Sunday, 19th June 2005
Disaster for Formula One at Indianapolis
Yesterday i posted about my experience at indianapolis for the F-1 qualifying. The initial plan was to see the race on race day itself. Many of my friends and classmates had bought tickets for raceday online and were all keyed up looking forward to it. Me and my roomates had also planned on coming. Last night i had toyed with the idea of joining the guys who were going for the race since Columbus (where i was at) is midway from cleveland and indianapolis and has to be passed throught to get there. Late in the night, i called my roomies, but they were too tired, disinterested and lacked the planned needed to make the trip. So i quickly dropped the idea and contented myself with having seen the qualfying despite knowing that raceday is 10 times as amazing as the qualifying day. But as events would unfold, i was glad i didnt go.
I was constantly on the internet following up on the state of affairs of the race. Since the race was to start at 1PM local time. (Remember itz 2PM for us on eastern time) so i dozed off at 2 PM with my laptop next to me just before the race began. When i woke up and remembered about the race, i quickly looked up on the laptop and was shocked at the headline i saw Ferrari win six-car Indianapolis race. The words "Ferrari win" made me glad, but the "six-car race" was what shocked me. Initially i assumed there was a huge crash and only 6 drivers managed to finish the race. To my horror i then read all about the michelin tyre problem, their protest and subsequent pullout. It was then i began to laugh (sadistically) and told everyone around me about what had happened and felt joy that i hadnt been subjected to watching a 6 car race after so much expectation. Oddly enough i hadnt concentrated on the protest reports that had surfaced earlier. With less than an hour to go before the start of the US Grand Prix, all of teams with the exception of Ferrari have said they will only race if a chicane is inserted to slow the cars ahead of the banked Turn 13.
My roomate vijay who went for the race (having booked tickets online which are priced higher than gate tickets) had to undergo the agony of seeing the race. He commented that the spectators at the arena didnt have a clue what was happening when suddenly they saw only 6 drivers were out on circuit. He said they initally thought there was a huge pile-ip somewhere on track and only six people made it out of it. They also said that seeing out desi guy kartikeyan in fifth place all of a sudden was a shock to them. Only later on did they realise what was happening. They also had to put up with the booing and jeering that was to follow and also beers cans that were being tossed onto the circuit.
Ferrari at least came to Indianapolis Motor Speedway expecting to challenge for a high placing, perhaps even a win. But for Jordan and Minardi, third and fourth, and fifth and sixth places were a dream.For everyone else, the United States Grand Prix turned into a nightmare. Ferrari are never to be discounted, and with Michael Schumacher fifth on the grid and Rubens Barrichello seventh the Scuderia was in reasonable shape. But when all of the Michelin teams withdrew after the green flag lap, the race became a cakewalk for the red cars.The biggest gain was Ferrari's. Their 18 point haul pushes them into equal second place with McLaren on 63 points, only 13 behind Renault with 10 races left. Narain Karthikeyan finished fourth (a position he would certainly have been trilled about).
My take on the controversy is in sync with what Race Director, Mr Charlie Whiting's had to say "To change the course in order to help some of the teams with a performance problem caused by their failure to bring suitable equipment to the race would be a breach of the rules and grossly unfair to those teams which have come to Indianapolis with the correct tyres".
The saddest part of the whole controversy is that the worst to suffer are the plans and the indianapolis motor speedway. The US grand prix (already strugging to maintain a strong fan base) is now in serious jeopardy. Keep upto date with the controvery at the Formule One site.
Posted by Nikhil on Sunday, 19th June 2005 in Nonsense | Fun | Sports | Events | Embarrassing