Grand Prix: Teams found guilty on US fiasco

The teams who refused to start the US Grand Prix have been found guilty on two charges of bringing Formula One into disrepute and not guilty on three.

But motorsport's governing body the FIA will not decide their penalty until 14 September, it announced on Wednesday.

Renault, McLaren, Toyota, Williams, Red Bull, Sauber and BAR pulled out of the 19 June race after Michelin said it could not guarantee its tyres' safety.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/4631523.stm

As a big F1 fan, I've read a lot of the coverage of what happened, and the teams were totally stuck in a bind.

Were they supposed to endanger their drivers?

Mosely's suggestion that the "drivers drive slowly" is just laughable. It proves that he denied the chicane not out of safety concerns, but as a power-play ONLY. If he was truly concerned about safety he would not have told F1 race drivers to "drive slowly".

If he wants to penalize Michelin, fine. They screwed up. But it was Mosely and Ferrari's stupidity that made the USGP into the farce that it eventually became.

BTW: It was later revealed that Bridgestone had INSIDE information that Michelin didn't have. Which is why Bridgestone didn't have the same tire problems. So I even question whether Michelin should be harshly punished.

Go Kimi & Button!! And Minardi!!! Stoddie rocks!! I knew there was a reason Minardi was my favorite team!! :-)

On edit: Typo

but why was Ferrari stupid? Bridgestone had tested their tires at the track about a month before the race and made sure their drivers had the best tire for the course. Why didn't Michelin do the same? Michelin does carry some of the blame for failing to provide safe tires.

But the tire issue goes beyond just this race. The decision to not allow any tire changes is also a huge safety issue. Especially after the race where Kimi's tire blew at the final curve. They had been showing several tires throughtout the race that were having problems, but teams are not allowed to change them.

if they had agreed Mosely would have had to agree as well. That makes Ferrari stupid, IMO.

As it was, they looked like fools circling the track by themselves, while the only "real" race was between the Jordans & Minardis.

Sometimes insisting that things be done "right" is the WRONG thing to do.

would have invalidated all qualifying laps. All racers would have had to drive the course and start qualifying laps on Sunday for the course that was actually being driven. The actual race would probably have occured on Monday.

Imho, a course change would have also been a safety issue since drivers would not have been allowed to view the course pre-race time if the race went on as scheduled.

but it would have been preferable to what DID happen! And it was certainly a more viable option than to "drive slowly".
:eyes:

The race would have been delayed, that's for sure. But qualifying laps and the race could have been accomplished before nightfall. It was nearly the solstice, after all.

Bottom line: The chicane solution had 90% support. Ferrari's & Mosely's pigheadedness prevented the race from taking place.

What is this bullshit about the teams being informed of their punishment on September 14th? That's practically the end of the season!

Are they supposed to keep pouring time, money and effort into winning championship points only to have the championship handed to M. Schumacher because all their points get taken away at the end of the season?!?!?

This is total BS and I hope the teams DO break away and form their own series. This was the first interesting season of F1 for several years. It seems the FIA and F1 are determined to keep the show "all Ferrari all the time."

:puke:

They refused consessions, the racers pulled out, now they slap the racers with penalties because they looked like asses for it. That's just absolute bullshit imho. I can't imagine fans and drivers will put up with this kind of crap for very long before they bail.

and F1.

I'm sure he'll want to see this and comment!

:kick:

:kick:

:kick:

"You've got shitty equipment, but I need to look good at home, so you just go out there and do the best you can and if you die, we'll cry for you..."


"Hold it! you guys are running the WRONG tyres!"

To me this is a textbook case of Pyrrhic victory.