Schumacher wins six-car Indy farce

[scarab]

....ang kulet pa nung race engineer nung nag-radio to one of the ferrari drivers, "no problem with the tires, it's still good for 100 laps". parang pang-asar sa michelin.

[EL Chicane]

Ferrari explains its side: Read here:
http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/050620/13/boho.html

[jds]

....ang kulet pa nung race engineer nung nag-radio to one of the ferrari drivers, "no problem with the tires, it's still good for 100 laps". parang pang-asar sa michelin.

Bobo talaga yang ferrari, siyempre, tatagal yung tires nila kahit 100 laps, eh, they are not pushing the cars very hard. Wala namang kalaban. Yung Jordan at Minardi eh Lap down pa nga eh.

"Fans boo Schumacher to victory"
http://www.f1racing.net/en/index.php

[RedHorse]

Bobo talaga yang ferrari, siyempre, tatagal yung tires nila kahit 100 laps, eh, they are not pushing the cars very hard. Wala namang kalaban. Yung Jordan at Minardi eh Lap down pa nga eh.

"Fans boo Schumacher to victory"
http://www.f1racing.net/en/index.php

eh sino ang bobo ngayon?... nawalan na ng points, malamang magbayad pa ng refunds sa mga sponsors ng USGP

[mazdamazda]

Bobo talaga yang ferrari, siyempre, tatagal yung tires nila kahit 100 laps, eh, they are not pushing the cars very hard. Wala namang kalaban. Yung Jordan at Minardi eh Lap down pa nga eh.

"Fans boo Schumacher to victory"
http://www.f1racing.net/en/index.php

If they are not pushing their cars hard... I wonder why they managed to put a +1 lap on the Jordans and a +2 lap on the Minardis.

If they are not pushing their cars hard... I wonder why Schumi & Rubens were going neck to neck in the laps preceeding the Schumi & Rubens "incident".

Ferrari was initially painted as the villain in this set-piece, for being the one team that didn't agree to the track change, but it is only after the race that their position became clear. Every team works under the same handicap in each race in F1. Ferrari did not whine and moan when their set-ups proved uncompetitive or when they had to run much slower than the other teams because of tire problems. These tire problems that Michelin had with this track mirror the problems both tire manufacturers have had over the course of this season. Ferrari have had to live with going slower than they wanted to, race after race.

Well said!

The Bridgestone teams (specifically Ferrari) were not complaining when the Michelin shod teams were hauling wins during the beginning of the season. Heck, at the pace that they were running back then, it made you already think that Schumi is already a "has been" like Villenueve (lots of lost potential).

As for Rubens, I won't be surprised if he decides to trade himself at the end of the season. Racing your teammate is one thing, but with Michael being so ruthlessly selfish out there, you can't help but think that he is now starting to look at future options that don't include a Ferrari red racing car.

What would you choose? That or the previous Schumi-Rubens "incidents"? (e.g. Ferrari telling Rubens to stand down and let Schumi pass, Schumi letting Rubens win in a neck-to-neck finish).

[jds]

[QUOTE=mazdamazda]If they are not pushing their cars hard... I wonder why they managed to put a +1 lap on the Jordans and a +2 lap on the Minardis.

If they are not pushing their cars hard... I wonder why Schumi & Rubens were going neck to neck in the laps preceeding the Schumi & Rubens "incident".

---
I believe they can do better than that (+1lap down, +2 lap down) in an EMPTY TRACK.

[mbt]

oh... in that case, i think it's only fair that the chicane wasn't enforced. that would have been grossly unfair to bridgestone and the bridgestone teams hehe.

i think the michelin teams should have still run their cars but took it easier in that corner (and retire mid-race when telemetry showed that the tires were close to going, or force a tire change and swallow the penalty). or if the tires were unsafe on any lap, even the first ones, then... well, allow a different set of tires or something? maybe it wouldnt have changed the finishing standing, but it sure beats having 14 cars DNF before the first lap!

or maybe the FIA should just have cancelled the race when the teams pulled out (to heck with technicalities!)

[EL Chicane]

or maybe the FIA should just have cancelled the race when the teams pulled out (to heck with technicalities!)

The sad part is that many fans bought plane tickets to travel to Indianapolis just to see this race. Imagine all the trouble, hotel room, etc. then on race day you were informed the race has been cancelled.

According to news items, many fans will be suing to get a refund of their money.

[mhelskie]

mahirap tlaga ung nangyaring un, kahit ako nde makapaniwala na aanim lng ung kumarera, nung nilipat ko kse ung channel e asa 60/73 laps na...taka tuloy ako, kya inabangan ko, nung nalaman ko dahilan tinapos ko hanggang katapusan, pucha, alang wenta kahit ako ung fans manghihingi tlaga ako ng refund, prino promote nila F1 tapos ganun ganun lng mangyayari. minimum of 6 cars to start a race? sobrang konti!!! boooooooooo!!! michelin? boooooooooo!!! :D

[mbt]

good lord, and this race had to happen in litigation-happy america of all places hehehe

i think the FIA bungled this up though. maybe they could have allowed the chicane (well, better to piss only ferrari off than all the millions of F1 fans, and especially, US fans)... or maybe they could have bent their own rules regarding the tires in some way for that one race just to save the fan base...

what a PR nightmare hehe.

[niky]

good lord, and this race had to happen in litigation-happy america of all places hehehe

i think the FIA bungled this up though. maybe they could have allowed the chicane (well, better to piss only ferrari off than all the millions of F1 fans, and especially, US fans)... or maybe they could have bent their own rules regarding the tires in some way for that one race just to save the fan base...

what a PR nightmare hehe.

Amen to that. The only thing worse that could have happened was a black flagged race... which it would have been if just two more cars had retired before the starting flag.

[mbt]

m54 powered,

well, uh, only if you attach an uber-wing onto both ends of your car and drive onto a banked corner hehe

[mantoy]

can F1 recover in US? heheh. plano pa naman yata nila na mag-dagdag ng race event sa vegas & new york. but with this recent fiasco mukhang malabo na. bad PR for F1 and the sponsors in the biggest market in the world!

[kimpOy]

i doubt it, baka wala ng contract extension yan...
maraming sporting event sa US
kita mo kasabay niya ang NBA finals, US open Golf.

[RedHorse]

i doubt it, baka wala ng contract extension yan...
maraming sporting event sa US
kita mo kasabay niya ang NBA finals, US open Golf.

kimps, sa gabi naman ang NBA... morning naman ang race... dunno with golf, gulp lang kasi alam ko

[luckytruck]

what is the penalty for changing your tires in the middle of the race?

but, the bottom line is, Michelin didn't know what was going wrong with their tires. what if Ralf didn't crash? then they would have never found out about the problem, tapos sa race mismo na lang mag-sabog-sabog ang lahat ng naka michelin?

this is the best quote i have found on the internet:

"The reason for this debacle is clear. Each team is allowed to bring two types of tyre: one an on-the-limit potential race winner, the other a back-up which, although slower, is absolutely reliable. Apparently, none of the Michelin teams brought a back-up to Indianapolis. They subsequently announced they were flying in new tyres from France but then claimed that these too were unsafe. "

dapat pinahiram na lang natin ng simex centipede. absolutely reliable

[bitoks2004]

Michelin and its teams should have done their homework. It's been 6 years since F1 was in Indy and they should have anticipated that their tyres cannot handle the banked turn. As what Michael have said during the post-race conference that they know that they left at home tyres that has more performance but less durability but they know that those tyres won't last the circuit so they settled for slower tyres. Kudos to Bridgestone. Changing the circuit after qualifying was out of the question, it leaves a taste of bad precedent and accomodation. I think that the Michelin runners should just have raced but in a slower speed at that banked turn instead of just chickening-out. This is a case of bad sportmanship at the expense of the F1 fans. Just my 2 cents.

[EL Chicane]

After reading Ferrari's side, napag-isip-isip ko, tama rin yung ginawa ng Ferrari na hindi sila pumayag na maglagay ng chicane to accomodate the Michelin tire issues.

Nun palang Bahrain Grand Prix, may problema din yung Bridgestone tires nila at napilitang mag-bagal ng takbo si Schumi at Rubens, pero hindi naman sila nag-request na maglagay ng chicane or i-alter yung race circuit. And hindi rin sila nag-back-out. They still raced. They did not get points, but the fact is, they put on a show for the fans by showing up and racing.

Tama rin yung decision ng FIA. You cannot just change the rules of the game just because a competitor showed up with a wrong equipment. Isipin mo kung sinabi ni Pacquiao: "Pwede ba hanggang Round 5 na lang ang laban? Nakalimutan ko kasing mag-umagahan eh, nanghi-hina nako.". Hindi naman tama, di ba? So you can't blame FIA, and you can't blame Ferrari.

The blame is purely on Michelin and all the Michelin cars who boycotted the race. If Michelin tells them their tires can only last for 10 laps, they should have gone out there and give the fans a race for 10 laps then retire one by one. Having a poor spare parts and racing it despite the substandard quality is actually part of the F1 competition. The driver must compensate his driving techniques in order to keep his car alive until the checkered flag whether he ends up dead last or not.

The fans deserved a decent show they paid to see. In Indianapolis, they were robbed of their money.

[luckytruck]

yup, just like in one of the past races, brakes naman ang issue because of the nature of the track. so the key for the drivers was to figure out a way to conserve their brakes to last the whole race. no one changed the nature of the tracks to save on the brakes. the drivers had to adjust.

buti pa tayo, may spare tire sa kotse. ang michelin, wala

andy

[luckytruck]

i can't see how anybody in their right mind can even think about criticizing ferrari. they came to a race prepared and they left with a 1 - 2 finish. that's all there is to it.

i just hope the F1 fans in general and the American fans in particular realize who is to blame here.

it's like in my old college varsity baseball days. our team never really had the talent to compete against the other teams. 3 years i was on the team, not a single win. (yup, you read that right). our goal was to try to win, but if we lasted more than 5 innings, masaya na kami (if the opponent is up by ten runs or more after 5 innings, game is ended).

we never asked that we be given 4 strikes instead of three. or 4 outs per inning instead of 3. we just played as best as we could with what we had. we even had to buy our own equipment, wala talagang support from the school.

but on the other side of the coin, it was the other (michelin clad) teams perogative to do what they thought was the right thing. that is their choice. i just wish they had the balls to accept the responsibility for their decision and stop pointing fingers. they screwed up, take it like a man and move on. if they slighted their fans, then that's something they have to deal with