Michelin Teams Get Off With No Penalty?

Yes, on several sites - here's a copy/paste from a couple, the first being "straight from the horse's mouth":

FIA SENATE MEETING
14.07.2005

Following receipt of a dossier of new evidence relating to events at the 2005 United States Grand Prix submitted to the FIA by BAR, McLaren, Renault, Sauber, Toyota and Williams, the FIA Senate met in Monaco on 14 July. Ron Dennis attended the meeting, having been appointed representative of six Michelin teams. He was accompanied by Christian Horner from Red Bull Racing.

Having examined the new evidence and discussed it with Mr Dennis and Mr Horner, the Senate was satisfied that the teams were contractually bound to follow the instructions of their tyre supplier and that their tyre supplier had expressly prohibited them from racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in its licensed configuration. Recognising that for both sporting and legal reasons it was impossible for the FIA to authorise a change to the circuit configuration and that both the FIA and the teams could have faced serious legal difficulties in the United States had they not observed to the letter their respective rules and contractual obligations (particularly had there been any kind of accident), the Senate was of the view that having regard to this new evidence, disciplinary proceedings against the teams had ceased to be appropriate and were no longer in the interest of the sport.

The Senate will therefore recommend to the World Motor Sport Council that the guilty verdict of 29 June against the teams be cancelled. It is anticipated that this recommendation will be put to the World Motor Sport Council by means of a fax vote in the next few days.


Here's another version:

Michelin teams cleared over Indianapolis

The FIA World Motor Sport Council has voted overwhelmingly to accept the recommendation of the FIA Senate regarding events at the 2005 United States Grand Prix and cancel the guilty verdicts against the seven Michelin teams.

Having examined the new evidence previously submitted to the Senate, the Council agreed that the teams were contractually bound to follow the instructions of their tyre supplier at Indianapolis, and hence had no choice but to withdraw from the race.

The teams had been found guilty of failing to have appropriate tyres for the United States Grand Prix and of wrongfully refusing to allow their cars to take the start.

Michelin has accepted responsibility for the events and is refunding all race day tickets, as well as providing fans with 20,000 free tickets for next year’s event. They instructed their teams not to race after deciding they could not guarantee the safety of their tyres through the high-speed banking of Turn 13.

As a result the United States Grand Prix was run with just the six Bridgestone cars, with victory going to Ferrari's Michael Schumacher.


Carol

 

The teams couldn't violate their contract with Michelin to do exactly what they were told. The FIA decided not to penalize the teams, but did not say what it might do in the future to penalize Michelin directly.

 

helped its cause by giving refunds and buying 20K tix for next year's race so FIA took that into account.

Now where do I get my free tix?