I love the quasi-conversational tone of that "interview", except the questions were made up by the FIA. Max is a lying sack of ****. Yet, the FIA still did the right thing.
I also do not follow IRL or Nascar, well some times I look at the IRL standings and I watched the St Petersburg road corse, but I did hear about the tire issues on the speednews always looking for that 4 second F1 coverage they might through in from time to time. But I garantee I would have been paying attention to the news regarding Indy if I was the head of a vendor for F1 to race on the same track (even if it is only a portion of the same track) in the less than a month, doing your homework is just part of the job. I have seen tire manufactures collect marbles and take temperature readings and measure this and that during practice and testing. Also if I knew the competition has a sister company running at the track just 3 weeks prior to a championship race, I think it would only help to pay a little attention and the very least bring the safer tire just in case. If they both fail then so be it, but without them both there you are really setting yourself up to fail.
Bridgestone at fault? Ferrari at fault? FIA is at fault? I dont want to start an arguement, but the very act of saying that is childish, and IMO anyone who would say it has never had children. Kids show up to play softball, and the other team has better gloves, or better bats, but they are "approved" gloves or bats. Do the kids with poorer equipment get to walk off the field and blame the other guys? You show up to play, YOU PLAY! They practiced on the track the way it was, they qualified on the track the way it was, then at the last minute, when they feel they will lose, they want the track altered? Why not just run the race on thier crappy tyres and take thier lumps? No, Blame Ferrari for showing up ready to race, and find some idiot fans to agree its Ferraris fault. I have never been able to make it to a GP, and if and when I do, it will be a big deal. The thought of being ripped off by an event simular to this has me extremely angry, but the thought that some people out there can twist it around into Ferraris fault makes me sick. Why the hell have a rule book if no one wants to follow it. Or dont your kids follow rules either?
My $0.02 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What a crazy race. I did not mind seeing Ferrari 1&2. I did'nt see the start of the race. I was wondering for a while what the heck was going on. Now of course after the race and reading many threads on the subject I think the following. 1. I find it hard to believe that any team in F1 could come to a race unprepaired like that. Its not like they have never been there before. How could a tire company like that not have the right stuff coming to any F1 race. Its not like thier some fly-by night tire co. Unbelieveable. There must be something else going on here. 2. The teams who pulled out should be ashamed. These are F1 drivers, supposively the best in the world. Should they have quit if thier motor was not fast enough? How about if thier handleing package was not as good as the other teams? Should they have quit then too? Of course safety is paramount in any racing series. But These are Professional drivers, mechanics, engineers. They could have changed tire pressure, changed the set up on the car, they are the best teams in the word (so we were lead to believe). They had the time to come up with something that would work. Would they have been the fastest on that day? Maybe not. But thats racing. Give 110% on that day with what you have and go on to the next race. 3. I lost a lot of respect for those teams and drivers. How pathetic. Acting like a bunch of spoiled little brats, taking thier toys home and not playing because thier's wer'nt the best on that day and they may not win. Then trying to mask the whole thing by saying thier cars were not safe. BS..they could have made them safe. Maybe not the fastest that day, but safe. 4. BIG Hats off to F1 for sticking to the rules against overwelming pressure from all sides. That took guts. I don't care what anyone says. And Bravo to the teams that came to race and did. That could not have been easy to step up and soldiered on despite pressure from the other teams to be QUITTERS too. 5. I still love F1 & Ferrari. That race was truely historical. Not how I hoped it would be. But what the heck, just when you think you've seen it all...... 6. Sorry, maybe this was more that $0.02 worth. Kurt There is nothing like a Ferrari, there never has been and never will be!
It is entirely the fault of the teams and of their tire supplier, Michelin. I would only like to add that this certainly heightens my respect for John Todt and the whole Ferrari Team. I didnt see them crying when they were having tire problems and by the way I didnt see any of the Michelin teams wanting to change any of the race parameters for the Bridgestone teams or did I miss that?! I a mean after all this is a COMPETITIVE event! If you arent ready you have NO ONE to blame but yourself! All the other teams should take a lesson for the sportsmanship and professionalism that Ferrari has demonstrated.
