Wt...heck happened at the F1 race?

[{OF} achilles]

There we were. all roughly 120,000 people. The crowds are from all over the world. The Ferrari tiffosi are dressed in red. The women Ferrari fans sometimes barely dressed. ( I love summer)

The musical acts finally finished and the cars rolled out.. If you've never been to a Grand Prix race. THE SOUND IS DEAFENING!! Unbelievable!

We had good seats. The weather was perfect. F1 uses a standing start. No pace car and no warmup lap. The lights count it down and then the roar is ...exhilerating is an understatement.

So the race starts.. OFF they go.. all 20 cars. They come around the track for the first lap and all but 6 go to the pits and retire from the race.

WT.......... heck? You couldnt hear the PA announcement over the Booo'ing.
Has anyone heard the news. All we caught was it in protest over unsafe tires? Michellin?

[MeTaL]

Race actually started with only 6 cars.... all Michelin cars went to pits after the Warmup/Parade/Formation lap....

Yes, Michelin tires were unsafe at this track so all teams using Michelin's sat out.

[{OF} achilles]

Ty Has. Kinda funny in a way. But damn thats a lot of effort and money for only 6 cars. Not to mention it was pretty boring.
I cant believe Michellin wouldnt be safe. Come On ! they raced there last year and had all season long to get ready. very very interesting.

[{OF}Turf]

yes it had to do with michelin. after ralf's heavy crash on friday, michelin analysed the tires and found that the 13 degree banking made the sidewalls prone to blow out. michelin re-did the tires, but not in time for qualifying. F1 rules say you have to use the same tires for qualifying and the race this year, if the michelin teams had used the new tires, they would be DQed. there was a deal to add a chicane in the turn, but ferrari (using bridgestones) vetoed it, said it wasnt their problem, which was true. so all 7 michelin teams either had to run the tires that michelin said were unsafe, or be DQed. they chose not to run. the problem rests squarely on michelin, by showing up with tires not suited to the track.

[MeTaL]

I heard 3 of the Michelin tires blew out this weekend(one being Ralph's), so there was definately a problem

[BIC]

Not good for F1 in U.S., not good at all. They try to get the U.S. market, but that is not the good way.

[dudio]

People will still eat it up,
but F1 is going to take a hit somehow for that one.
You imagine all the $$ invested in ads alone
just to play to no one, 'cause they changed the channel?

[{OF}Lonefart]

http://www.fragonsight.com/viewtopic.php?t=593

I posted a blurb on this after the race today.... GRRR it was a farce!!

[{OF}MadD!]

The Michelin proposal for a chicane at the last moment was insane and they knew it:

1. This is against rules. They state that the track configuration can not be changed after the start of the race weekend. Don't give me the force major xxxx because one incompetent tire supplier is not a natural disaster.

2. This is very dangerous. No one has ever done even one lap with this chicane. It had to be placed in a very high speed place of the track and it was very likely that someone would miss the break point and take out a number of cars (especially in the first few laps).

3. It is unfair and will create a dangerous precedent. Next race the Ferrari and the Bridgestone will complain about unsafe tires and will ask for wet track for example. This will never end if someone is allowed to get away with such thing.

Obviously Michelin are not idiots (at least in this matter) and they pushed for the chicane because the KNEW that this is not going to happen. As for the proposal that the Michelin teams will run without points if a chicane was present - this is unconfirmed speculation. If they were willing to run without points they could do it with the new tires flown from Europe (granted with a penalty that will be (surprise!) stripping of their points.

[{OF}Malicious Assault]

Ahhh got to love those gear heads