OTT: US Formula 1 race great for Ferarri, bad for Michelin

[Dave Eaton]

that is incorrect.  ferrari had no part in the decision not to proceed with
a chicane.  the decision was solely for the fia to make, as they run the
series, and they made it. frank williams has confirmed that fact this
morning on autosport.com, and completely exonerated ferrari.

i find it interesting that a last minute decision to install a chicane seems
so fair to all the arm-chair f1 racers out there.  particularly without the
chance to practice or setup for it.  lemme see, turn 13 (the highest speed
corner in f1) is now reduced to 2nd gear...

what now of gear ratios?
setup?
engine-mapping?
tyre compounds?
braking points?
marshalling/safety provisions?

all because michelin and the teams got their sums wrong?

the fact is that michelin (*and the teams*) screwed up.  the "hard" compound
is supposed to be the conservative, hard wearing, "bet the farm" choice,
while the "soft" is the fast but dodgy compound.

imo, michelin screwed up the *construction* of the tyre, not the compound,
meaning that both hard and soft tyres were suspect.  (heat build up from
sidewall flex in this corner).  interestingly the alternative "barcelona
spec" tyre mooted by michelin was also found to be suspect.  it seems that
the decisions on construction taken for this year have been found wanting at
the very highest level of stress.  michelin will have an issue to address at
other tracks with high-speed corners (eau rouge comes to mind).

dave
'01 s8 (goodyear f1-gs d3's)

-----Original Message-----
Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2005 21:46:48 -0400
From: LL - NY <larrycleung at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: US Formula 1 race great for Ferarri, bad for Michelin
To: S?bastien ROUL <s.roul at free.fr>
Cc: quattro at audifans.com
Message-ID: <85e5c267050619184645e6bf64 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

It is somewhat pathetic (and trust me, I'm a Ferrari fan and a Schuey fan)
that
a single partial member of a governing body has enough power to essentially
nullify a race. The issue was safety, that Michelin ended up in this
position
was truely their mistake. Ferrari could've conceded to allow Michelin to
run,
perhaps with a weight penalty, but went the "insured" route. Truely
pathetic,
and truely pathetic that the FIA hasn't the cajones to be able to control
their
own events.