If you haven't heard what happened in yesterday's United States Grand Prix, in Forumla One Auto Racing, I can't blame you. Formula One is mostly a European sport -- American's love their Nascar.

What happened is that, out of 20 cars scheduled to race, only 6 started. And so, the lamest race in automotive history took place at the Indy track, with Ferrari easily beating out the other two much weaker teams (Jordan and Minardi) for the so-called “win“.

Why this happened is fairly clear.

• There was a couple of accidents in practice, one serious
• It turns out the tires take some of the blame for these accidents
• Michelin, tire supplier to 14 out of the 20 drivers, warns the teams that it is not 100% sure the tires are safe
• The teams then ask for an exemption to the silly “one tire“ rule so that they can change the tires on their car to a safer type. That is rejected.
• The tires are failing because drivers are driving too fast through a tight turn - the tires can't take the pressure. So the teams ask for a slight change to the course to slow down cars through that turn. In fact, they offer to give up all the “points“ for winning to the teams that run on Bridgestone. (Essentially, they offered to play a competitive game for the fans, but concede the part that matters - the points.) This idea is also rejected.
• And so, left with no compromise, the 14 drivers are ordered by their owners into the pits at the start of the race, and F1 fans (particular the American fans watching live) are cheated out of a real competition
• The only two fast cars in the race, the two Ferraris, refused to pass each other (a practice called “team orders“)

It would seem to me, a fan of F1, that Formula One governing body (FIA) has an obligation to protect the sport from embarassments such as this. To go into a race knowing that the majority of drivers will pull out, and let it happen, is the real problem here.

I think everybody involved, including Michelin, is admitting that the tires were the original problem. But there was plenty of time to fix it, and lots of ideas on how to fix it. But they couldn't agree, and so the race went ahead. The race should have been cancelled, delayed, whatever.

I see this sometimes at work. Someone makes a mistake, but then instead of everyone rallying around and fixing the problem, people proudly announce “It's not my problem, I'm not going to do anything to fix it.” There's the crime of the original shooting. And then the crime of not calling the police while a person slowly dies out on the sidewalk. Michelin admitted to it's fault. Why doesn't Formula One admit it screwed up as well.

Anyways, what's done is done. Formula One looks dead at Indy. And it might take a few years to return to the United States. In fact, this might cause a rift that causes many teams to break away from F1 and form their own league. Man oh man. The implications of this farce are long reaching, unless the parties involved can kiss and make up quickly.