Questioning the Michelin Man's manhood

The folks at Michelin Tires are in some serious damage control this week after Sunday's farcial F1 race in Indianapolis. With 14 of the 20 cars scheduled to race pulling out due to concerns over the safety aspects of their Michelin tires the folks at Michelin are receiving more than their fair share of flak.

The mess in Indianapolis has everyone talking F1 but not in glowing terms from racing fans to bookmakers F1 became a dirty word on Sunday.

F1 which calls itself the dominant autoracing circuit in the world has been trying to make inroads in race mad America for years. However, the folks in the US prefer their racing to be of the Nascar variety with the occasional foray into the Indyracing and Champ car circuits, F1 is considered to be that European thing and generally doesn't gain much attention below the 49th.

Sunday's joke of a race didn't do much to improve that image. With race time drawing near all the cars took to the track for their customary warm up lap, however the backroom deal brokering and political chicanery set the stage for a dramatic pull off just prior to race time. With no compromise reached off the course, the scene was set for a black eye for the F1 way of racing.

As the cars lined up for the start, one by one the Michelin equipped pulled into pit row and parked their cars, leaving only six cars on the grid all featuring Bridgestone tires left to race. Needless to say the crowd at Indy were less than impressed and let the organizers know of their displeasure.

Michelin having watched two cars spin out of control on one section of the track in practice runs, decided that the set up was not safe and caused undue and unexplained pressure on their tires. Their recommendation was to change the course or park the cars. The organizers noted that the Bridgestone cars had not had a problem and thus the course would not be changed. With that the Michelin tires were put back on the tire rack, the cars packed up into their trailers and a farce of a race was left to run with only six cars.

The F1 organizers have summoned the Michelin teams to a meeting to explain their decision and assess the damage done to the F1 brand. With lawsuits about to be launched and suggestions that the F1 program just skip America from now on there will be a lot to talk about.

All day Monday the jokes poured in about car tires incapable of doing the job, the virility of a deflated Michelin Man, a Michelin man running away with his tires and other less than flattering portraits of the pride of France. Americans already suspicious of the French anyways will no doubt put this down as another mark against a former dependable allie.

More importantly for Michelin, sales projections for America are probably going to be rather flat over the next little while. While your average automobile driver isn't making turns at F1 speeds and being safety conscious as Michelin was is not a bad thing, bad press is bad press and Michelin just received a bumper crop of bad press.