Unites States GP

[Dweezil222]

F1 will NEVER recover in a U.S. market after this debacle. I understand the need for rules, but in a situation where 90% of the teams and drivers were in support of a modification to allow for safety, and the FIA flat out refused, really gives fans the message that they don't give a flying fuck about the fans at all.

[Summers]

Few things:

1) Ferrari were the one team that didn't comply with the building of the chicane idea. The other nine teams did.

←

No. Ferrari said they planned on going out no matter what. The other teams said they wouldn't race if the chicane wasn't built. Ferrari said they'd race eitherway.

[Chris2K]

I quote from BBC Sport:

Ferrari, one of three teams to use Bridgestone tyres, vetoed a last-ditch proposal to modify the Indianapolis track's lay-out by adding a chicane.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport...one/4109538.stm

[Summers]

I'm saying what I heard on ITV. They said they'd go out and race no matter what. The simple thing is, the FIA had already said no to the chicane. However, the teams asked again.

I think it was in Spain, where Schumi had a tyre problem (?), and Ferrari wanted to change something around, all the other teams said no. This is no worse than what they all did. Except this time, the FIA had already shot the idea down.

[sahyder1]

People still care about F1?

←

[Jonny D]

Sure they were dumb.....but everyone would act dumb if they'd spent hundreds of dollars and were left with this. I want to see how F1 compensates the fans for this. Being an F1 fan in the US is tough. The races are all on Speedvision, a channel no one watches. It gets no major coverage at all.

[Malenko]

Sure they were dumb.....but everyone would act dumb if they'd spent hundreds of dollars and were left with this. I want to see how F1 compensates the fans for this. Being an F1 fan in the US is tough. The races are all on Speedvision, a channel no one watches. It gets no major coverage at all.

I don't think the fans will be compensated. I think they deserve to be, but they won't. Michelin fucked up, the FIA stuck to al of its rules, and there was still a race for people to watch, albeit a race with only six cars, but still a race. I'm sure people say sorry an awful lot, but I don't see how, or why, they would do any more.

←

[Liam]

People still care about F1?

←

Yeah, no one cares.....it just happens to be the #1 car racing league in the world.

I mean, who would actually support Schumi? >_>

←

Why wold you not? He's proven himself to be a winner for years.

I find it hard to see how anyone can support him considering he did a half decent job of trying to kill Damon Hill back in the day, costing him the championship. One of the worst shows of sportsmanship I've ever seen, and even if he is the best driver going, he lost all respect I ever had for him doing that

←

That's part of what makes him great. He's out there giving 110% all the time. The last few years he could've easily walked away from the sport....but he didn't. After Senna, F-1 really needed someone like Schumacher to become a focal point of the sport. There's a reason why he makes 90 million a year in endorsements.

I think the fans reacted badly.

←

Sure they were dumb.....but everyone would act dumb if they'd spent hundreds of dollars and were left with this. I want to see how F1 compensates the fans for this. Being an F1 fan in the US is tough. The races are all on Speedvision, a channel no one watches. It gets no major coverage at all.

←

As I said before, Ferrari were the best team, and Schumi was good enough to race for them. They tailor (as do most big teams) thier cars so one person in the team has a better chance than the other person, so the fact is, his team mates never had a chance against him, and a lot of the other drivers, even if they may have been better, just couldn't compete with Ferrari, not just Schumacher. I think there have been better drivers around, but thats why F1 is a joke at times, as it isn't about the individual, or even the team...it's just about the car and the money that they are able to put into the building of said car. Thats why the best get better, the rich get richer, and no-one could compete with Schumacher, as there was no contest (until the rules were changed to a ridiculous extent, like they have been the past two years).

And I still find it hard how people can try and justify Schumacher cheating (Chris2k pointed out another time he did it) as him "giving it 110%".

Edited June 20, 2005 by kevinnashwannabe

[Malenko]

People still care about F1?

←

Yeah, no one cares.....it just happens to be the #1 car racing league in the world.

I mean, who would actually support Schumi? >_>

←

Why wold you not? He's proven himself to be a winner for years.

I find it hard to see how anyone can support him considering he did a half decent job of trying to kill Damon Hill back in the day, costing him the championship. One of the worst shows of sportsmanship I've ever seen, and even if he is the best driver going, he lost all respect I ever had for him doing that

←

[Herr Matzat]

i love how people can bitch about such pointless stuff as boring Formular 1, fact is, if bridgstone had fucked up it would have been about 3 teams and no one would have cared...

[Guest Booker T & The MG's]

Why do Minardi bother?

When there are only four other cars in the race, and they STILL finish two laps ahead of you, why the fuck do you even bother?

←

[Liam]

Sorry, what I meant was they don't literally tailor the cars and stuff, they tailor the drives themselves. Barichello will be told to drive one way, Schumacher another. Thats exactly why fiasco's like when Barichello had to let Schumacher pass, because Barichello winning didn't fit in Ferrari's game plan. Ferrari put Schumacher in a better position than the his team mate, always, and it usually happens in other big name teams, as there will always be one who is more likely to go out and win points for the team.

And I never said that Schumacher definitely wasn't the best driver, just that I don't think that it's as cut and dry as people think it is. Throughout the years of his dominance, there have been people who have challenged, and shown that they can outdrive Schumacher at times, but they haven't had the consistent, year after year backing that Schumacher has. Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneueve (sp?), Eddie Irvine (to a lesser extent), Kimi Raikonen, Juan Pablo Montoya and Fernando Alonso (more so this season) have all been people, in my eyes, who have proved that possibly with more consistency, and a better team (Ferrari generally have been better than all the Manufacturers it seems for many years, after Williams decline), they were as good at times as Schumi. Even Rubens Barichello I don't think is that far off being Schumi's equal, when allowed to race his race, rather than pander to the team's goal of getting Schumi as many points as possible.

Fair enough, Schumi is definitely the most consistent, but the conditions of the racing world have allowed for that. And I do think he is a good driver, I just dunno.....I think there have been better, and if stock cars were used, all the same, I think there are drivers that would beat him.

[Quasar]

Formula 1 does deserve a major deal in America but that would only work if the races were shown on tape delays. I think that the Speed Channel (or formerly Speedvision) does a good job with Formula 1 especially when you consider who owns the station (NASCAR and FOX are co-owners of the Speed Channel). Seeing as FOX already airs NASCAR on their main station, F1 is stuck on FOX's racing oriented network.

Formula One on a major US network wouldn't work in some respects. You'd have to broadcast on a tape delay meaning that most of your audience can find out the result of the race before you air it. It would just be a big mess. Speed Channel does air F1 live and it was very hard to catch F1 before TiVo came along. A tape delayed F1 race wouldn't do well and you couldn't air it live so F1 is basically limited as to how big it can get here.

[Guest Weden]

Anyone else listen to Chris Moyles this morning? He was killing me over this

[Katsuya]

Michelin have been ordered to appear before a hearing of Formula One's ruling body to explain their part in the U.S. Grand Prix tyre fiasco.

The hearing will take place in Paris on June 29, the FIA said in a statement on Monday.

Advertisement

Seven of the 10 teams, including championship-leaders Renault and McLaren, pulled out before the start in Indianapolis because of safety concerns about their Michelin tyres.

Their request for a temporary chicane to be installed before the final banked turn to reduce speeds was rejected by the FIA.

The six cars that started the race were all on Bridgestone tyres.

From Yahoo

[Dweezil222]

Yeah, but there's not a whole lot that can or should be done by FIA at this point. It happened, it's over with, Michelin already got so much negative press over this debacle, to fine them or otherwise penalize them just seems like overkill.

[Summers]

I think they deserved to be punished, personally. They fucked up, big time, let them get punished for it.

[Guest Leeleemu]

Michelin are solely to blame, I cant understand alot of people blaming Ferrari, Ferrari are used as a scapegoat in all incidents which involve some controversy, this is obviously due to them being the front runner of the sport in the previous years.

A few of you mention the fact that Michael Schumacher is not the best driver, have any of you seen his record, to compare him to someone like Eddie Irvine is an absolute joke - answer me this KEVINNASHWANNABE - where is Eddie Irvine now?

Michael Schumacher won 9/10 rounds in his first season of Formula Ford, he then moved on to win the German Formula 3 Title and in his first ever race at Spa he qualified 7th but could not start the race due to clutch failure or something. He then moved to Bennetton - who were not the best team in Formula One came third in his first season then won the title twice in a row - people think about Schumie dominating with Ferrari - they forget about his time at Bennetton or Renault to all you marks now.

In consideration to the guy that said what is the point of Minardi, well your probably one of these ECW lovers, what was the point of them - ECW financially went corrupt - Minardi do it for their fans and like someone said they are like a feeder team who give potential drivers a chance!

As a huge Formula One fan, I was disappointed with the race, it didnt make it any better considering the fans started throwing things on the track, it was indeed a farce because of Michelin, they should have been prepared for this race - they new it was resurfaced - to add a Chicane right before the race would have caused more problems an potentially more accidents. They being a huge company thought they were bigger then the sport demanding things, the decision was right by the FIA, this would not have happened if all teams had to use the same tyres which they should really start considering!!!!!!!!

[Summers]

Leeleemu is completely correct with his talk of Schumi. And he said exactly what I've been too lazy to bother typing out.

[Guest Leeleemu]

Leeleemu is completely correct with his talk of Schumi. And he said exactly what I've been too lazy to bother typing out.

←