[turbo_lover]

This was bound to happen ... FIA was furious at the boycotting teams ...it was more like a Strike / "hadtaal" ..

- wrongfully refusing to allow their cars to start the race and/or
- wrongfully refusing to allow their cars to race subject to a speed restriction in one corner which was safe for suich tyres as they had and/or

- the cars finished the warm up lap ..so technically they did start the raced but due to reliability dbouts they had to abort racing the cars ...

- slowing down those cars in the corner would have never happened ... it would have had ben very risky ..i know one thing drivers like alonso , kimi or montoya would rather risk a crash out than to slow down and let schumi pass by...
so i dont think that is anysafer ...

i am just looking forward to full grid in France ..with kimi on Pole !!

[Rtech]

It was bound to happen - fans have begun the process of suing the authorities for the USGP. I don't think this would come as a surprise for anyone knowing how things work in the US!!

BBC Linky

[shravan316]

Now..... Michelins have refused to take the blame, all the teams have been summoned and fans sueing F1 authorities! Who ever said F1 was boring!?!
Michelin are to be blamed primarily, secondly, FiA could be blamed for not finding a solution to the problem. Penalty, i think, will be inevitable for the teams who did not participate.

[sridhar24]

It is not fair to penalise the seven teams and what else they could have done in such a situation. If at all FIA do that it will do even worse to F1. I feel blame is to be shared by all equally.

[Mpower]

I dont think they'll get peanilized. Its just a hearing....a formality.
They refused to race on safety grounds and that perfectly acceptable.

In fact USGP hosts should sue Bernie because he could'nt ensure a full field.

[highpriest]

Rather than boycott the race the Michelin teams should have agreed to run at reduced speed in turn 13.

Here's what Jean Todt had to say in his post race press interview:

The other nine teams said they would have competed for no points if a chicane had been installed. Would Ferrari have competed for no points?

"No," he replies, "No way. We would not have competed if there were no points.

"You ask if we would have competed for no points; I say no," he continues. "If this race would have been a race without points, which it cannot be, it would have been out of the FIA standard, we would not have started."

It's pointed out that the Michelin teams were willing to compete for no points and that they were 'happy' for the other three teams to take the points.

"Then it's a joke," he replies. "It's a joke."

It's pointed out that the sight of six cars 'racing' was also a joke.

"Go and speak with the people who made the joke," says the Frenchman. "Again, we should not be accused of doing our job. If somebody didn't do their job, and if you want to accuse somebody, which is your right, but I have nothing to say about that."

Jean clearly says his team wouldn't have raced if there were no points at stake. Why blame the other Michelin runners then? The only option left for them was to run slow out of turn 13. All 14 cars would have been fighting for positions 7 and 8.

I wonder if there's more to it than what we have been told. The US GP is not a surprise. It has been in the racing calendar all along. How is it possible for a tyre manufacturer of repute like Michelin to make such a big blunder? This is not their first US GP either.


Btw, I sincerely apologise to all other Team-BHP members for some of my strong comments. As a long time F1 enthusiast, I felt like an idiot watching the farce called US GP. As one website put it, I felt like a "Grand Prick".

Cheers
Harish

[Rtech]

Harish, you seem to have misread the question Jean was replying too. The question he was asked was "Would Ferrari have competed for no points?", to which his reply was obviously no. It was a hypothetical question.

[navin]

remember mich. was only willing to compete for no point becuase their tyres were not up the stuff. if this had been the other way around mich.'s response might well have been different. There are no friends in F1 not even team mates. Rubens is paid well to sit behind MS there is no love here. if mich. really wanted to be magnanimous they could have permitted the other 7 teams to use Bridgestone for this 1 race.

[Deeps]

Finally, the teams decide to stand up against the FIA/Ferrari/Bernie gang...even though the circumstances are questionable. Who is to blame? IMO, the FIA, Michelin and Ferrari. Ok, Michelin made a mistake but why is everyone forgetting that they admitted it and proposed to correct the situation in favour of safety and getting the show on the road. But yet again, it was Ferrari who as always kept their interests ahead of the welfare of the sport. If the US gp was a mockery, then ferrari were the biggest contributors! Even Jordan and Minardi had initially agreed for the chicane proposal. And it is utter crap that their stance on the issue doesn't matter 'cos they are not a championship winning team like Ferrari. Even the FIA could have and should have forced Ferrari to sign. But no! Prooven yet again that even the FIA ranks ferrari's interests higher than that of the sport.

All the chicane, speed limit proposals aside...why didn't the FIA let Michelin fly in tyhe Barcelona spec tyres? Obviously, even with those tyres the bridgestone cars would have been at an advantage and the show could have gone on.

Screw Bernie! Screw Mosley! Screw Ferrari! Just bring on the GPWC!!!!!!!!!

[Deeps]

Originally Posted by Gordon

The race, however, showed the bitterness among the partners on the race track. Each team's drivers were fighting among each other for the lead.

Schumacher - Barrichello for the leading position.
Monteiro - Karthikeyan for the third position.
Fraischer - Albers for the fifth position.

Schumacher and Barrichello actually racing for points? Never!!

[karthik247]

Hey arn't all the teams being charged now?? It's like FIA can't ban the teams so it will impose a heafty fine on them. And Bernie is also being charged i think..

[ITS_NOMAD]

once again ferrari have proved that they are sick an they can go to any extent to win a race i think they should go to hell...

[shibujp]

Thanks to an errant electricty board that thinks that electricty is a privilege rather than a right that is paid for I was not able to watch the US GP. However learning of the fiasco the next morning i feel i did not miss anything much.

I read up on the comments on various websites and the situation is as if Ferrari is the one great wrongdoer here which I think is grossly unfair. Yep they are lacking in a bit of sporting spirit(not in this incident however) in general and tend to do things entirely in their own interests but given these facts I beleive that they were not in any way responsible for what happen in the US Grand Prix. The blame should lie entirely with Michelin and the teams running on Michelin tires.

From what I can see none of the rule changes in the past 2-3 years to make F1 competitive has given any sort of advantage to Ferrari. Take the engine rule for instance - Ferrari was one team that has the cash to use 2-3 engines per car for each race weekend. But even when the single engine rule was brought out they rose to the challenge and produced and engine that was not only reliable but also one of the fastest. They never whined for any track changes(read rule changes for not doing enough homework). Similarly they were caught out during the start of this season and the Bridgestones were performing below the Michelins. But as a team they put their heads down and slogged and won hard earned results.

Now for a manufacturer that has been in the tire business for a looooooooooong time and builds tires for extreme conditions such as the NASA space shuttle the failure to provide quality tyres for the US GP is a serious lack of responsibility and they before anyone else are responsible for trashing the reputation of the sport.

Next in line comes the Michelin shod runners - why couldn't they lower their speeds to preserve their tyres? Anyway tyre preservation is paramount in any F1 race these days. They had to pay the price for bringing inferior quality tyres. After coolly withdrawing from the race they all gathered together and shed crocodile tears about their love for the sport and all that rubbish. There are only 6 bridgestone shod runners in F1 out of which the car packages of two of the teams are no match for what some of the Michelin runners have. So they could have raced anyway. F1 teams monitor their cars a lot and have the capability to spot potentially risky situations developing.

Bridgestone had the right tyres that had no such problems so why penalise them and Ferrari for a mistake that is not created by them? Would you like justice being denied to you just because the majority is calling ofr an unjust solution? Ferrari commited a mistake in racing the F2004 at the start of this season. They underestimated their opponents and ended up with a slower car on below par tyres...why didn't the Michelin runners slow their cars to allow Ferrari to catch up with development on the F2005?

Michelin and their teams trashed the sport and should be sued for what they did not FIA or Ferrari. And Michelin had no go but to accept responsibility and did no great service by accepting that. Even now assuming 100$ per ticket and 130000 fans at the US GP the total amount comes to 13 million dollars which can be compensated by Michelin and the Michelin runners. Doing this and accepting full responsibility for the debacle may restore the damage to the sport and themselves in the US rather than blaming Ferrari for not allowing a chicane.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[SCARLET]

Originally Posted by ITS_NOMAD

once again ferrari have proved that they are sick an they can go to any extent to win a race i think they should go to hell...

It was a fair race, why should ferrari have compromised when they had the setup and tires to win the race, who asked your michelin teams not to race

Why do people not understand that the RED cars have been champs for the past 5 years in a row,

They dominated the sport in every aspect, they deserve some RESPECT

[nishant_kingpin]

It surely is unfair to point a finger at Ferrari's that they went ahead with the race. The race was open to all and eveyone knew the problems that they would encounter during the race, if one set of tyres cant take it, the adavtage will always be for the ones who can.