Watching the USA Formula 1 race on TV. Watching Dougal on the Magic Roundabout would be more interesting than this race.

What a total f*** up. This will be in the press for a long time.

I agree.  An utter farce.  Michelin deserve to suffer massively.

I find it ironic that I jumped on the Triumph yesterday and rode down to the Speedway, paid $20 to get in (and sit anywhere), parked my bike inside the track for free, saw 1 hour of qualifying and buggered off back home and yet saw considerably more than 300,000 did today.

I think back to the times I've dropped $10K in suite tickets for the weekend at previous F1s - I would have been considerably pissed if I'd done that this year.  Needless to say the mood here in Indy is not good.

Keep your wig on Jem - nobody said the world revolves around the US (even though it does) - and I'm English.
What I said was that the US isthe largest and most receptive consumer of motorsport and that is undeniable. For F1 to screw up in such a spectacular fashion whilst trying it's hardest to sell it to the North American market is ridiculous. Your snipe at NASCAR is unneccessary and not in the slightest bit relevant.
Check out the class victors at Le Mans this year LMP1. GT1, GT2 - American teams at the pinnacle of the sport, so get real.
I stand by my comments, Formula One (or Formula None, as it is now referred to here) is finished here - it's over. That might not bother you Jem, but I suspect that Bernie and his sponsors might be a little pissed-off about it.  

I'm just rather glad that I spent my spectating money on Le Mans as usual.   I still love it that around half the cost of an F1 Silverstone ticket gets you an entire fortnight's build-up, 8 hrs of qualifying, an hours free practice, and a 24 hour race, complete with 50 cars on the grid.   I hear that Autosport coverage on Le Mans in this week's edition will run to 10 pages plus a few other bits - should make a nice read, particularly compared to the F1 report which, given that there were all of 6 cars "racing", will probably be offset reporting of the FIA/Bernie/teams political bo**oxing around.  

Remember that it was Michelin and Mercedes between them who, unable to determine the cause of the high-speed tyre failure on the Sauber Mercedes down the Mulsanne in practice for the 1989 race led to the immediate withdrawal of the Mercedes team from the race.   What would Bernie et al rather Michelin had done in the circumstances?   Said nothing and watch a bundle of cars have serious accidents?   Just seems a shame that, with solutions to hand of insering a chicane, or running different rubber, they chose the route that they did and understandably pi**ed off all US and many other race fans.  

And as for any one who thinks that the 500-mile oval races are a breeze, find out more about the technology, the strategy, the circuits (which aren't truly geometric ovals).   Think on - there's plenty of skill there - it's just a bit different from other forms of the sport.

Yes it is Jeff - I don't like that either, having been the victim of 2 rain-out's at Indianapolis. The mitigating factor is the concrete wall of course (i.e. there are no run-offs or gravel traps on a banked track)
I'm not sure what would have happened for the GP, had it rained.
Another question springs to mind. Everyone (Michelin included) knew Indy was in the F1 calendar - why did they wait until the day of the race to decide that they could not guarantee the safety of their race tyre at the speeds attained in qualifying, going through turn # 1?
Academic anyway now, I guess.

It was a shambles, but putting aside that they should never have been in that position, what else could they do?

I heard that Ferrari said they wouldn't run with a chicane (later that was contradicted so I don't know which was right) - why should they, when they had bothered to do their homework?

No-one could reasonably expect cars with a known safety hazard to go out and race.

If they'd gone out in an exhibition style then they would have been slated too.

I hope heads roll at Michelin. The guy on 5 Live was saying that he expected F1 to go to a single tyre manufacturer as a result. (Err...that could have meant NO cars going out!)

Correct, it was a no win situation (as far as I understood it on radio on my way back from LM ). Still, as mentioned before, a) Indy isn't a F1 circuit and if they want to race there then they have to get it right in the first place and b) if they don't get it right then refund the tickets and confess (and maybe even blame it on the circuit for not being F1 compliant, which of course would open another discussion). This was a lame and unprofessional way of dealing with that matter. I still hope heads will roll. Michelin did very well at LM btw.