MadScientist

My God What the Hell was that??!??!!

Notes: All seven Michelin teams withdrew after the formation lap on tyre-related safety grounds.

Official Result:
Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points

1 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 73 1:29:43.181 5 10

2 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 73 +1.5 secs 7 8

3 18 Tiago Monteiro Jordan-Toyota 72 +1 Lap 17 6

4 19 Narain Karthikeyan Jordan-Toyota 72 +1 Lap 19 5

5 21 Christijan Albers Minardi-Cosworth 71 +2 Lap 18 4

6 20 Patrick Friesacher Minardi-Cosworth 71 +2 Lap 20 3

Ret 16 Jarno Trulli Toyota 0 Withdrew 1

Ret 9 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 0 Withdrew 2

Ret 3 Jenson Button BAR-Honda 0 Withdrew 3

Ret 6 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 0 Withdrew 4

Ret 5 Fernando Alonso Renault 0 Withdrew 6

Ret 4 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 0 Withdrew 8

Ret 7 Mark Webber Williams-BMW 0 Withdrew 9

Ret 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 0 Withdrew 10

Ret 10 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes 0 Withdrew 11

Ret 11 Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-Petronas 0 Withdrew 12

Ret 17 Ricardo Zonta Toyota 0 Withdrew 13

Ret 15 Christian Klien Red Bull Racing 0 Withdrew 14

Ret 8 Nick Heidfeld Williams-BMW 0 Withdrew 15

Ret 14 David Coulthard Red Bull Racing 0 Withdrew 16

Fastest Lap: Michael Schumacher 1:11.497

OK so this is the 6th F1 Race at Indy... last year Ralph Schumacher in a BMW Williams on Michelin Tires ate the wall on Turn 13. It was an eratic crash and was almost deadly, and retired Ralph from the Season and from the BMW Williams Team.

2005 - Indy mate significant changes to the barrier wall on Turn 13 to obsorb impact and save the Drivers life (naturally to an extent). Once again... Ralph Schumacher in a Toyota on Michelin Tires ate the wall on Turn 13 during Testing.

5am the day of the Big Race, Michelin informs their teams that the tires are not safe to run the course as is. Indy and Team officials offer a simple solution to add a Chicane (S turn) on Turn 13 to slow the corner down.
(note* Turn 13 is a high embankment lateral G turn that is only found on the Indy course.)

FIA replied that any change to the course (as is) will result in a No-Points Race. They also stated that the teams running Michelin Tires could run the course at a lower speed through Turn 13 as long as not to interfer with the Faster Drivers. (sounds fair right...?!?) They did not offer to what speed would be reasonanble and/or safe.

Team Officials stated the Drivers instinct is to drive the limits, attack, and take advantage... slow is not possable.

The Michelin Technical Problem was with the inner radial design. The metal radial bans only cover the treaded part of the tires, not the side walls. The high lateral Gs in Turn 13 was seperating the radial form the side wall.

Insider Info: FireStone is the official Tire supplier to Indy Car that was held prior to the F1 Race. FireStone being the sister company to BridgeStone naturally offered up technical information.

Politics: Michael Schumacher and the Ferrari Team have not won a single Race this season. They were in 7th Place in Points prior to this race... Now tied for 2nd!! Last Year Michael Schumacher stated he would not retire from F1 without being defeated first.

Renault (Nissan) is in 1st Place!

I personally feel that the FIA should have considered the Spectators, especially due to the fact that the US doesn't have a huge F1 following.
Throwing trash on the Track was deffinatly not American and very disrespectfull to the 6 drivers risking thier lives. Those spectators that stayed deffinatly got what they paid for considering this race broke alot of records in F1 and Racing history.

Peace
Drew

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URAS

Var

Actually that sounds fair. Would it be fair to the other guys to change the track to accomodate your oponent's flaws? No. It's a weak point that needs to be taken advantage of by the rest of the drivers. It's all about the win. In a multi-million(billion?) dollar industry, shit like that wont fly. Too many people would be ticked off. If the Michelin guys have unsafe/flawed tires, then it's only fair that they have to deal with the disadvantage. Especially since it's a sponsorship issue. Michelin also stands to lose sponsorship status and rightfully so. The nature of F1 is zero tolerance for mistakes, or you lose.

Drew...what are the new rules about tire changes for this season?

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Hi

MadScientist

I understand the ruling but the US spectators are pissed...


Tire rules:
you can bring only 2 sets, usually 1 Dry/ 1 Wet... however, oddly enough none of the Michelin Teams brought a spare.

Durring Testing no real limitations because your obviously just seting up the car, but if you wreck or blow the engine you dropped to the back of the line.

Durring Qualifying whatever tire you pick to use in qualifying must be used to race (with the exception to weather conditions, rain) But the Tires used on the car in qualifying must be used to start the race as well. Can't Change Spec or Compounds after Qualifying!!

You can only use 1 Engine for 2 full races (testing, qualifying, race, repeat).
Michael Schumacher tested this rule the first race of the season and had to make a public appology for intentionally wrecking his car into Mark Webber.

Peace
Drew

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URAS

thelinja

I went to the USGP this year and I was pissed as well as disappointed. Apparently Michelin is refunding all of the fans and will be buying up to 20k tickets for next year's race if there is one. But I really don't see any way of Michelin knowing who all was at the race. I have a friend who works at IMS and he says the ticketing system is shitty as hell and he said the only way Michelin will be able to refund you is if you have your stub or reciept ( I have both). There were 120000 tickets sold for the event but only 23000 buyers.

Cr0usEEE

ive got my stub but im also a reserve ticket holde, purchase them every year. I hope they know who i am by now (6 years of having tickets damn it)

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