Indianapolis US F1 Turns Into Fiasco! (from ATSNN)

With tensions already high between the F1 teams and the F1 regulating body (FIA), this latest fiasco at Indianapolis seems to have only made matters worse for the sport.
Sunday's F1 race in which seven teams pulled out due to a disagreement with the FIA has been called in no uncertain terms as "F1's darkest hour". The disagreement resulted due to tire manufacturer Michelin's inability to assess the reason for Ralf Schumacher's tire blowout during practice. This led to a mass walkout by fans followed by angry fans throwing beer cans and other projectiles on the track!
The remaining six Bridgestone supplied teams did however carry on the race. Ferrari's Michael Schumacher's came in first, this being his first win this season.




With so much divide in the F1 and with so great a disappointment in the US F1 I wonder where this sport is headed?
With only six cars competing and turning the whole race into a farce it has severely damaged F1's credibility and also disgraced the Indianapolis circuit by such a farce.
With each fan paying upto $600 for a ticket and most of them coming from overseas, it is a shame that they were forced to watch only six cars on the starting grid after having spent so much time and energy.
This is just the beginning of the divide in F1 and is only going to get worse if the FIA and the teams don't sort out their differences. Otherwise it might go the NHL way!
This was the sixth US Grand Prix and it could be its last!
Also this race has cost millions in losses economically because of the large market these companies have in the US.
After the race Michelin's shares had dipped by nearly 3%, the repercussions of this fiasco will cause long term damage to the F1 teams, their sponsors and the sport on a whole.



Related News Links:
www.thesun.co.uk
news.bbc.co.uk
www.planet-f1.com
www.sportinglife.com

I watch the F1 and was watching at the weekend when this fiasco happened and my opinion is this....

Why wont everybody just stop crying over it and get over it! It was only a race!

Michelin knew that their tyres were dangerous so they told their teams to withdraw from the race, which was the correct thing to do.
Why on Earth did people boo Ferrari????? Ferrari were using Bridgestone tyres which on the day were clearly better tyres and had every right to still compete in the race!

If North America host no more F1 races then more fool them! The decision that was made probably saved lives at the weekend and yet peope still moan!

GET OVER IT!!!!!

P.S....Sorry but i voted no on this submission as i dont see it as appropriate for ATS....Sorry!

[edit on 20/6/2005 by Identity_Unknown]

For those of us who were watching on TV, it was only a race. For those who attended the race, it was a major expenditure. For those who have invested time and money trying to sell F1 to the American public, it was stunning blow. For Americans who would like to see more F1 races in America and at least two other cities are interested, it was a big disappointment. I think this is a worthy enough story. It's big business and it involves millions of people worldwide. The submission needs some serious formatting work to get my vote, however.

"GET OVER IT!!!!! "???

A bit of a weak and predictable response from people today. If you go to the store and you pay for a product and you don't get it should you be told to just "get over it?" Alot of people paid a great deal of money to attend a race. You don't pay $100 a ticket plus travel expenses to watch drivers protest and pull out. There is no difference between this and going to your favorite steak house and ordering up the best stake they have and a tall cold glass of beer only to have the waiter bring you a bag of McDonalds and a coke and tell you to get over it.

Originally by Indy
If you go to the store and you pay for a product and you don't get it should you be told to just "get over it?"

Caveat Emptor:
n.
The axiom or principle in commerce that the buyer alone is responsible for assessing the quality of a purchase before buying.

If I go to a steak house, pay $20 for a steak, and don't get it, I'll know better than to go there again. It's my own fault for not trying to find out about the place before I went. It sucks, no way arguing that. That's $20 I'm never going to have again. But if I'm capable of deciding where to go and buy a steak then it's up to me to make sure I don't get myself screwed over.

EDIT: formatting

[edit on 6/20/2005 by MCory1]

If you don't get a product you've paid for you are entitled to a refund. Or if you don't get the product you are promised you aren't required to pay. Depending if its a pay first or pay later deal. I doubt there is a court in the nation that wouldn't side with the consumers on this. Having a race cut short because of weather is one thing. Having a field reduced because of a wreck is acceptable. These two things are normal for racing. Having 75% of your field quit in the middle of the warmup lap constitutes a breach of contract. You are in no way obligated to pay for their protests. What happened sunday falls FAR outside the realm of reasonable race related activity.

The argument will become "would a reasonable person pay $100 to watch 6 cars race. would the people who paid $100 opted not to go if 14 cars were going to pull out out of protest?"

Those that become defendants in this case have no leg to stand on.

It's easy to research a steak house and find out if they have a good product or not, but the first warning there was that this might happen was a day or two before the race occured. You have to buy tickets up to a year in advance to get into a race, and for a lot of people that attend them this is a once in a lifetime event. The LOW end tickets for races are usually $100+, then you have to pay for travel expenses, either plane tickets or car trip, plus hotel stay for the weekend, plus food/drink/souveniers at the race.... it adds up to a LOT of money. Now if you had chosen to go to a race, and bought a ticket a year ahead and spent all that money do you think you would be able to just "get over it"?

People booed Ferrari because, as always, they wouldnt agree with the others and race with a chicane even though the other teams were willing to give up their points to them.

This is the end of F1, the teams will leave and form the GPWC and leave Ferrari to race on their own and then finally, Max, Bernie and co will be happy with them winning every race.

The FIAs compromise was laughable as always, they wanted the michelin runners to slow down in that corner, can you imagine some cars doing 140mph and others doing 215mph in the same corner? Yeah, thats safer!

I feel sorry for the people that paid to see the race but this had to be done to show the people who run F1 arent fit to run a karting track.

well written story, but is it truly ATSNN material?

where is the conspiracy?

is michelin secretly the antichrist? I always thought the michelin man looked more like Cthulu than the beast....

It wasnt properly written with the word "fiasco" being used in the introductory paragraph which were not quotes. Fiasco is a loaded word and should not be used by the authour in the introductory paragraph. Also the story is of no importance to anyone outside of the F1 world.

Sports stories have no place in ATSNN unless they truly affect the daily lives of people.

Its my opinion that sport is the opium of the masses and has been used to distract populations from more pressing issues since the Romans held circuses and gladiator contests. As such I think they shouldnt be given airtime in news outlets, including this one. There is a reason why there are dedicated sports news channels and that they dont carry political stories. There is more important issues than a car going around in circles really really fast.

[edit on 21/6/05 by subz]

Hey! I can't fix the heading or edit it anymore!
Anyone know how? Tell me! I will gladly edit it!
Anyone?.......

There was a day when racers were a hardened bunch of thrill seekers living on the edge, and risking thier lives every time the went on the track. Mechanics would spend weeks trying to tweak thier cars to become the fastest cars on the track.. no matter what the cost. The courses were on beachs, or if you were lucky abandonded and blocked off streets.

Now racing orinizations have rulebooks bigger then the novel "War and peace" on how to build the cars. Restrictor plates limit how fast they can go, body design limits drafting or in some cases forces drafting (which causes more collisions), well groomed ovals end up making it a mechanics race instead of a drivers race. There is so much sponsership money and advertising money involved with races it has become all but a farce as far as entertainment value.

If I were a racing body, I would pull out the Restrictor plates, and for the major car styles (Stock, indy, f1) put in a cap on spending for the car. so that you don't switch out engines after a race, or even a qualifyer run How many can afford to use Two engines for every race?

oh well, I guess that is what you get with coperate greed, corruption of one of americas favorite pastimes