Whats up with Michelin?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[MaDbOy]

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

[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

[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!

[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]

the problem with the Indy circuit is the 12th and 13th turns and the steepness and fast pace of them, if a car is high on the turn at high speed the tyres risk blowing out and flipping the car, it wouldn't matter which tyre your running otherwise Bridgestone teams wouldn't have sided with the chicane option! 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!

[JJR]

As an american who want's badly for F-1 to be more accepted here in the states, the race was a complete slap in the face. I can understand that it was a safety concern, and thats why the cars did not run. On the otherhand, shouldn't this tire problem be sorted out way way before they ever got to Indy? I imagine that testing and diffrent compounds would be tried, months before an event. Makes the Good-Year problem at NASCARs Poccono race look like a success. Michelin has a big hole to dig out of now. I wonder how many teams will switch?
-Jay

[CanadianDC10]

and thats the stupidity of the current F1 rules, no tyre changes during the race unless you've got a situation like Raikkonen's last week, FIA has only themselves to blame. total crock of crap on the FIA's behalf.

I'll have to disagree a bit here. Why didn't the Michelin teams put on the brand new (and supposedly secure) tires brought from France before the race? Yes, that's illegal and they would all have been disqualified after the race. But at least there would have been a "show". What's so different between that, and asking for a chicane, then being disqualified for it (= the Michelin proposal Ferrari voted against)?

I'm being a bit hypothetical here, but I think that maybe the Michelin teams didn't race because they wanted the blame to be put on Ferrari rather than on their tyres. (I bet that Michelin are being "congratulated" at the moment...) F1 is all about marketing unfortunately... yet an other reason to prefer Champ Car over it

[DAL767-400ER]

and thats the stupidity of the current F1 rules, no tyre changes during the race unless you've got a situation like Raikkonen's last week, FIA has only themselves to blame. total crock of crap on the FIA's behalf.

Abso-bloody-lutely correct. As reports have shown, had it not been for the fiber cables holding the tire onto the chassis, the tire would have hit Raikkonen straight in the head, with potential leathel consequences. Of course, McLaren could have changed the tire, but then he would have been disqualified.

[Longreach747]

and thats the stupidity of the current F1 rules, no tyre changes during the race unless you've got a situation like Raikkonen's last week, FIA has only themselves to blame. total crock of crap on the FIA's behalf.

[G-MIDY]

I had mixed feelings over this, for one i was pi$$ed at Ferrari for dismissing the fans and basically making the race a 2man horse race. 2nd i was pi$$ed at the officials for not putting the chicane in and dismissing Ferraris claim of no wrong doing so tough on the other 15+ drivers. 3rd i felt for the fans out there for all the money they spent but come on boo-ing and throwing bottles!? :|

Michelin know they will face huge penalties for this they're going to face them big big time because this could damage F1 itself among the fans greatly.
They couldn't switch to Bridgestone because they're on contracts to run on Michelin, plus a better tyre isn't available that fast, so really the drivers could go out but literally be dicing with death on turn 13.

[DAL767-400ER]

Oh yeah, the brilliant idea of adding a chicane at turn 12/13. Makes me wonder even more about the quality of Michelin. So the tires can't stand through 73 with the Indy-style high-speed curve, but with a single chicane added they could? Seems a bit weird.
And Jordan only initially wanted a track change, but later decided to use the regular track without the chicane.
But let's face it: While Michelin screwed up their tires, I am confident that all this trouble would have been a non-issue if the FIA didn't decide to prohibit tire changes during the race unless a tire has already blown to smithereens.

[Longreach747]

nothing funny about Ralph Schumacher's tyre blow out on turn 13, it was only Ferrari that objected to the chicane at turn 13, all other teams had requested it for safety reasons, so it wasn't just a Michelin issue! all the teams had concerns about it!

thats a steep turn, a F1 car is pretty light and it wouldn't take much for something catastrophic to happen when the tyres eventually wear during the race, part of the stupid new rule by the FIA that only allows a tyre change if the tyre is rooted like Raikkonen's at Montreal last week. FIA did nothing to accomodate the concerns so the race ended up like this, but its interesting to note that it WASN'T just Michelin teams that were requesting a track change!