S2 E10: Inside the chaos of F1's Indianapolis 2005 farce

Bring Back V10s - Classic F1 stories

The Race Media Ltd

Sports

4.9 • 764 Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2020

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For the final regular episode of series 2 of Bring Back V10s we're revisiting the most-requested topic we've had since the show started: The shambolic six-car US GP of 2005.

Special guest Dieter Gass - currently head of Audi Motorsport but previously Toyota's chief race and test engineer - joins Glenn Freeman and Mark Hughes to explain what was going on behind the scenes at the race, and how Toyota's problems and a big crash for Ralf Schumacher were the first signs that something serious was going wrong.

We also hear from podium finisher Tiago Monteiro on why he celebrated when Ferrari drivers Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello didn't, and get ready to hear how a swearing Kimi Raikkonen reacted when Ron Dennis told him he wouldn't be racing - all overheard by former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley as he strapped Kimi in on the grid!

We also look at why the various solutions put forward to salvage the event didn't work out, why Jordan and Minardi broke ranks after initially standing alongside the Michelin teams, why the tyre problems hadn't struck in previous years at Indy, plus the fallout after the event and why the FIA eventually decided not to take matters any further.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Say the words Indianapolis 2005 to any F1 fan and two images will probably come to mind,
0:13.0	the shot of 14 cars pulling into the pits at the end of the formation lap and the remaining
0:17.7	six lining up on the grid to take part in one of the most farcical events in F1 history.
0:23.8	Since we started Bring Back V10s, this infamous weekend has been our most requested episode topic by far.
0:30.4	So for the final conventional episode of series 2, we're going to dissect the weekend in great detail.
0:36.9	Joining me, Glenn Freeman, to look back at Indy 2005 are two men who were there on the ground that weekend.
0:43.3	First up, I'll introduce our very own Mark Hughes, who had the unfortunate task of having to write a race report about this at the time.
0:51.4	So Mark, you know the drill with how we start these episodes with the opening question.
0:55.6	Is it possible for you to narrow this down to one thing that comes to mind when you think of
1:00.3	Indy 2005? Yes, for me, it was standing at the top of the stands on my way to the commentary booths,
1:06.8	which are above those massive rows and rows of people. So the places full of a couple of
1:13.4	hundred thousand enthusiastic cheering fans who'd made the way there for a special day out,
1:19.0	some of them from a very long way away. And knowing that in a few minutes, all these people
1:24.9	were about to be betrayed that the Mitchell and Cars weren't going to take
1:27.7	the start because that wasn't generally known to the fans in the stands at the time.
1:34.1	And I was just feeling angry at how Max Musley, who he later learned was sitting in his backguard
1:39.4	in England, being informed of events by phone, had no compunction about making all these paying fans,
1:45.7	these fans of the sport, the casualties of this power play.
1:50.0	And they'd apparently played no part in these calculations about how this problem with the tyres was handled.
1:56.1	I think that tells us a lot about how F1 was running itself at the time. But before we go any further and
2:02.5	introduce our second and very special guest, can you quickly explain the fundamental reasons
2:08.0	Michelin were caught out so badly in 2005 when they'd not had these problems in any of the years
	...

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