WTF Michelin is refunding the tickets????

[wacki]

http://www.sportnetwork.net/main/s169/st75986.htm

By Phil Huff - June 28 2005

Just hours before the seven Michelin shod teams appear before the FIA's World Motor Sport Council, the French tyre manufacturer have taken the incredible step of refunding the fans at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

This means that every single visitor to the United States Grand Prix will be compensated for the cost of their tickets, although the offer stops short of covering all the costs that race goers faced.

Michelin will also purchase an additional 20,000 tickets for next years race at Indianapolis, handing them out to fans who visited the Grand Prix last week. A significant number of people will, therefore, end up visiting two Grands Prix without having to pay for their tickets.

In their statement, Michelin comment that "Michelin wishes to make a sincere gesture of goodwill towards the people present at the GP, a group whose passion for F1 is encouraging in the development of this sport in the United States.

"Michelin deeply regrets that the public was deprived of an exciting race and therefore wishes to be the first, among the different groups involved in the Indianapolis race, to make a strong gesture towards the spectators."

"It is the spirit of respect for the spectators that brought us, with our partners, to propose solutions to allow the race to take place in total safety. It is this same spirit that leads us today to make this gesture."

WTF happened to:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/800px-Blame_Mosley_banner.jpg


I don't get it.

[2planka]

There was a thread about this a couple days ago. It's a PR move. Michelin decided to take the lead on this, offer refunds, and make nice with the fans to refocus the vitriol on certain "other parties."

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
and make nice with the fans to refocus the vitriol on certain "other parties."

[/ QUOTE ]

Damn sorry about the repost. No mod in here though....

As for the PR move, well it worked. Next race I'm going to have a flag showing one stickman (Mosley) screwing another stickman (Michelin) in the pooper.

[Voltron87]

take that F1! ha! i wrote a sign! /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[FouTight]

I have no idea what any of this is... BUT, what is...

"Claomamma Buttalapasta" which is what it appears to say on the othe rside of the sign.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

As I pointed out in another thread, Michelin caused the problems (look into the facts). They risked that FIA sued the teams which could then sue Michelin and it would be a lot of negative PR. This is damage control.

[poker-penguin]

[ QUOTE ]
Next race I'm going to have a flag showing one stickman (Mosley) screwing another stickman (Michelin) in the pooper.

[/ QUOTE ]

A Michellin Stickman?

Or a stick Michellin man?

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
As I pointed out in another thread, Michelin caused the problems (look into the facts).

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree. I highly doubt this would of happened without the 1 tire rule. Mosley should be sued for creating unsafe racing conditions. He is risking the lives of the drivers to sell more tickets.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

Yeah, I might agree that the one-tire rule hasn't been a super success.

But, Michelin knew about it. They did a crappy job when preparing for this event. This is not rocket science. A group of MIT-graduates could have made a better job. Realizing this they backed down to not get blood on their fingers.

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
I have no idea what any of this is... BUT, what is...

[/ QUOTE ]

100,000+ people from around the world flew to indy for the race. Most of these were not from indiana, and a large % were from other companies. Mosley has a rule against allowing people to change tires. The rule is dangerous but it endangers the drivers lives. The race in Indy was boycotted because Michelin found a flaw in their tires and said the drivers shouldn't push it on one of the turns. Michelin had tires ready to be flown for indy but Mosley refused to let the drivers change their tires. So, all but 3 of the teams refused to race for safety reasons.

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
This is not rocket science.

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree. Getting a tire to go as fast as those cars go and last a long time is not an easy job.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

Finding the right compound is rocket science and indeed very difficult. Testing the compound vs which stresses it will encounter is easy, that's where they failed.

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
Testing the compound vs which stresses it will encounter is easy,

[/ QUOTE ]

I could not disagree with you more.

Mosley has rules against allowing you to test a tire. Also, it takes a lot of money to test these tires. Testing the tires and limiting the number of half a million engines you burn up per test is not easy at all.

[ QUOTE ]
that's where they failed.

[/ QUOTE ]

And it was Mosley's job to make sure a race happened. Tony George paid Mosley 15 million to make sure that happened. That is where Mosley failed.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

Whatever /images/graemlins/smile.gif. We won't agree. Enjoy your race next year!

[wacki]

"The tire companies have no difficulty making tires last. The difficult bit is making a fast tire last."

-Max Mosely

[Arnfinn Madsen]

[ QUOTE ]
"The tire companies have no difficulty making tires last. The difficult bit is making a fast tire last."

-Max Mosely


[/ QUOTE ]

To that I fully agree. Tires elsewhere is put under more pressure than on the Formula1 circuit.

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
Tires elsewhere is put under more pressure than on the Formula1 circuit.

[/ QUOTE ]

/images/graemlins/confused.gif

[Arnfinn Madsen]

-Airplanes when the tire hits the ground and have to change to the plane's speed.
-Motoracing-tires when they do the curves

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
-Airplanes when the tire hits the ground and have to change to the plane's speed.
-Motoracing-tires when they do the curves

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you trolling?

[Arnfinn Madsen]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
-Airplanes when the tire hits the ground and have to change to the plane's speed.
-Motoracing-tires when they do the curves

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you trolling?

[/ QUOTE ]

Just angry at Michelin for blaming others. Will quit now /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

[vulturesrow]

[ QUOTE ]
Airplanes when the tire hits the ground and have to change to the plane's speed.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a process which takes a matter of seconds at best. There is no way a tire on an airplane takes more abuse than one on an F1 car or a NASCAR car for that matter.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Airplanes when the tire hits the ground and have to change to the plane's speed.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a process which takes a matter of seconds at best. There is no way a tire on an airplane takes more abuse than one on an F1 car or a NASCAR car for that matter.

[/ QUOTE ]

Starting to feel like a troll for posting so many times in this thread but since you ask:

The tire at the airplane is also supposed to handle that stress a high amount of times and each single impact is higher.

Pr hour or pr day or whatever the total pressure it suffers is lower as you point out.

[vulturesrow]

An aircraft tire is essentially one dimensional. All it has to be able to do is withstand a quick moment of force, then essentially its work is done. A tire on a race car has to withstand a wide range of forces along with the requirement that it be operated in long periods of time.

And you can pass the troll status off to me since I picked on your airplane statement /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[wacki]

thanks for the backup vulturesrow.

btw... as normal my multitasking has caused typos:

[ QUOTE ]
Testing the tires and limiting the number of half a million dollar engines you burn up per test is not easy at all.

[/ QUOTE ]

fixed