Triple-H

Wise words my friend, wise words.



If that chicane had been created here is the reality. The 1st time drivers would have been able to drive through it, would have been on their pre-race warm up lap. The 2nd time, yes only the SECOND bloody time the drivers would have had a chance to drive the chicane they would have been at full race speed. If that does not scream out safety issue I don't know what does. There must be, there must be, a balence between supporting your fans and supporting your drivers! You just can't look at a chicane and know how it is going to effect the handeling of the car, and let's not forget, this chicane would have been between two concrete walls, as in not the kind of place you want to be swerving around...

matrix

^ not to mention that the installation of that chicane would not have been fair to the teams that DID bring the right tires....

Triple-H

^ YUP! Just one more of the seemingly endless list of variables that were at play...

[I]Debacle- (d-b

mikegarrison

Any oval track race has more side-by-side racing than any road course, which has more side-by-side racing than any street circuit. This is a given.

However, F1 has a problem with a lack of on-track passing. Even the FIA admits this, as they keep trying to fiddle with the rules to get more passing into the races.

mikegarrison

Nonsense. Winning is what pro sports are all about. The fans (directly and indirectly) just pay the bills for sports that are run for profit.

Dream on about your own importance if you like, but Max and Bernie really wouldn't care if you choked on a pretzel and died, as long as they got their share of the profit from the vendor.

mikegarrison

The chicane idea was stupid. Michelin screwed up. But the way the teams and F1 management turned it into a penis-measuring contest was actually what I was referring to. Neither side cared whether the fans were getting screwed over, they just wanted to "win".

Silverstreak HX

Actually they would not have had to install a chicane because the stock cars would not be able to go Fast enough to have a tire problem!

dlq04

Right. And Dodge'em's beats them all.

fx991

just to chime in a bit here.

The USGP debacle didn't have to come to fruition, becuase (as Michelin and the teams stated) in the early 90's (i reckon it was the Long Beach GP, but i'm probably mistaken) 93 or 94 i think. The precedent was set that the tyres there were suffering at the course (not all of them, i believe it was 6 or 7 teams), and the Bernie team then did put in a chicane to slow the cars down in one of the high speed straights.

The fact of the matter is, the FIA did experience almost the exact same situation before, and the teams were expecting it to be handled exactly the same way. But Mosley and Bernie had a pickle up their bum and didn't want to budge, so they suggested to the teams options that they knew the teams wouldn't accept. In all reality as soon as the michelin tyres blew on the Toyota in testing Mosley and Bernie had their minds already made up without even thinking about the event.