Farcical United States Formula 1 Grand Prix

from Automotive (1597 articles)

A-

A+

Page: 1 2 3 4

Farcical United States Formula 1 Grand Prix

Click image to enlarge

Image Gallery ( 9 images )

June 20, 2005 The United States Grand Prix has been run and won with 14 drivers retiring on the sighting lap, thanks to a tyre safety issue with Michelin tyres. The farcical event was contested by the only three teams which choose Bridgestone tyres, giving Ferrari a one-two victory, handing Michael Schumacher his first win of the season and ironically, putting him back into contention for the title that looked lost just eight days ago. Leading drivers Alonso and Raikkonen and their teams Renault and McLaren all lost substantial points leads in the championship, but the biggest loser was Formula 1 which is fast gaining an image problem akin to that of boxing. The problems surfaced when tyres caused accidents for Ralf Schumacher and Ricardo Zonta in Friday's practice session causing the major supplier of Formula 1 tyres, Michelin, to advise that it could not guarantee that such incidents would not reoccur in race conditions blaming the high speed track configuration, particularly turn 13.

Accordingly, as the Michelin-shod teams needed to fulfil legal obligations by beginning the race, they all filed into the pits at the end of the sighting lap, and the USGP office was swamped with fans demanding their money back. A Joint Press Release was issued shortly thereafter by the seven Michelin Teams – it read: “The Michelin teams deeply regret the position that they have been put in today and would like to apologise to all the spectators, TV viewers, Formula One fans and sponsors for not being able to take part in today's USA Grand Prix.

Following Ralf Schumacher's accident on Friday morning, we were advised by Michelin that none of the tyres that were available to the teams could be used unless the vehicle speed in turn 13 was reduced. Without this Michelin did not consider the tyre to be safe to be used for the race.

All the teams are confident in Michelin and trust their advice as we know they are competent and responsible and their written instruction to us not to race unless changes to the circuit were made was accepted.

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.

We are totally aware that the USA is an important market for Formula One and there is an obligation for Formula One to promote itself in a positive and professional manner. It is sad that we couldn't showcase Formula One in the manner we would have liked today.”

In the race for points between the three teams which did compete, all three teams were so distinctly different in their performance that the spectacle became three separate races between the respective team-mates for Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi. The Ferrari pair rapidly left behind their opposition as they raced away at the start of the race, but after seven laps they were soon racing nose to tail. First to make a pit stop was Barrichello on lap 24 and Michael Schumacher came in two laps later. His stop was seven seconds longer, so that he emerged in second place, 3.6s behind Barrichello.

...continued

Page: 1 2 3 4