Michelin (a French company
) didn't supply the right tire for the speeds in turn three. They lobbied for a chican to slow the cars down. To protest the situation, all but 6 teams parked their cars. Ferrari ran the race, won, and was criticized.
The problem with adding the chican is it's against the rules. The cars are supposed to race on the same track they qualified on. By adding a chican, the track is not the same so they would have to re-qualify. Out of the question.
Here's a comparison made on Wind Tunnel: If One NFL team shows up to a wet, muddy field with the wrong cleats, they don't get to protest the other team and have changes made.
The fans were the losers over the weekend. However, F1 will be the loser over the long term. To pull this just when F1 was trying to make new inroads into the States, stupid.
It's going to get uglier before it gets better.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CAR_F1_MICHELIN?...=2005-06-21-08-42-16
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CAR_F1_FIASCO?SI...=2005-06-20-15-54-43