G.P. in the "Real" World - What Would You Do?

[Kyle Love]

Originally Posted by Ben Lauer

Ferrari chose option 1. They won the race, they won money, and they won points. Ferrari's bank account is now more attractive, but all the people in Indy and all around look down on them for that choice. Did they make the right choice? I believe that time will tell, but for sure the manufacturers will take a closer look at the forces these cars have because these cars keep accelerating fast, and stopping faster.

Ferrari SHOULD NOT be looked down upon. They won by following the rules. Why should they or any of the Minardi's or Jordan's adjust their car/driving style to include a chicane put in for ill-prepared cars?

One last point for some of you who aren't really in the racing "circle" Indy cars go approximately 20-40 mph faster then the F-1 cars at Indy. The F-1 wrecks look a lot more violent, in-part to the EXTREME downforce that those cars have.

(side note: if you have any racing questions, I can at least make an educated guess if not know the answer to your question.)

Now to answer PeteK's questions:

What would I do if I were Ferrari? Celebrate another terrific win with no regrets, they prepared the car with good parts, why should they regret it?

If I was on a Michelin-running team? I would look into how much R&D Michelin does compared to Bridgestone and if they don't meet certain standards, I would switch to Bridgestone tires. A big mess up like this from a main-stream tire company is ridiculous.

What if I were an IMS organizer? I would have a closed-door face to face discussion with FIA officials and "hammer" out a deal to make the fans happy, considering fans is the reason why they are racing. Maybe also think about bringing other road race cars to Indy such as ALMS (American LeMans Series) or maybe even the motorcycles to IMS, to see if those don't grab more fans then F-1. I seriously doubt it would, but it would be a way to make the fans like the speedway more.

What if I was a F-1 official? I would require Michelin to refund the fans money and "dock" them tire constructor points and take away any points that the teams won by not racing. (positions 7 and 8 on the finishing order) Also, make a rule change, If tires are found to be unsafe to race, ALL teams will be aloud an extra set of tires. Changes to the track will not be aloud once the first lap of practice had been completed.

Anyone else have comments about my comments or have different ways of handling the situation?

[sanddrag]

They could have just made it into a drifting competition.

[wilshire]

I agree with Kyle45 that Ferrari should be looked down upon and that the Michelin teams should have been better prepared or should not show up at all.

Drifting competition sounds like an awesome idea. Unfortunately it is not allowed in F1 rules.

[Madison]

I didn't see the race and don't follow these things too closely -- I'm often to busy racing on my XBox to care.

That said, it seems to me like the problem with the Michelin tires was a manufacturer's defect and not the fault of the teams using said tires. In that instance, I'd compare it to a FIRST team receiving bad radio signals during a competition. There's a reasonable expectation for third party providers -- in these instances, Michelin and IFI -- to produce a product free of defects and in accordance with a preexisting agreement or contract. Should that third party fail to provide such product -- especially in an event where the third party is sanctioned by the governing body, i.e., FIA or FIRST, accomodations should be made in good faith to best ensure a fair, competitive end to an event.

If another team had no radio throughout a match, would your FIRST team concede to playing again or would you demand your victory and move on?

[Kyle Love]

Nice point, but a F-1 car costs multi-millions. Also, F-1 has the rule of NO tire changes, FIRST doesn't have a rule of no RC changes, so I wouldn't see a huge deal. F-1 also does not promote gracious professionalism. They are "tough nosed" competitors. When I went to IMS last year for F-1 quals, David Coultard wrecked, McLaren built a wall of tires in front of their garage so NOBODY could see in...now if a FIRST bot would break you would see TONS of people from different teams getting in on helping out. My main point with this is, FIA and F-1 are nothing like FIRST...I can see how you can compare the two...F-1 teams make money for winning...lots of money. So I honestly don't blame them...Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi teams did nothing wrong while competing in the USGP, they came to do a job and they did it...14 other teams did not....

[petek]

From the "one more thing dept.":

Gracious Professionalism is alive and well at teams Minardi and Jordan. Both of these Bridgestone-shod teams were willing to accept a compromise to allow all teams to compete. To put this in context, Minardi is a small, underfunded team which usually qualifies at the back of the pack and seldom finishes in the points and Jordan, thought successful in the past, has been struggling in the mid to rear of the field the last couple of years. These teams had a lot to gain by running without the Michelin teams, but still voted for putting on a show for the fans. I guess you could say these two teams were the real winners, since they exhibited gracious professionalism and got to finish in the top 6.

I think this whole schmazzle is a good (bad?) example of the kind of conflict between G.P. and business and personal interests that can arise, and how there may not be one "right" way to deal with the conflict.

And BTW, I agree that Ferrari made the "correct" business decision - I just think it would have been classier for them to side with the fans.

[Andrew Rudolph]

I felt that the FIA made the correct decision. If someone shows up to a race and thier tire choice was wrong, and they cant race, then they the show goes on.

I dont think that the tire companies or FIA should reimburse the fans either. Its just how racing goes, if there was a huge reck on turn one and 12 racers were taken out the race would continue.

I found it kind of ironic that michelin had tire problems since they have been dominating the season, and bridgestone has been doing pretty aweful. I think that the tire rules for this year have been aweful, especially seen 2 races ago when the leader lost on the last lap because his tire had a flat spot and broke the car. Granted they could design this into the cars, but i mean common they could at least let them have 2 sets of tires.

[santosh]

Originally Posted by Andrew Rudolph

I felt that the FIA made the correct decision.......
I found it kind of ironic that michelin had tire problems since they have been dominating the season, and bridgestone has been doing pretty aweful.

I feel that the FIA did make the correct descision. and I had to agree with that second point about Bridgstone Making the fall of Ferrari.

Would it be fair to mess up a teams chances of winning because they were prepared. Rules are rules. I can see why ferrari didn't want the Chicane. Plus, I mean look at Ferrari, if FIA had more GP, Ferrari would have some tires that they could run with and win with because they would have dropped Michelin after the first or second race, and picked up Bridgstone, but rules are rules, That is for another debate. But I do believe that the FIA made the correct descision. I also believe that the fans should recieve some reimbursement from Michelin.

[Kyle Love]

Michelin has made their decision . Attached is a pic of a cartoon that was in the June 21st edition of the Indianapolis Star. For the newest updates referring to the F-1 fiasco please visit http://www.formula1.com for any updates.

[Kyle Love]

I just heard this on the news, Michelin will refund ALL tickets. Great job on their part!

[santosh]

Wow. That is very surprising to me. I am glad the fans got their money back, but I mean come on. I fully believe that Bridgestone should hav ben doing the refunding. They are th ones who came unprepared.

[Kyle Love]

Originally Posted by santosh

Wow. That is very surprising to me. I am glad the fans got their money back, but I mean come on. I fully believe that Bridgestone should hav ben doing the refunding. They are th ones who came unprepared.

Bridgestone was the one who brought the right tire...all 6 of their cars started...Michelin had 0 of 14 cars start, so I am not surprised at all, but I think you just had your tire makers backwards.