Cover up Michelins! after Ralf Schumacher crashed 2005 USGP

[boivsam]

It is very likely it was to preserve the whole tyre pieces to investigate afterwards transport...

[stefann1989v2]

Cover-ups in F1 are NOT made without a reason.

[PIGGKILLA]

Bridgestone FTW!!!

[rastamees]

bad to the bone..

lol

[Zoomer30]

After the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix you'd think they would never want to set foot in TX again. So what do they do?.....move even MORE south where your sure to get hot weather (or tornadoes)

[luke140495]

Apparently the Michelin tyres were so screwed up that they were getting damaged after 3 laps, which would lead to 20+ pit stops. That would have turned it into a 6-car race anyway

[FMichael1970]

@luke140495 It was the abrasiveness of the asphalt (oval being resurfaced) more so than the tires.

[shirfield]

wasnt this whey they had tyre issues and had to pay up as only 6 teams could start

[FormulaOneFan4Eva]

@shirfield yup

[metalianmanz]

After reading the comments only one thing comes to mind. Most of you don't know much about F1! After an accident every single detail matters, they put the tires in bags so they can be analysed, they cover the car because the technology in these cars (especially the aerodynamics) cost millions (even now, 2010, with the lower budgets and all those limitations, a team spends more than 80 millions $US per year, back then it was more like 200).

It's something like CSI in F1 after a crash!

[Tasbo1982]

@metalianmanz Not true, at Silverstone a few years ago Massa smashed his car in practice, they didn't cover anything up, they just took it straight past us on a lorry. I've never seen them covering tyres up like this. You're right about covering the whole car though, they will definately have had something to hid, or though, they didn't do that to massa either.

[metalianmanz]

@Tasbo1982 I think I remember the crash, wasn't it pure driver error? There's no need to cover up tires when something like that happens, as for covering the whole car, it depends on many factors. If the damage is not much, if it's in a place that some details can be seen and so on. Ferrari don't usually bring big updates at Silverstone, so they might have nothing to hide! I'm sure you know what lengths the teams go to hide new developments!

[scavenom2008]

yeah people are ignorant and laugh all day long. It is in their ignorance that they find something to laugh about. But like Ross Brawn said... Are you gonna keep laughing?

[godanselmo]

This debacle was out of the teams hands. It was an issue with FIA and Michelin. It would have been catastrophic putting Bridgestones on cars made for Michelins vice versa.

[tubeyouviewer1984]

@godanselmo That wouldn't have been allowed would it? To put Bridgestone's on a Michelin clad car.

[godanselmo]

@tubeyouviewer1984 no, the specs are different.

[op3l]

Yea, that was a pretty fail race... I remember waking up and thinking "Finally a F1 race I can watch during regular hours(I'm in the US obviously) and then seeing only 6 cars...

[jonysuave]

they are covering it for analasys off course. and they don´t want exterior and post accident factors to give wrong and bad data about what happened.

[happyboyy8k]

much be something to hire

[aojolaifjoa]

could be gooner but i've never seen a tire manufacturer cover anything on a car. (Toyota had a red cover, michelin's is blue) kinda looked like they were covering it for a different reason

[gooner01988]

Actually they cover the cars to prevent further damage during transport so that investigations into what went wrong can be done. If you scuffed that tyre all the way back to the pits then you're not going to be able to use it to see why it exploded.

[Hypsan]

Oh my, the secret is out!! Michelin's are capable going flat. We were hoping to maintain the illusion for as long as possible that Michelins were the only tires in the world that never went flat -- even in 200 mph Formula One crashes! I mean, who is going to buy our tires if word gets out that they're not indestructible?!? What a bunch of arrogant furiners!

[thehire01]

There's nothing "funny" about this.

[klesterchopperchipe]

Absolutely pathetic, and so typical of modern F1. I went to testing at Silverstone in 2006, and every time a car had to be retrieved and towed back to the pits, the teams made sure it was completely covered. Don't they see that by doing this for PR/image damage-limitation purposes, the car companies owning such teams are actually giving a really bad impression to the fans? They come across as distant, arrogant and elitist.

[Gusdor]

Pretty sure its to stop other teams snooping at the inside of the car.

[geonerd]

As if throwing a blanket over it makes the problem go away.....

[bpisports]

They had tire issues (Goodyear) at the NASCAR race here last year (2008) they literally had competition cautions every 10 laps because the track was just eating the tires up like nobody's business.

[AzureMach1]

Hopefully they will race more this year but at least competition cautions allow for safety and somewhat of a race. And I know one thing; Bad tire or not, you'd have still seen a 40 car field in NASCAR! They're crazy enough to run a 3400 lbs car at 200 mph, crappy tire or not!

[SurfieInACT]

I love the USA, and it's inhabitants, but I agree that there should'nt be a US GP. It's not an US sport. Nothing against anyone. I just think it belongs in Europe and the Southern Hemisphere. Bring back the South African GP.

[GeriatricFan1963]

It'd be nice if there was a US gp, but no-one over there seems interested, and I think it's gonna be difficult to get them interested...F1 shouldn't go to Abu Dhabi or Turkey though for example, because they have no soul. (Turkey is an awsome track though)

[radonma]

@GeriatricFan1963 Bloody right - bring back the classic rounds like South Africa and San Marino.  The newer circuits have no soul, no history and no real interest in the sport, just the money

[GeriatricFan1963]

Yes, and we have Bernie Eclestone to thank for that...As well as CVC capital, the main investors in the sport, who are just as bad, if not worse than him.

[radonma]

Bernie is hell bent on changing the sport to suit the investors, not the fans. Why on earth did he radically change the rules after 2 of the closest and most thrilling World Championships ever in 2007 and 2008? I fear for this years rule changes too, removing fuel stops takes even more unpredictibility out of the races

Atleast we have 5 top drivers in 5 top cars this year though :)

[GeriatricFan1963]

Yeah, 2009 sucked in terms of overtaking: Only two wet races! the wide front wing means if you try to make a move on someone you'll wreck it. F1 is a spectator sport that draws in millions. It should focus on giving the fans what they want, rather than giving them processions in souless countries with awful tracks. (Like Abu Dhabi, which is just a gimmick, and all anyone ever talked about was the fancy Hotel to distract from the fact that the track was a bit crap.) Without the fans, what is F1?

[heypachuco1991]

@radonma

I think that is the whole problem. People need to finance these races, well countries like South Africa just don't have the money anymore to finance these races. Countries like Abu Dhabi have the money to get their country on the F1 calander. But I agree with you, the circuits sucks!

More races on the Americas would be nice, for Europe's time zone it would work out because it would be in the evening. For people in the Americas the races would be afternoon.

[wooklee881211]

@SurfieInACT Who the fuck are you to judge? F1 is a global sport. Btw, it's "shouldn't" you dumb fuck

[RavetodaGrave]

@wooklee881211 well you see americans just like it when you go around in a circle for 500 laps. Too many corners confuses them

[jamesandrew2000]

@wooklee881211.... USF1. Enough said.

[tubeyouviewer1984]

@jamesandrew2000 I knew USF1 was going to Fail the minute they announced their spot. They couldn't even find a driver.(S).

[Bearsir]

@SurfieInACT I agree with the South African GP but I would love to see this new track in Texas(Gag) work.

[raichiotto]

@Bearsir Only thing wrong with the track being is Texas is it gives them damn Aggies another excuse to come invade Austin.

[Chris45215]

@SurfieInACT It belongs in Europe, South America, Canada, Australia, the Mid-East, throughout eastern Asia, everywhere in Europe, will soon be in Russia... and it belongs in the US too. F1 does not belong anywhere in particular, and that is one of the great things about it, in my opinion. I respect your opinion and agree that the US has avoided it, and we have NASCAR and Indycar. On the other hand, us Americans could benefit a bit from participating in an international sport, and F1 will too.

[FMichael1970]

@Chris45215 The USGP drew over 200,000 spectators in it's inagual race in 2000...The attendance did however drop the following years, but was still a respectable 110,000 to 120,000 from 2001 - 2007 (being consistently 1 of the largest crowds in attendance in any given year)...Granted it'll never top NASCAR, but saying F1 doesn't belong in the United States is just silly; SurfielnACT should attend the race in Austin - he'll see the support F1 gets on this side of the pond.

[4gregman]

@SurfieInACT i have to agree i live in the north west of the us and do not plan to travel to the southwest to see them next year. but i have with indycar who should stay in the americas if you ask me

[EpicDJC]

they had a year to sort the problem,oh sorry didnt we say although we make tyres for f1 cars they kind of explode when going around fast corners

[Skutz0r]

i know, what i mean is, instead of making the tyre last the whole race which it wouldn't, they should have allowed to change it in the pit stops

[Skutz0r]

thing is they could have solved the problem by allowing Tyre changing during that race

[TopsuLoL]

I'm happy F1 doesn't race in America anymore.

[D4rthV4d3r34]

USGP was my favorite :(

[TopsuLoL]

Well, it's nice to drive in videogames. But not especially entertaining track.

[connell256]

i liked the track. and im from uk. I bet the 2009 cars would fly around it with or without kers.

[hamiltonf1champ08]

And it saves sponsers money rarara u no wot f1 is like lol

[frankyBMW]

lol..nice !!

[HackebeilHarry]

they did the same with hamiltons tyres after he crashed at in Germany in 2007. Its due to spying reasons.

[rubenick]

yeah i noticed that to :D i sat in the same curve he drove out :D and got nice pictures too :D xD

[MacTobey]

the only ones spying are the mclarens

[omarpunto80]

Yeah! Get your own tech mclaren!

[casimer76522]

they cover them to prevent further damage so they can later investigate the failure,,, but yeah michelin's were crap

[FMichael1970]

Of course the Michelin engineers/techs are gonna cover-up the tire carcasses/remains...They spend millions, & don't want Bridgestone having a good view of what may be the structural make-up of their racing tire.

[NialoF1]

Well do you reckon Bridgestone would want to look at dodgy tyres? :P

[FMichael1970]

Part pride, but mainly due to the fact that Michelin was still reigning champ (of the tire war that is) courtesy of Renault F1...Michelin didn't want their competition taking pics.

[alexandertrefz]

@FMichael1970 right. Their millions that caused the tyres to not work, awesome technology…

[FMichael1970]

@alexandertrefz Actually it was the resurfacing of the oval track early spring of 2005 that cause excessive wear on the Michelins...When testing in early May the Firestone shod IRL racers found out that the new asphalt was very abrasive, and the tires wore down fast...With Bridgestone being the parent company of Firestone - they were well informed of the technical data gathered...It's why Bridgestone had no trouble that weekend...Information proved to be the key.

[FMichael1970]

@FMichael1970 To continue.....Michelin found the incident quite embarassing, and rightfully so...Michelin then did the right thing by providing those of us in attendance free tickets to the 2006 USGP, and threw in an additional 2 tickets - free of charge (6 free tickets in all); now that's customer service!

[chedenHashHouse]

yeah...not good bussiness for michelin at the us

[eph3911]

It has been typical for the tire manufactures to do this, although they might not bother in 2008 since there's no "tire war" in F1 this year.

It seemed humorous to me at the time to see the Michelin engineers scrambling around like they did, but it sure was NOT funny on Sunday to only see six cars take the track for the race!

[Tactical300]

I agree, I was there too.

Went back in '06 with the refund tickets though :D

[vittoriobaky]

That's standard procedure when the tyre seems to be the cause of the accident. Happened with Hamilton in Nurburgring 2007 too for example.