2005 United States Grand Prix
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The 2005 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on June 19, 2005 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race was notable for the fact that only six cars competed; all fourteen Michelin runners retired after the parade lap due to a safety issue with their tyres, leaving only the Bridgestone teams Ferrari, Minardi and Jordan to start.
Following several tyre failures, most spectacularly on Ralf Schumacher's Toyota during Friday practice, Michelin advised its seven customer teams that they could not safely race. The FIA refused to allow new tyres to be flown in or a chicane to be installed, mostly on grounds that such rule changes would be grossly unfair to the Bridgestone teams, who had come prepared with the properly working tyres. The Michelin teams, unable to come to a compromise with the FIA, did not participate in the race on safety grounds.
Of the six competitors, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was the eventual winner. The result significantly boosted his championship standing, placing him third overall – no driver above him in the table took part in the race.
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Pre-race controversy
On Friday, June 17, during the afternoon's practice, Ralf Schumacher crashed heavily in Turn 13 of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, apparently as a result of a tyre failure. The following day, Michelin reported that the tyres it had provided for its seven customer teams – BAR, McLaren, Red Bull, Renault, Toyota, Sauber, and Williams – were unsafe for extended use, and announced its intention to fly in another set of tyres from its Clermont-Ferrand headquarters. [1] (http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=33173)
In a June 18 letter to FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting, Michelin representatives Pierre Dupasquier and Nick Shorrock revealed that they did not know the cause of Schumacher's tyre failure, and unless the cars could be slowed down in Turn 13, Michelin's tyres would be unsafe and unsuitable for use during the race. Whiting replied on June 19, expressing his surprise that Michelin had not brought along a second set of tyres (tyre suppliers almost never bring a extra set of inferior dry tyres to a Grand Prix), suggesting that the teams be informed of the maximum safe speed in turn 13, and offered to monitor turn 13 and penalising any excess speed on the Michelin cars. He addressed several solutions which had been proposed by the teams, insisting that use of the tyres flown in that night would result in severe penalties, and the placement of a chicane in the turn was "out of the question" - the race would not be sanctioned by the FIA (a non-championship race) if a the track layout was changed. He deemed the Michelin teams' proposals to be "grossly unfair" to the Bridgestone teams. (See the full text of both letters (http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2005/June/190605-02.html)).
In any event, the replacement tyres (which were of the type used in the Spanish Grand Prix), when actually tested at the Indianapolis track, turned out to have the same problem, meaning a switch to them (with or without penalty) would not solve the issue. A series of increasingly urgent meetings throughout the morning of the day of the race was unable to come to a solution which was acceptable to all parties.
Race report
To the fans in attendance, the start of the race appeared perfectly normal, as all cars lined up on the grid per FIA race procedure. As Charlie Whiting signalled the green light to start the formation lap, a full grid of twenty cars took off, presumably for one last attempt to warm their tyres before the race. Winding through the first twelve turns, all looked to be standard. At the banked turn thirteen, the entrance to pit lane, and the turn that is the centre of the controversy, all teams that ran Michelin tyres returned their pits, leaving just six cars to take the grid for the start of the race, from Ferrari, Jordan, and Minardi.
The reasons for teams to come to the grid and pull out after the formation lap into pits infuriated the fans as they had little idea what was happening. Loud boos were heard and some threw items on the track. The race quickly turned into what SPEED commentator Bob Varsha called "a Bridgestone test session", with Ferrari's Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello in front, Jordan's Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan in a distant third and fourth, and Minardi's Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher bringing up the rear.
The race was a story of pit strategy, as the only passing outside of pit stops was to overtake lapped traffic. Albers was the only car to run a three pit stop race, as all other cars chose to stop only twice. The only lead changes came on lap 26, as Schumacher's 32 second stop gave Barrichello the lead, and on lap 51, as Schumacher turned in the quickest pit stop at 23.615 seconds, giving him enough time to exit pit lane at the same time as Barrichello, with the result of forcing Barrichello into the grass of turn one. After this incident, which was not investigated by race officials, both Ferrari drivers were reminded over their radios not to crash out of the race, and they both settled into a slower pace, comfortably ahead of the rest of the field. At the podium ceremony, at which none of the scheduled presenters were present, all Ferrari team members quietly accepted their awards, and quickly exited, leaving the rookie Monteiro to celebrate his first podium finish alone.
Aftermath
The race had implications in the championship points standings, as Michael Schumacher moved from fifth to third, Rubens Barrichello moved from sixth to fourth, Ferrari moved from fifth to second in the Constructors Championship, and both Jordan and Minardi scored points, leaving BAR-Honda as the only team yet to score a single point. However, these were dwarfed by the recriminations over the failure to find a solution which would have prevented the withdrawal of the Michelin-shod teams.
Many commentators labelled the race a "farce" and questioned whether a United States Grand Prix will be held in Indianapolis again or at all. More seriously, some pointed to the previous disagreements between the teams and Max Mosley which had led to the threatened creation of the GPWC as a critical factor in the reasons behind the failure to reach a compromise, and felt that this clash had greatly increased the risk of a complete rupture. [2] (http://www.itv-f1.com/Feature.aspx?Type=James_Allen&PO_ID=33214)
Sam Posey, a former SPEED Channel commentator who competed in the 1972 United States Grand Prix, the only Grand Prix he ever competed in, gave his thoughts on the race at the end of SPEED's telecast. He ended his essay by saying, "U.S. GP 2005 — a dark, dark day for a great sport." Before he said that, however, he had a very philosophical way of describing Grand Prix racing:
- "Grand Prix racing at its best is a modern marvel of excesses, immense cost, furious competition, amazing technology, and sudden changes of fortune, all conducted at maximum intensity. At its worst, which is what we have seen today, it is an overly political monster, driven by selfishness and greed."
The following day, the FIA published a justification (http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2005/June/200605-01.html) of its refusal to permit a change in tyres or the installation of a chicane, and summoned (http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2005/June/200605-02.html) the seven Michelin teams before the World Motorsport Council to explain their failure to participate, by which they had presumably violated the terms of the Concorde Agreement. It later published copies (http://www.fia.com/resources/documents/1962994930__21_06_2005_wmsc_letters.pdf) of the letters sent to each team (pdf) "in the interests of transparency".
Bernie Ecclestone, in answer to a question by ITV's Martin Brundle, described the future of Formula One in the United States and the future of Michelin in the sport as "not good".
Minardi boss Paul Stoddart has since said that nine teams – all but Ferrari – agreed not to race, and had Jordan not reversed its decision at the last minute, Minardi would also have withdrawn from the race in a boycott. [3] (http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=33187) In a later, and lengthier, statement, he indicated that although it had been Michelin's failure to provide a reliable tyre which had initiated the events, he laid the full blame for the failure to reach some accomodation (which would have allowed a race to happen, for the benefit of the many fans who had paid considerable money for travel and tickets) at the feet of Max Mosley and the FIA, with a small share of the blame going to what he characterized as the obstructionist Ferrari team leader, Jean Todt. He furthermore called for Mosley's resignation.
On June 22, 2005, Max Mosley gave a press conference[4] (http://motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=189457) in an effort to clarify the FIA's stand on the whole controversy. He drew an analogy to a hypothetical situation where the engines from one manufacturer had oil starvation problems due to high lateral loading in one corner, and pointed out that those cars would simply have been forced to run slower as a result. He reiterated that the reason for not installing the chicane was purely on the basis that it was never tested and thereby deemed unsafe. He pointed out that the alternatives that the FIA suggested were feasible, and wondered why the teams did not use the pitlane as an alternative, especially when there were still 2 places with potential championship points open.
The Michelin-shod teams have been summoned to the FIA headquarters in France for a hearing on June 29th.
Classification
Notes
- Pole position: Jarno Trulli 1:10.625
- Fastest lap: Michael Schumacher 1:11.497
- All six starters finished the race, making this only the second time in Formula One history where every car that started a race went on to complete it.
- Michael Schumacher's first victory of 2005 ended the second-longest non-winning streak of his career.
- Jordan driver Tiago Monteiro's third place earned him the first podium finish of his career, and the first podium for a Portuguese driver.
External links
- More images are available at the Wikimedia Commons.
- Correspondence from June 1 and 2 (http://www.fia.com/resources/documents/914355186__20_06_2005_FIA_Michelin_letter.pdf) between Michelin sporting director Pierre Dupasquier and FIA president Max Mosley regarding tyre safety (pdf)
- Part 1 (http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2005/June/190605-02.html) and part 2 (http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2005/June/190605-03.html) of the June 18–19 correspondence between Dupasquier, Michelin's Nick Shorrock, and FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting
- The FIA's justification (http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2005/June/200605-01.html) of its actions
- Facsimiles (http://www.fia.com/resources/documents/1962994930__21_06_2005_wmsc_letters.pdf) (pdf) of the letters sent to each team informing them of the charges against them
- A Personal Account of Events Surrounding the 2005 US Grand Prix (http://www.minardi.it/press/dettaglio.asp?IDComunicato=1875&LN=UK&IDGara=&IDComunicatiTipo=) by Paul Stoddart, Minardi team owner
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