F1 US GP

Did anyone watch Formula 1 race 2 days ago at Indianapolis??? I didn't get chance to watch it on Sunday and tday i ve been told that only 6 drivers participated in event and that the rest got suspended for not having right tires or some *** like that. Does anyone know what exactly happened???  

Yep. In a nutshell, Michelin's tires could not make race distance (two Michelin shod cars suffered tire failures over the weekend).

Because of safety concerns, the 7 Michelin teams (14 cars total) did not participate in the race. It's one colossal f*-up.

Here, read all about it:
http://speedtv.com/articles/auto/formulaone/  

They could have raced with those tires, even w/o the chiqane put in. Unfortunately, Michelin felt that they just would not put up with the overtaking and passing at turn 1 because they would have their cars would have to slow down. Apparently, if they know that a race will be difficult, they'd rather take the coward's way out and not race at all. My applause to Tiego Monteiro, who made history by placing third in that race.  

I've only read the headlines and posts on message boards about this, nothing too indepth but from the little I've heard I don't blame the drivers/teams one bit. Did they really suspend everyone who didn't participate, how bad is that going to mess up their championship points rankings?  

I don't mean this to sound the wrong way, but unfortuantely, the US GP meant little in terms of the points standings. It only helped Schumacher and Barrichello. BTW, shouldn't this topic belong in the other topics section? Sorry to be a critic.  

About championship point rankings....Schumacher jumped from 8th to 3rd !!! Only 3 points behind Raikkonen!!! I think its totally unfair that they make all drivers who pulled into pits to pay refund(which is $16 mill.)to all the ppl who came to watch the race. I m not sayin that fans don't deserve to get their money back, but drivers shouldn't be ones who pay.  

I agree. Firstly, Ferrari and Schumacher come out pleased because he's been sucking air the whole season long. I hate how at the post - race interview he tries to acess the situation and acts real professional, like hes got his nose in the air. Although the idea of letting the Michelin drivers race isn't the best idea, considering that we shouldn't want to endanger their lives even further. But another point is that Zonta spun out and Ralf Schumacher hit that same wall in turn 1 like last year. After these two happenings, Michelin can automatically determine that their tires are unsafe and declare them unfit for racing? Personally they should have just let them race and advised them to take that turn slower. Now Schumacher shot up in points and Toyota is pissed off because Trulli had pole and he probabaly could have one it to. Nothing good came out of that race except for Monteiro's third.  

It did suck, but it was a very difficuly decision for the FIA to make... un fortunately they did not make a good one.  Michelin did analyze the tires that blew up and, they were only blowing up after a couple of laps!  They would definately not be safe for an entire race.  Michelin DID make new tires and sent them to the US GP, but since there is a rule that drivers must use their qualifying tires to race, the FIA would not let the drivers use the new tires.  The only other option was to use the old tires but change the track and add the chicane...but again the FIA would rather a farce of a race than change the rules at all.  Its a shame that it happened and it doesnt look to promising that F1 will ever be going back there again.  

Yeah thats a good point unfortunately most F1 fans and even American motorsports fans in general do not realize that it wasn't the driver and teams fault at all. Now I believe that that particular race has deterred many F1 fans away from the sport. I got worried when I saw Rubens Barichello run over that water bottle because I figured that was a start of a hail of debris that could have injured one of the drivers. Thankfully, no one had any problems and everyone finished the race safely.  

the FIA,AMA,and NASCAR are all power hungry that's the just if it,they make rule's then change then at will to have more controll over racer's and team's, the FIA could have said every team get's new tire's debate-over race-on then fix it after the race. The F1 team's can buy more than 2 set's of tire's with the money they have it just go'es to show u they (FIA) care more about controll and rule's than driver safty  

I'm going to have to go ahead and sort of disagree with the general consensis. I blame the drivers / teams but mostly michelin. they were the ones who brought crap tires to the race. according to the f1 web site the michelin did fly in new tires but then claimed that they were unsafe as well. i think the fia handled the situation as well as they could. you can't just change the rules because some teams had crap equipment. the only compromise i could have see would have been to put in the chicane and then simply award the top 6 points paying spots to the bridgestone teams in the order they finish the race and then award the last 2 points paying spots to the michelin teams that finished the best. and then sort out the various complaints or team protests after the race. but in reality that too would have resulted in a no sancioned race and then no one would have ended up with point. all you would have gotten out of that was a better show for the fans. the teams should be punished although there hasn't been any specific dicision made as far as what will happen as a result. no suspension have been or ever were made and no fines have been handed out yet. just to clear up any misconseptions or misunderstandings. i do have to say from a fans perspective if i had taken time off and spent the money to go to the race and had to watch the race that took place i would have been pretty upset as well. and i have a feeling a simple refund of the ticked price will not make most of the upset fans much happier. its just an rediculous situation all around  

No matter how you look at the situation, its mostly just a political mess. I think that the FIA has to refine alot of its rules and regulations and that this should be prevented in the future GPs by allowing teams to bring more tires of different compounds, just so they are ready for anything.  

Just saw this on ESPN.com

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?series=f1&id=2102297

Yeah the whole situation sucked but what can ya do, the lawyers in this story are asking for too much imo.  It's good to see that Michelin is doing something about it, but if I went I'd still be a bit upset.  

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