"...a very weird race..."

Not only is this blog not working the way I'd hoped (user selected Themes don't stick), but the US Grand Prix held today was..."weird."

It all started Friday when two Michelin-clad Toyotas suffered tire failure in practice.



As neutrally as I can put it, Michelin warned the teams using its tires (who are seven out of the ten competing) that their tires weren't safe. Then things got interesting.

Michelin, somehow, managed to produce and overnight a bunch of tires it Indianopolis. These, I believe, were also bad, but the main issue is that F1 regulations require a car to start with the exact tires on which it qualified. Also, they cannot change tires during a race.

The FIA (the governing body) stuck to its guns and said the Michelin teams couldn't swap tires. Overnight, and before today's race, the teams that run Michelins came up with other ideas, including putting a last-minute chicane in the course (that's the name for those quick right-left series of turns in the middle of straightaways to slow cars down).

The teams, naturally, are required to furnish safe vehicles for the races (even outside the litiguous US), and weren't about to compete with tires that they'd been told were unsafe. FIA wouldn't consider changing the track to suit teams which couldn't follow the rules and otherwise and compete, and a sham resulted.

While all twenty cars took to the track for the "parade lap" just before the start of the race, as they approached the starting grid the Michelin cars peeled off into their garages. As the lights signalled the beginning of the race, only six cars were in place.

The Ferraris, who've been having a bad season, run Bridgestone tires, and handily won the race. The only other two teams that run Bridgestones are Jordan and Minardi, who fight to stay off the bottom.

Fans booed and moronically threw debris on the track, and the six cars that started ran the race distance without incident.

The drivers and teams who chose not to race, rationally for both safety and contractual reasons, apologized to the fans, but Formula One, today, shot itself in the foot.