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The 2005 United States Grand Prix at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway held a lot of promise earlier this week. Kimi Raikkonen appeared to be getting better and better, providing good competition for championship points leader Fernando Alonso. Ferrari looked like they could be getting a bit better than their early season performance, and BAR Honda were trying to dig themselves out of the hole they dug by getting disqualified and banned from two races early in the season.

Friday’s practice session saw Ricardo Zonta, Toyota’s Friday test driver, lose a tire on a rather innocent-looking corner. Shortly after that, his teammate Ralf Schumacher lost a tire on the infamous Turn 13, spinning him into the wall in a fashion eerily reminiscient of his crash last year that fractured bones in his back and put him on the sidelines for six races. Toyota’s chief race engineer Dieter Gass said, “On both occasions we had no early indication from the tyre pressure sensors so it was a fast deflation. We don’t know the reason why at the moment, so we will now set about analysing the data to understand exactly what happened.”

Michelin, the tire supplier for Toyota and six other teams on the grid, worked through the night to try to figure out what went wrong. The early rumours were that the teams were running with low pressure in their tires to try to get more grip for the twisty infield section. The problem with this is that when they hit Turn 13, a high-speed banked corner that’s unseen elsewhere in Formula One, the low tire pressure combined with the high speed combined with the lateral force applied to the tires meant that the rear tires were actually shifting such that the sidewalls were coming into contact with the pavement. Since sidewalls aren’t meant to do this, the tires fail in rather dramatic fashion.

Another rumour was that the teams hadn’t come to grips with the ride height of the cars and were bottoming out, thus giving less friction and grip to the rear tires, causing them to let go.

Michelin’s work through Friday and Saturday showed that there was definitely a problem with the tires and that they couldn’t fix them in time. They thus recommended to the seven Michelin-shod teams that they not race.

The teams met with the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the governing body of Formula One, to try to come up with a solution. A chicane at the entrance of Turn 13 was suggested by the Michelin teams. This would cause the cars to slow down before entering the corner, thus minimizing or eliminating the risk of tire failure. Two of the Bridgestone-shod teams, Jordan and Minardi, agreed to this.

However, Ferrari and the FIA did not agree, and the track remained unchanged.

There was a lot of chaos and confusion before the cars lined up to take the grid, but all twenty lined up and did a formation lap.

Nearly. The Michelin cars did not complete the lap, pulling directly into the pits and shutting off the engines before the race started. Michael Schumacher went on to a hollow victory, followed by his teammate Rubens Barrichello and Jordan driver Tiago Monteiro.

Fans were understandably upset. Very upset. Fucking well right pissed off might come close. Extra police were called in to protect the racetrack and facilities. Red Bull engineers said they were going to have a post-race party in downtown Indianapolis that they now say they’re afraid to go to. Michael Schumacher said he smelled beer on the track from all of the thrown bottles and cans.

It’s a travesty, a sham, a complete mockery of the sport. The FIA really shit the bed this time with their rigid adherence to rules and regulations. Michelin had no choice but to recommend the teams not race; had they not they would have been held liable had any accident involving their tires occurred. The teams could not race as they would have been in the same situation as Michelin. The drivers really got caught in the middle, they had no choice but to pit as well, even though a number of them said they wanted to race. David Coulthard radioed to his pits during the formation lap that he wanted to race, and Mark Webber said in interview during the race that he wanted to race as well.

The FIA really should have allowed the modification of the track to slow the cars before Turn 13. Instead they suggested that the Michelin teams slow down going around that corner and come in to change tires every ten laps. These suggestions clearly show that the FIA had their heads full up their asses and that they don’t understand racing in the slightest. They didn’t just shoot themselves in the foot, they done blown their whole leg off.

And the FIA has severely crippled their chances of ever getting Formula One to catch on in any sort of way in the United States. Everything was looking promising — the attendance at Indy this year was the highest ever. Scott Speed was the first American since Michael Andretti to drive an F1 car during a weekend. There were rumours that Danica Patrick might be interested in trying to get an F1 drive. The season was interesting, with legitimate competition and a battle for both championship points races.

Indy was supposed to be the pinnacle in F1’s American presence. Instead they put out a race with six cars, four of which are perennial moving chicanes. Instead they piss off fans in America and around the world quicker than you can say “Max Mosley is a fucking moron.” I would be shocked to see Formula One back at Indianapolis next year, no matter what the contractual obligations say. If this is how the FIA thinks it can gain fans in the largest consumer market in the world, I would really like to see how they might go about driving fans away.

Formula One. It used to be easy to be a fan, but now it’s really really hard.