The 2005 United States Grand Prix (officially the 2005 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on June 19, 2005, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and was the ninth race of the 2005 Formula One World Championship. The event is one of the most infamous races in motorsport history. Out of the 20 cars that entered the race, only the six cars from the teams using Bridgestone tyres (Ferrari, Jordan, and Minardi) competed. The remaining fourteen entrants, all using Michelin tyres, completed the formation lap, but retired to the pit lane before the race started.
Following two tyre failures before the race, which caused major accidents for Ralf Schumacher's Toyota during Friday practice and then for his Toyota stand-in Ricardo Zonta, Michelin advised its seven customer teams that without a reduction in speed in Turn 13, the tyres provided for the race would only be safe for 10 laps. Michelin had been providing working tyres for the race since 2001. The situation was worsened by the 2005 Formula One rules, which forbade tyre changes during the race, and a repave of the oval portion of the course after the 2004 Brickyard 400.
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the sport's governing body, refused a compromise proposal from Michelin to allow a chicane to be installed, maintaining that such rule changes would be grossly unfair to the Bridgestone-shod teams, who had come prepared with properly working tyres, and that a last-minute change to the track layout would be dangerous in case of crashes. The Michelin teams, unable to come to a compromise with the FIA, decided not to participate. It was later stated that the Michelin-shod teams could have potentially exposed themselves to criminal liability under Indiana state law had they competed. It was also thought that since Bridgestone also provided tyres to the two Indy Racing League series (IndyCar Series and Infiniti Pro Series) via its Firestone brand, and had encountered issues during testing that caused them to return with different IndyCar tyres, it understood better the loads the Formula One tyres would be under. Thus, Bridgestone was able to provide a safe tyre.
Of the six competitors, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was the eventual winner, with his teammate Rubens Barrichello finishing second and Jordan driver Tiago Monteiro finishing third, which would be his only podium in Formula One as well as the last podium for Jordan. The result moved Schumacher to third in the World Drivers' Championship—no driver above him took part in the race. The final race result was the lowest number of finishing entries ever seen in a major open-wheel motorsports event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since the institution of the 500-Mile Race (surpassing the previous record low of seven finishers in 1966, a race marred by a major first lap accident that eliminated a full third of the starting field). The situation created enormous negative publicity for the sport of Formula One, especially in the United States, a market in which Formula One had struggled to establish itself over the preceding twenty years.
Background The race was the 9th of the 19 rounds in the 2005 Formula One World Championship, and the sixth to be held at the 13-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield road course, located in Speedway, Indiana. It took place on June 19, 2005, and was formally called the XXXIV Foster's United States Grand Prix. Before the event, Renault driver Fernando Alonso led the World Drivers' Championship with 59 points, ahead of McLaren's Kimi Räikkönen with 37 points and Toyota's Jarno Trulli with 27 points. Williams driver Nick Heidfeld was fourth with 25 points and Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was fifth with 24 points. Renault with 76 points led McLaren in second on 63 points at the top of the World Constructors' Championships. Williams and Toyota were tied for third with 47 points each and Ferrari were fifth with 45 points.
Qualifying The qualifying session for the United States Grand Prix was held on June 18. During the session, each competitor recorded one timed lap with the running sequence set by the results of the previous Grand Prix reversed. All non-classified drivers were sorted according to how many laps they completed, with the one with the highest number going out last. Trulli achieved pole position by posting the fastest lap time, 1 minute, 10.625 seconds. Trulli, driving for Toyota, was the team's first driver to claim a pole position for a Formula One race. The second-place qualifier was Räikkönen, followed by Jenson Button, Giancarlo Fisichella, and Michael Schumacher. Alonso qualified in sixth, while the rest of the top ten consisted of Rubens Barrichello, Takuma Sato, Mark Webber, and Felipe Massa.
Qualifying classification
Driver Constructor Lap Grid 1 16 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:10.625 1 2 9 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:10.694 +0.069 2 3 3 Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1:11.277 +0.652 3 4 6 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:11.290 +0.665 4 5 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:11.369 +0.744 5 6 5 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:11.380 +0.755 6 7 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:11.431 +0.806 7 8 4 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 1:11.497 +0.872 8 9 7 Mark Webber Williams-BMW 1:11.527 +0.902 9 10 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 1:11.555 +0.930 10 11 10 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes 1:11.681 +1.056 11 12 11 Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-Petronas 1:11.691 +1.066 12 13 17 Ricardo Zonta Toyota 1:11.754 +1.129 13 14 15 Christian Klien Red Bull-Cosworth 1:12.132 +1.507 14 15 8 Nick Heidfeld Williams-BMW 1:12.430 +1.805 15 16 14 David Coulthard Red Bull-Cosworth 1:12.682 +2.057 16 17 18 Tiago Monteiro Jordan-Toyota 1:13.462 +2.837 17 18 21 Christijan Albers Minardi-Cosworth 1:13.632 +3.007 18 19 19 Narain Karthikeyan Jordan-Toyota 1:13.776 +3.151 19 20 20 Patrick Friesacher Minardi-Cosworth 1:14.494 +3.869 20
Pre-race controversy
Michelin tyre failures
During the afternoon's practice session on June 17, 2005, Ralf Schumacher, driving for Toyota, crashed badly in Turn 13 of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, as a result of a left-rear tyre failure. He was unable to continue racing, and was replaced for the rest of the weekend by the team's test driver, Ricardo Zonta, who himself suffered a left-rear tyre failure during practice as well. Schumacher had crashed in the same spot as a result of a tyre failure the previous year, while driving for the Williams team, which led to a broken back."Toyota: Zonta had similar tyre problem to Ralf.". Crash.net. June 18, 2005. Archived from the original on January 20, 2022. Retrieved December 2, 2006.
Turn 13 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course was a high-speed banked turn, unique at the time in Formula One racing, which causes a greater than usual tyre loading."Michelin: Tyres not flawed, just unsuitable." . Crash.net. June 27, 2005. Retrieved January 26, 2013. This section of the track had been repaved since the previous Grand Prix with a more abrasive surface which may have placed the tyres under even greater load than before. On June 18, Michelin reported that it did not understand why the tyres it had provided for its seven customer teams—BAR, McLaren, Red Bull, Renault, Sauber, Toyota, and Williams—had failed in this turn, and announced its intention to fly in tyres of a different specification from its Clermont-Ferrand headquarters.. ITV. June 18, 2005. Retrieved January 26, 2013. The replacement tyres flown in, which were of the type used in the earlier that year, turned out to have the same problem when tested.Garside, Kevin (June 20, 2005). . The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
Correspondence between Michelin and the FIA In a letter to FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting dated June 18, Michelin representatives Pierre Dupasquier and Nick Shorrock revealed that they did not know the cause of the Toyota tyre failures, and unless the cars could be slowed down in Turn 13, they could not guarantee the tyres' safety for more than 10 laps. Whiting replied on Sunday, June 19, expressing his surprise that Michelin had not brought suitable tyres, suggesting that the teams should limit their drivers to the maximum safe speed specified by Michelin in Turn 13. He also addressed several solutions which had been proposed by the teams, insisting that use of the new specification tyres flown in overnight would be "a breach of the rules to be considered by the stewards", and the placement of a chicane in the turn was "out of the question" – the race would not be sanctioned by the FIA (making it a non-championship race) if the track layout was changed. He deemed the Michelin teams' proposals to be "grossly unfair" to the Bridgestone teams.
In a second letter, also dated June 18, Dupasquier and Shorrock confirmed that they would not permit their teams to race on the Michelin tyres used during qualification without changes to the circuit, and reiterated their request to slow down Turn 13. Whiting's brief reply maintained that no such change would be permitted, and gave the teams the choice of limiting speeds through Turn 13, using tyres of a different specification to those used in qualifying, subject to a penalty, or changing tyres repeatedly, which would have been permitted if a driver's safety were at issue.
Attempts at compromise
Paul Stoddart, the owner of Minardi, a team using Bridgestone tyres, published an account on June 22, of the events leading up to the race. Stoddart recorded a meeting around 10:00am on the day of the race, to which Speedway president Tony George, two senior Michelin representatives, Bernie Ecclestone (president and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration), the team principals, and the teams' Michelin technical representatives were summoned. All invited were present except Jean Todt, Team Principal of Scuderia Ferrari. The Michelin representatives stated their position that the tyres provided to the teams could not safely complete the race distance, and requested that the Bridgestone teams, represented by Stoddart and Jordan's Colin Kolles, permit the installation of a chicane in Turn 13. Those present discussed and agreed to reject the FIA's solution of speed-limiting the Michelin cars in the turn because of the potential for accidents. They likewise dismissed the possibility of making pit stops every ten laps, resolved that a chicane was the best solution, and instructed several technical representatives to prepare plans for its installation. Bernie Ecclestone offered to consult Todt, who had not come to the meeting, and the president of the FIA, Max Mosley, who was not present at the race, and reconvene the meeting when he had responses.
Ecclestone returned at about 10:55 to inform the group that Todt had refused to agree to the chicane, maintaining that it was an FIA and a Michelin problem and not his. By the time Stoddart's account of the meeting was published, Todt had already denied that he had ever been consulted, but stated that, if asked, he would not have agreed to the chicane. Furthermore, Ecclestone reported that Mosley had "stated that if any attempts were made to alter the circuit, he would cancel the Grand Prix forthwith".
Team principals' plan