[VJ]

No, the journalists were talking about returning to a parking lot of Ceasar's Palace...



Jörg

[Dr Mordrid]

That should be slow enough for Michelin

Dr. Mordrid

[RichL]

'Doc' Mordrid's redneck willy-waving falls flat once you start considering stuff beyond the mere hairy chested machismo...

For a start, it's not just a case of raw speed. It's a case of tyre loading.
Indycar's may be the Greatest Racecars In The World Everâ„¢, but they also develop considerably less downforce than an F1 car. That's why the surface at the Indy track was crosshatched for greater grip, which is something Michelin beleive may have contributed to the extreme loads on their tyres. Like the TV commentators (two of whom were former F1 drivers) said, "Michelin have been here before and not had this problem, what's changed?"
An Indycar setup for a road course would generate close to 5000lbs of downforce at 180mph. An F1 car would likely be generating about 40% more than that at the same speed.
Although F1 cars tend to be smaller and lighter than Indycar's, the weight differance pales into insignificance compared to the 7000lbs of downforce being focused on the tyres, plus the lateral loading of going into a long bend at 180mph


The drivers wanted to race. Coulthard radioed his team as they were completing the formation lap and said he wanted to go for it. The teams wanted to race and put on a show. Lack of bravery is only an issue if you consider bravery to be playing Russian Roulette with an automatic.

Michelin sent a letter around saying it would be unsafe to use their current tyres on the current track. That means that if and most likely when a tyre let go, Michelin had not only completely absolved themselves of any legal responsibility for the ensuing carnage, but very firmly placed any team that disregarded this warning in the frame. F1 teams have been prosecuted before over 'racing accidents', Williams spent time in the dock when Senna was killed over a possible design flaw or faulty part in the steering, but were later cleared.
Any team racing when their tyre supplier has sent them a clear warning like above would be putting their heads on the block should anyone get hurt.

[schmosef]

So were there sponsorship reasons that prevented them from switching tire brands? Was it logistical? They couldn't make the switch in time? Seems like this issue should have been known for quite some time. It's not like they chose that track on a whim, or did they?

[VJ]

Apparently, the track material was changed; as Bridgestone already supplies for indycar, they have experience on this surface. The track material causes tires to heat up more, which basically caused the Michelin problems.

One solution was to run with higher tirepressure, but this yielded stabilityproblems in the midfield.

I doubt that switching from one tire brand to another is that straight forward. The cars are optimized for a specific tire. Also, this switch should have happenend before qualifying (regulation don't allow tire changes after that).


Jörg

[MultimediaMan]

Um, no...they SAY the surface changed, but it hasn't in several years. Again, this is not news. They have had solid (and current) track information since before the Indy 500. Why did Michelin (and ONLY Michelin) choose now to wave the white flag?

Something stinks.

[Taz]

Yep Michelin new all about the changes to the track, they just chose to bring a sub-standard tyre so they could see how many cars would crash and how many drivers would get injured

If the race had been in any other country then it's likely more of the teams would have raced but due to the fear of litigation there's no way they could go against Michelin's advice.

The FIA are probably quite happy about the way things turned out, it was a good way of punishing those teams that signed up to a break away championship.