[ffindling]

Michelin offered to fly in new tires for their teams, but the FIA insisted on maintaing the rule that requires cars start
on the tires they qualified on. Had new tires been allowed to be fitted, the Bridgestone teams would have protested
and it probably would taken months to
resolve under the FIA's rather slow arbitration proceedure. Bridgestone has been plagued with tire problems all season and there was no expectation that the rules be bent to accomodate them. Bridgestone's reaction probably was <i>what's good for the goose, is
good the gander, </i> so why should be
the rules be bent to accomodate Michelin?
But I think the problem goes much deeper than tires. F/1 teams have been
generally unhappy with Bernie Ecclestone
and FOM. ( Formula One Management)
Their feeling is that Bernie keeps too much of money FOM collects and they
should be paid much more. Bernie has
worked hard to prevent the teams from
defecting to the breakaway GPWC and
no doubt Bernie feels the GPWC once
again rearing its ugly head. The Michelin fiasco gave teams the perfect
opportunity to tell Bernie to shove it.
The sad part of the story is that all
the fans who paid good money to see
a race were denied one and IMS management was powerless to do anything about it. So all the fans and
the race promoters were caught in the
seething warfare between the teams and F/1 management. IMS president
Joie Chitwood III and Tony George
are pondering their next move. I think
they have little choice but to compensate USGP ticket holders in one
form or another. Either a refund or free
tickets to next years event, (if there is
one) or free tickets to either the Indy 500 or the Brickyard 400. In any event,
it will be a big financial loss for them and there is no doubt that IMS will seek
the return of the rather hefty sanctioning fee they paid to host the USGP. Perhaps they'll have second thoughts about ever promoting an F/1 race at the speedway again.

....Fred