Nascar Talk At Hungaroring
It is not often that we hear a lot of vital talk about Nascar in the Formula 1 paddock, especially in a place as remotely connected to it as at the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring outside Budapest, where the race takes place this weekend.
But after last weekend's Brickyard 500 was destroyed by problems with Goodyear Tires, people in the F1 paddock are beginning to see the seminal U.S. Grand Prix of 2005 in a different light. It would appear that what happened at the Brickyard last weekend was exactly the same thing that happened in 2005 with the Michelin tires and that led to only six cars racing in the F1 race. The track had been recently ground down and the tires suffered and burst.
But the key difference between what happened in F1 and what happened in Nascar was that Nascar did all it could to provide at least a bit of a race for the fans. It ran caution flags every 15 laps, then every nine laps. In F1 the teams could not agree to run a race with a chicane or some other safety precaution - after all, there were two tire producers and this was a golden opportunity for one of them to win a race....at the expense of the fans. Still, Nascar fans are now angry the F1 fans were, and Nascar has apologized. Fortunately, it did not blame the tire manufacturer as was done in Formula 1. Lots of lessons to be learned from Formula 1 here - if Formula 1 has the power to learn.
Comments
Brad, it was Michelin tyres which had problems in Indianapolis in 2005 and not Bridgestone. The fact that only three teams were using Bridgestones that year made the “race” of six cars even more silly. But the silliest thing of all was that none of all those extremely smart F1 guys were able to find a better solution of that situation. Sad.
Thanks for drawing that to my attention, Bojan. Of course I know that fact as well as anyone – having written about it so often. My brain is obviously being washed by the presence of only Bridgestone in F1 now – as a partial result of that event in the U.S. in 2005…if not a direct result. Anyway, I’ve changed the post to say Michelin. Thanks again.