Whats up with Michelin?

[Paul Maier]

Michelin would have gone to Indy with the best tyres possible, but they can't test those tyres on any other track in the world except Indy, it's a unique track and the testing only comes a few days before the race!

True monty, but what about the last 5 races that have been held there? surely they knew which compound would have suited it best going of last years telemetry?

as for the ferrari voting down the chicance in 12/13 i think they had every right to do so. why would you vote your teams an advantage. bridgestone tyres so far this season have been average to poor, why should they suffer for choosing the correct compound and having gambled with their choice.

people are forgetting that there was another option availiable to the michelin shod teams. do not go at top speed through turn 13. Montiero came in more than a lap behind ferrari. while the top michelin runners may not have caught the ferraris, they perhaps would have socred more points than the zero they scored.

this is the anti ferrari crowd trying to place the blame on a team. it is michelins and the michelin shod teams responsibility. sure saftey is an issue, but it would have been ok for them to race at full pace everything except turn 13.

[Longreach747]

True monty, but what about the last 5 races that have been held there? surely they knew which compound would have suited it best going of last years telemetry?.

forgetting one major factor! this year is the first year where NO tyre changes are allowed, once you choose your rubber your forced to stick with it, so the previous 5 races count for 0 because you could switch tyres if the compounds were not right!

[uy707]

Anyhow, and according to Jacques Villeneuve, it's death of F1 in the US. Probably good, as IndyCar race tracks are too different from F1 ones, but too bad for the 150,000 viewers who came to see, a nice opportunity is lost. The best solution is to build a brand new F1 track, but since its not popular in the US as with soccer, what's the use, after all they are so many countries queueing up to set up a Grand Prix.
And Michelin won't need to adapt to INDY narrow specifics which primarely call for show and nothing else.
Alain

[MaDbOy]

there where talks about Dumping indianapolis, and going to Las Vegas.
will now probably be next year, instead of 2007....

[Paul Maier]

forgetting one major factor! this year is the first year where NO tyre changes are allowed, once you choose your rubber your forced to stick with it, so the previous 5 races count for 0 because you could switch tyres if the compounds were not right!

they only had a choice of tyres last year as well.

Tyre changes are allowed if saftey becomes a concern. or the weather changes. also they are allowed to bring to each GP two different compounds plus intermediate/wets. they should have made better choices.

there where talks about Dumping indianapolis, and going to Las Vegas.
will now probably be next year, instead of 2007....

I heard that they were also considering Long beach again, or watkins glenn.

[mapguy]

Here is my $.02 worth. Michelin is not totally blameless here. Bridgestone already knew what the track conditions were at Indy through their Firestone brand with the Indy 497.5 race. Michelin didn't. The track surface has changed dramatically due to a resurfacing and then diamond grinding that happened earlier this year. Michelin had tires that, although they couldn't guarantee they would be safer, they could ship overnight from France. But, since the Michelin teams would be starting the race on tires they didn't qualify on, they would have penalties. So in the interest of safety the FIA should have either not imposed penalties or put in a chicane before turn 13. They didn't and look what happened. Mind you, if Bridgestone had the problem then it would happen. God forbid that Ferrari would be at a disadvantage.

Having said that, it couldn't have happened at a better track. That sperm-lottery winning, tantrum-throwing idiot Tony George deserves it.

[Bill_a_bong65]

DAL767-400ER

First, I was p!ssed at Bridgestone for not providing a good tire to Ferrari. It was not bad because of safety reasons, but it was just slow as hell.

The reason the Ferrari's were not running at top speed were that they would have wound back the revs to keep the risk down of the engine blowing up. Also there was no real need for them to put in full speed laps and take the unessasary risk of going off the track as there were no opponents that could challenge them.

Sean.

[DeltaRules]

Two of my flight instructors went to the USGP...the one that's a race fan was frustrated & says he's been gipped of his $75. What happened Sunday definitely didn't help F1 in the US, which is unfortunate because it's a great racing series.

How come not too many people watch F1 instead of Indy 500, CART and Nascar???

I think it may have something to do with when & where the races are on in the US. Some F1 races are shown tape delayed on CBS on Sundays around 1pm Eastern. However, most are on Speed Channel & are shown live using their announcers (Bob Varsha, David Hobbs & Steve Matchett), requiring a 6-7am EDT start time many times. I think some of the Middle Eastern races (Bahrain comes to mind) come on at 2 or 3am EDT. I know I don't get up for them, although I'm starting to become interested again because Schumi hasn't won every race so far.

In comparison, NASCAR's probably much better known here & it's easy to find the races. On Sundays in the first half of the season, go to FOX or FX at around 1:30-2pm & the second half, NBC or TNT at the same times (except for Saturday night races) & you'll find a NASCAR race.

As for the Indy 500 (Indy Racing League), The two words that explain the new interest in that series?: Danica Patrick.

ABC/ESPN's coverage of the races almost makes the IRL unbearable to watch because they focus so much attention to her...the Indy 500's pre-race show was dominated by a piece about Danica, which was her doing Yoga-like moves with a voiceover of her explaining what she thinks about racing.

There's a guy who takes notes on the IRL race coverage...why, I don't know, but you'll see the DP hype in the Indy 500 one:
http://pressdog.blogspot.com/2005/05...ace-notes.html

there where talks about Dumping indianapolis, and going to Las Vegas.
will now probably be next year, instead of 2007....

Are they talking about some kind of going to a street circuit, or are they going to use the speedway there? Because using LVMS (Las Vegas Motor Speedway) could be a boring race, even on a road course.

DeltaRules

[MaDbOy]

Are they talking about some kind of going to a street circuit, or are they going to use the speedway there? Because using LVMS (Las Vegas Motor Speedway) could be a boring race, even on a road course.

I have no clue, I hope a street circuit though.

[DAL767-400ER]

Are they talking about some kind of going to a street circuit, or are they going to use the speedway there? Because using LVMS (Las Vegas Motor Speedway) could be a boring race, even on a road course.

DeltaRules

Well, Indy would have been boring as well, so they added the Infield with curves just for F1. I'm not familiar with the LVMS, but judging from what I have seen from the air (3-4 years ago), it didn't look too big anyway, let alone allow for an infield track.
But of course, we're talking Vegas here. If there are indeed plans for a F1 race there, they shouldn't have any problem bulding a new track somewhere on the outskirts. Just look at how fast Qatar built its racetrack.

[DeltaRules]

Well, Indy would have been boring as well, so they added the Infield with curves just for F1. I'm not familiar with the LVMS, but judging from what I have seen from the air (3-4 years ago), it didn't look too big anyway, let alone allow for an infield track.
But of course, we're talking Vegas here. If there are indeed plans for a F1 race there, they shouldn't have any problem bulding a new track somewhere on the outskirts. Just look at how fast Qatar built its racetrack.

The track is a 1.5 mile D-shaped oval, which is a "cookie cutter" track, providing for a boring NASCAR race when they run there (which is where I got that a race on the current configuration would be boring). There's no infield road course right now, although they probably could squeeze one in there.

http://www.lvms.com/

Track Map: http://www.lvms.com/seating_chart.html

DeltaRules

[DAL767-400ER]

1.5 miles is definitely way too short, as the average track is usually roughly 3 miles long, with the notable exception of Monaco. And even when building an infield track, it would be hard to get the track even as long as Monaco.

[MaDbOy]

By seeing that track map, all i can think of is
it will be a canada/melbourne kinda track I think....

[G-MIDY]

Monaco is the best track in the world period!

[Paul Maier]

Monaco is the best track in the world period!

if you want to die of boredom and poverty.