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Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Back from Formula None
Oh boy. What a weekend.
For starters, my family and I were treated like royalty. We ended up sitting in the terrace suites where they pamper you like no other. We had a police- escorted motorcade to the race in the morning, basically the best tickets money cannot buy, food, drinks, open bar, everything within about 20 feet. It looked to me like this was going to be an "overload weekend" where things are just so good that you end up getting numb to how good you really have it at the moment.
Boy was I wrong.
For all of you NAS(ty)CAR fans out there, F1 is a different breed. These are all prototype cars, where you can have an advantage over the next guy. F1 you cheer for teams by name, drivers by name, not "that #8 car" like I hear so often. It is all competition, all the time. So Michelin showed up with an inferior tire because no teams choose to test in America. Michelin was having trouble keeping their tires from blowing out through turn 13 (or turn 1 for the Indy 500 fans out there) because the speed combined with the banked surface, new track surfacing, etc.
So there we are, sitting through the Formula BMW race, The Corral of Cars were beautiful, and we made it back in time to sit down, turn on the speed channel in the Penthouse to the news. Michelin did not want to race because of turn 13. None of us knew what would happen next.
The parade lap began. Out goes the Bridgestone teams: Ferrari, Minardi and Jordan. Then after about 3 or so minutes, the Michelin teams come out. Toyota first, then Williams, then the rest. The parade laps were over, the Formation came up to the line, and off they went to warm up the tires. Ok we are going to race. Happy boy. Happy Family (not that REALLY bad Chinese Food dish) .They all come around turn 13 and what happens. All of the Michelin teams pull into the pits. At this point it looked like it was going to be a "we are going to change our tires and you cannot do anything about it" so we waited for the green light and all of the teams would fly out of the pits. Um... come on guys. Come out. We finally could get the camera to focus down there and we saw the BAR team taking the cars into the Garage. Oh no. What the hell is going on now?
So we got to see a Ferrari Test Session. Yes there were two other teams out there. But come on, it would be like An Olympian and a Special Olympian with Ferrari and Minardi/ Jordan. No excitement. No anything. It was horrible.
So now the FIA is charging the teams with multiple counts in the Int'l Sporting Court for their actions.
? failed to ensure that they had a supply of suitable tyres for the race
? wrongfully refused to allow their cars to start the race
? wrongfully refused to allow their cars to race, subject to a speed restriction in one corner which was safe for such tyres as they had available
? combined with other teams to make a demonstration damaging to the image of Formula One by pulling into the pits immediately before the start of the race
? failed to notify the stewards of their intention not to race, in breach of Article 131 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.
I must say that I agree with the charges. The teams RUINED the experience for over 100,000 fans at Indy, and millions on millions around the world. I still had a good time. All of the other stuff overshadowed the race. I can always say that I was at the race that No one raced.
Our families are now gone. They all flew back to their respective homes and we are back to normal here. I go back to work tomorrow as well. It will be a bad time. Things have been going well at work lately from what I have heard. I should have a good amount to talk about recruiting wise when I get back in the saddle.
For starters, my family and I were treated like royalty. We ended up sitting in the terrace suites where they pamper you like no other. We had a police- escorted motorcade to the race in the morning, basically the best tickets money cannot buy, food, drinks, open bar, everything within about 20 feet. It looked to me like this was going to be an "overload weekend" where things are just so good that you end up getting numb to how good you really have it at the moment.
Boy was I wrong.
For all of you NAS(ty)CAR fans out there, F1 is a different breed. These are all prototype cars, where you can have an advantage over the next guy. F1 you cheer for teams by name, drivers by name, not "that #8 car" like I hear so often. It is all competition, all the time. So Michelin showed up with an inferior tire because no teams choose to test in America. Michelin was having trouble keeping their tires from blowing out through turn 13 (or turn 1 for the Indy 500 fans out there) because the speed combined with the banked surface, new track surfacing, etc.
So there we are, sitting through the Formula BMW race, The Corral of Cars were beautiful, and we made it back in time to sit down, turn on the speed channel in the Penthouse to the news. Michelin did not want to race because of turn 13. None of us knew what would happen next.
The parade lap began. Out goes the Bridgestone teams: Ferrari, Minardi and Jordan. Then after about 3 or so minutes, the Michelin teams come out. Toyota first, then Williams, then the rest. The parade laps were over, the Formation came up to the line, and off they went to warm up the tires. Ok we are going to race. Happy boy. Happy Family (not that REALLY bad Chinese Food dish) .They all come around turn 13 and what happens. All of the Michelin teams pull into the pits. At this point it looked like it was going to be a "we are going to change our tires and you cannot do anything about it" so we waited for the green light and all of the teams would fly out of the pits. Um... come on guys. Come out. We finally could get the camera to focus down there and we saw the BAR team taking the cars into the Garage. Oh no. What the hell is going on now?
So we got to see a Ferrari Test Session. Yes there were two other teams out there. But come on, it would be like An Olympian and a Special Olympian with Ferrari and Minardi/ Jordan. No excitement. No anything. It was horrible.
So now the FIA is charging the teams with multiple counts in the Int'l Sporting Court for their actions.
? failed to ensure that they had a supply of suitable tyres for the race
? wrongfully refused to allow their cars to start the race
? wrongfully refused to allow their cars to race, subject to a speed restriction in one corner which was safe for such tyres as they had available
? combined with other teams to make a demonstration damaging to the image of Formula One by pulling into the pits immediately before the start of the race
? failed to notify the stewards of their intention not to race, in breach of Article 131 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.
I must say that I agree with the charges. The teams RUINED the experience for over 100,000 fans at Indy, and millions on millions around the world. I still had a good time. All of the other stuff overshadowed the race. I can always say that I was at the race that No one raced.
Our families are now gone. They all flew back to their respective homes and we are back to normal here. I go back to work tomorrow as well. It will be a bad time. Things have been going well at work lately from what I have heard. I should have a good amount to talk about recruiting wise when I get back in the saddle.
No refunds either I guess. BUMMER!
Posted by 
Is It Just Me? @
4:28 PM, June 22, 2005
In classic American-ism, there is already a class action lawsuit against the FIA to get money back from all of the ticket sales. With all 4 of us, we would have spent over 1500 bucks. I am sure I would get about 4 bucks from a class action. Fun stuff. Let me tell you.
Posted by Militantpundit @
10:05 PM, June 22, 2005
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