Michelin ruins U.S. Grand Prix

By Parminio
June 20 2005

All fourteen Michelin shod teams retired after the parade lap leaving just Ferrari, Minardi and Jordan to compete in the U.S. Grand Prix after warnings from Michelin about their tires. Fearing safety issues, all 14 cars parked rather than race.

The crowd showed its collective dissapointment by booing nearly the entire race as only Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi took part. It got a bit out of hand with disgruntled fans throwing water bottles and beer cans onto the track, the first time that's ever happened at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

To add insult to injury, the Indianapolis race organizers did not take part in the awards ceremony and Bernie Ecclestone left the track long before the event was over.

Many people feel as though the FIA should have done something. But how could they? If the FIA had changed the circuit, or allowed for a tire change, then that would have defeated the purpose of the new one tire rule. That of course would open the flood gate for it to happen at every Grand Prix for the remainder of the year. In short - if you do it once, expect to repeat the process again.

That would destroy any sort of continuity, which the sport already lacks to begin with. Not only that, who's to say that were Bridgestone to have the same problem that people would care about six cars missing from the grid rather than fourteen? With all of that in mind, the FIA's hands were pretty much tied.

The big question that should be answered in all of this should be answered by Michelin: How could you not prepare a tire for a circuit you've raced at so many times before?

The X-factor to that question comes from NASCAR and IRL/Indy Car. When the track was resurfaced, Indy car practice had to be postponed due to lack of grip. They then diamond ground the circuit, which gave more grip and seemed to solve the problem. After that practice however, when NASCAR hit the circuit, they found excessive tire wear and had to cancel thier practice session as well. So they re-ground the track again, and that seemed to help. At the next Indy session, they too had wear problems, but reformulated the tires to rectify the situation.

Those Indy tires? Firestone. The company? Bridgestone.

Now, that tips us off as to why Bridgestone didn't have a problem, but during the pit stops, all the Bridgestone teams were looking over thier tires very carefully, which leads one to believe that they too experienced a bit of a problem. For Ferrari, Ross Brawn himself was seen in the pit box examining the rear left tire, so cause for concern was deffinately there.

With all of that going on, the real loser in all of this were the fans. Especially those that traveled so far to see the race. After this kind of a fiasco, one can only assume that the phones of 100,000 lawyers are ringing off the hook this morning.