Bittersweet Victory
Monday June 20, 2005 at 12:56 pm | Filed under Sports
Michael Shumacher and Ferrari scored a victory at the U.S. Grand Prix over the weekend. That’s the good news. The bad news is that due to a weakness found in all Michelin tires, the 7 teams (14 cars) that ran Michelins did not participate in the race! WHAT?! Yeah, it was a really surreal sight to see 6 cars (the 3 teams that use Bridgestone tires) grid up and start the race. This photo tells it all: To the left, you can see the 6 cars grid up for the start, and to the right the Michelin teams back their cars into their garages.
Most of the fans in the stands had no idea what was happening. I can’t imagine what they were thinking. It looked like some kinda exhibition instead of a full-fledged race.
The FIA, which governs the rules for the league, issued a statement:
“To change the course in order to help some of the teams with a performance problem caused by their failure to bring suitable equipment to the race would be a breach of the rules and grossly unfair to those teams which have come to Indianapolis with the correct tyres”
I gotta say, an this has nothing to do with Ferrari finishing 1-2, that this was the correct statement to give. It made for a succky race, sure, but Michelin has to take the blame for this. Those teams miss out on points this week because they chose Michellins over Bridgestones, and Michelin let all of their teams down by not comin up with a tire solution that could withstand the banking in turn 13 of the course.
It was unbelievable to watch, and even more interesting is how the points ended up after the race. Ferrari is right back in it. Which is a good thing, I think. Although I don’t know that the Ferrari cars are good enough to dominate the majority of the ramaining races, we’ll see if there’s a big asterisk after everything that happens this season from here on out.
No Responses to “Bittersweet Victory”
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Tim Says:
June 21st, 2005 at 8:38 amtyres?
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Tim Says:
June 21st, 2005 at 8:40 amOh right, Brits. Go fygure.
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Danny Says:
June 21st, 2005 at 10:18 amIt looks like the FIA is gonna stick it to the Michelin teams. Just read this today. Worse than having a crappy race. Worse than attendees loosing their time and money, is the damage done to the sport. I’ve even heard there might not be a USPG at Indy next year! I hope they all get penalized for this. Like you, I’m not just in favor of this because I’m a Ferrari fan, but because it’s the right thing to do. If Bridgestone were the culprits here, and we had no Ferrari’s in Sundays race, I’d feel the same way. I’ll stick with F1 ’cause I’m a fan thru and thru, but I fear that many casual American viewers will be left with a bad taste in their mouth and stay far away from F1.
As for the single tire manufacturer…it’s just another way to cut costs and slow the cars down. Something I hate to see, but the reality is the not everyone on the grid has the deep pockets of a Ferrari or Toyota. We’ve seen teams disapear in the last few years because they simply ran out of money. Arrows and Prost gone forever. Jordan sold to the highest bidder last year. Jaguar sold to Red Bull Racing. Cutting costs is a necessary evil that keeps the sport alive. It also makes for a better fight on the track, as teams are all fitted with similar equipment. Minardi might not ever be a top 5 team, but at least they’re still competing. (Can you imagine what that podium would have been like if Ferrari had switched to Michelin this year?)
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Joe Says:
June 21st, 2005 at 11:59 amSure having the same equipment puts more pressure on the driver’s skill. But Formula 1 has never been ALL about the driver’s skill. Sure it’s part of it, but there’s much more on the car setup and reliability than anything. Anyway, I’d hate to see it become an IROC type thing where all the cars are the same. That’s another great thing about F1!
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Rich Says:
June 21st, 2005 at 8:52 pmIt’s a good thing only six cars went. The track looked totally unsafe. I mean, there was Seimens spread out all over the pit area! More than six cars were sure to add to an already sticky situation.
/I’m so, so sorry.
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Joe Says:
June 22nd, 2005 at 1:37 pmSomeone had to say it man. Thanks for taking the bullet. I also just noticed that there are Allianz on the main straight away… crazy UFO freaks!
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Danny Says:
June 22nd, 2005 at 7:56 pmMoney became a problem to privateer Peter Sauber, who is selling a large stake of Sauber Racing to BMW. No more Ferrari engines for the swiss team after 2005, it’ll likley be rebadged BMW, who will develop the engine and chasis. BMW plans to continue selling engines to Williams. Details here.
Rich, why do you think the drivers wear rubber suits?
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Rich Says:
June 22nd, 2005 at 8:10 pmDanny, I thought they were flame retardant suites, to ward off the fires of stupid, mysoginistic comments by the president of F1 Racing.
Come on, Joe! We’re waiting for your reaction to this whole Danica Patrick is a domestic appliance comment!
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Joe Says:
June 22nd, 2005 at 10:58 pmWow… yeah, that comment was incredible. I have all kinds of views on why the IRL sucks and why it should just pack it up and never race again. That quote from Ecclestone was somethin, alright, but nothing surprises me from F1. They are all cut from quite a different cloth. In fact, Dusing the Montreal race was the first time I’ve heard an announcer get bleeped/censored! Nice going Derek Daly! I laughed pretty hard.
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Danny Says:
June 23rd, 2005 at 7:19 pmThose Scott’s have a hard time controlling their tongue.
I love this picture. -
Danny Says:
July 1st, 2005 at 5:22 pmJoe, just read today that Michael Schumacher said all the publicity, bad or not, from Indy might bring more interest, and thus more spectators and fans, to F1. Now that’s a glass-half-full mentality if I’ve ever seen one!
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Joe Says:
July 2nd, 2005 at 12:12 amYeah! That’s a pretty optimistic POV. I’d love for them to come back to Long Beach, but it looks like the Champ cars have “renewed their lease”.