Don't use Michelin ;)

[Erik]

http://www.rallystuff.com/images/michletter.jpg

With a big big ;)

[jonas_dg]

what the ... :D

[Mr Balsen]

I completely agree with Michelin at Indianapolis. I think it was a good decision to tell the race teams about any safety issue. Now what the teams have done with the problem or how they have used it in the crazy world of Formula 1 is a WHOLE different story....

Cheers,
Frederic

[J0X]

That is absolutely hilarious! I'm gonna go out and find a nice frame to my print-out of it.

[gregoryindiana]

Originally posted by Mr Balsen
I completely agree with Michelin at Indianapolis. I think it was a good decision to tell the race teams about any safety issue. Now what the teams have done with the problem or how they have used it in the crazy world of Formula 1 is a WHOLE different story....

There's plenty of blame to go around in this, from where I was sitting.

Michelin knew of the problem in plenty of time to send an Airbus, or whatever, full of tires, from France to Indy. didn't the wrecks happen on Friday???

Next, if they could not get tires there in time, (and by the way, didn't Michelin race at Indianapolis the last few years anyway; it wan't a new circuit to them) then the FIA had a duty to put in a chicane and race with the chicane in place as an emergency measure. After all, there were tons of fans there from all over the world wanting to see their guy race. What would you do for the fan whose summer vacation was to fly up from Colombia to see Juan Pablo Montoya?? Or from Japan??

I will never use Michelins again. There are plenty of other good tires (Pirelli, Conti, Bridgestones, just for starters).

For the price of the tickets, the whole GP circus should refund everyone's ticket. With the legal system just winding up, this has a long way yet to run, I'll bet.

[Nordschleife]

Originally posted by gregoryindiana
There's plenty of blame to go around in this, from where I was sitting.

Michelin knew of the problem in plenty of time to send an Airbus, or whatever, full of tires, from France to Indy. didn't the wrecks happen on Friday???

Next, if they could not get tires there in time, (and by the way, didn't Michelin race at Indianapolis the last few years anyway; it wan't a new circuit to them) then the FIA had a duty to put in a chicane and race with the chicane in place as an emergency measure. After all, there were tons of fans there from all over the world wanting to see their guy race. What would you do for the fan whose summer vacation was to fly up from Colombia to see Juan Pablo Montoya?? Or from Japan??

I will never use Michelins again. There are plenty of other good tires (Pirelli, Conti, Bridgestones, just for starters).

For the price of the tickets, the whole GP circus should refund everyone's ticket. With the legal system just winding up, this has a long way yet to run, I'll bet.

Gregory

I think somebody has been pointing you in the wrong direction as far as your facts are concerned.

Firstly, Michelin did charter a jet and send replacement tyres over to Indianapolis. It was the FIA that created the problem.

Secondly, over the winter break, the Brickyard was resurfaced and there had been tyre problems earlier this season. Effectively there had been a major change in the track conditions.

The FIA behaved in a sclerotic manner, in the past chicanes have been introduced during the race weekend. The award for RAT of the event goes to the Jordan management. The nasty new crew in the yellow backed uniforms originally agreed not to race along with Minardi. Then one of these corruscating arseholes realised that if the two Jordans ran, they would get points for coming 3rd and 4th, so getting a clear margin over Minardi in the Manufacturers Championship. This was important because the higher up the points table the manufacturer finishes, the greater their travel bonus the next season. So when Minardi realised that Jordan intended ratting on their agreement, and the financial implications of not staying in touch with Jordan, pointswise, they felt that they had to run as well.

How come you missed all this Gregory?

As far as your choice of tyres are concerned, would it change if Michelin rebranded them selves Freedom Rubber(s)?

R+C

[TaTaPiRaTa]

Originally posted by Nordschleife


Firstly, Michelin did charter a jet and send replacement tyres over to Indianapolis. It was the FIA that created the problem.

R+C

What do you mean by that?

[Erik]

Originally posted by Nordschleife
Effectively there had been a major change in the track conditions.

Isn't that the same for everybody?

[gjg]

Originally posted by Nordschleife
As far as your choice of tyres are concerned, would it change if Michelin rebranded them selves Freedom Rubber(s)?


nope ... but that has nothing to do with Indy :idea:

[Nordschleife]

Originally posted by Erik
Isn't that the same for everybody?

Not quite if your subsidiary has found this out to their cost earlier in the season.

There was a track condition change which meant that Michelin could not extrapolate from prior years' data, as they discovered.

There was a problem, Michelin tried to address it by flying in replacement tyres. The FIA refused to countenance a tyre change and also would not install a chicane. Its not as if either of these measures had not been taken in previous years. The precedent exits. if the attitude of the FIA strikes you as inflexible, then so be it.

Michelin acted responsibly, they said that there were tyre failures they could not account for. The FIA did not give a sensible response to this problem, and telling the drivers to go slow just shows how out of it they really are.

You don't have to go back too far to find a few pleasant people around the Formula One scene, now you have to look damn hard to find one. Michelin's F1 boss is one of the good guys.

R+C

[Hy Octane]

Actually, the FIA did allow the teams to change tires.. It was Michelin who told the teams that the replacement tires flown in were also not guaranteed to be raceworthy after they conducted some tests on a test rig.. they withdrew them.Otherwise they would have accepted a time penalty and run the race for points... Theres alot of blame to go round here.. but remember. Bridgestone had no problems with their race tires and while it may be unfair to the fans, this is F1 and proper preparation for a race counts alot.. It would have been unfair to Bridgestoine to change the race in any way to help the others..Michelin just blew it.. But I'll still use their tires..

[Nordschleife]

Hy Octane

If you selectively edit the exchanges between the FIA and Michelin, you might believe that. However, the FIA version of events has been 'spun'.

If you ask those involved what actually happened, you will discover that the FIA was caught defending an undefensible position and became totally inflexible. Once this happened, reason went out the window.

There are a lot of people in the FIA who might be described as Diamond Geezers, and some shits. The Diamond Geezers are not there because they are particularly sharp tools, their utility lies in their willingnmess to accomodate the hysterical posturing of their boss, remember his "nobody loves me, I'm leaving tirade" of a few years ago, if you have doubts about this description of him. He in turn knows that playing lap dog to the poison dwarf is his path to continued employment.

A responsible company, Michelin, said it could not guarantee its tyres for the duration of the race. The FIA, which makes up the rules on the fly most of the time, found itself so short of imagination that it could not conceive of a way of making the required accommodations - too old, too tired, too dim. tooo-dle-do Max!

R+C
PS the real owners of F1 are furious, with MM and the FIA, not with Michelin. Do not be surprised if they do a deal with the Manufacturers that cuts out the Bernie Ecclestone Pension Fund and finishing scholl for young ladies.

[Erik]

Here seems to be the real letter :)

http://www.sportssystems.com/novell/efx/email/filehost/GN854.pdf

[Erik]

BBC

"Teams found guilty on US fiasco
Only three teams competed in the US Grand Prix
Seven teams pulled out at Indy, leaving only three to race
The seven teams who refused to start the US Grand Prix on 19 June face have been found guilty of bringing the sport into disrepute.

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

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

[JAXRS6]

Originally posted by Erik
Here seems to be the real letter :)

http://www.sportssystems.com/novell/efx/email/filehost/GN854.pdf

That's dated the Monday after the race. It's a post-race Michelin explanation, not the correspondence leading up to the debacle. At least that's what came up on my screen via Adobe.

And it is a good explanation in my opinion. Michelin takes responsibility for not properly designing their tires for that race. For me, the chicane issue at the end is best addressed by people more familiar than I am with F1, the FIA and its history of ... chicanery???:hihi: :hihi: :hihi: