U.S. Grand Prix Lives

Even the most casual race fan must be aware of what happened at this year’s U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis, when 14 cars withdrew because of a problem with their Michelin tires that left their cars unsafe to race and Grand Prix and FIA officials failed to find a solution that would allow the race to run.  The resultant mess was a “race” run with only six cars, the four perennial back markers from Jordon and Minardi and the once unbeatable team from Ferrari, all shod with Bridgestone tires. 

Fans started to leave the track before the first lap was half completed and many vowed to never to return.  Fingers were pointed at everyone from Michelin to Max Mosley to Bernie Ecclestone to Tony George to the FIA to the guy who sold the popcorn.  In the end, the fans were the biggest losers and many thought that Formula One could never recover in the United States and that there probably would never even be another race at Indy.

Well, a lot has happened since June 19th.  Michelin has decided to pay for refunds for every fan holding a ticket that day, and in fact, those have just arrived as I write this, since I was one of the people there on that historic day.  In addition, Michelin has stated that it would purchase 20,000 tickets to next year’s race, should there be one.  The distribution method for those tickets is quite unclear, as far as anything that I have read to date. 

Before I go further, let’s run though a brief history of the Indy race.  Back in the late 1990s, Tony George apparently thought that his Indianapolis Speedway was being shall we say, a little under utilized, with only the Indy 500 and more recently, the Brickyard 400 to show for itself.  So he must have woken up one day and said to himself, “How about if we could attract Formula One back to the United States?”  I guess that led to many negotiation sessions with Bernie Ecclestone and many millions of dollars spent to put a road course in the infield and a new pit lane into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The inaugural race in 2000 was a terrific spectacle.  I can remember that on our connecting flight from Philadelphia, almost everyone on the plane was going to the race and many were part of the tremendous international audience that came for the race.  There were Mika fans with there faces decorated like the Finnish flag, there were Japanese fans, with groups of women dressed in kimonos, there were Canadian flags in abundance for Jacques Villeneuve, Brazilian flags for Rubens Barrichello and German and Ferrari flags were everywhere for Michael Schumacher.  I would say that BMW Williams had the second largest fan base, but it was a distant second to the sea of red that Ferrari brought; many of whom were not from the U.S.  It was the best attended race on the whole F1 circuit that year and it was only the first race.  This was bound to build into something huge, right?  Michael beat Rubens to the checkered and the BMWs didn’t even finish, but we had a great time.

The 2001 race was only two weeks after the tragedy of 9/11.  It was not even sure if the race would take place.  It was unclear if the teams would even be able to get the whole show successfully brought to U.S. soil.  In the end, the race went on and it was special in its own way.  That year, the most prevalent flag in the stands was the American flag and even the foreign flags had American flags on the same pole.  There was also a completely new fan base, the Colombians who had come to cheer for BMW Williams newcomer Juan Pablo Montoya.  Hakkinen’s McLaren beat Schumacher’s Ferrari while neither BMW finished again.  Attendance was down, but what could you expect in the aftermath of 9/11.

Surprisingly, attendance seemed in a further decline in 2002 and that was the year that Ferrari staged the controversial pass when Rubens was allowed past Michael as Michael almost stopped on the front straight to let him through.  That caused a real furor among the fans, but that was nothing compared to what would happen three years later.  Many vowed never to come back after the seemingly “fixed” race.   Montoya managed Williams first ever finish at Indy coming in fourth, but Ralf failed to finish after being taken out by Montoya in the first turn.

Many of the fans who had threatened to stay away apparently kept their word as attendance was down further in 2003 as Michael again won the race.  The only fan base that was growing was the very boisterous Colombians.  The Europeans were not present in any numbers, nor were there any other nations represented in any great numbers.  Montoya again managed to parlay his third grid spot to a sixth place finish while Ralf again failed to finish.

By now, attendance was in such a decline that the following year they did not even open many of the grandstands that had been full only a few years before.  The race had been moved from September to June in an attempt to make it easier on the teams by pairing it with the race in Canada to eliminate one trip across the big pond.  It was also thought that many fans might package the two races and travel from far away place and attend both races one week apart.  The 2004 winner was once again Michael Schumacher and Barrichello was second as Ferrari continued its dominance of the race.  Ralf had a huge incident that kept his DNF record intact and put him out of the car for the next six races.  JP was disqualified after climbing as high as second in spite of his car’s failure to start from the grid.  He apparently missed getting into the backup car by a few seconds past the allowable time to do so. 

That brings us to 2005 and the F1asco outlined above.  Attendance, already the poorest of the six years, they managed to turn off most of the few remaining fans who were coming to the race.  Many felt that the race was already in ill health; well now it would need life support. 

So what kind of a plan did the FIA come up with to get the race back on sound ground?  Well, aside from the refunds and the 20,000 tickets purchased by Michelin they’re going to try something else.  They are moving the date again, this time to July 2nd.  Widely known as a time frame on the American calendar when everyone is sitting home looking for something to do, as there is never anything else happening around the 4th of July, this should be a huge help with attendance.  Gas prices already at record highs, always climb in honor of our nation’s independence, so that has got to help and of course, there’s never any traffic on a holiday weekend, so getting to the race shouldn’t be a problem.  I’m sure airlines and hotels will be lowering their rates for the holiday, so who could ask for a better time to put on a race already suffering from declining attendance and trying to do everything they can to shoot themselves in the foot.

I would say that I am an F1 fan, but certainly not a fanatic.  I have been to a half dozen or so F1 races at Watkins Glen in the good old days.  I attended one F1 race in Long Beach and have been to all six Indy races plus several Montreal Grands Prix across the border.  I invested in an overpriced Williams crew-style shirt for Sheila and me to wear to the races, which will now be sent to the back of the closet.  I’ve been known to get up at odd hours to watch coverage on Speed TV and I check Internet sites for info. 

However, there are more devoted fans than I.  I have learned something this year though.  I have often heard of the F1 show referred to as the F1 circus.  I always thought that that was because of all the equipment and people that had to travel together from place to place to put on the show.  However, this year, I have come to realize that it is because they are so heavily influenced by a bunch of clowns.

Bob Morin