Michael Schumacher Wins Ridiculous 2005 United States GP

At first glance you could be forgiven for thinking that this year’s United States Grand Prix was a flashback to Ferrari’s glory days of seasons past… Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello led the race from start to 1-2 finish and their only serious challenge was from each other. At one point this challenge was a little too serious as Barrichello ran off the track while trying to retain his lead when Schumacher pulled out of pit lane slightly in front of him.

Looking further down the list of finishers you would be suprised to see that Tiago Monteiro finished third, scoring the first podium ever for a Portuguese driver and the first for Jordan in a long time. You would probably be astonished to see that his teammate Narain Karthikeyan was fourth and that the Minardi’s of Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher made up the top six finishers.

And that is where the story falls apart… the good news is that, for only the second time in the history of Formula 1, all the starters finished the race. The bad news is that only six cars started the race!

Following a heavy crash into the wall by Ralf Schumacher and a spin by Takuma Sato during qualifying Michelin decided that their tyres were not up to the stresses that the banked Indianapolis Turn 13 put on them and that it would not be safe to race.

Michelin asked for a chicane to be added to the corner to slow the field and the FIA refused saying that it would not be safe or fair to the other competitors to change the track at the last minute just to help those teams that had brought the wrong equipment.

Michelin asked if their teams could use some alternate tyres that they flew in from Paris and the FIA agreed but said that they might be subject to penalties for using more than one set of tyres. In the end it was a moot point as Michelin found the same problem in those tyres and withdrew them.

Half an hour before the start of the race no one was sure what was going to happen but then it looked like everything might be OK when all of the teams lined up on the starting grid. But after running their formation lap–aparently to fulfil their legal obligations to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway–all of the Michelin shod cars pulled straight into the pits and withdrew from the race leaving just the six cars using Bridgestone tyres to start the race.

Not surprisingly the fans at the track and around the world were dismayed by this farce and many left the track or switched off their TV’s rather than watch the Bridgestone tyre test which followed. Unfortunately, some of the less intelligent fans at Indy showed their displeasure by throwing bottles and cans onto the track and endangering the few drivers that were still competing but luckily no one was hurt as a result of this loutish behaviour.

The post-race podium ceremony was a subdued affair with fans booing Schumacher, Barrichello and, most of all, Formula 1 but at least Monteiro managed to celebrate a little and spill some champagne on his first F1 podium appearance.

American F1 fans, while relatively few in number, are a loyal bunch and so it remains to be seen how much long-term damage this will do to the sport but it certainly left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth at the time.

Complete GP of United States results.