Magic Roundabout - F1 USA

[nopanic - neil]

Watching the USA Formula 1 race on TV. Watching Dougal on the Magic Roundabout would be more interesting than this race.

What a total f*** up. This will be in the press for a long time.

[Matt Harper]

You're not wrong there, Nopanic.
I was forced by circumstance to watch a lot of motorsport on TV this weekend. Speed's coverage of Le Mans was less than informative (re lap times and differences) - but still presented what was a gripping race and a fantastic event. F1, by contrast, was a cluster-f**k.
I don't blame the drivers/teams, even though, in the eyes of many Americans used to seeing cars running the other way at the 'yard, they've just whussed the f**k out - or Michelin even. Indianapolis is the wrong venue for an F1 race.
F1 is DEAD in this country, as of today. It will never recover from this. The USA is the biggest and most receptive motorsport market on the planet and they've managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The words piss-up and brewery spring to mind. Who cares - it's sh*t anyway - and is destined to be even worse next season, if that's possible.
 
 

[DavidsDad]

I agree.  An utter farce.  Michelin deserve to suffer massively.

[Fax]

He,He.....
I'm just utterly speechless, what a colossal cluster f**k!
I were there, no mention of the impending stupidity over the PA, just Tom Carnagie babling on about when Jimmy Bryan won the Indy 500 in 1958.  The only way we knew anything was going pear shaped before the start was when people became hysterical on cell phones.  F1 has just absolutely f**ked themselves up the ass as far as F1 in the US in concerned.  They were trying to get a second GP in Vegas next year?  They'll be lucky if they can get single GP in BuFu Oklahoma!  Beer can tossing and chants of REFUND! became the order of the afternoon.  If my tickets weren't  freebies, Id be seriously hacked off.. come to think of it, I'm still pissed off, I wasted an afternoon that would have been better spent cleaning the toilet.
There are F1 fans out there, you know who you are....
Take your grooved tires & sawdust throwing pile of sh*t and keep it!
Fax
 

[Dave H]

I find it ironic that I jumped on the Triumph yesterday and rode down to the Speedway, paid $20 to get in (and sit anywhere), parked my bike inside the track for free, saw 1 hour of qualifying and buggered off back home and yet saw considerably more than 300,000 did today.

I think back to the times I've dropped $10K in suite tickets for the weekend at previous F1s - I would have been considerably pissed if I'd done that this year.  Needless to say the mood here in Indy is not good.

[Jem]

I have'nt seen the race as I was in the way back from LM, not good by the sounds of things.

I do however take exception to the comments of our American friends babbling on about F1 in the manner they are doing  when they themselves count as entertainment cars going around in a circle for 500 miles at a time.....big wow.....where is the skill in that.

F1 has done itself no favours, but it does not merit the coments on this post.

The other thing our American friends need to understand is that there is a whole world outside of the good old US of A and that contrary to popular American propaganda the world does not revolve around them.

Jem

[Matt Harper]

Keep your wig on Jem - nobody said the world revolves around the US (even though it does) - and I'm English.
What I said was that the US isthe largest and most receptive consumer of motorsport and that is undeniable. For F1 to screw up in such a spectacular fashion whilst trying it's hardest to sell it to the North American market is ridiculous. Your snipe at NASCAR is unneccessary and not in the slightest bit relevant.
Check out the class victors at Le Mans this year LMP1. GT1, GT2 - American teams at the pinnacle of the sport, so get real.
I stand by my comments, Formula One (or Formula None, as it is now referred to here) is finished here - it's over. That might not bother you Jem, but I suspect that Bernie and his sponsors might be a little pissed-off about it.  

[hgb]

Fully agree with the grim comments. For the money the spectator has to pay to sit behind a high fence and miles away from the circuit he can expect a full grid and interesting racing. If F1 can't deliver that for whatever reason then they lost it. I hope this will break Mr. Ecclestone's neck.

[mgmark]

I'm just rather glad that I spent my spectating money on Le Mans as usual.   I still love it that around half the cost of an F1 Silverstone ticket gets you an entire fortnight's build-up, 8 hrs of qualifying, an hours free practice, and a 24 hour race, complete with 50 cars on the grid.   I hear that Autosport coverage on Le Mans in this week's edition will run to 10 pages plus a few other bits - should make a nice read, particularly compared to the F1 report which, given that there were all of 6 cars "racing", will probably be offset reporting of the FIA/Bernie/teams political bo**oxing around.  

Remember that it was Michelin and Mercedes between them who, unable to determine the cause of the high-speed tyre failure on the Sauber Mercedes down the Mulsanne in practice for the 1989 race led to the immediate withdrawal of the Mercedes team from the race.   What would Bernie et al rather Michelin had done in the circumstances?   Said nothing and watch a bundle of cars have serious accidents?   Just seems a shame that, with solutions to hand of insering a chicane, or running different rubber, they chose the route that they did and understandably pi**ed off all US and many other race fans.  

And as for any one who thinks that the 500-mile oval races are a breeze, find out more about the technology, the strategy, the circuits (which aren't truly geometric ovals).   Think on - there's plenty of skill there - it's just a bit different from other forms of the sport.

[smokie]

Thye said on Five Live last night that the oval races are usually postponed until the next day if it rains. Is that true?

[Matt Harper]

Thye said on Five Live last night that the oval races are usually postponed until the next day if it rains. Is that true?

Yes it is Jeff - I don't like that either, having been the victim of 2 rain-out's at Indianapolis. The mitigating factor is the concrete wall of course (i.e. there are no run-offs or gravel traps on a banked track)
I'm not sure what would have happened for the GP, had it rained.
Another question springs to mind. Everyone (Michelin included) knew Indy was in the F1 calendar - why did they wait until the day of the race to decide that they could not guarantee the safety of their race tyre at the speeds attained in qualifying, going through turn # 1?
Academic anyway now, I guess.

[Fax]

Whoa! What the hell was that all about Jem?  With all due respect I think you've lost the plot a bit with those remarks.
At no point were we implying that the US is the center of the universe and I've never felt that way for a second, I've come out several times of this site in condemnation of my governments policies and all that.  My remarks yesterday were directed at F1 (not over here anymore).  Matt pretty well hit it on the screws, F1 for well over a decade has been desperately trying to re-ignite interest in GP racing in the US market, and still struggling to do so even after locating the USGP at Indy.  The FIA was in the last year of a six year contract to hold the USGP at Indy and it looks likely that the Speedway is not going to renew the assciation.  F1 promotes itself as the pinnacle of the sport but you'll have a hard time convincing anyone of that over here at the moment, yesterday was amaturish and embarassing in the extreme.  There were a lot of people who travelled very long distances to see that race and to say that they were furious is an understatment.  Sitting behind me was a couple who drove from Toronto, next to them were four guys who flew from Mexico and in front of me were two guys who flew from Switzerland.  I'm putting myself in their shoes, if I had flown all the way over to see the 24 Hours of Le Mans and six cars bothered to race, I would be seriously pissed off too.
Fax

[smokie]

It was a shambles, but putting aside that they should never have been in that position, what else could they do?

I heard that Ferrari said they wouldn't run with a chicane (later that was contradicted so I don't know which was right) - why should they, when they had bothered to do their homework?

No-one could reasonably expect cars with a known safety hazard to go out and race.

If they'd gone out in an exhibition style then they would have been slated too.

I hope heads roll at Michelin. The guy on 5 Live was saying that he expected F1 to go to a single tyre manufacturer as a result. (Err...that could have meant NO cars going out!)

[Fax]

It seems to me to simply being a case of nobody wanting to compromise, and sometimes in the best interest of the sport compromises have to be made.  The FIA should have bit the bullit allowed Michelin to fly in new tires and if not, Ferrari should have just gone ahead and run with the chicane in place...As I said, simply for the good of the sport (which is also a billion dollar industry).  As it stands now, they all look like a bunch of complete assholes.  The FIA, Michelin, Ferrari, the whole damn lot.
Fax

[hgb]

Correct, it was a no win situation (as far as I understood it on radio on my way back from LM ). Still, as mentioned before, a) Indy isn't a F1 circuit and if they want to race there then they have to get it right in the first place and b) if they don't get it right then refund the tickets and confess (and maybe even blame it on the circuit for not being F1 compliant, which of course would open another discussion). This was a lame and unprofessional way of dealing with that matter. I still hope heads will roll. Michelin did very well at LM btw.