I begin with a smiley face because I have actually enjoyed listening to my variously informed mates discuss (and discharge about
) the grand fiasco here in Indianapolis, my home town.
I really wish it had happened at Silverstone, or somewhere the fans could be trusted to do more than shake their fists at the television cameras. It would have been a lot more fun if Bernie had been imprisoned in a garage for 48 hours while enraged fans set about disassembling the grandstands!
Alas, in America, race fans are much more genteel. I, myself, simply walked out in disgust and headed to my favorite local tavern to drown my sorrows. Alas, the following morning, they returned.
Evidently, from all I have read here and from other well-informed friends, F1 machines and F1 racing is so finely tuned that there is NO SUCH THING as inter-changability. If the tyres fail, there are simply no substitutes.
If that is the case, and I am willing to accept that it is, then the tyre supplier for seven of the ten teams at Indianapolis knew that there would not and could not be an F1 race AT LEAST 48 HOURS before it was scheduled to start.
The local papers and media talked about the "looming" tyre problem as soon as the Toyotas started flying off the track. And by Friday night people were saying (off the record, of course, fearing libel cases) that there would be no race. Michelin, on the other hand, was insistent that the problem could and would be solved. By Saturday night my insider friends were telling me to stay home. I was sure they were exaggerating. Maybe Toyota would have to withdraw. Maybe a couple of the other teams who, like them, were running the tyres at lower --or higher, or somehow different-- pressures would have to withdraw --or change their set ups. Michelin said nothing. The Teams said nothing. The Speedway said nothing. The FIA said nothing.
So I, naively, did what you would have done. I figured they ["they" being the responsible parties] would find SOME way to race and that the tyre problem would simply be another complicating factor in the race. After all, aren't most F1 races full of challenges to the teams and drivers? I came to the track, on a beautiful day, expecting some beautiful and exciting driving.
I saw, on the tele monitors, various folks conferring mightily. But I also saw the cars placed on the grid. And I saw the drivers suit up. And I, and 150,000 on the grounds got ready for a race.
Michelin said nothing about pulling out. The Teams said nothing. The Speedway said nothing. FIA said nothing.
The cars went round. Seven teams drove back into the garages.
Since then, alas, Everyone has had All Kinds of Things To Say!! Everyone has had Solutions, and Problems with Other People's Solutions, and Villains to point the finger at, and Heroes to exonerate. The Fiasco has been FIA's fault. Michelin's fault. Bernie Ecclestone's fault. Max Moseley's fault. Naturally, it has also been Michael Schumacher and Jean Todt's fault! Who knows, it might have even been Frank Williams' fault, or maybe it was even Kimi Raikkonen's fault! I tried to read as many postings here as I could, but I'm sure I have still missed other blameworthy people. Who knows? Maybe it was my fault?
So do I care? Why am I still nattering on about this, anyway? Not because someone stuffed it. I don't care that Michelin stuffed it. I don't care that Max and Bernie stuffed it. I don't care that FIA failed to find a solution or proposed solutions that were unacceptable to drivers or mechanics or stewards or that Paul Stoddard felt personally threatened with public embarrassment. I care that Paul Stoddard didn't tell me AS SOON AS HE KNEW THE RACE WAS STUFFED!! I care that all these people refused to say the race was stuffed. And that they still refuse to say the race was stuffed.
I care that no one admitted that the drivers and the team managers and the stewards and the television commentators and the lawyers and their lackeys ALL KNEW THAT, BECAUSE F1 CARS ARE SO DELICATE AND FINELY TUNED IF THEIR TYRES (OR ANY OTHER PART OF THEIR PACKAGE) FAIL, THEY CAN NOT BE SAFELY ENTRUSTED TO THEIR DRIVERS
AND THEY DIDN'T TELL THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND PEOPLE WHO HAD ASSEMBLED TO WATCH THAT THERE WASN'T GOING TO BE AND THAT THERE COULDN'T BE A RACE. THAT, IN FACT, THE RACE WAS STUFFED!
They didn't ask us to come back on Monday or Tuesday after a suitable solution had been found. THEY PUT ON A RIDICULOUS FARCE AND THEY CALLED IT A RACE. THEY EVEN AWARDED TROPHIES AND POINTS!!!
And it is the eve of the French Grand Prix, two weeks later, and no single person has explained why not one of these highly paid and well informed people failed to
CALL OFF THE RACE AND REFUND THE TICKET PRICE
And am I supposed to believe it never occurred to anyone to do so? Am I supposed to believe that a football match can be entered into the record books when three quarters of the players fail to show up? If you SAY it's a match, somehow it IS a match? What kind of world is that?
Are you getting warm, dear readers (if I still have any!)?
It's a world familiar to me. It's so familiar it may be the reason I fled to F1 in the first place. It's the bloody one we all live in today. The one that is raising the global temperature and pretending that the Titanic isn't sinking. It's the world of the barrister and the bloody judge, the politician and his bloody spinmaster, the world of virtual reality.
What happened here and what will happen again (no matter what they say!!), is because lawyers and their lackeys are calling the shots.
In the courts, as you know, what matters is winning, not justice. Just so, today in F1 what matters is "winning," not racing.
Jim Watt
