Monday, June 20, 2005
First 500, Now F1
What is it with Indianapolis and racing? Has the rust apathy of Detroit spread south? Just last month I bitched about how they managed to ruin the Indy 500. Now they do it to Formula One. Now if you're the average American, you'll probably react with a "Formula What?? - so who cares anyway?" You probably stuff Formula One (F1), in the rare event you even hear about it, with soccer, the euro and degrees centigrade.
To me, F1 is car racing at its best. The drivers have to know how to make right-hand turns as well as making left-hand turns. The road surface may change from concrete to asphalt to whatever and most turns are the same flat turns you and I have to make as we drive down to 7/11 to pick up a six pack of Heineken beer and a snack pack of foi gras and brie. There are actually racing teams that are based on automotive brands, like Ferrari, Renault and Toyota. And above all, magnificently engineered automobiles.
I can't say that I have any real idea of exactly what happened at Indy. It seems that Michelin, whose tires were being used by about eleven cars decided that the Indy track as set up was too fast for them. The remaining six cars, using Bridgestone tires, were ready to do it to it like Pruet used to do it. Michelin cried "Foul" our tires can't handle the speed - you must slow the race down. Bridgestone smiled and said, "that's not our problem, mes ami, wave that green flag." F1 took the stand that, OK Michelin, you knew the track just like Bridgestone did. We aren't going to penalize Bridgestone because you're too stuckup to admit you screwed up and your tires suck today. Race what you brung. (Mind you, I'm paraphrasing here).
So, everyone lined up to race and at green, Michelin took their tires and went home, leaving six cars to run the Indy Grand Prix! Can you imagine paying a couple of hundred bucks to watch the world's finest cars and drivers run and then have 3/4 of them quit and go home because they chose the wrong equipment to race? What is in the air at Indy? Why is that racetrack doing such an outstanding job of screwing up races. It's not like US fans have a lot of choices in F1. If you don't have cable TV (yes - I'm still one of the luddites who depends on rabbit ears and beneficial skip conditions for his television) you rarely get to see a red Ferrari do its thing on a track. This certainly isn't going to help.
P.S. It's nice to know American fans behavior was as expected: "The only two problems centred on the need for Schumacher's left rear Bridgestone to be replaced in his first pit stop, possibly as a result of a spectator throwing a beer bottle on to the track;…"
2fers Formula One and Ferrari
