2005 Indianapolis unaired footage

Interesting what goes on behind the scenes, irregardless of the farcical race that went on. You can really hear how displeased commentators Mark Blundell and Jim Rosenthal where in the off-air bits.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyWUS-op1kg[/ame]

And a particular nice video, which I think is for Dutch TV, where Paul Stoddart first refused to swear, but then being encouraged . God I miss that man.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY7IdWpqYXI[/ame]

 

I'm actually starting to think here, Stoddart should be head of F1. He's got the balls to tell everyone how it is and should be.

 

How wonderful to reminisce. I was one of the thousands of clueless fans in the stands, it was like a collective kick to the stomach.

 

I was at Indy in 2001. At practice we were at the end of the front straight. The sound and speed was incredible, truly loved it. This was not my 1st F1 race. The good old sound days.
Was 2005 when Ralph Schumacher hit the wall real hard?

 

Yes he clocked the wall right in front of where I was standing. I believe that the Toyota's were running low tire pressure against the advice of Michelin.

 

Michelin found problems with the tire and had a different spec tire flown in, which after testing had the same problems with several teams.

Ralf Schumacher also crashed the year before, same turn, same tire failure...

 

I found the full grid parade lap particularly deceptive.

Hell hath no fury, not a Michelin to be found on the brood in the driveway, although I realize it wasn't entirely their fault. Cashed the cheque though.

 

+1 nice of them to send the check though.

 

Hadn't thought of him, but you make a valid point.

Were you there? I can only imagine how badly it must have sucked.

It was the first year I didn't go, but I too swore to never darken my rims with their products ever again.

Cheers,
Ian

 

They refunded everyone's ticket cost, right?

Nice of them.

But you're still out thousands in airfare, hotel, etc.

No more Michelins for me, ever.....

Cheers,
Ian

 

I dropped about 2 grand. It was surprising that the crowd didn't riot, a few bottles and cans were tossed on the track.

 

I was there. Running 2 cars in Formula BMW. Was sitting atop our stacker in the paddock. Jumbo screen directly in front of me, as well as the front-straight. Cooler full of beer and ice next to my chair. Was an epic set-up for viewing a GP. Watched the full grid go around, then not. Oh well. I did enjoy the Schumacher parade, regardless. Hell, I was being paid to be there...

 

I remember it well on the TV.

As you say, surprising there wasn't a riot.... I guess F1 fans are of a higher 'standard' than those of many other sports.

Can you even imagine what would happen at, eg, a soccer match if only one team showed up!? They'd *still* be rioting the following day! The entire stadium, if not the entire city would be destroyed!

Cheers,
Ian

 

That tells you how uncouth some soccer fans can be.

Not the right crowd ....

 

I was sitting at the end of the straight listening to the scanner and the Speed channel broadcast, so I heard similar things from guys like Hobbs and Matchett during the commercial breaks. They were in disbelief and more importantly pissed off that the FIA, who wanted F1 so badly to succeed in the USA, was not realizing what they were doing. I remember most of the people around me were completely in the dark of what was going on, I remember telling people what I was hearing over the scanner and they didn't know how to respond almost like they were in shock. Of course I remember too the bottles & trash being thrown on the circuit early on in the race.

 

I was there as well, I had my phone tethered to my pda (this was before smart phones! )and was reading the news in the stands so I knew about 15 minutes before the start that there was trouble while everyone rise was clueless. They were close to rioting, a couple of fans were calling for everyone to storm the track. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed and only a few bottles got thrown. Pretty scary being in the stands with 125000 people or however many they packed in there and not knowing if there was doing to be a riot...

I remember driving home pissed off (we left early) when we happened upon a Michelin delivery truck. We all flipped him off as we passed (4 of us in the car) and the look on the drivers face indicated we weren't the first to do it. Not sure he knew why everyone was flipping him off at that point, though.

 

Oh yes indeed, Sir Ian.

As F1 Jr. stated, the crowd's astonishment of F1 parading cars and drivers prior to the event, although they had no intention of competing, was akin to Moseley walking the track in his leisure attire. We were hoodwinked and dumbfounded. I was in between assignments and fortunate to catch double NA events as Montreal was a week earlier and I had Floridian friends attending with a large RV adjacent to the track. Still have the T- shirt I bought the day of the event with all the driver's qualifying times on the back.

A classic memory of the fan's actual worth to F1. Describing it as a disgrace to those attending defiles the word.

 

But what has been learnt from that fiasco, I wonder.

- Was Michelin wrong in warning its clients that the tyres were no safe?

- What the FIA right in refusing to erect an improvised chicane to reduce speed at the critical point?

- Were the Michelin teams right not to race under the conditions?

- Why couldn't the race been postponed and run at a later date, like they do in case of rain in Indy racing?

 

- Was Michelin wrong in warning its clients that the tyres were no safe?
Michelin was right in informing the teams of the problem

- What the FIA right in refusing to erect an improvised chicane to reduce speed at the critical point?
The track was already laid out, to change it would have been blasphemous.

- Were the Michelin teams right not to race under the conditions?
That is the team's decision.

- Why couldn't the race been postponed and run at a later date, like they do in case of rain in Indy racing?
Unlikely as the schedule date was in place for several years.

 

Regarding the thrown bottles/beer cans. What we know now what happened with Massa, this could've been VERY nasty if it hit one of the drivers on the head.

No. Their tires where unable to hold up, Michelin couldn't guarantee more than 10 laps. So absolutely right in that regard.

No. The right thing to do was as follows: Make the chicane, allow for new tires at pit stops for any team. If Michelin teams got points or not, irrelevant. Ferrari was out of the running and they where the only team that was even close to scoring points, so an impact on championship wouldn't have been there. I suspect a massive fine would've been more than appropriate.

The tires where **** in construction. They where light weight which was great, but also made them unsafe.

Yes. Swapping tires was not allowed, and porno Maxxx was the one that made the call to not have the chicane installed. I don't think there would be enough tires to have 7 tire swaps for all Michelin teams, either (73 lap race).

Don't think any fan that went there that day would welcome that too much, except for the local fans. Plus, the expense, finding the time etc...doubt they could've settled that in a short meeting before the race. They can't even agree what colour the sky is at the best of times!

 

That was my very first F1 race. I'll never forget the wail of those cars coming down the straight at full speed.

I remember watching a guy throw a (large) full beer over the fence on to the track after the start. Fans were pissed off. I did get to see Michael win a race though. The next race I attended was in Canada 2 years later and I saw Hamilton win his first F1 race.

I also cashed the check.

 

A Fosters 'oil can' I presume?

Holey-Moley! I can certainly understand being pissed off, but thats beyond ludicrous... Fortunately, no one got hurt, but there could have been some very serious consequences. I like to think I'd have tried to stop any such BS had I seen it.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I think Schumacher once commented on how he avoided a beer can at some point during the race.

!!!

 

I vaguely recall that comment too.

Sure, I'd have been mighty pissed off. Particularly as, if IIRC, they all formed up on the grid as if they were going, and then peeled into the pits at the end of the installation lap.

As already noted, I wasn't there (fortunately), but I'll never buy any Michelins.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I was there. We were on the grass in the infield, I don't recall which corner, but we could see a monitor. We had been hearing about problems with the tires since the day before, and were listening to radio broadcasts as we sat out there. We knew that the Michelin teams were talking about not running.

Most of the folks around us didn't.

When the cars came around on the installation lap, everyone went nuts. When they came back around on lap 1 with only 6 cars, the place -really- went nuts. The mood got very ugly, very quickly. I think only the fact that Ferrari was leading prevented a riot at our area.

We ended up leaving early as well. The coolest thing about the weekend was feeling the cars running under us as we crossed on the bridge to the infield.

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