The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Michelin's mess-up could have very serious repercussions

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 21, 2005

Sport

Sport - Racing : Motor

Michelin's mess-up could have very serious repercussions

Vijay Parthasarathy

CHENNAI: What transpired during the U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis on Sunday was nothing short of farcical, with only six drivers out of a field of 20 lining up for the start at the end of the formation lap. This unprecedented twist could yet squeeze the life out of a sport that was, only a week ago, poised to recover from the stagnant spell of Michael Schumacher's five-year domination.

Instead, Formula One now finds itself woefully bereft of support in the United States — a market that Bernie Ecclestone was desperate to capture, after the billion-strong Indian audience; and while on television the spectacle might have caused amusement, in reality the portents are deadly serious.

As far as the U.S. GP is concerned, the only thing that appears certain is that Michelin was at fault. In a country where fast-food companies are successfully sued when klutzy customers spill hot coffee on their laps, a perfectly tenable case could be made out for compensating the paying audience; but whether Formula One itself will even survive until such an action can be brought upon is debatable. This public relations disaster could only strengthen calls for an alternate (and inherently more "balanced") world championship series at the end of 2007 when existing contracts are scheduled to expire.

The countdown to chaos began on Saturday when Michelin advised its contracted teams that their tyres couldn't be guaranteed to last beyond 10 laps, after Toyota driver Ralf Schumacher hit a wall at the end of the mile-long straight while doing 175 mph during Friday practice. The French tyre company then wrote to the FIA asking for a chicane to be introduced at the high-speed turn where Schumacher had crashed. But that, most experts agree, was an unreasonable demand — Michelin, instead, should have instructed its drivers to adhere to a maximum speed limit, even at the cost of competitiveness. As The Guardian's Richard Williams wrote in Monday's edition: "A purist would say that those (Michelin) teams had no business attempting to blackmail the organisers into modifying the circuit to suit their technical deficiencies."

The FIA stood firm and, quite rightly, blamed Michelin for the impasse. The authority outlined several options available to the seven Michelin teams, including the repeated change of tyres during pit stops — which, despite the new one tyre rule, is permitted for genuine safety reasons — but unequivocally, ruled out tinkering with the circuit itself.

"This (laying out a chicane in Turn 13) is out of question," wrote Charlie Whitling, FIA Formula One Race Director, in a reply to Michelin that was made public. "To change the course in order to help some of the teams with a performance problem caused by their failure to bring suitable equipment to the race would be a breach of the rules and grossly unfair to those teams which have come to Indianapolis with the correct tyres."

The immediate implications for Michelin could be serious. This debacle occurs barely two weeks after Mosley wrote to the company, in the aftermath of Kimi Raikkonen's crash in the last lap of the European GP, warning them not to compromise on tyre specifications. Mosley, as he combats a motley bunch of rebel car manufacturers aiming to break away from F1, has made it amply clear that he backs a single tyre manufacturer.

But a Michelin withdrawal at this stage would only speed-up the collapse of the ailing sport and destroy any hopes of a natural transition as Formula One desperately tries to reinvent itself in another time and another space.

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