INDIANAPOLIS, United States (AFP) - Officials of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, hallowed ground for US motor racing, were fuming after 14 of 20 cars pulled out of the US Formula One Grand Prix.
"Monumentally disappointed," said IMS president Joie Chitwood, who said he and Speedway chief excutive Tony George were shocked when the seven teams provided with Michelin tyres pulled out after the warm-up lap.
"I can tell you this, we feel as victimized as the fans do in what they witnessed today," Joie said.
Particularly infuriating to circuit officials, whose events include the famed was the fact that they had no input as to how the week's events unfolded once a practice crash alerted Michelin to the fact they had a problem.
Asked if the speedway would have been prepared to install the temporary chicane requested by Michelin and their teams in time for the race start, Joie said they were never even asked.
"That decision was out of our control," he said. "We were not privy to that."
Instead, the International Automobile Federation (FIA) rejected the request, which had the support of nine of Formula One's 10 teams.
Ferrari, suffering no problems with their Bridgestone tyres, declined to back the plan, and Michelin advised their teams not to race because they couldn't guarantee the safety of the tyres.
"We were aware that Michelin had submitted a letter to the FIA last night around 10pm," Chitwood said. "This morning there were rumors that something was going to occur. We were not aware of what was going to happen on the grid today."
Now left with thousands of disgruntled fans to deal with, Chitwood said IMS "will be seriously looking at our position on the response we give in the next couple of days as to what's appropriate for us to do."
That will include deciding not only whether to compensate fans, but also whether to seek financial redress themselves.
Chitwood said it was still too soon to talk of severing ties with Formula One, but he hinted that the speedway would want more say in future events.
"We'll be evaluating our position on what's going to happen in the future," he said.
Morons. I would be pissed too if I paided 100 a ticket to see only 6 cars race because of tire issues.
