Carl Tyler's Blog

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Well after Carl waking me up at 5:55 thinking it was 8:10 this morning, after he had rolled over and changed the time on the alarm clock. We headed off to the Indianapolis Speedway (which incidentally is in the town of ), we strolled over to the Formula 1 Paddock with our VIP Passes thanks to Ian Phillips of Jordan F1 and commentator for BBC Radio Five Live.The Paddock is the area just behind the pits where the teams, are able to relax and host their visitors.We were rubbing shoulders with all of the F1 stars and managed to stalk the ITV (British TV Channel) F1 crew sneaking into shots as you can see in the link below.Ian took us on a tour of the pit and we managed to get up close to the car before the race. We discussed the potential issues with the tyres with Maurice Hamilton from BBC Radio Five Live, but the teams were still in discussion over the situation and trying to resolve the issue.

We left the paddock and went over to our seats on the first corner, looking forward to seeing 20 F1 cars head into the first corner together.After chucking the freeloaders out of our seats, we stood to the American National Anthem and a fly by from the Indiana Air National Guard. During which the cars were be prepared on the starting grid for the race. The cars moved off on the parade lap and we saw them go past us, great we thought the race is going to go ahead after all! But no we were wrong, as the teams entered the last corner 7 of the teams peeled off into the pits and promptly retired from the race, due to safety reasons with the Michelin tyres on the high speed banked corner, where there was a risk of tyre failure.  This had caused Ralf Schumacher on Friday to have a big crash. This then left 3 teams that use Bridgestone, which were Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi. We were all very confused as the race started and only 6 cars passed us into the first corner. At this point the crowds started to get pretty angry and started booing as they saw the other 7 teams wheel their cars back into their garages. As the crowds started to leave the circuit and throwing bottles and cans onto the track in protest to the teams retiring, we decided to go back over to the Paddock to find out the teams reaction.

When we go to the Paddock all of the Michelin teams were already packing up and the drivers had already left on their way to the airport to fly out of Indianapolis. We went back to the Jordan garage and watched the race on the television screen there and enjoyed the hospitality of the team. Ultimately Michael Schumacher won an almost unchallenged race apart from when he almost took out his teammate when he came out of the pits forcing Rubens Barrichelo onto the grass at the first corner. But it did mean that Jordan’s Tiago Monteiro came third with Narain Karthikeyan, and the two Minardi’s in 5th and 6th. Allowing Jordan and Minardi to score their first points of the year.

Ok so I didn’t get to see 20 cars into the first corner together at racing pace, but I have had a fantastic time, being able to go to one of the most controversial races in F1 history, also spending some quality time with my brother, thanks Bro!
See pictures here