Tomorrow will be a big day. All the 7 F1 teams who didn't race in the USGP will be at the disciplinary hearing in Paris. The court will hear their side of the story first before imposing any penalties. Aku sangat lah berdebar-debar to know what the penalties are going to be.

Truthfully, I don't know what to think regarding the race. No doubt it was damned disappointing, even more so to avid fans of F1 like me, and the people who went to Indy. I was there for god's sake. It is definitely the saddest day for F1 in recent history. Yang aku tak puas hati, the fact that Michelin didn't want to take the blame, that's what I read from F1-live.com. It pisses me off like crazy. Clearly they were at fault, if it weren't for their tyres, none of this would've happened. They reported today that the problem was that their rear tyres could not withstand the pressure when the cars go into the banked turn 13, the last turn before the straight depan grandstand. Terang2 they didn't do enough research or testing or simulation or whatever, or maybe they didn't develop the tyres to compensate for the worst case scenario regarding that particular turn. Bridgestone did fine, why can't they? Stupid. This year is the 6th time that F1 races in Indy. They did fine previously, why can't this year? Maybe because the one set of tyre rule threw them off. I don't know. Okay so I accept that engineers do make mistakes. Put aside their tyre problem, but why the fucking hell can't they admit that this whole chaos was their fault? Goddammit I am so mad with Michelin. I swear I'm never going to use Michelin tyres ever.. furthermore tayar Michelin mahal pun haha.

Many F1 personnels from various teams blame Max Mosley because he wouldn't accept any of their proposals before the race. I stand by Mosley in this matter because he was adamant not to bend the rules just because Michelin didn't do their homework.

One of the proposals was, adding a new chicane at turn 13 to slow down the cars coming into that corner. Menurut Jean Todt and Ron Dennis, the chicane could be dangerous because the chicane will not be tested coming into the race. What if it imposes more danger? A valid reason I would say. Mosley did propose that Michelin cars should limit their speed at the maximum allowed for safety reasons (taking into account the tyre factor) coming into corner 13, but the 7 teams didn't want to do that unless Bridgestone cars do the same. Bodoh. They should accept the consequences of their own actions. why should Bridgestone cars do that when their tyres are capable to go into that turn with whatever speed they want?


I am not sure why the 7 teams didn't want to accept Mosley's proposal of using the pitlane (which comes right before turn 13) for each lap. But I guess that's okay because then it wouldn't be race that I want to watch as well. One thing they could do was just race with the uncapable tyres.. and whenever it seemed like the tyres could bring the cars' safety into question, just bring them in and change the tyres la.. THAT would be an interesting race. I don't know how dangerous it would be, but it was worth the try. If things don't go well, barulah decide untuk retire. Understandable lah camtu.

People who follow the politics in F1 surely knows the rift between Paul Stoddard and Max Mosley. I don't want to go into details here but I've been on Stoddard's side in most cases. But after I read Stoddard's personal accounts of his weekend at the USGP, I have to say that I don't agree with him. He blames Mosley for what happened, saying that Mosley should've approved of their many proposals so that the race could've go on. In other words, he meant that under the circumstances concerning the Michelin tyres, some standard rules could've been broken so that the fans got what they wanted. As far as I understand his concern to prioritize the fans, I don't approve of bending the rules (dari segi sports lah, lain2 hal dalam kehidupan seharian lain cerita). So I am a little confused here. All this while I don't really like Mosley's ways of handling the FIA, but in this case, he has done a good job in my pov. But then again, if he did bend the rules, all the thousands/millions of F1 fans wouldn't be pissed at all, the outcome could've been great (kira the race could have been carried out as usual, yg benefit fans jugak). So eventhough I applaud Mosley's effort to keep things fair, it did ruin the race. Hey I am not blaming Mosley at all here, I'm still sticking both my middle fingers to Michelin. I'm just saying the what ifs.

So in all honesty, I don't know what to think. But no doubt aku memang sedih la.. watching the race on tv was definitely not the same at all with actually being at the race. When I saw on the screen all the cars went into the pit and only 6 cars were left on the grid after the formation left.. I was numb.. shocked.. appalled.. sad.. amused.. all together. I didn't even know how to react actually. Before going to Indy, I was watching the news (kat Purdue), so I was well aware of the still on going Michelin tyre problems. However I didn't really think much of it because I was so sure that everything wil be sorted out by race time. I was that confident. The fact that only 6 cars would race sounded so ridiculous I ruled out the possibility of that ever happening. But unfortunately, it did.

After 5 laps or so I was still hoping for a sudden miracle that the Michelin cars would come out from the pit and continue the race albeit being behind by a few laps, 7th and 8th place were still up for grabs and who knows if any of the 6 starters would crash or retire or have mechanical problems etc. And then.. it was 10 laps.. then 20.. then 30.. and all hope was gone, replaced by anger and frustration. In the middle of the race, the screen showed Jenson Button walking in the pit lane carrying a board with the words "Restart the race" on it. I still had hope then. For the first time ever, I've finally secured good seats in an F1 race. We were seating at the corners 5,6 and 7 stand, we could see the cars coming into turn 1 through turn 4.. we had a screen right in front of us, and very loud speakers. the weather was perfect, it wasn't blazingly hot, clouds would come and go but it was definitely not going to rain, angin pun bertiup2 like 5mph.. it was the perfect setting.. and all of it was wasted.

people were mad i tell you. a number of the people went berambus from the race right away. however, most of the fans actually stayed until the end of the race. the stands were still full of reds(ferrari) and blue(renault). i admit that i was a little terharu that many people still stayed eventhough it was only a farce race.. it was a confirmed one-two finish for the ferraris.. and a question of whether the minardis and jordans have enough reliability to finish the 73 lap race. they did. well, they didn't have to push the car to the limit anyway.

the IMS (indy motor speedway) purportedly spent 13.5 million dollars to stage this event. tak pasal2 they lost their revenues. Bernie Ecclestone has been working hard for the past 5 years to break F1 into America. All that effort has gone down the hole. What a disaster. yg lawaknya, some people blamed Bernie for what happened. haha that was really funny.. he is just the commercial rights holder la.. he wasn't even authorized to make any decisions. anyway, Everyone here knows how important consumer satisfaction is in the States, it's in whole new level by itself, nowhere else can compare, not even close, i think. i am still waiting for the reimbursement. Michelin issued a statement today that they would contribute in reimbursing the fans. good for them, eventhough they don't really have to do that. I think the 7 teams should contribute too. maybe IMS should give free tickets for next year to people who went to the race this year. if they do that, too bad i wouldn't be able to benefit from it since I'll be back in malaysia by next year's race.

papehal, i am anxious to know what kind of penalties will be imposed on the 7 teams. I hope it is severe (maybe pay fines yg amat tinggi), but not so severe that it will affect the outcome of this year's championship. deducting constructor's or driver's points must NOT happen. that wouldn't be fair. i'm not sure about race suspension.. even though it is a serves-you-right kind of penalty, but then tak nak laa aku tgk another 6 car race after this. tak sesuai la kalau itu penalty dia, we want to save F1 not destroy it. so papehal i hope the penalties are going to be reasonable enough, and not make us F1 fans mad and hurt anymore..

In the long run, I might even feel proud to say I was at the scene of the saddest day in F1 (not including the days when people died la, macam Ayrton Senna). But for now, shit lahhhhhh!!!

Let me say here that I was mad beyond words that night after the race, in addition to Pistons lost in Game 5. While I was being angry and emotional, Rina said to me "Relaks Kirah, it is only a sport". That really brought me back to my senses. Yeah.. it definitely is only a sport. Aku baru je tulis previously that "sometimes I hate myself for being too engrossed in worldly pleasures".. Sigh.. so Rina, thanks a lot for the reminder..

OMG panjang gila aku tulis pasal menatang USGP ni, just like i predicted.