Re: Michelin teams to boycott Indy?
TC said:
Chris,
Michelin never said that they could not race at all, they said that they could not run safely at high-speed thru turn 13, hence the request for the chicane. The FIA said that changing the circuit was against the rules and safety processes and therefore the Michelin teams could do any of the following - run at the maximum safe speed thru turn 13 as stated by Michelin, change to a different tire type (and suffer the penalty for doing so), drive thru the pit and avoid turn 13 all together or change tires frequently (and suffer the penalty for doing so).
That is kind of the point. Michelin said the tires were unsafe given the current track layout. We all know they mean it could not handle the load on turn 13. The chinace would change the track enough by slowing down turn 13 to make the tires safe. Since the FIA held firm to their position to not alter the track, the Michelin tires by default are unsafe to race. I will agree that all the proposals were major compromises and had their flaws, but the chicane was the most reasonable especially because it has been said that the Michelin teams were willing to give up all the post and give them all to Ferrari just to be able to race for the fans. Obviously this is their position on the matter and if it is true, they would have raced for the fans. Either way they would have zero points but at least the show would have gone on with 20 cars on the grid.
To leave it up to the drivers to slow down to a safe speed around turn 13 is asking for trouble. I'll just say this, who are you going to sue when one of the drivers goes a little too fast, around turn 13 to hold position against either the Ferrari or even the other Michelin teams, the tire blows, takes both cars out and one driver is seriously injured or killed? Also slowing down around turn 13 still doesn't address how the Bridgestone running cars will navigate around the other 14 cars that suddenly slowdown to a deemed safe speed at turn 13 only when they are going WOT. I say it again, that is just asking for a race collision at that turn.
Driving through the pit at 60 MPH speed limit would be just a big a race farce as 6 cars on the grid. Someone on another F1 forums also mentioned that the car needs to complete 90% of the race laps to be considered a finsih. Driving throught the pit lane at 60 MPH with one of the longest it not longetst pit lanes on the F1 circuit for 70 laps could put the cars down nearly 20 laps and thus not finish the race anyway. Why as a team would you risk equipement and driver safey at all if you knew ahead of time you probably would not finish the race anyway?
Changing tires often would also be uselsss since they may not even have enough tires to complete the race, and you still run the risk of tire failure before you get the chance to change the tire. How would the Bridgestone runners feel if they were taken out of the race because of a Michelin teams tire blew when they were side by side?
It has been learned that even the tires flown in as the proposed back up tires to be used turned out to be unsafe according to Michelin. Basically, if you believe Michelin the teams were left with nothing.
At least with the chicane which has been reported that all 9 teams inlcuding Bernie Ecclestone were in areement of on Saturday would have saved face for the entire sport. Only Ferrari refused to agree outright, but said they will leave it up too the FIA and abide by their decision. It would not have been outright unfair to the Bridgestone teams since the Michelin teams were willing to forgo all the points to Ferrari and the other Bridgestone teams. No matter what the race results would have been they would have no points and the Bridgestone teams would have earned points. All they wanted to do was race to put on a show safely. Either way they knew the day was screwed for them in terms of competition. So the choice came down to the FIA that held on strong to their position. I'm not saying the FIA were technically wrong since they were within the rules, but what would have been better? What we had this weekend, or a chicane with 20 cars on the grid and all the Michelin teams giving up their points for this race and put on a show for the fans?
The FIA never told anyone to race on unsafe equipment, rather they simply refused to change the circuit. The Michelin teams chose to not race rather than take any of the alternatives available to them within the rules.
The alternatives IMHO would have been just as much a farce as what happened on Sunday anyway, only with more danger involved IMHO.
Bernie Ecclestone has been said to be in agreeement with the 9 teams about the chicane deal on Saturday for the sake of the show and proposed it to Max and the FIA. Sure he doesn't have the power in that regard, but even he could see it was a better solution for everyone involved rather than risk it all and hold strong to your guns like the FIA did. IF the FIA comprmised on the track layout, the backlash would have stayed within the F1 community and hard core fan base. instead the back lash is open to everyone and whoes to say what will happen with F1 at IMS much less in the US.
Basically, they wanted to opportunity to race for points without penalty by having the track modified to suite their limitation. Any of the FIA suggested means for them to race would have given them no chance for any of the top 6 spots (assuming that the Bridgestone cars all finished the race). So they boycotted because they did get their way - and used the "safety" argument as a smokescreen. They had plenty of ways to race safely - just none that would enable them to compete for a victory. So the quit.
Well, we will have to wait to hear what the real factual story is. My latest information from other F1 sites differs from yours. The latest I have is the Michelin teams were willing to race for no points just for the sake of racing with the chicane. I mentioned above that they had no alternative safe tire as Michelin said all the tires including the ones flown in was found out and believe to suffer from the same problem as the original tires. So if that is correct, the teams had no real choice and did not simply quit. Either way they would have had zero points and racing would have saved them a ton of money and saved a lot of face as well. I'll say it again, not racing simply to make a point makes no sense at all. Teams like McLaren and Kimi still could have picked up points if they raced even uncompetitively against the Ferrari. It can be argued that the Minardi and Jordan teams are so far off the pace that even at a slowed Michelin team race pace they would finish ahead of those two back marker teams. That means 3rd to 8th place points paying spots were still up for grabs. To elect to get no points just to make a statement or just because they could not win the race doesn't seem to fly and make any sense at all. Kimi could very well have thrown the WDC away by not racing. Alonso to fot that matter. Mclaren and Renault could have thrown away the WCC as well. What do we have now? Ferrari is tied for 2nd with McLaren and only 12 points down to Renault for the WCC. Kimi made no ground on Alonso who sits in first for the WDC when Alonso was mid field at this event and Kimi probably had the fastest car on the grid excluding the tire issue. Micheal Shumacher jumps into 3rd place for the WDC and is right back in the challange when nearly everyone including himself all but counted him out.
All 7 Michelin teams have been called to report to the FIA in 2 weeks - assuming the stink from this will not die down by then, I would guess that the FIA is going to hammer them pretty hard - fines and possibly points. Particularly since Michelin and their 7 teams have done nothing but blame the FIA for this mess.
This is true, we will wait and see. IMHO, the FIA really has nothing on the teams. They will slam Michelin hard though. I still say Michelin let the teams down big time, but if my information gathered is correct and the teams were willing to race for no points, than it is the FIA that let the fans down by not compromising for the sake of the putting on the show.
We must also not forget that the 7 teams were originally 9 teams including two Bridgestone teams of Minardi and Jordon. What would have been their reason to not race and align themselves with the 7 Michelin teams? The word has it all 9 were willing to stay in the garage and Jordan broke of at the last minute and decided to race while on the grid. Minardi just decided to follow suit as in realitiy they are in competition with each other since they are so far off the race pace of the other teams. It has been said that Minardi is actually upset at Jordan for electing to race when they all agreed to not race without the chicane.
