It seems obvious to me that once Michelin determined that their tires were unsafe to use at speed on the final banked corner that there was not going to be a race of any consequence. The only possible outcome was that the six Bridgestone runners were going to share the points among themselves. The various proposals after that stage were ludicrous and were not going to change the outcome. What I have seen proposed:
- (by Michelin and the 7 Michelin teams) - put in a chicane to slow all runners down and allow the race to continue-- why should the FIA do this and why would the Bridgestone runners agree to this?
- (apparently by the 7 Michelin teams) - put in a chicane to slow all runners down -- Bridgestone runners to get all the points. While this would have got all cars on the track -- there would have been no real race -- a minor placebo for the fans.
- (apparently by the FIA) -- have the Michelin runners slow down during the corner -- this would probably have been unsafe for all runners -- besides nobody know by how much they had to slow down.
- (apparently by the FIA and Ferrari/Todt afterwards) - have Michelin runners run through the pits -- not much racing going on there now is there -- I am sure the fans would have enjoyed that!
- (not sure by whom) -- have Michelin runners change tires every so many laps for safety reasons -- I am not sure that there were enough tires there anyway to cover this situation. This would involve both the stewards approval and in the end probably doesn't help much -- nobody I think had even an inkling of how many laps would have been safe. This also wouldn't have provided any real racing.
- (what actually happened) -- the Michelin runners did not start.
So the best possible scenario was probably 2. but even that would have been a placebo for the fans, not real racing. The Michelin teams would have been conducting an extended race distance test. The Bridgestone runners would have been racing among themselves.
No doubt the blame here is with Michelin who failed miserably in providing suitable equipment but after that happened there was no scenario that was going to work out for the fans and IMS.
An interesting article on the subject.
