The 2005 US Grand Prix is a race that is pretty much condemned to exist under a cloud of infamy and disgust. Rightly so. And the morons at the FIA must and will shoulder the blame for this disaster for years to come.
Out of 10 teams, each fielding two drivers, only 3 actually participated in the race. That’s 6 racers. That’s not even enough to fill the points slates for the race. Angry fans threw water bottles at the track, and many of them could be seen leaving the Indianapolis speedway 10 laps into the race, and interviews available throughout the web show that the decisions taken by the FIA with regards to this race are going to have a substantial cost not only for the remainder of the F1 season which, obviously, will take place under a cloud of illegitimacy because of what happened today, but for the future as well, and it’s sure to revive talks of a competing Grand Prix Circuit.
What happened is particular to Indianapolis’s odd circuit, which happens to use a banked curve from its rectangular speedway (used in NASCAR and IRL races). Basically this is a 90-degree turn occurring with a fairly high level of banking, which you just don’t see in other F1 circuits.
No one seemed to think that this was a problem until the qualifyings on Friday. First, a tire failed on Ralf Schumacher’s Toyota at that very last turn, which sent his car right into a wall. He was uninjured.
Then his Toyota teammate Ricardo Zonta ended up having the very same problem. Both problems seemed to occur with the Michelin tires used on the Toyotas and 6 other teams.
Michelin offered to ship new tires to its teams… a request which the FIA refused.
Another proposed solution was to add a chicane which would have reduced the speed right before the perilous turn, which the FIA also refused, even though the course managers agreed it could be done in time.
Faced with the risk of killing the drivers who used its tires because the FIA’s inflexibility Michelin felt it had no choice other than to tell its teams to stand down for the day.
So in the end FIA intransigence — it specifically rejected two reasonable solutions — resulted in a 6-car bullshit race that should be struck from the records for this year. Sure, Michael Schumacher won. Big fucking whoop. We already know he can win if he’s facing no one of consequence. I’ll tell you what every F1 fan already knows — there’s no fucking challenge in putting Ferraris up against Jordans and Minardis. Predictably enough, it was a one-two finish for Ferrari, followed by Jordan, followed by Minardi. I’ll tell you one thing — if Michael Schumacher ends up winning the drivers’ championship this year by less than 10 points, he will not be a legitimate champion this year.
One figure is missing from this though — the real last-place finish here belongs to the idea of Formula One in the US. There is no question here that this joke of a race will have a huge impact on the future of the US GP, and that it might even kill it outright. That pressure is on two sides — first, the US GP was already drawing a mere third of the average crowd for a Grand Prix race, and this was before today’s disgrace. Indianapolis will just not be able to draw even those meagre numbers this year. It’d be surprising to see anyone there next year who was there this year.
That’s always been a problem for the US GP though. Frankly, I totally understand how this happens. The race takes place in Indianapolis, for one thing. The jet-setting F1 crowd just isn’t going to gingerly saunter at the opportunity of spending a week in boondocks-ville, especially after spending a week in hip, happening (and strip-club-heavy) Montreal. So, US GP organizers — move the race to a place where “watching corn grow” isn’t the #1 way to occupy free time. You’re not dealing with the NASCAR crowd, but with a bunch which is a lot more sophisticated and well-travelled.
The bigger problem, though, is the FIA. In the name of so-called “safety” the regulatory body has almost destroyed the Formula 1 experience, and they’re still out there trying. Ever noticed how all the cars in F1 now look pretty much exactly the same? You can thank the FIA for that. Gone are the glory days of the late 70s and 80s where innovation played a major part in Formula 1. Remember the Tyrrell P34? It would never even have seen the light of day under the current FIA leadership.
The problem is that new, gradually more insane rules come out every year. This year it’s the mandating that only one set of tires can be used by racing cars for the whole weekend (qualifyings and the race). Same with engines, although the engine may be replaced by incurring a “start from the pits” penalty. But it’s the gradual changes that have taken place over the last 20 years that are gradually more annoying and, in my opinion, make Formula 1 racing boring.
After Gilles Villeneuve’s fatal accident in Europe the FIA outlawed the ground effects “skirts” that basically caused suction to keep the car on the ground. Eventually all ground effects implements were gradually outlawed. Tire sizes came to be strictly regulated. Then, slicks were disallowed. The latest crop of changes also reduce the amount of implements which can be used to make cars aerodynamic, and there are now regulations to reduce the speed at which the cars run.
With all that crap going around, it’s actually hard to imagine why Formula 1 still has a following at all. And this year’s race at Indianapolis pretty much killed off what was left of Americans’ already-weak enthusiasm for the sport. You heard it here (though probably not first) — I don’t think there will be a US Grand Prix next year at all.
The ironic thing about all these regulations, in the end, is that they make the sport a hell of a lot less interesting. With worn engines and tires (which have effectively had to endure TWO GP races in two days) is any sane driver going to go all out and overtake in the final laps? Not likely. That’s why you almost never see overtaking in the late stages of any GP (unless the overtakee has really screwed something up). Basically it means that the standings at the end of the first lap tend to look a lot like the final standings, except of course for the cars that end up not finishing. And with the FIA’s moronic rules you’re sure to see a lot more of those in coming races. Look at Montreal — the Renaults had a fantastic start but ended up DNFs, and the single driver who made significant gains during the race was Rubens Barichello, who was running with a fresh engine and a pit start. That’s no coincidence. Frankly I’d be surprised if there weren’t more racers electing to start from the pits with fresh engines in upcoming races.
I’m not against rules per se. However, I think that when 7 F1 teams — who had to spend millions to get their gear and personnel to (let’s face it) buttf*ck nowhere to race in a GP — end up forfeiting the race, it says something, and that something isn’t good for the FIA or for Formula 1. The FIA’s decision to not let the Michelin teams run with the improved tires clearly show that they don’t give much of a damn about safety (despite their posturing) but were instead eager to let crowd favorites Ferrari have a cakewalk in a race which is, in my mind as well as many other F1 fans’, illegitimate.
Unless the FIA changes its tune, it may find that it has effectively killed off top-tier auto racing, and that would be pretty damn sad.