FORMULA Lol

[StefanS]

Without words....

This is soo funny

 

[V3]

They should have at least race for few laps.

 

[pcchen]

This is the most stupid race I've seen. I really should go to bed right now.
I feel pity for those who spent money to watch the race.

 

[t0y]

Monteiro 3rd!!!! YEAH!

 

[StefanS]

Any1 noticed: How they're gonna determine the start grid for the next training in Magny Cours?

 

[Mendel]

I'm absolutely disgusted about this all. This was unthinkable, couldn't be farther from acceptable way of dealing with things... What kind of idiots are they to not be able to agree on any way of at least driving the gp.

Wouldn't have been okay if the Michelin drivers just had the new tires, which were delivered there, but got no points as a sanction? Hell, why not even give all teams Bridgestones At least we would have seen a race.

I was a huge fan of Formula one until now. I think I'm swithching to motogp from now on though.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I asked this over at EB and still ain't gotten an answer yet, what happened that was so wrong/bad/funny? :?

EDITED BITS: From me mates at EB:

The Michelen (sp?) tyre runners wouldn't run due to being advised that there was a flaw in the tyres, which had already caused an accident involving Ralf Schumacher. Now, they weren't allowed to use replacement tyres under FIA rules, so they asked for a chicane to be installed at the part of the track which was causing the problem.

This didn't happen, so only 6 cars ran the race, all on Bridgestone tyres. What followed was a panto race, a complete joke.

Michelin used a "bad" mixture for the tires, so they were unsafe on that specific US track. One driver got injured (on Friday I think) and at least one other blew a tire. Most of the teams use Michelin brand tires, so they decided not to race after Michelin strongly recommended that anyone with their tires should not race (the rules state that tires can't be changed and FIA didn't give permission to change the tires). So in the end, there were 3 teams (and 6 cars) on the track and Ferrari being much better than the rest of the 2, so there wasn't really any competition left.

Update: too late

What happened? Why did it suck?

hi
this is what happened...the race originally had 10 teams with 2 cars each...so 20 cars in total...7 teams run on michelin and 3 on bridgestone tyres...michelin discovered on practice session after the accident of ralf schumacher that their tyres are not good enough to take on turn 13...turn 13 goes on for nearly 25 seconds at 210+ mph....this would put michelin runners at risk of an accident and they adviced the teams to backout or put a speed reducer...this was not a fault with tyres alone as the track was resurfaced to provide more grip and this proved to be too rough for michelin tyres to handle....so a speed reducer was suggested but ferrari did noy agree to that ...all the others did....so as a result race went ahead with bridgestone runners alone and these are ferrari,jordan,minardi...so 6 cars raced...all the other did not even bother to start....so ferrari got first and second positions...ferrari should have agreed to the speed reducer...reason was that even with speed restictions in place the michelins would have to drive solwer due to their inherent weakness...but ferrari did not....i would not even consider that a finish...its as if they made a race for themselves so that they could win... ....last time in canada also ferrari finished in 2,3 positions because 6 cars running before them could not finish...ferrari is just a shadow of its former self....



upd:shit i am late again...gotta improve my typing speed...

I got me the bestest virtual friends in the whole wide world. 8)

 

[atlantis]

Wouldn't have been okay if the Michelin drivers just had the new tires, which were delivered there, but got no points as a sanction?

Risking racers life?
With tyres developed for another circuit?

 

[Mendel]

Wouldn't have been okay if the Michelin drivers just had the new tires, which were delivered there, but got no points as a sanction?

Risking racers life?
With tyres developed for another circuit?

well, alternatively. Michelin had quaranteed their tires would last for 10 laps. So why not race and have those tires changed every 10 laps.

edit: dw, wheres that f1 thread on EB? I managed to start a new one it seems

edit2: nm, found it

 

[Mendel]

Joint statement from the Michelin teams

http://www.formula1.com/race/news/3201/740.html

 

[digitalwanderer]

And on an oddly related sidenote today, my kids got me the most gaudy "NASCAR" ballcap you have ever laid your eyes on.

Not only am I not into racing much, (cept street level when I got my wife's car ), but I absolutely DETEST Nascar.

They just go in a bloody circle in souped cars in crappy bodycasts of production cars, what is the fucking point?

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

They played by the rules. There is simply no provision for changing the circuit, racing without points, changing places, etc for a team that has a faulty car that cannot go at full race speed safely.

The teams could have raced within the rules if they had simply told their drivers to go well under speed at the problem turn, much like the slower teams would have done. They elected not to race at all because they couldn't run at full speed, rather than race safely at less than full speed. It's only become an issue because of the large number of teams involved. If it had just been one or two teams, this wouldn't even be seen as a problem.

I agree that this has completely damaged F1, particularly in America, but I just can't see how anyone could have got the Michelin teams out of this problem and stayed within the rules. The proposed solutions were all about changing the rules on the fly, and there's simply no provision for that to work and be consistent with what's already happened.

Even if all the teams and FIA had agreed on one of the offered "solutions", the race stewards could have nixed it on the basis of it simply not being in the rules as they did to Minardi at the beginning of the season. That would have had to have happened again in order to be at all consistent.

 

[Dave Baumann]

"Just slowing down" was not a solution, though, as how "slow" is safe enough? The tyres were failing after 10 laps; how slow would they need to be to ensure that even slowing down at the entrance to the banked corner would be sufficient? The other issue would be that there were 6 other cars on that circuit that will be taking the entrance to the banking at full throttle - how often would they have come across another car that was just slowing down (fairly randomly to them), which is effectively like brake testing them. Even then, racers are racers and you can't see the likes of Kimi and others not pushing it more and more as the race goes on.

 

[Geo]

I know nothing about the nitty-gritty details of this sport, but I would have thot the real issue here was the setting up and testing of the course in the first place. I gather this must have been a non-standard course, or the issue would have arisen previously? It sounds to me like they tried to setup an American course on the cheap (resources and time-wise), and got bit.

Edit: Oh, Indy! Well, certainly the historical resonance must have been attractive. . .until Friday.

 

[Basic]

"Just slowing down" was not a solution, though, as how "slow" is safe enough? The tyres were failing after 10 laps; how slow would they need to be to ensure that even slowing down at the entrance to the banked corner would be sufficient?

So basically, you're saying that their own "solution" to put a chicane in or near turn 13 wasn't enough to make it safe either.

The other issue would be that there were 6 other cars on that circuit that will be taking the entrance to the banking at full throttle - how often would they have come across another car that was just slowing down (fairly randomly to them), which is effectively like brake testing them. Even then, racers are racers and you can't see the likes of Kimi and others not pushing it more and more as the race goes on.

If they were concerned with safety, they could tell their self imposed speed limit to the teams with Bridgestone tyres. I'm sure that would be enough for them to handle the slower Michelin cars in that turn.


It's rather lame to put any blame on Ferrari for not wanting to change the rules. The other teams screw up in their preparations (indirectly through Michelin). That's not Ferrari's problem. Why should anyone accept to change the rules just because somebody else screwed up their preparations?

 

[V3]

They could have race for 3-8 laps and either dive into the pits for a new set, take the penalty and go out again, till they run out and retire. That would be the normal way to go out, instead they blow this out of proporsion. This shouldn't have been a big deal at all. That way they would still be racing.

Putting a chicane or slowing down on that fast turn is total BS for a solution.

 

[V3]

I know nothing about the nitty-gritty details of this sport, but I would have thot the real issue here was the setting up and testing of the course in the first place. I gather this must have been a non-standard course, or the issue would have arisen previously? It sounds to me like they tried to setup an American course on the cheap (resources and time-wise), and got bit.

Edit: Oh, Indy! Well, certainly the historical resonance must have been attractive. . .until Friday.

Apparently the circuit was resurface and its rougher than normal. Bridgestone race on Indycar as well so they had experience it and knew about it.

Michelin didn't do their homework and screw up.

 

[stevem]

Michelin used a "bad" mixture for the tires, so they were unsafe on that specific US track.

That's not entirely correct. While casing construction is different between Michelin & Bridgestone in any case, the lateral & g-force loading on the long banked curve resulted in the Michelin folding over itself. Bridgestone's more conservative approach to tyre design & feedback from Firestone via IRL gave them the heads up on the situation. Well done Bridgestone!

This was a poor show all 'round. Michelin runners should have taken tyre changes in their pitstops, with the resultant penalties correcting their race placings in favour of the Bridgestone runners. The problem would've been if Montoya (MacLaren) shunted Schumacher (Ferrari) to preclude him collecting points...

The one good outcome is it may open the entire FIA/Moseley/manufacturer can of worms. I disagree with FIA rules for 2006-7, esp with V8 & control tyre suggestions. What would have been the outcome of a whole field of Michelin runners? Everybody farcically slowing down through turn 13? IMO they need to lure Goodyear & Sumitomo (Dunlop) into the frey, not reduce competition. Next we'll have control engine, a la IRL. What's next, control chasis, control areo, control automaton (driver)...? The pinnacle of motorsport's budget needs to be though out more carefully in light of tech advancement, else we'll end up with the equivalent of pickup truck racing (much as I love NASCAR)...

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Michelin are the only people to blame. They should've had spec. tyres for the race, and they didn't produce them. After last years fiasco with Ralf also hitting the wall, one would've expected them to have learnt from it and built a better tyre. Michelin never did this.

What ever the FIA could've done this weekend, they would've always ended up the bad guy, so they did the right decision by doing what they did. It was not the FIA's fault. It was Michelin's.

Michelin should be charged with bringing the sport into disrepute and be made to pay for all the Indy fan's ticket's accomodation's etc.

US

 

[_xxx_]

Ferrari wins, everything's ok


In fact they should all use the same engines and the same tires. But than it wouldn't be attractive for the manufacturers.