2005 United States Grand Prix

The 2005 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on June 19, 2005 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race proved to be a disaster because only six out of the normal twenty cars competed; all fourteen of the cars using Michelin tyres retired after the parade lap due to a safety issue with their tyres and the newly resurfaced speedway, leaving only the teams using Bridgestone rubber — Ferrari, Minardi and Jordan — to start.

Following several tyre failures before the race, most spectacularly on Ralf Schumacher's Toyota during Friday practice, Michelin advised its seven customer teams that they could not safely race on the tyres provided for them. The FIA, the sport's governing body, refused to allow a chicane to be installed, maintaining that such rule changes would be grossly unfair to the Bridgestone-shod teams, who had come prepared with properly working tyres. The Michelin teams, unable to come to a compromise with the FIA did not participate in the race on safety grounds.

Of the six competitors, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was the eventual winner. The result significantly boosted his championship standing, placing him third overall — no driver above him in the table took part in the race. The situation created enormous negative publicity for the sport of Formula One, especially in The United States, a market in which Formula One has struggled to establish itself over the last 20 years.

Pre-race controversy

Tyre issues caused the race to be run with only six competitors

Toyota tyre failures

On Friday, June 17 2005, during the afternoon's practice session, Ralf Schumacher driving for Toyota, crashed heavily in Turn 13 of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, apparently as a result of a left-rear tyre failure. This was the second year in a row that he had a high-speed crash at Turn 13, the previous time being during the race in 2004 whilst driving for Williams. The fact that both incidents occurred on the same turn, with the same driver, and using the same tyre (Michelin) was cause for concern. Turn 13 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course is a high speed banked turn, virtually unique to Formula One racing, a turn that causes a greater than usual lateral (horizontal) load. This pressure can cause the side walls of the tyre to bow and wear in abnormal places.

The following day, Michelin reported that the tyres it had provided for its seven customer teams — BAR, McLaren, Red Bull, Renault, Toyota, Sauber, and Williams — were unsafe for extended high-speed use on this turn, and announced its intention to fly in another set of tyres from its Clermont-Ferrand headquarters. Unfortunately, the replacement tyres flown in, which were of the type used in the Spanish Grand Prix earlier that year, turned out to have the same problem when tested.

Correspondence between Michelin and the FIA

In a letter to FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting, dated Saturday, June 18, Michelin representatives Pierre Dupasquier and Nick Shorrock revealed that they did not know the cause of Schumacher's tyre failure, and unless the cars could be slowed down in Turn 13, Michelin's tyres would be unsafe and unsuitable for use during the race.

Whiting replied on Sunday, June 19, expressing his surprise that Michelin had not brought along a second set of tyres, suggesting that the teams be informed of the maximum safe speed in Turn 13, and offered to monitor the turn by penalising any excess speed on the Michelin cars. He also addressed several solutions which had been proposed by the teams, insisting that use of the tyres flown in overnight would result in penalties, and the placement of a chicane in the turn was "out of the question" - the race would not be sanctioned by the FIA (a non-championship race) if the track layout was changed. He deemed the Michelin teams' proposals to be "grossly unfair" to the Bridgestone teams.

In a second letter, also dated June 19, Dupasquier and Shorrock announced that they would not permit their teams to race on Michelin's tyres, and reiterated their request to slow down Turn 13. Whiting's brief reply maintained that no such change would be permitted, and giving the teams the choiced of limiting speeds through Turn 13, using a new set of tyres subject to a penalty, or changing tyres repeatedly, which is permitted if a driver's safety is at issue (although he left open the possibility that teams which took the latter route would be penalized anyway, saying that only "if the technical delegate and the stewards were satisfied that each change was made because the tyre would otherwise fail … would [there] be no penalty.")

Attempts at compromise

Paul Stoddart, owner of Team Minardi-Cosworth, a team that runs Bridgestone tyres, published an account on Wednesday, June 22, of the events leading up to the race. While the previous developments were reported by various sources, the last-minute negotiations had theretofore been largely unknown to the public. Stoddart recorded a meeting around 10:00am on the day of the race, to which Speedway president Tony George, "the two most senior Michelin representatives present at the circuit" (assumed to be Dupasquier and Shorrock), commercial-rights impresario Bernie Ecclestone, the team principals, and the teams' Michelin technical representatives were summoned. All invited were present except Jean Todt, Team Principal of Scuderia Ferrari.

By Stoddart's account, the meeting proceeded as follows: The Michelin representatives stated their position that the tyres provided to the teams could not safely complete the race distance, and requested that the Bridgestone teams, represented by Stoddart and Jordan's Colin Kolles, permit the installation of a chicane in Turn 13. Those present discussed and agreed to reject the FIA's solution of speed-limiting the Michelin cars in the turn because of the potential for accidents. They likewise dismissed the possibility of making pit stops every ten laps, resolved that a chicane was the best solution, and instructed several technical representatives to prepare plans for its installation. Bernie Ecclestone volunteered to consult Todt, who had not come to the meeting, and the president of the FIA, Max Mosley, who was not present at the race, and reconvene the meeting when he had responses.

Ecclestone returned at about 10:55 to inform the group that Todt had refused to agree to the chicane, maintaining that it was Michelin's problem and not his. Todt later denied that he had ever been consulted, but stated that he would not have agreed to the chicane anyway. Furthermore, Ecclestone reported that "Mr Mosley had stated that if any attempts were made to alter the circuit, he would cancel the Grand Prix forthwith".

The team principals' plan

The group, according to Stoddart, continued to propose alternate solutions, including "a non-championship race, or a race in which the Michelin teams could not score points, and even a race whereby only the Michelin teams used the new chicane", but eventually agreed that the best option was to install the chicane and run a non-championship race, without Ferrari if necessary. To ignore the FIA's instructions and carry on the race would have resulted in the FIA's withdrawing its staff, so the group appointed delegates to fill the various offices, including a race director to replace Charlie Whiting and a safety car driver to replace Bernd Maylander. The team principals were instructed to convey to their teams and drivers that, in the absence of FIA scrutineers and equipment, the technical rules could not be enforced, and that they were to conduct themselves honourably and in the interest of an entertaining race.

They proceeded to summon the twenty drivers and present their plan. Of the drivers' opinions, Stoddart writes: "While I cannot testify that each and every driver agreed with what we were proposing, what I can say with certainty is that no driver disagreed." The Ferrari drivers expressed no opinion in the matter, leaving the decision to Todt, who was not present. The nine present team principals thereupon resolved that, unless they and the FIA could come to a decision in the interest of the sport, they would not participate in the race.

After a short break, the group gathered again in Ecclestone's office to find Renault team principal Flavio Briatore on the phone with Max Mosley. Mosley had apparently rejected all of their proposals, and indeed "it was stated that Mosley had informed Mr Martin, the FIA's most senior representative in the USA, that if any kind of non-championship race was run, or any alteration made to the circuit, the US Grand Prix, and indeed, all FIA-regulated motorsport in the US, would be under threat". The FIA later denied that Mosley had said this.

Having exhausted their options, the Michelin team principals, Stoddart, and Bernie Ecclestone — but not Jordan's Colin Kolles — discussed whether their cars should proceed to the grid, and decided that they should participate in the formation lap but retire before the start of the race. Stoddart went to the Jordan garage to ask Kolles if he would be entering his cars and was informed that Jordan would indeed be racing, despite having agreed not to. Upon being approached by a Bridgestone representative and told that Bridgestone wanted him to race, and considering the heavy penalties he would face for not racing, Stoddart too decided to enter his drivers, but promised to retire them if the Jordans did not finish the race.

Race report

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher (here pictured in qualifying) took his first, and only, win of the season

To the fans in attendance, the start of the race appeared perfectly normal, as all cars lined up on the grid per FIA race procedure. As Charlie Whiting signalled the green light to start the formation lap, a full grid of twenty cars took off, presumably for one last attempt to warm their tyres before the race. Winding through the first twelve turns, all looked to be standard. At the banked Turn 13, the entrance to the pit lane (and the turn that is the centre of the controversy), all teams that ran Michelin tyres returned to their pits, leaving just three teams and six cars to start the races, from Ferrari, Jordan, and Minardi.

The move by the teams, to come to the grid and then pull out after the formation lap into the pits, infuriated the fans, as they had little idea what was happening. Loud boos were heard and some threw items on the track. The race quickly turned into what SPEED commentator Bob Varsha called "a Bridgestone test session", with Ferrari's Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello in front, Jordan's Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan in a distant third and fourth, and Minardi's Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher bringing up the rear.

The race was a story of pit strategy, as the only passing outside of pit stops was to overtake lapped traffic. Albers was the only car to run a three pit stop race, as all other cars chose to stop only twice. The only lead changes came on lap 26, as Schumacher's 32 second stop gave Barrichello the lead, and on lap 51, as Schumacher turned in the quickest pit stop at 23.615 seconds, giving him enough time to exit pit lane at the same time as Barrichello, with the result of forcing Barrichello into the grass of Turn One. After this incident, which was not investigated by race officials, both Ferrari drivers were reminded over their radios not to crash out of the race, and they both settled into a slower pace, comfortably ahead of the rest of the field. At the podium ceremony, at which none of the scheduled presenters were present, all Ferrari team members quietly accepted their awards, and quickly exited, leaving the rookie Monteiro to celebrate his first podium finish alone.

Refusal of coverage

Several TV stations refused to carry the US GP after the retirement of all the Michelin runners. TSN in Canada refused to air the race, and provided only the post-race show. As TSN was airing the race on tape-delay, it just provided the live-to-tape post-race coverage in place of pre-race and race coverage. At the time that the debacle unfolded, TSN was televising the NASCAR Batman Begins 400 at Michigan Speedway.

Out of all of the Television channels who broadcasted the grand prix, only ITV decided to screen the race and at the end of broadcast, the channel's anchorman Jim Rosenthal apologised for what viewers saw. The highlights show on the channel that usually goes out late evening on a grand prix weekend was cancelled.

Italian channel Rai 1 aired the race too, with comentators Gianfranco Mazzoni and Ivan Capelli trying to understand what led to the withdrawal and to explain it to the public. Austrian channel Orf 1 broadcasted the entire race as well, citing contractual obligations to do so. Commentator Heinz Prueller was temporarily joined by Niki Lauda and their witty exchange of jokes made the race coverage actually rather entertaining at times.

Aftermath

Disgruntled fans blaming FIA president Max Mosley for the events of the race

The race result allowed Michael Schumacher to move from fifth to third in the drivers championship, while Rubens Barrichello moved from sixth to fourth, and the Ferrari team moved from fifth to second in the Constructors Championship. Both Jordan and Minardi scored points, leaving BAR-Honda as the only team not to have scored any points up to that stage of the season. However, these changes in the championship standings were dwarfed by the recriminations over the failure to find a solution which would allowed the Michelin-shod teams to race.

Bernie Ecclestone, in answer to a question by ITV's Martin Brundle in an interview just before the start of the race, described the future of Formula One in the United States and the future of Michelin in the sport as "not good". He also said that the "incident's not the fault of the teams, to be honest with you."

Many commentators labelled the race a "farce" and questioned whether a United States Grand Prix would be held again at Indianapolis, or at any other American venue ever again for that matter. Some pointed to the previous disagreements between the teams and Max Mosley (which had led to the threatened creation of the GPWC as an alternative to Formula One) as a critical factor in the failure to reach a compromise and felt that the events at this race had greatly increased the risk of a complete rupture.

Sam Posey, a former SPEED Channel commentator who competed in the 1972 United States Grand Prix, described Grand Prix racing as "at its best...a modern marvel of excesses, immense cost, furious competition, amazing technology, and sudden changes of fortune, all conducted at maximum intensity. At its worst, which is what we have seen today, it is an overly political monster, driven by selfishness and greed." He ended his conribution to SPEED's telecast by saying, "U.S. GP 2005 — a dark, dark day for a great sport."

Minardi boss Paul Stoddart said immediately after the race that nine teams – all but Ferrari – agreed not to race, and had Jordan not reversed its decision at the last minute, Minardi would also have withdrawn from the race in a boycott. In his later, lengthier, statement, he indicated that although it had been Michelin's failure to provide a reliable tyre which had initiated the events, he laid the full blame for the failure to reach some accommodation (which would have allowed a race to happen, for the benefit of the many fans who had paid considerable money for travel and tickets) at the feet of Max Mosley and the FIA, with a small share of the blame going to what he characterized as the obstructionist Ferrari team leader, Jean Todt. He furthermore called for Mosley's resignation.

The FIA's reaction

The following day, the FIA published a justification of its refusal to permit a change in tyres or the installation of a chicane. The FIA also summoned the seven Michelin-shod teams before the World Motorsport Council at their headquarters in France, for a hearing on June 29th, to explain their failure to participate, by which they had presumably violated the terms of the Concorde Agreement. It later published copies of the letters sent to each team "in the interests of transparency". They were charged with violating article 151c of the International Sporting Code, which refers to acts prejudicial to the interests of competition or motorsport generally. Specifically, it was charged that they had:

• Failed to ensure that you had a supply of suitable tyres for the race.
• Wrongfully refused to allow your cars to start the race
• Wrongfully refused to allow your cars to race subject to a speed restriction at one corner, which was safe for such tyres as you had available.
• Combined with other teams to make a demonstration damaging to the image of Formula 1 by pulling into the pits immediately before the start of the race.
• Failed to notify the stewards of your intention not to race.

On June 22 the FIA produced a press release from Max Mosley, in the form of a question-and-answer session, in an effort to clarify the FIA's stand on the controversy. In it Mosley drew an analogy to a hypothetical situation where the engines from one manufacturer had oil starvation problems due to high lateral loading in one corner, and pointed out that those cars would simply have been forced to run slower as a result. He reiterated that the reason for not installing the chicane was purely that it had never been tested and was thereby deemed unsafe. He pointed out that the alternatives that the FIA suggested were feasible, and wondered why the teams did not use the pitlane as an alternative, especially when, with only six Bridgestone cars, the Michelin teams could still compete for the points scoring seventh and eighth places.

On June 29 the FIA World Motorsport Council found the teams guilty on the first two counts, that is, of not being in possession of suitable tyres for the event, but with strong mitigating circumstances, and that of wrongfully refusing to allow their cars to start the race. The teams were found not guilty of the other three counts. The punishment, however, was not decided, and was not to have been announced until September 14.

On July 22, the FIA World Motorsport Council voted to overturn its previous decision, and exonorated the Michelin teams of all charges. The decision was due to "evidence previously submitted to the FIA Senate", rumoured to be that the Michelin teams could have been held accountable under Indiana state law for knowingly putting others at risk if they had raced.

Compensation

On June 28, Michelin announced that it would offer compensation to all race fans who had purchased tickets for the Grand Prix. By the end of September, the company had issued refund checks through the Speedway ticket office for the price of all tickets for the race. Additionally, Michelin purchased 20,000 tickets for the 2006 United States Grand Prix to be distributed to spectators who renewed their 2005 ticket orders for the event, two additional tickets per order.

In addition to the refunded tickets, there was some discussion about holding a second, non-championship race at Indianapolis. On July 2, at the 2005 French Grand Prix, McLaren team principal Ron Dennis suggested that an additional race could be held at the American circuit after the last official race of the season, in Shanghai. The teams had, apparently, already discussed the idea with Bernie Ecclestone. But the next day Tony George dismissed the possibility: "There will be no race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this fall." At the 2005 Champ Car World Series Grand Prix of Cleveland, held one week after the US Grand Prix, free admission was granted to all bearers of ticket stubs of the US Grand Prix.

Friday Drivers

Team	Nat	Driver
McLaren-Mercedes		Pedro de la Rosa
Sauber-Petronas		none
RBR-Cosworth		Scott Speed
Toyota		Ricardo Zonta
Jordan-Toyota		Robert Doornbos
Minardi-Cosworth		none

Qualifying

Jordan driver Narain Karthikeyan locking his brakes during qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Lap	Gap
1	16	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:10.625	—
2	9	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:10.694	+0.069
3	3	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	1:11.277	+0.652
4	6	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:11.290	+0.665
5	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:11.369	+0.744
6	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:11.380	+0.755
7	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	1:11.431	+0.806
8	4	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	1:11.497	+0.872
9	7	Mark Webber	Williams-BMW	1:11.527	+0.902
10	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	1:11.555	+0.930
11	10	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	1:11.681	+1.056
12	11	Jacques Villeneuve	Sauber-Petronas	1:11.691	+1.066
13	17	Ricardo Zonta	Toyota	1:11.754	+1.129
14	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull Racing	1:12.132	+1.507
15	8	Nick Heidfeld	Williams-BMW	1:12.430	+1.805
16	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull Racing	1:12.682	+2.057
17	18	Tiago Monteiro	Jordan-Toyota	1:13.462	+2.837
18	21	Christijan Albers	Minardi-Cosworth	1:13.632	+3.007
19	19	Narain Karthikeyan	Jordan-Toyota	1:13.776	+3.151
20	20	Patrick Friesacher	Minardi-Cosworth	1:14.494	+3.869

Classification

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	73	1'29:43.181	5	10
2	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	73	+1.5	7	8
3	18	Tiago Monteiro	Jordan-Toyota	72	+1 Lap	17	6
4	19	Narain Karthikeyan	Jordan-Toyota	72	+1 Lap	19	5
5	21	Christijan Albers	Minardi-Cosworth	71	+2 Laps	18	4
6	20	Patrick Friesacher	Minardi-Cosworth	71	+2 Laps	20	3
DNS	16	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	0	Withdrew	1
DNS	9	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Withdrew	2
DNS	3	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	0	Withdrew	3
DNS	6	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	0	Withdrew	4
DNS	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	0	Withdrew	6
DNS	4	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	0	Withdrew	8
DNS	7	Mark Webber	Williams-BMW	0	Withdrew	9
DNS	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	0	Withdrew	10
DNS	10	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Withdrew	11
DNS	11	Jacques Villeneuve	Sauber-Petronas	0	Withdrew	12
DNS	17	Ricardo Zonta	Toyota	0	Withdrew	13
DNS	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Cosworth	0	Withdrew	14
DNS	8	Nick Heidfeld	Williams-BMW	0	Withdrew	15
DNS	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Cosworth	0	Withdrew	16

Notes

• All six starters finished the race, making this only the second time in Formula One history where every car that started a race went on to complete it.
• Michael Schumacher's first and only victory of 2005 ended the second-longest non-winning streak of his career.
• Jordan driver Tiago Monteiro's third place earned him the first podium finish of his career, and the first podium for a Portuguese driver.

External links

• Facsimiles of correspondence from June 1 and 2 between Michelin sporting director Pierre Dupasquier and FIA president Max Mosley regarding tyre safety (pdf)
• Facsimiles of the Michelin/Whiting letters exchanged at Indianapolis on June 18–19:
  • Michelin's first letter (pdf)
  • Whiting's first reply (pdf)
  • Michelin's second letter (pdf)
  • Whiting's second reply (pdf)
• Facsimiles of the letters sent to each team informing them of the charges against them (pdf)
• Questions to Max Mosley about the events of the race
• "A Personal Account of Events Surrounding the 2005 US Grand Prix" by Paul Stoddart, Minardi team owner