A black day for Formula 1
I think today will likely be the last time F1 comes to America. The FIA asserted their freakish rules to the max today which resulted in an Indy GP with only 6 cars. The reason? Michelin discovered a problem with their tyres after friday practice and refused to certify the tyres for race distance. One Michelin exploded on Ralf Schumacher's car in qualifying and backed him into the wall - again - at 200mph, and Michelin couldn't find a fault. Michelin said they'd allow the tyres to race if a chicane was put into turn 13 to slow the cars down so their tyres didn't get the massive vertical loading that turn puts on them. Max Mosely, Charlie Whiting and the FIA said "no way - if you do we'll pull the sanction and this won't be an official race." As a result, all the Michelin teams garaged their cars after the warmup lap leaving only Ferrari, Minardi and Jordan to run on their Bridgestones.
This is yet another political farce brought about by the FIA's tyre rule change this year. If they hadn't forced the manufacturers to only be allowed one tyre all weekend, then the manufacturers wouldn't have had to change their fabricating techniques - the reason the Michelins all failed on turn 13.
The FIA helpfully screwed over all the Michelin teams even further by telling them Michelin should have supplied them with alternate tyres for just this eventuality. And that if they hadn't, then Michelin was to blame. Pouring more salt into the open wound, the FIA then had the gall to tell the teams that they could either use their existing tyres and run more slowly through turn 13, or make continous tyre changes all through the race and get penalised for that because then they'd be breaking this stupid new tyre rule.
As if this all wasn't bad enough, the typically crass and low-brow American public started throwing beer cans and bottles on to the track to show their contempt, without a thought for the six drivers out racing.
The FIA has overstepped its mark one too many times. I wonder if the WGPC might actually gain ground because of this, and next year we won't be watching the FIA Formula 1 races, but instead be watching World Grand Prix Championship instead.
This is yet another political farce brought about by the FIA's tyre rule change this year. If they hadn't forced the manufacturers to only be allowed one tyre all weekend, then the manufacturers wouldn't have had to change their fabricating techniques - the reason the Michelins all failed on turn 13.
The FIA helpfully screwed over all the Michelin teams even further by telling them Michelin should have supplied them with alternate tyres for just this eventuality. And that if they hadn't, then Michelin was to blame. Pouring more salt into the open wound, the FIA then had the gall to tell the teams that they could either use their existing tyres and run more slowly through turn 13, or make continous tyre changes all through the race and get penalised for that because then they'd be breaking this stupid new tyre rule.
As if this all wasn't bad enough, the typically crass and low-brow American public started throwing beer cans and bottles on to the track to show their contempt, without a thought for the six drivers out racing.
The FIA has overstepped its mark one too many times. I wonder if the WGPC might actually gain ground because of this, and next year we won't be watching the FIA Formula 1 races, but instead be watching World Grand Prix Championship instead.
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