How the 2005 US GP became a farce - Chain Bear explains

settle in to hear a story from long long ago the year was 2005 and the entire world was excited for the u.s. Grand Prix weekend but come Sunday only six cars actually started the race it was the most facile embarrassing race the modern sport had seen so what actually happened it was a tale of tires engineering simulation and politics held at a modified Indianapolis Motor Speedway the u.s. Grand Prix track was pass oval Park twiddly infield this gave the track a full throttle heavily banked turn the only core of its type in the whole season unlike today there was a development war raging between the sports two tire suppliers Michelin and Bridgestone Michelin supplied seven of the teams in Bridgestone three Michelin in 2005 seemed to have the edge over their competitors for the most part there was also the unique for 2005 rule that banned mid race tire changes so the life of a single set of tires had to be managed across the entire length of the race the potentially problematic nature of this rule had already been proved in Germany where a flat spotted tyre on Kimi räikkönen's McLaren exacerbated over the race to the point where ripped his suspension apart on the last lap costing him the win the incident that kicked off the concern that culminated in the disastrous empty race started in free praxis to where Ralph Schumacher's rear left tire failed through the full throttle banked final corner sending him flying into the barrier at 175 miles an hour it was a serious enough incident to sideline Ralph for the rest of the weekend Ralph had already fractured his back last year in a similar spell into the same barrier this promoted Toyotas third driver Ricardo Zonta to his racy but Zonta had also had a tire failure in that same session prickling Michelin spidey-senses something was wrong Formula One doesn't tend to have high speed corners right up against solid barriers with zero runoff area a tire failure will slingshot a car out of its current velocity with little chance to slow down before impact any chance of an accident was very serious indeed so any risks needed to be mitigated michelin set to work at getting to the bottom of these tire failures but by saturday they still hadn't figured out confidently the cause of the failures they even shipped in replacement tires but those tires were a similar spec and would likely fail in the same way as its Michelin could not guarantee their cars could run safely for more than ten laps let alone the entire length of the race get relation merge there were no fault in the Michelin tires they had been constructed exactly as Michelin had intended the problem was that 10 13 at Indianapolis placed uniquely extreme loads on the ties that Michelin had underestimated in their simulations let's look at a unique challenge that fast banked turn bear in mind the Indianapolis was not a track reserved for tes essence so most of the work done by Michelin had to come from data from previous races and a lot of simulator work this wasn't Street liter of Bridgestone who had tested the tracks several times over the last year through their American Firestone brand in particular they've been able to gather data from the new resurfacing that had extra bearing on the tire loads at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as we shall see so through a normal corner if a car wishes to stay to the right the grippy tarmac resists and pulls the contact patch of the tire left this stretches the tire wall somewhat through the outside length working the rubber molecules repeated stretching and releasing weakens the rubber and eventually the rubber could start to tear which quickly leads to failure the next time a high load is put through it understanding how much lateral loads circuits are gonna demand are a key part of manufacturing tires to operate within those tolerances obviously the very high-speed who turned 13 result in a higher force pulling the car to the right but the banking tilts the car at an angle meaning the force of its weight isn't going to go straight into the track but a component of this way is added to the force pulling the car of right whatz this is why cars can go much faster through banked corners but this extra force means more resistant force from the track stressing the tires and more than normal mishaan of course knew that this wasn't the straw that broke the camel's back no what it actually happened between the 2004 and 2005 Grand Prix is the track had been resurfaced and as part of that resurfacing the track had been diamond ground smooth diamond grinding is quite a common practice on roads though less so in Britain the practice actually used to make tarmac safer and more predictable tarmac or asphalt is a bunch of tiny stones mixed into a syrupy tar that's poured out onto the track to form the track surface all the mixture of stones called aggregate conform a sort of random bumpy texture thus creating an element of unpredictability in the surface diamond grinding is a process by which a vehicle with big old diamond edge blades basically just shaves off a layer from the top resulting in an even surface at the same time this process carves grooved lines into the track longitudinally now the longitude Direction is with the direction of the circuit the lateral Direction is across the direction of the circuit diamond ground tracks give improved Riyad due to being so smooth in the direction of travel and can improve grating control and have the added effect of providing improved drainage channels in the event of wet weather in the lateral direction however you can see there is much increased macro texture of the surface a really obvious - thing in this direction this means that when turning the way the circuit resists time movement in the lateral direction can be much more acute grabbing the tyre with much more intensity it was this surface behavior that Michelin had not been able to anticipate through testing alone and what ultimately underprepared for if they raced there would likely be more tire failures and as Ralf Schumacher would attest you definitely do not want to fly into that concrete wall at hundreds of kilometres an hour in fact there are plenty of American oval racers that will back that up so it now came down to compromises pretty much all of the teams were keen to find a way to race even if it meant Michelin teams scoring no points the goal here is to be able to put on the show fans had come and paid to see the FIA suggested that Michelin teams just drive slowly through turn 13 this idea was rejected by the teams as having cars running at significant speed differences through the banking was potentially disastrous you don't want cars launching off the back of other cars as an oval track the FIA also suggested using an entirely different spec of tire which wasn't possible and for teams to just change tires every few laps which would have been allowed in this case though shipping that volume of tires out at a day's notice was logistically not very possible Michelin and the teams came up with what they thought was a better solution install a chicane turned 13 to force cars to slow down and allow the tires to survive they did so suggesting that Michelin teams themselves not be allowed to score points or even that the Bridgestone teams be allowed to skip the chicane entirely the FIA rejected this one they thought this was grossly unfair to the Bridgestone teams who had turned up with the correct equipment and to the FAA ran by strict safety rules and would not permit any extra corners to the circuit that have not gone through a thorough inspection and testing process that all Grand Prix circuit changes must go through furthermore the FIA said that if teams or circuit owners even tried to change the circuit anyway the FIA would withdraw all of their staff from the event making it a completely unsanctioned affair the FIA would not be held liable for any accidents that come from circuit tampering it was at this point that the teams and circuit officials actually started to come up with a plan to go through with a chicane idea knowingly afraid would withdraw they started working on how their own staff could take on the equivalent FIA roles in order to run a non championship race for one day only the FAA did not like this and Max Mosley the president at the time and a much more hands-on political figure than John taught is today said that if the Grand Prix went on without the FAA it would threaten all FIA sanctioned events in the USA at this point it was pretty much game over though negotiations continued right up to the start of the race including drivers pleading over the radio on the formation lap to be allowed to race the Michelin teams had to withdraw before lights out they returned to the pits too much fury from the fans in the stands afterwards Max Mosley had asked the team's why they simply did not run through the pits every single lap and this to me is a strange thing to say the pit lane is a very dangerous place during a normal session and having 14 cars running through every single lap some pitting some not strikes me as throwing safety to the wind after being hauled before the FIA the seven Michelin teams were initially found guilty of failing to turn up with suitable tires and wrongfully refusing to start the race though both charges were overturned after the team's reminded the FIA that the great state of Indiana would rightfully go after them on manslaughter charges if they'd started the race and the worst that happened overall it was a very messy weekend that left a bad taste in everyone's mouth no one looked good though he had actually been a monumental effort from teams working together and accepting great sacrifice to try and create a solution to go racing within a couple of years Michelin and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway had withdrawn from Formula One the one set of tires per race rule was dropped at the end of the year the very idea of competing tire manufacturers allowed in f1 has been left behind f1 is a different world now politically and technologically but the lessons learned in 2005 about both race preparedness and the spirit of competing teams putting aside their arms to work together for the good of the sport has not been forgotten you

Channel: Autosport

Views: 979,479

Rating: 4.8354726 out of 5

Keywords: Chain Bear F1, F1 Indianapolis, Indy 2005, US GP 2005, Indianapolis Michelin, Ralf Schumacher crash, Ralf Schumacher Indianapolis crash, 2005 United States Grand Prix, F1 six car race, Why did teams pull out of the 2005 US GP?

Id: fIjw5gI3rKE

Length: 9min 12sec (552 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 24 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/rubiklogic]

I really like the idea of 14 cars taking a chicane and 6 cars flying straight past it, I wonder what would have happened if the Jordan's and Minardis backed out as well. Why did the FIA think a makeshift chicane is unsafe but suggested drivers just slow down at the banked turn?

[u/SirGuySirOrKin]

I vividly remember that week-end in my mind as well as Monteiro celebrating on the podium

[u/M1L3N]

I was there in 2004 and Ralf's crashed car stopped RIGHT in front of where i was seated.

I remember that as loud as those V10s were flat out at that sector of the track, the sound that the crash made was even louder.

I can't believe drivers wanted to risk it the following year knowing their tyres might be compromised.

[u/zantkiller]

In hindsight they should have cancelled the race the moment it became clear a solution to allow all cars to compete was not available.

No race is much better than a 6 car farce.

[u/Chemoley]

The direction of loading on the tyres seems off? Should be opposite to centrifugal pull.

[u/kloiik]

FIA: We will not install a chicane for safety reasons.

Also FIA: Just drive slowly through the fastest corner of the track.

[u/Dude4001]

Ah, TIL exactly why McLaren allowed Kimi to keep going with that flatspot

[u/[deleted]]

...and just to add some salt to the wound, Trulli was on pole that day.

[u/the_vico]

I know USA is a kinda liberal state (in theory), but i wished so much the moment FIA said "all FIA-regulated motorsport in the US, would be under threat (if a non-championship race takes place)" the US Gov should step in and put those european crybabies in their place.

"ITS OUR CLIENTS YOUR SCUMBAGS, YOU ARE JUST SERVING AS FERRARI'S WHORE!! DONT EVEN DARE TO PUNISH US!"

Sorry, my opinion since i became aware of the political background of that race weeks after it.