Yep, Michelin did not do their homework in building a suitable
tire. However, besides the issue with Zonta spinning in the in-field with
his left side tire failure and Ralf being spun into the wall the only other
car that reportedly had an issue was Scott Speed in the Red Bull. While
Speed's tire did not "fail" the report was that whatever the problem with
the sidewall issue seen on the Toyota's showed up on a set of his tires too.
There were no reports that the other teams beside Toyota and Red Bull saw
any issues. I wonder if the issue was really how low the ride height that
Toyota and Red Bull were running their cars and if that revealed the
weakness in the tire? Renault, McLaren, Williams, Sauber and BAR were not
reported to have had this issue.
Last night on Wind Tunnel Peter Windsor commented that none of the tire
failure issues from Friday were seen on Saturday, albeit that the Michelin
Teams did not run any long stints (beyond 10 laps) that day. On Friday
during practice Matchett and Co. kept talking about how much wood smoke was
being blown out the rear diffusser's by some of the cars - notably Toyota
and Red Bull. When Ralf had his off into the wall just before he went for
the ride there was the tale-tale puff of yellow smoke from the legality
plank. I wonder if the issue was that if the car was "surfing" on the
plank by bottoming out if this caused the left rear tire to loose grip and
therefore slide "up hill". If so this might explain the tire reportedly
separating where the tread and the sidewall come together. It would also
help explain why the teams that did not have their cars set with a super
low ride height were not having this issue as well as why these tire
problems were not seen on Saturday as the teams that did have the tire
issue would have adjusted the ride height to ensure that the legality plank
did not get worn down to cause the cars to fail inspection.
Low ride height (although reportedly caused by decreased tire pressure from
following the pace car) is what is now blamed in the death of Senna in that
his car became a surf board on it's bottom and that is what caused it to
sail off the track too. His accident is what brought abot the installation
of the legality planks in the first place.
I have not read this theory about the Indy debacle anywhere else but it
seems to make sense to me. Especially in light of the reports that
Michelin had been unable to replicate the problem and therefore could not
tell the teams what to do to avoid the issue. Might explain also why
increasing the tire pressure per Michelin's recommendation would help too
since that would help mask a low ride height issue since the increased tire
pressure would act against the load that drove the cars into the track.
If this ends up being the answer to the problem remember you heard it here
first.
At 10:24 AM 6/20/2005, Joe Curry wrote:
>For everyone wondering what happened, see the news article at the
>following site.
>
>
>
>http://www.formula1.com/news/3209.html
>
>
>
>It contains a very coherent explanation of what the FIA's stance is on
>the tire situation that led to yesterday's debacle at Indy.
>
>
>
>Joe C.
>
>
>
>P.S. I fully agree with their stance.
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