What a farce! A tyre manufacturing problem has led Michelin to advise teams running their tyres NOT to race. Huge political maneuvers and last minute brinkmanship has been occurring in the hour or so before the race, leading to cars taking the grid but are publicly stating they will come in the out lap: On the instructions of the tyre manufacturer.
It’s all hugely farcical, and almost certainly means that the US Grand Prix won’t happen this year in any meaningful way, and based on such a farce it probably means the race - one of the best circuits of the year - won’t happen next year either. Very much the self-made death of Formula 1 in North America.
Obviously safety must come first, but there’s a consensus that it could all be solved by placing a chicane on the circuit, which most teams agree with. But politics gets in the way, and the people that lose out are the 120,000 fans at the circuit (Who don’t even know of the machinations occurring, and are likely to go ballistic when most cars peel off), and the millions of people around the world tuning in to perhaps the biggest sporting none-event in memory (Think the Grand National cancellation but with a global audience).
Martin Brundle did a great job on giving Bernie Ecclestone a piece of his (and the 8 million UK viewers) mind, and the ITV-F1 have been apologising profusely about things. Pure and utter madness.
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June 23rd, 2005 at 8:16 pm
Typical of the farce that is F1, I used to watch it at one stage in my life but it has become an extremely money orientated game like most sports in the world and has thus lost interest!
Good old MB giving BE a piece of his mind! Ahhh, bring back the old days!!!!!!!
June 30th, 2005 at 1:15 pm
[...] A few days ago, a curious ruling was handed down to the teams that refused to race in Indianapolis. Doctorvee has a good analysis of the judgement, from a fans perspective. One that I share. [...]