FIA announced today that the seven Michelin teams were found guilty for not having raceable tires and refusing to race. Possible penalties are announced in september.
They also stated that FIA can't judge Michelin, because it has no officialconnections to the tyre supplier. Michelin works only for teams.[/color]
I don't understand why they have to postpone it till september. It would be good if they would try to get rid of this mess as soon as possible. Maybe they think that if they penalize teams now, they might boycott races again as a protest.
I think it's stupid to blame teams about this and ridiculous if FIA can't do anything when a tyre supplier fucks up.
That's just fuckin stupid. The FIA says they've got no connections to Michelin? They were the ones who allowed Michelin to be a supplier to the teams in the first place!!! Without the FIA's initial approval, Michelin wouldn't even BE in F1 right now. Now if you want to get technical, what they said can be considered true, to a certain extent. Michelin has direct links to the teams to which they supply tires. The teams pay Michelin for the tires, and likely Michelin might pay the teams back some money for the advertising. FIA, likely pays/receives no money to/from Michelin, hence the assertion that there's no "official" connection between the two. That's just words. It's still bullshit.
To wait until September is a dumb idea as well. Better to do it now, and get it over with, so that the teams affected can still have the rest of the season to adjust and "make up" any losses that they suffer. It's like the 2-race banishment that BAR had to go through last month when they were "caught" with that fuel tank fiasco. Since it was still early in the season, the banishment didn't really cause that much damage. If the FIA had waited until near the end of the season to institute the banishment, and BAR was in a serious contention for the Drivers/Constructors championships, it would be GROSSLY unfair to them. If the FIA has to penalize, do it now, so that the potential damage can potentially be "fixable".