Sunday, June 19, 2005

Bizzare The most incredible spectacle at the U.S. Grand Prix. Only six cars are 'racing' due to a combination of Michelin's failure to provide adequete tires to their teams and Formula One not affecting a change to the course requested by teams carrying Michelin tires. The other fourteen cars went to pit lane before the official start of the race. The TV announcers are calling the race 'a farce'. LATER: This Sunday Times article Tyre farce hurts F1 gives a description of what the situation was going into today.  The BBC reports that Ferrari's refusal to run on a modified course is what kept FIA from imlementing the modification (TV coverage hasn't stated that, however.  They stated FIA had said any race run on a modified course would be not count for championship points.  Also, none of the team managers that they have spoken to pointed the finger at Ferrari, they all pointed the finger at FIA). This sort of incident shows the vast cultural/political difference between F1 and American racing series such as NASCAR.  The Formula One governing authority could have done something to prevent this, but chose to adhere to the rules (or their interpretation thereof, anyhow).  NASCAR would have done something (bring in new tires, mandate pit stops for tires, etc) to prevent this from happening even if it was something not necessarily in the rule book (The NASCAR rule book has a rule to the affect of 'We can change the rules at any time we want to for the good of the sport).  While the professional wrestling approach to the rules can be enermously frustrating at times, it would have produced a better result in this instance. Jackpotzrebie comment []2:08:48 PM   trackback []