Formula One To America: Drop Dead

At the 2002 U.S, Grand Prix at Indianapolis, Ferrari spit in the eye of American auto racing fans when uber-driver Michael Schumacher allowed his teammate Reubens Barrichello to pass him on the final straightaway to take the victory. Schumacher's gesture was quid pro quo for an action a few weeks before, when the team had ordered Barrichello to move aside to allow Schumacher to win his hometown Austrian Grand Prix.

Well, if what happened at Indianapolis in 2002 was one maximum loogie, the travesty that was the 2005 U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis was more like a full-on drop kick to the groin.

Via TiVo, I began watching about 45 minutes after Speed Channel began broadcasting what has to be one of the biggest business blunders in sports history. Here's what happened and why.

After a very scary Ralf Schumacher crash in practice last week, French tire manufacturer Michelin determined that the crash was caused by a tire failure that occurred in turn 13. Due to a six degree bank in that turn -- the only bank on the entire F1 circuit -- the vertical G load on the tire rose so high, that the tire actually separated between the edge of the tire and the belt. Here's Josh Katinger from Fast Machines with more:

Michelin supplies all but 3 of the teams that run the F1 circuit with tires. They got their tire compound all wrong this weekend and the tiers were failing in the super high speed corner onto the main straight. Last year Ralf Schumacher broke his back crashing there. This year in practice he crashed again and was not going to participate in the Grand Prix as a result. Long story short it was a potentially life threatening situation for anyone running a Michelin shod car.

Michelin fessed up to this foul up and made no bones about the fact that they screwed up and that something had to be done for the safety of the drivers. They wanted to fly new tires in for all the teams on race day. Of course the F1 rules say you must use the same set of tires for qualifying and the race and cannot change the tires unless they are punctured or going flat. So then they tried to have an additional chicane put in to slow the cars on the super high speed turn and front straight. These requests was denied by the FIA. Max Mosely gave his denials from London where he received an official letter from Michelin stating the severity of the safety situation.

What happened next was one of the more bizzare scenes in all of motor racing history. After a run-up to the race where everyone was wondering whether the 14 cars that drive on Michelin would show up on the starting gird, they actually did.

Whereafter they completed one lap, filed back onto pit road, and headed into the garage, leaving the six cars running on Bridgestone tires, including the two entries from Ferrari, to finish a race that looked more like an F1 testing session. Here's what the Michelin teams had to say folowing the race:

After final data from Michelin became available at 06.30 on Sunday morning it became clear that Michelin were not able to guarantee the safety of the drivers. Numerous discussions and meetings took place to find a safe solution to the problem. Every possibility for the race to go ahead in a safe manner was explored. The only practical solution was for a chicane to be installed prior to Turn 13 and nine of the teams were prepared to run under these conditions even forgoing championship points or by allowing non-Michelin teams to take top positions on the grid.

Unfortunately all proposals were rejected by the FIA.

Safety is always the first concern of any team and the FIA. Regrettably the teams were obliged to follow Michelin's requirements not to race.

You can imagine what the nearly 150,000 race fans in attendance thought of this -- especially as no announcement had been made on the track loudspeakers explaining anything at all about what was happening. But it didn't take long for word to spread, and the boos began cascading down on the track, along with water bottles, beer cans and other debris.

Much to my amazement, despite the fans' obvious ire, most stayed in the stands to watch the rest of the race. Much to my amazement as well, I stayed glued to the couch, unable to look away as the F1 circuit committed suicide in the American marketplace -- and to the credit of the Speed Channel team covering the race, they didn't hesitate to land multiple body blows on everyone involved.

About the only folks talking any sense trackside were Scotsmen Jackie Stewart and David Coulthard. As many international racing fans are aware, 3-time world champion Stewart retired from the sport after seeing too many of his friends die on the circuit. He was very direct in telling the Speed Channel reporter that installing the chicane on Turn 13 (a change the track managment at Indy was more than ready to make) was the only logical solution all around. Click here for an image of what a chicane looks like.

As for current F1 driver Coulthard, he seemed to be the only person involved who immediately understood the magnitude of yesterday's blunder:

“The reality is that mature adults were not able to come to a resolution that would have allowed us to put on the show that everybody wants to see in Formula One,” Coulthard said. “I am so, so sorry for what we’ve done because there was a way out. There was a way to create a solution to let us go racing. Yes, it wasn’t the fault of Bridgestone that Michelin had a problem here, but we are all traveling the same circus together and we are all working together. There has to be a compromise that allows a way of penalizing the Michelin runners and benefiting the Bridgestone runners because of the fault that Michelin had.”

Instead, we were treated to another 1-2 Ferrari finish, the fourth in the six years that the circuit has been stopping at Indianapolis. And because I stuck around for the entire joke of a race, I made sure I was still watching when Schumacher, Barichello and Jordan's Tiago Monetiero got ready to head for the traditional post-race presentation of the trophies.

It was then that we discovered that all of the officials of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway were boycotting the ceremony, leaving one unfortunate PR flack on hand as the jeers cascasded down from on high. I was glad I did keep watching, as it meant I got to see Barrichello tell the flack that he wasn't sure they should be going to the podium at all in anticipation of the reception they would get.

As for the aftermath, it would appear that this race, one of the best on the F1 circuit in terms of attendance, may well be dead. I simply can't see how Indy head Tony George could possibly let F1 anywhere near the Brickyard after yesterday's disgrace. Further, nearly 150,000 of the most dedicated racing fans on the planet, folks who paid an average of $100 each for a ticket, went home stiffed.

Could you imagine NASCAR ever making such an incredible mistake? How about IRL or Champ Car? Hell, you wouldn't see behavior like this on a go-kart track at a Six Flags amusment park.

Funny enough, I had actually been making a point of following F1 very closely this season -- especially since Ferrari's long-time dominance seemed to be coming to an end. Now, as far as I'm concerned, they can pack up their race, never to return to American shores ever again.

Now I know many veteran F1 watchers will chime in saying that yesterday's debacle was the result of F1 politics. I just don't care. All I know is that I was looking forward to a race, and what I got was a magnitude less exciting than "Bubble Day" during Indy qualifying.

Who's to blame? I certainly don't blame Michelin -- who deserve credit for revealing what they knew, and disclosing it immediately in the interest of driver safety. Which means the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of FIA, as they refused to sort out any kind of compromise that might have actually taken the interests of the fans into account.

On Saturday night, as I headed home to Virginia from RFK Stadium after D.C. United's 2-0 win over the New England Revolution, I told my girlfriend how I was going to watch the race on Sunday, and was thinking of making arrangements to take my father to the 2006 U.S. Grand Prix at Indy.

Hey Dad, NASCAR's looking like a much safer bet these days. How does Las Vegas sound to you?

UPDATE: Off Wing friends Steve MacLaughlin and Dave Ciskowski were both at the race and have some thoughts. First, here's Steve, who we're welcoming back to the Blogosphere after a long absence. F1 insider that he is, Steve actually knew what was going on as it happened, unlike most of the crowd:

The spectacle that was. The race that wasn't. I had started drafting some thoughts on how they could improve the promotion of the USGP but that seems a moot point at the moment. A bad day all around for everyone involved.

Having spent that last three days and a few dollars at the circuit it is fair to say that this is a new low in Formula 1.

Here's Dave, who seems to be gripped by a much more visceral anger, and who can blame him?

When the cars lined up and took the parade lap, we were all quite pumped, ready for the start. But as the lap completed, we watched the giant video screens to see the 14 cars pulling into the garage. At least among the fans in our section, it was pretty clear what that meant. Even so, nobody had truly expected things to come to this. Shock was followed by anger. We ended up staying until the 40th lap or so, but that really was only because we were stunned.

It was bad enough for us, who live in the area. (My brother's family didn't make the trip from Fairfax, thankfully.) But I can't imagine the reaction of fans who traveled to Indy. As a rough guess, I would estimate that 60+% of the fans traveled more than an hour to get here... and maybe 25% were from out of the country. How would I react if I'd come from Brazil or Italy? I'm surprised that there weren't riots.

Indeed, there were a number of yahoos who threw stuff on the track, and they deserve to be condemned. Then again, when you have a crowd of almost 150,000 people show up for a race, there's bound to be an idiot or two on board.

To get in touch with even more anger from the perspective of the rabid F1 fan, check out the following discussions over at Speedtv.com:

MICHELIN SHOULD REFUND ALL SPECTATORS TICKETS

Did Michelin have this problem last year?

Fixing the USGP track.

There's more from the hive mind at Sportsfilter.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Steve just dropped off an email that I thought I'd share:

All I can say is un-f******-believable...Ultimately...it was a black eye for F1...and a lot of pissed off fans. I had great seats into turn one...and a buddy in Glasgow called me an hour before the race with an update....so I knew what was happening...but it is fair to say that everyone else was clueless.

On yesterday's broadcast, the team at Speed Channel made sure to note that a number of European television networks actually dropped coverage of the race once it became clear what was happening. Steve will have more later, and I'll be linking when he does.

CAUTION LAP UPDATE: Lost in the wash after yesterday's disaster was F1 poohbah Bernie Eccleston's comments regarding Danica Patrick's finish at the Indy 500:

"She did a good job, didn't she? Super. Didn't think she'd be able to make it like that," Ecclestone told a gathering of reporters about Patrick's Indy 500 finish.

"You know, I've got one of these wonderful ideas that women should be all dressed in white like all the other domestic appliances," Ecclestone added.

Now you don't get to be a billionaire by being an idiot, and I'm sure Ecclestone knew exactly what he was doing when he said this. After all, what would get more press -- praising Patrick and staying non-committal, or belittling her and coming off as a sexist pig? Thanks to John Fontana for the heads up.

Eric 01:07 AM

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