Well Michael Schumacher finally wins a race this year. But how was it done?

Simple. Take 20 formula 1 cars. 14 on Michelins and 6 on Bridgestone.

Then, during friday practise, have one of the 14 cars on michelin (ralf schumacher) have a monumental tyre failure and crash into a wall at almost 300 km/hr.

Then, the 13 other cars wonder how safe the michelins are, michelin do some research and announce that the tyres provided for this grand prix are perhaps not safe enough unless turn 13 gets a chicane put in it.

Next, try to get the FIA to change the course layout at the last minute. When this fails, try to get your drivers to drive slower through turn 13. The as a last roll of the dice, suggest that all 14 cars will run for no championship points.

Finally, take 7 of 10 teams (14 of 20 cars) out of the grand prix. Leave 6 remaining starters. All on Bridgestone. And who would these teams be?

1) Ferrari
2) Jordan
3) Minardi

All Schumacher had to do was finish and he had the race in the bag. Consequently you have the most boring F1 race of all time. 1 hour 30 minutes of watching Schumacher go round and round. He won. Barrichello second. Jordan 3 and 4 and Minardi 5 and 6.

Williams, BAR, McLaren, Renault, Sauber, Toyota and Jag (Red Bull) are all non starters and thus DNF's.

And that my friends is how to get Schumacher to win a race this year.

Taken from the now locked topic on the same subject. All discussion in here from now on.

Why was this GP singled out as the one to make the tyres unsafe?

Wish i had stayed up and watched it, would have been good to see.

Really is a big knock for Michelin, as well as F1, at a time that they didnt really need it.

The tyres were unsafe because, by the looks Michelin made a little fau pax with the construction and compound. The way the rules are written for this year the tyre choice is made before qualifying and the same set of tyres must be used for qualifying and the whole race, unless damaged in the race.

The tyres were deemed unsafe at Indy due to the very high speed and subsequent loads placed on them as the cars enterd the traditional banked oval part of the course.

With the two toyotas suffering the failures, I would suggest a problem with the setup of the Tojos, however Michelin were probably being very conservative in their findings on the stresses placed on the tyres and did not want the responsibility of a big accident caused by their tyres.

Would you want to be the tyre company remembered for causing the last death in F1?

In my opinion, it is Michelin who stuffed up in not providing a tyre that could do the job, Bridgestone didn't seem to have a drama with their tyres in the race. The teams were quite right in pulling the drivers out if they though they were in danger.

In changing the course at the last minute it would have set all sorts of precidents for future actions to the detriment of the sport when something wasn't to the liking of an individual or team or supplier.

Michelin have a lot of data to make a tyre to suit Indy and have no excuse for stuffing up what is arguably the most spectacular series in terms of engineering excellence in motor racing.

Good post, I agree completely - a disgrace by Michelin to try to blame the setup of turn 13 for the problem - turn 13 is turn 13 and michelin should have had a tyre to compete with it, instead of suggesting the corner should be changed.



*shudder* steering/suspension component failures...

Best result by Mindardi - EVER. Will they ever get a result like this again? Maybe they ought to have a race on their own...

Even if Minardi had a race on their own it would still be their best result ever.

With the lack of cash Paul Stoddard has to compete with I could see one breaking down at about half way, and the other car crashing out because of driver error

Don't get me wrong I reckon what Minardi is doing is great, plus believe it not they are one of the oldest teams in F1 at the moment, only Ferarri, McLaren, and Williams are older. The other teams have been bought out and changed that much you don't know who they are any more.

For example, Renault go back to Benetton which goes back to Leyton House I believe.

Red Bull, the old Jaguar and previously Ford and Stewart Racing.

BAR where originally Tyrrel, but bought the name only to go racing.

Sauber were set up by Peter Sauber

Jordan, now owned by a russian industrialist was set up by Eddie Jordan as a step up from F3000.

And Lat but not least, Toyota were set up by Toyota to showcase what they could do and get more milage out of racing than they couold in IRL and truck racing, plus sports car racing is not what it once was.

How good an advertisement is this race for Bridgestone?!

There has been at least 1 race this year I can remember where the Birdgestone shod cars were suffering and the michelin's were not.

This really boosts Schumacher's hopes.

Dare I say it but Schumacher has had some luck in the last couple of races to get his championship back on track.

Back in Canada, The result of the Renaults pulling out due to technical failures, Montoya being black flagged, and Jenson Button crashing out meant that Michael was lifted from a seventh position with not alot of track speed, to finishing second. I'd say if those cars didnt suffer the problems they did, he would not of scored the points he did...

And we have a look at Indiana were it takes 14 cars not to race for him to win a Grand Prix. No way would of Schumacher of one this race is all cars in the field had a hald decent set of rubber.

But hes back in the hunt now. Having a look a ferrari's form and you exclude the race where he was handed the win, Ferrari still do not have the supreme pace and reliability that they had the in the previous years. It will still take them a while to get back up to that form...

Absolutely no doubt he's had a lot of luck. But that has been the case for the last 6 years! He's been very lucky at times, the only times I can recall him being unlucky it had little or no bearing on the championship anyway.

He won't be proud of that win. It was him vs Barrichello. It was a disgrace to F1.

But as has been said by Jackie Stewart and others, you make your own luck. Michael has been by far the talent of the F1 field for the last ten years. I think we all have to agree that when Senna died at Monza the sport was robeed of what would have been the best motor racing ever seen across all eras.

All the other greats, really had no compeptition, Nuvalari, Fangio.

Senna and Prost were close but Senna and Schumacher would have been worth staying up til all hours to watch live.

An Update!! The FIA is filling charges against the 14 teams...
Taken from www.grandprix.com
The FIA has officially filed charges against the seven teams using Michelin tires that did not take part in Sunday's United States Grand Prix fiasco.

The letter sent to the teams earlier today was posted on the FIA website after being leaked to the media. The document states the teams "committed one or more acts prejudicial to the interests of a competition, namely the 2005 United States Grand Prix".

It says they failed to ensure they had a supply of suitable tires for the race, had wrongfully refused to allow their cars to start the race or compete with a speed restriction in one corner.

The letter goes on to accuse the teams of making a "demonstration damaging to the image of Formula One by pulling into the pits immediately before the start of the race". And finally failing to notify the stewards of their intention not to race, in breach of Article 131 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.

The Michelin teams now must appear at the forthcoming meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council, which is to be held in Paris on June 29, 2005 to answer to these charges.

The teams involved are McLaren, Williams, Renault, Sauber, Toyota, Red Bull, and BAR, all of whom will have their own interpretation of what caused the debacle at Sunday's race.

Lets give Schumacher the championship now, save us a real hassle.

Schumacher gets lucky every year.

This is a major problem for F1, make no bones about that!

Stand by for a secondary series in the next few years!