Utter disgrace

Compounding problems...

If anyone says lightning does not strike the same place twice, then ask Ralf Schumacher. Same race, same driver, different car, different year - but same result. Ralf Schumacher crashes into turn leading from the oval bank(turn 13) at high speed owing to a punctured tyre but fortunately escapes unhurt this time. Zonta, the other Toyota driver also punctures his tyre. And Michelin blew the whistle, giving out a statement asking their teams not to race because they could not "guarantee the safety of the drivers". Michelin also failed to produce alternate tyres on time, adding to the throes of the teams.

The FIA then came into the picture and offered to help the Michelin runners by monitoring their speeds at the main corner and penalizing any excess. However, the Michelin teams refused to agree to this and wanted the Bridgestone runners to be slowed down as well - by placing a chicane.

Formula One is a sporting event and it operates on clear rules. At no point must these rules be negotiable just because certain teams are incompetent.The reason for this debacle is absolutely clear. Every team is allowed to bring two sets of tyres to the race. One is an on-the-wire potential race winning tyre and the second is a not-so-good but still very reliable set of back-up tyres. And the Michelin runners did not have the second set of tyres. Later they said that the back-up tyres were on the way from France, but they too were not safe enough. And though the mistake was theirs, they wanted Bridgestone runners to be penalised as well.

By adding a chicane, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway would have been turned from a high-speed track to a twisting and winding circuit. And the two are fundamentally different with everything ranging from aerodynamics to tyre configurations to gear box ratios changing for the two types of circuits. Now this would be totally unagreeable to teams like Ferrari who have prepared for the race in their own fashion with the circuit in mind. For no reason could a team that has prepared for a race agree to constrict itself for faults which are alien to themselves.

Live pictures streaming in from Indianapolis on race day showed groups of gentlemen huddle up into conversations,pat each other's backs in approval and wink like school boys in a playground who had something up their sleeve. Only in this case, these gentlemen are multi-millionaires, richer than we would dare dream and the plan they had up their sleeve was nothing less than what would lead to the demise of a great sport and a great heritage. And the venue they chose was the second oldest and perhaps the most celebrated track in the history of motor racing on this planet.

This is a group of elite gentlemen, citizens of Planet Paddock,a planet completely cut-off from the real world in terms of communication, a real world filled with disgruntled fans of Formula One. This is perhaps the nadir in the graph of Formula One. A weekend filled with disgrace which saw seven teams retire their races after the warm-up lap, much to the dismay of fans who had every right to relish a race after hours of sweaty in-vehicle waiting.

By taking the warm-up lap, they technically fulfilled their contractual obligations to the race promoter, but in doing so, screwed the sport and screwed its fans.

With the seven Michelin runners retiring their races, the red-lights went out to a hollow gird with Schumacher on "pole" position with Rubens Barrichello on second. Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan were third and fourth, with Albers and Friesacher completing the running six. The Ferrari's soon pulled off from the lower teams and were in a competition of their own, ducking the bottles thrown by fans , and managing to finish the race in a 1-2 win. An absolutely delighted Tiago Monteiro was third for Jordan, their first podium since Fissichella was awarded the Brazilian grand prix a few years back. Narain Karthikeyan came fourth, taking five points for his team and was delighted too, stating that points were points, no matter how they came. Friesacher and Albers finished the race too, with this being the first ever race since the 1961 Dutch Grand Prix where all cars that started finished the race. On the podium, Ferrari did not toast their win with champagne given the graveness of the situation and left the stage to Tiago Monteiro, the first ever Portugese driver to grace the podium.

Overall, a black day for Formula One, and that too in a country that is very important for the future of this sport. On the championship front, Renault still lead with 76, followed by Ferrari and McLaren tied for second at 63. On the drivers front, Alonso still leads with 59, Raikkonen is on second with 37 and Schumacher lurks behind them at 34.