It’s a sad day for Formula One; all seven Michelin teams including McLaren, Williams, Renault, BAR, Toyota, Red Bull and Sauber have pulled out of the US grand prix after the parade lap because of safety concerns over tyres with Michelin withdrawing all its tyres after a series of tyre failures over the weekend. Frankly this is a fucking farce and will irreparably damage Formula One. Changes need to be made at the top as the incompetence starts there. The FIA and FOM need to make changes, as they are so far up their own arses and taking it from behind by Ferrari that it’s not in the interests of the sport, so in a way they are contravention of their own rules. OK, I can accept that Michelin screwed up by bringing the wrong tyre, but they have tried to solve this problem by suggesting that they would fly in new tyres overnight, and suggested that a chicane be added before the final flat out banking of the final turn, so the load wouldn’t be so high and less likely to cause tyre problems. But the FIA and Ferrari blocked every move to make this race go ahead. The teams were willing to race for the fans and not take any points from the race, if a chicane was added, so in eventuality, the result would still be the same, with Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi scoring points for the top six places, but at least the fans, both at Indianapolis and watching on TV would see a real race. Fans have shown their displeasure by throwing cans and bottles onto the track and stamping their feet in the grandstands and many walked out in disgust. Many drivers are just as disappointed as the fans, especially Jarno Trulli who would have started the race on pole position. You can see my disgust at this situation; I am not even watching the race, what’s the point of watching six cars go around the track when it’s a forgone conclusion. The damage has been done; this might even be worse than the infamous Ferrari team orders back in 2003. A lot of the US fans are demanding refunds that have paid more than $80 per ticket, and I would certainly be doing the same. I wouldn’t be surprised if there isn’t a US grand prix next year, after this farce, if I were the Indianapolis management I wouldn’t want Formula One back. I think that a lot of things need to change in Formula One, it is becoming a joke these days, things were much better before all these pointless rules were imposed by the FIA, it’s a dangerous sport, all the drivers and teams know this and have accepted it for years, the FIA are fucking pansies and the sooner this GPWC series gets going the better, and Ferrari will be frozen out as they signed a specific deal with Formula One Management. It’s unlikely that I will be staying home specially to watch Formula One again. I don’t blame the drivers, they are only doing what their teams have told them, the team principles have to accept some of the blame, but even they had their hands tied behind their back by Michelin who ordered all their teams to not race at Indianapolis. So it comes down to Michelin, Ferrari and the FIA for this joke of a Formula One race, none of them made any effort to find a resolution to the problem, you would think that a group of adults would be able to come to an agreement, but it seems that they are all children throwing their toys out of their prams. Formula One may never recover from this, F1 has only just recovered from Ferrari’s team orders incident two years ago, so where it goes from here is a bit of an unknown as many fans will undoubtedly not bother watching F1 from now on, I think this could well be the beginning of the end of Formula One!
Afterthought: If the Michelin teams ran their cars as they were, knowing that the tyres were dangerous because of the FIA being stubborn and not allowing new tyres to be flown in, and one or more drivers were injured or killed, whose fault would it be? With all the bullshit that the FIA spout about safety, they wouldn’t allow for new tyres to be flown in to Indianapolis, despite the obvious safety implications. I think that Formula One needs to have a long hard look at itself, and make changes starting at the top, because this simply isn’t F1 racing, its too much about business and not about the sport, which is simply wrong!