Formula One

Not too close...but the tires are the most basic safety features in ANY auto racing, and Michelin, who have produced quality tires for years, both passenger and racing, should hang their heads in shame after the recent debacle. I don't blame the drivers one bit for choosing to take unnecessary risks, especially when they were entirely preventable. I think the Michelin man was shrunk considerably by THAT one.

 

I'm a fan of high tech racing, and like it when electronics can be perfected in the auto racing arena. Unfortunately, it does detract from driver skill, deciding races.
Agree Michelin took one on the chin.
Nikki Lauda, Sterling Moss, Jackie Stewart, Jimmy Clark, some of my Favorites. Lauda or Clark probably my all time favorites for skill.

 

Absolutley

Toyota all the way!

 

I must admit that was quite the sorry state of affairs to say the least, I think it should have been handled better than it was.

 

I'm becoming a bigger fan of F1 all the time, the USGP notwithstanding. I think Michelin did the best they possibly could. Michelin didn't get to test at Indy after the changes Tony George made to the surface, and it really killed them. Bridgestone had the information they needed because Firestone tires were used for the Indy 500.

I don't know what could possibly have been done that weekend to prevent the USGP disaster. Michelin should have been given the opportunity to run a tire test the week after the Indy 500, and they weren't. I believe that the ultimate blame for the USGP fiasco lies at the feet of Max Moseley, not necessarily for what he did that weekend, but for instituting the one-tire rule, which I think is simply a bad rule.

It's too bad, because the F1 championship battle is decent, though not great, and we'll finally see somebody else other than Schumacher win the championship.

 

Dave Despain once said that he thinks racing should be about 2 guys going into a turn, and each of them lifting at a different point in the turn depending on how hard they can push/want to push the car. He continued on and said that if both drivers go through the turn flat-out, then that means that the racing has been turned into my engineers vs. your engineers and "...suddenly, I've lost interest." I give a hearty Amen to that.

Right now, F1 racing is my engineers vs. your engineers. I love the cars, but I don't love the racing that much. Michael Schumacher was asked in 2004 whether he could win driving a Jordan or Minardi and he flat out said No. That tells me that we have too much emphasis on car and not enough on driver. Under these proposed rules, I'm not entirely sure that Jordan and Minardi could suddenly be competitive, but they'd have a better chance at it.

I think Max wants to see a return to the days where more than 20 cars competed in a race and hopefully see more than 3 or 4 cars have a chance to win any given race. If the barrier-to-entry of cost is lowered to get into F1, perhaps we'll see other manufacturers want to get into it. I think these are good goals and are good for the sport.

I think that F1 racing will continue to be the biggest stage worldwide, and continue to be the place where every open-wheel racer strives to be, even moreso if these changes happen. If these changes happen, the drivers are going to be more valuable than ever. The guys who have the ability to finesse a car through the turn without traction control will become more important than the foot-stompers who can just shove the car through the turn because of traction control. I think driver ability should be more important than having the smartest engineers.

To go back to the USGP for a minute, I was thinking the other day that how ironic it is that the guy who almost single-handedly destroyed open-wheel racing in this country can be seen as the sympathetic figure in this mess. Of course, it's hard to have sympathy for him because of what he's done, but it's ironic nonetheless.

BTW, I think the IRL is doomed and I think that Champ Car will be where the open-wheel factions come back together. Honda is simply not staying unless they have competition, and they have said as much. They may go a season with supplying all engines, but they won't do that for more than 1.

How good would the Indy 500 be if we had a field of Tony Kanaan, Helio Castroneves, Dan Wheldon, Sam Hornish, Sebastian Bourdais, Paul Tracy, Tomas Scheckter and the other best drivers in each series? No more of this nonsense of AJ Foyt IV and other hacks like him running in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Hey, you know something? We may see Bump Day at Indy actually mean something again!