P1 with Matt and Tommy - USA 2005: A Short View Back to the Past [Unlocked]

Episode Date: November 9, 2023

Join us for a chat about one of the most infamous races in F1 history.Originally released on our Patreon last month, we've now made this episode available to you all! It's all about the 2005 USA GP, where the tyre wars reached a truly outrageous climax. Fancy more of this? Sign up to our Patreon! You'll get access to every episode from our 'A Short View Back to the Past' series, as well as 'After Dark' bonus episodes, every P1 episode ad-free, full driver interview videos, early access to tickets and more!Tickets for our UK live tour are nearly sold out! You can purchase them right HERE!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everyone and welcome back to the P1 podcast. Today we've got a special treat for you all, which is a podcast we recorded for our patrons about the infamous 2005 US Grand Prix. If you join our Patreon, you'll get one of these classic race podcasts for every race weekend. Add free pods, exclusive pods,

early access to live shows, which are available now, full driver videos, access to our amazing private community discord, and much more. So sign up today at the link in the description to unlock even more of our beautiful waffle. Enjoy the episode. Hello everybody and welcome back to a short view. Back to the Past.

A P1, Patreon exclusive. Sit yourselves down, grab yourself a large glass of whatever you have in the household and get ready to dive back. to the 2005 US Grand Prix, a time where Formula One really thrived, didn't it, Tom Bellingham?

Yes, the spoiler alert, probably most controversial F1 race of all time. And I didn't know if this would be too much of an obvious choice to do for our US episode, but boy on the Discord, did you want this one.

So here we are. You ask, we deliver. Hell yeah. Unlike the tire suppliers that really didn't deliver. Well, Bridgestone did because they're the goats. Anyway, let's not ruin something that happened 18 years ago. But let's look back to what Formula One was like in 2005. Of course, we have already spoken about 2005

because this was the time when Kimmy Reichen and pulled off an up. absolute masterclass at Suzuki. However, for those of you that may not have listened to it, it was Kimmy versus Fernando for the championship because Bridgestone and Ferrari had been nerved into the ground, into the core of the earth, which stopped Michael's dominance and therefore hashtag robbed. Hashtag void 2005.

Hashtag F-A-0, Fernando. Yeah, it's, yeah, I mean, to be fair, you're not wrong in terms of the fact that they made a set of rules that were literally, how can we stop Michael Schumacher and Ferrari winning? Because they've won five in a row now. And 2004 was even more dominant than normal. And it worked. But boy, did it backfire for this one.

Certainly did. Michelin and Bridgetown were the tyre supplies. So there was this whole tyre war that we've mentioned. before and, shockingly, Bridgestone that supplied teams like Ferrari were on the back foot this year. However, as you say, this was the one moment in the 2005 season where Michelin didn't have tyres that could do a race. They did not.

No, it didn't work out well. Just for context, so Bridgestone supplied just six cars, so three teams which were Ferrari who were obviously the champions but were struggling because the tire wasn't great that year. And Jordan and Menardi, who were two backmarker teams that were battling it out for a point which was obviously incredibly rare because you only got points up to 8th and they were both terrible to say the least. They were genuinely like not even, you say like, we joke that, oh, I'll have. for taria, rubricistice or whatever, like,

we're talking like three or four seconds off the pace in qualifying. Bad. But all of their Christmases came early for this particular Grand Prix weekend when no one could anticipate. But before we get into that, one set of tyres could only, we're used

for the whole race, and you'd actually qualify on those tyres as well. So, you know, you've got the days of now where Pirelli, you know, you're changing tires after one quali lap and all this sort of stuff. they just lasted forever. And that was the whole point, was durability

and then for drivers to be able to push throughout a race. And this was the era where we used to see drivers pretty knackered when they were up on the podium. Yeah, it is funny that in this new era of sustainability and everything, it was 2005 where one tires would last do the whole race and qualifying, whereas now there's what feels like, 8 million different tire sets and some don't even get used in races

and things like that and etc etc. So this was I guess the first piece of the problem puzzle that you had to use your one set of tyres. The problem puzzle, a bit of alliteration from Tom Bellingham this evening. Love to see it. It is this evening by the way. We're recording this at 9pm.

So as you might have mentioned as we have mentioned and as you may have noticed the problem with the tyres for this US 2005 Grand Prix weekend. And the first problem we saw was during free practice two. When on Friday, Ralph Schumacher's Toyota had a tire failure around one of the worst points on the track that you want to have a tire failure, which was around the banking before you go over the start finish straight and hit the wall hard.

Yes, very hard. It was, so for anyone that doesn't know, the Indianapolis circuit, obviously they were. raise the Indy 500 there, which is an oval, but there's like an infield section where you actually do a bit of the oval on reverse. So you come around the final corner and then you do what is essentially turn one for the Indy 500 but backwards. So you're kind of doing that banking and onto the main straight. And of course, the banking has the kind of wall on the side. So there's no runoff, which was the thing in 2005, like still, you know,

there's still circuits with runoff and whatnot, but you can't have runoff when there's a big old wall there. And this was a massive, a massive accident. And Ralph Schumacher was out for the rest of the weekend because it was such a hard hit. Certainly was. And he was replaced by a man called Ricardo Zonta, who during the session also had a tire failure, which is...

I think the maddest thing about this, by the way, when I was researching this, is he replaced him during the session. So Ralph Schumacher got injured and then another driver just was like, okay, oh. Is this when they had a third car? No, no, they didn't have the third car. Well, yeah, they had the third car, but it is funny that nowadays, obviously we have all these rules, don't we, where it's like a driver has to be allocated into the session and be registered to take part in the way.

weekend and stuff. And the test driver could just be like, right, you're injured. I'll hop in and do the rest of FP2. Not even, you know, it wasn't even FP3 when it's on to got in. It was literally that session, which is pretty wild to think nowadays. So he also had a tire failure. Where did he have that failure? That was in the infield section where, yeah, tire went pop.

And, yeah, at first, obviously, the fact that it was the same team. and the same, yeah, the same team. A lot of people, I guess, just assumed, oh, what Toyota doing? Toyota, usually low-fuel running, decided to maybe they were thinking if they were trying to do something crazy or whatever. But they weren't the only team to start having issues. And at the end of Friday, other Michelin runners were also having problems. And it was quite clear at this stage that,

and this is where the conversation, started to be had, that perhaps there was something wrong with the infrastructure of these Michelin tyres. Yeah. So obviously, you only had these two failures for Toyota. So like I say, it didn't seem like it was going to be that much of an issue. But then it was clear from Michelin already just from doing two practice sessions that they were in big trouble.

And this is all due to the. banking, which was very unique. Obviously, we have Zambort now, but this was a very unique circuit. Indeed, as you've sort of alluded to, turn 13, the banking was causing higher load on the tyres than usual than what they've obviously experienced previously. Indianapolis had recently been repaved with a more abrasive surface, which therefore created even more load on the tyres. And the bit that every time I come back to this story, the bit that I'm actually shocked wasn't brought to light sooner was that Bridgetstone had data previously from a US feeder series

so they knew that or what kind of compound of tire that they would have needed in order for it to be one, obviously good, but two most importantly, safe. yeah yeah bridge stone were absolutely fine because they supplied like you say u.s feeder series whereas michelin didn't so then they got to the the track and michelin weren't really prepared for it and it caught them by surprise so bridge stone had all this data and didn't have a problem with it which is crazy to think that yeah that one tie supply can be absolutely fine and then one was so bad to the point where they're like, you know, can we even do this race now?

I just find it mad that the conversations weren't had at least on a safety perspective before you go and race around a ridiculously high speed track like this with a banking and the abrasive surface and this, that and the other, where I know British Stone and Michelin were in a tire war, but surely there should have been, I know a lot of it has been in the benefit of hindsight, but you would think that there would be conversations like this to ensure that the tyres would be okay on the lead up to such a Grand Prix. True, but I guess Bridgeton were just like,

we will do our job and make sure it works, and Michelin obviously didn't do that. And I guess Bridgeton had no idea that Michelin would arrive to a track with essentially completely the wrong tires that were not capable of running. So now we move on to, Saturday running and they were only out and inlapse for the Michelin runners, which is obviously

free practice three Saturday, Saturday morning, which obviously started to raise suspicion even more so to perhaps people that weren't completely in the paddock, that there were problems with the tyres. And this is where more and more conversations start to start to be had. And then you roll into qualifying, which was at this stage only one lap. so they could get away with it. So at this point, there was still a lot of ums and ours, weren't there? There were, yeah. So got into qualifying, all the mission runners did set a lap.

They were able to do one lap. Interesting that, yeah, the fact that's, yeah, one lap quality still worked out for them. And of all the problems for Toyota, and he actually ended up getting their first pole position, thanks to Yarno Truly, which, as you mentioned earlier, that I think you mentioned it earlier,

that they have to put their fuel load of what they were going to do in a race. And there are a lot of, there's been a lot of talk after these events between people in Toyota and that have spoken to many journalists and things. And rumour has it that, you could argue that Toyota maybe thought there wasn't going to be a race at all

and barely put in a fuel in for them to do the parade lap. It was that lightly fueled. It's not exactly as if that would be the first time that Toyota had under-fueled a car in order to get on pole position and completely screwed their own race strategy, right? Like they absolutely loved to just stick their car where it doesn't really belong over one lap pace and just try and hope for something crazy to happen

like a safety car or whatever. But as you say, Yono Trilly took Toyota's first ever pole position. Kimmy got P2 and Alonzo was in P6. So I would say justice for Kimi Reichen at this point. You know, he had the upper hand. But behind the scenes, it seemed more and more likely that the Michelin runners wouldn't be able to race but at this point, the fans were oblivious.

Yeah, so until the next bit we'll get on to, which was a statement from Michelin, there's all these issues going on behind the scenes and obviously it was quite clear that it was complete panic stations to point there wasn't even going to be a race. But these fans, you know, turn up for qualifying and go, okay, yeah, quality is done, looking forward to the race tomorrow.

without knowing until this moment that things weren't quite as we seemed. Things were not right. And this was solidified by a Saturday statement that was made from Michelin, which reads, given the combination of oval exit speed of the F1 cars and the subsequent downforce is experienced by the tyres, Michelin is not able to guarantee that such incidents would not reoccur during race conditions.

And therefore, Michelin is not able to. guarantee the total safety of the drivers. As a result, Michelin, in total agreement with our partner teams, has asked the FIA that a chicane, allowing the reduction of car speed, be installed at the entrance to the oval. In this condition, the Indianapolis F1GP will be able to take place with the tyres that were used during the qualification. That didn't happen, did it?

No, it didn't. Lots of different solutions were discussed, but this one, you know, you fast forward this to 2023, it's happening without a doubt, surely. Formula One, they want a normal race to go ahead where nobody can ask for a refund. So yes, they would probably, well, that's what I think anyway. Well, it's quite funny that we, we're going to pre-record this, but it's actually quite funny that we're now recording this podcast after Qatar, 2023. And this statement doesn't read too dissimilar to Pirelli's one of basically being like, ties aren't great here, not sure it's going to work.

Obviously, we thankfully didn't have that extent, but you've got to kind of applaud them, I guess, that they did just go, look, we could do all this stuff and carry on, but the fact is that, you know, we'll set this 18 lap, let them change their tires and do things like that. that you have to change your tires and they slightly configured the track slightly even if it's not as extreme as putting a chicane in but I guess the problem here is the fact that you've got you've got a tire war and teams that particularly bridge stone that have maybe felt like

they've been screwed with some regulations yeah that it's not just a case of now Pirelli could just go, okay, that's fine. Whereas, say, I don't know, say Hasse were running Firestone tyres or something, and you had these Pirelli issues in Qatar, Hasse would be like, well, no. Like, we've bought tyres that are fine. It's very true. Yeah, Tire War actually makes this a completely different conversation to if it was literally just a Pirelli or whoever.

So let's talk about the different solutions that were offered. and some of them are absolutely hilarious. So there's Michelin cars to run at a speed limit during the final corner, not a pit lane speed limit, may I add, but a certain speed, which I'm not sure if you know exactly what speed they suggested. I don't. They just said that they'd have to go slower during the banking, which sounds almost more dangerous.

Yeah, I mean, what a ridiculous idea. We've seen the whole issue with cars going slow and the problem and the big thing about Formula One where the biggest accident seemed to happen is when you've got that difference in speed. So this one is just like causing more of a safety issue from a safety issue, if you like. The next was Michelin runners

to go through the pit lane every lap. I mean, who actually... I reckon Ferrari said that one. I reckon... I reckon they suggested it. Bridgestone were like, yeah, would you go through the pit lane every lap? If you want to take part.

It's quite mad that one, isn't it? It'd just be a bit fast school. But these ones weren't really discussed too much. It was just ideas thrown around. I don't know if that one was ever truly serious and spoken about. Truly, good, like that. Truly on poll. Love that.

Next one was allowing the left rear to be changed with no penalty, but they would need to have literally pitted what every few laps. So many times that they would have gone over the entire allocation. That was something that Charlie Whiting, who was the race director at the time, basically said that this isn't going to work because they're going to have to change it so much that they'll run out of tires and then you'll get disqualified anyway. So it doesn't make sense.

And then the final one was the one we've sort of mentioned and was the most popular, which was a chicane to be installed between the final two corners to reduce the speed of the banking. I remember, you know, as a 13-year-old Michael Schumacher Ferrari fanboy, you know, when you got wind of this, absolutely not. Get in the bin. We'll have a six-car race and I'll see Michael Schumacher win the race. Let's go.

That's what I felt like at the time because I knew that we'd been nerfed into the ground. I say we, me, Michael Schumacher and Ferrari had been nerved into the ground. And this was our time to shine. screw you. It's funny you mention that because I was actually going to mention something similar later on but I'll do it now before we go into kind of the talk of it. But yeah, Ferrari, no, actually, sorry, no, we won't

because there's a bit of talk about Ferrari, then I'll go into it because there's a bit more Ferrari talk first. Let's dive into the next part, which is the talks that were being had to find a solution on the Sunday morning before the race. So there was a meeting between the team principles to discuss a chican being installed. Jordan and Menardi, both Bridgestone runners, agreed to the chican being installed,

which is quite interesting. But Ferrari's Jean-Tott didn't even turn up. Did not even bother to go to the meeting. No, he didn't. Ferrari's opinion on it was like, well, it's not our problem so we'll let them sort it out the Michelin runners and decide what's best.

So just an hour before the race they're still trying to discuss what they would do and whether they're going to build a chican. They were absolutely losing their minds. Yeah, bearing in mind that we spoke after Friday they had this worry and then Saturday night

they have the statement saying you know, that we don't think we can't guarantee the safety of the race and things like that. And there's a very interesting video, actually, you can watch the entire sort of buildup that ITV did. Someone's uploaded it to YouTube. And it is absolutely maddening that the race is about to start. You know, they're on the buildup and they're there in the pits talking about this. Will we get a chicane? Will they, won't they?

And there was talk that, you know. What are they built in an hour? exactly but there was talk cone there exactly there was talk that um you know marshals and things were actually there ready to to go and have been told but they had to get obviously all the approvals and things like that um and uh yeah it uh didn't didn't didn't work out uh in the end and i kind of i kind of get why um and just checking before i know we can go into into later kind of reasons why that wouldn't have worked. But the chican was one of those things where they all seemed to think it was this great idea.

But like you say, when there's an hour to go before the race, what are they making out of? You know, this is a track that, you know, you see nowadays there's all this FIA grade 1 and all this. So if they made a circling like a chican that was awful and then someone played. bows into that chicane and injures themselves. It's even worse, isn't it? Absolutely. There was also discussions about having a last-minute non-championship race, which was proposed whether Michelin teams could not score points,

even if they used a new chicane, even if it meant running without Ferrari, which was incredibly unrealistic, and the FIA would not agree to this. So in the end, they came to no agreement, but the controversy still continued between Jordan and Menardy and whether they should race.

Yeah, so Ferrari were, like you said, not playing ball essentially and John Todd wasn't turning up to this, the meetings and was just kind of like, well, you deal with it, it's not a problem. And Ferrari, yeah, there was talk of like, when they were having these discussions

between all the team principals, apart from Ferrari, there was talk of like, well, let's just run a race without Ferrari then if they're not going to, agree to this and we'll do a non-championship race. It wouldn't be an FAA event, but then the problem with that is that all the FAA officials, you know, things like the safety car driver is employed by the FAA.

Charlie Whiting is employed by FAA. So like who takes their place? They couldn't do their jobs. So it wouldn't, it wasn't realistic. The thing I wanted to mention about Ferrari briefly is if you watch, yeah, like the ITV coverage, it's quite interesting that Ferrari were kind of villainized in this era as being the, you know, how dare they win all the time and it be so boring? And, you know, there's a lot of people now that are like, oh, British bias for the modern

broadcast and say that, you know, they're really anti-red bull and stuff. But it's, it's nothing compared to what they were about Ferrari. they were kind of very unapologetic about it about it and it does feel like almost in this situation they made Ferrari the villains in it and when I was a kid like you obviously mentioning that you're a big microchee macafan and you were like oh well screw you I was watching the ITV broadcast and I remember being like oh yeah like boo Ferrari is why why Ferrari doing this and stuff and you're being like yeah this like I didn't support them but now I'm kind of like looking it back with mature eyes and a fresh kind of head into it.

I totally see where they're coming from because essentially they've been shafted out of the rules to stop them dominating. And it's all been about tyres. So they're basically gone, well, let's make the Michelin's really good in the Bridge Jones crap. And then they get to this race where the Michelin's can't even run. And I think Ferrari have every right to be like, well, screw you. No. like we've you know you've completely shafted our entire championship campaign no like absolutely not like we're not we're not bending over backwards for you just because the our tire rivals haven't

made a tire and it and it seemed almost like iTV and the narrative from like the media was like how dare ferrari do this when it's michelin that should be the bad guys here not ferrari so i thought that was quite interesting to to look back on and be like, well, I kind of, it's all right laughing at Jean Todd that he didn't show up and stuff. And there is a little bit of, well, you know, you should respect the fans and try and put on a show. But I kind of still get where they're coming from at the same time because they've been absolutely screwed. And it's like, well, you sort it out and we'll do what we need to. Yeah, I can understand what you're saying, obviously and I was obviously as a kid being like yeah screw

screw everyone go Ferrari also you know there is an element and I'm thinking as well you know with how big Formula One is nowadays that there would be a slightly different yeah a different outlook and you know how how fans are so integrated into the sport through social media and this that and the other like be a PR disaster class if you know Ferrari or whatever team were to do with something similar where it's basically like, F the sport, you've messed up. This massive disaster for Formula One went ahead. Oh, sorry, just quick one.

I didn't actually mention that Jordan and Menardi, the controversy there, was the fact that Jordan and Menardi both agreed, no, we're not going to race because it's farcical. And then literally the last minute, Jordan were like, oh, no, no, we'll race, actually. I think pressure from sponsors and obviously the thinking of like, we could get a podium here. And then Menardy are forced to themselves to race because one,

they're going to get absolutely screwed points-wise that would just decide it basically is one race to decide where those two finish in the championship because they're never going to get those points again. And two, their team

principal, Paul Stalard, was not he was a very outspoken. Yeah, he's a very outspoken Australian guy and he wasn't very favoured with the FAA and he worried that if he was already kind of a bit of a maverick and in trouble with them and he was worried that if he kind of boycotted the race

then he there like Menardy would be under threat from the FIA and this kind of stuff. So he went ahead as well but then had a very public rant on Dutch TV and swearing and saying that it's the most ridiculous race ever in a... He's not wrong. Un-P-G way.

Yeah, but he wasn't wrong, was he? No. So all 20 cars took to the formation lap. There was team radios of drivers still wanting to race that were running Michelin's. However, all the Michelin runners pulled into the pits to retire. The Bridgestone runners of Ferrari, Jordan and Menardi went into their respective grid boxes and started the race.

an iconic image to say the least. The only one that trumps that, I think, is Lewis Hamilton on the front row of the Hungarian Grand Prix on his own. But yeah, that was not received well, especially in America. Like, Formula One hasn't managed to break through in America, really. It's a very important market for them to have hit. and it was a disaster. Yeah, if you think now that F1's booming in America, look at Cota last year,

selling 400,000 tickets or whatever, this was, they struggled to break the US market, they struggled to get the, you know, sell tickets for the event and get people to come. You'd already had a previous race where Schumacher and Barry Kellow kind of went across the lines, side by side, which caused a bit of controversy and confusion, and it was kind of like, oh, this race is not going to plan and it's not really... Michael should have had 92 race wins. Ruben stole that victory. Robbed. But yeah, the fact that, yeah, this had gone was an absolute disaster.

But one thing I find interesting now is the fact that, and maybe this is the wrong way to look at it, but when Kimmy Reikinen, and Fernando Alonso are locked in a title fight, and particularly knowing how Fernando Alonzo the way he is, the temptation to do one extra lap, then pull into the pit, so you've bagged the seventh place and a couple of extra points. There's part of me that thinks maybe like a Michael Schumacher,

a matchless app, and does that, and just deals with the consequences later. And I think it's actually, it's rare. I think it's incredible that every Michelin runner respected their team there and we're like yeah okay we'll pull into the pits and didn't try and gain some kind of advantage there must have been an agreement there or something because if one Michelin runner goes out there and does a lap everyone else that's just retired is going out for a

lap then it's two laps then it's three laps and then all of a sudden absolute carnage yeah which is crazy to think that that that didn't happen but yeah all came into the pits like say quite a iconic thing. You do wonder if if Kimmy Rikinen was looking in his mirror making sure Fernandez coming into the bitbox as well as they were in that title fight. But yeah, every single one did. So just six cars made the start. And there were booze everywhere, fans

throwing rubbish onto the track and were leaving. I mean, don't blame them at all. Although I would have been there front row. Come on, Michael. Let's go. And then the race itself, I mean, my God, it could have easily been no Ferrari's finishing at all because Schumacher and Barrichello they almost collided at coming out of the pits. Can you imagine if that had happened?

Yeah, absolutely insane in a race that essentially only had two cars in it because they're the only two that were ever going to win because they were so far ahead of the Jordans and Menardis that why didn't they just take it easy? But no, they somehow managed to, I can't believe Ferrari even allowed it that they would come out the pits together from their fuel stop. But they did.

And Michael Schumacher, yeah, came out the pits only marginally in front of Barry Kellow and just kind of shoves him off. A very, yeah, kind of classic shoemey move, one that maybe like her Maxis Tappen would do now, where they just let them know who's boss and they run them wide. And, yeah, almost came together, Barry Kellow, avoided it. over the grass and it's insane to think we might have had a all Jordan and Menardi podium if they're doing it. One, two, which would have been quite something. But instead, Schumacher took the win because he's the goat

ahead of Ruben's Barakello. And then Montero, the one and only podium of his career. And fair play to him. He celebrated it like it just won the World Championship. And I do not blame him one bit. No, I think it's unfair to kind of, it was unfair on him sort of laugh. Obviously, the Ferrari drivers felt very awkward. They'd been on the podium a lot and knew it was a very difficult situation.

They were still booing at this point of about three thousand left. The podium of the guy cracking out of his champagne sprays up in the face for P3. Yeah, that is funny. Like, that is a picture. Like, if you don't even need to see the footage, it's that meme. essentially. You're absolutely going for it. And yeah,

Noreen Carthicayan P4, just missed out on the podium. And his best results in his Formula One career. Absolutely. So the aftermath, let's talk about that then, after the farce that was

the race that we've just spoken about, the FIA summoned the Michelin teams to court to explain their failure to enter the race. And later, there are investigations that showed that teams could have faced criminal charges for putting others at risk if an incident had happened

due to Indiana law and also the case for the chican. Yeah, basically, this is another reason why the chican thing didn't go ahead as there's a lot of laws for US sporting events and kind of being sued and who's liable and stuff like that, that it could have been an absolute disaster, even more of a disaster if, like you say, they put up a chican, someone crashes the worst, you know, doesn't bear thinking about, but the worst happens. And then they've put in a chican that wasn't safe at the last minute. Like, imagine how bad that would have been. So, so, yeah,

it's easy for them to go, I'll just put a chican in, but it could have also gone horribly wrong. And then they would have faced, yeah, like I say, criminal charges from Indiana law. So what happened then? Michelin, they ended up compensating all of the fans who went to the race and purchased 20,000 tickets for 2006 for people who attended the 2005 race that wanted to go. I mean, that is quite a substantial. Formula one ticket prices weren't as much. back then as they are now,

but still a massive hit for Michelin financially. And then what is even more strange was the free entry that they offered to a champ car race that was held a week later. In a completely different state. Yeah, very odd. But hey, they tried something. It's funny that they purchased 20,000 tickets

and people would probably be like, oh, well, that's something. not a lot, but that's probably the attendance of F1 in the 2000s anyway, so it probably wasn't that far off the amount of fans that were actually at the track. And finally, F1, they only raced at Indy two more times, and there was no sight of a US Grand Prix until 2012 after that. So it was a long hiatus for any American Grand Prix, and now we're looking at three, maybe,

maybe 10 in a few years' time, because America has well and truly taken Formula One back with open arms due to drive to survive and the general boom of this wonderful sport. Yes, it's absolutely insane to think that if anyone was here witnessing this, you know, the whole narrative around the race at Indianapolis,

even before this was like, and I think quite harshly a lot of the time, but I guess it's those casual fans that they never hacked into, that European audiences would kind of run this narrative of like, oh, Americans don't get F1, it's too confusing and they don't get it and all this kind of stuff, when clearly they just needed a hit Netflix TV show

to show that it's the best sport in the world instead. And then they would have sold thousands of tickets anyway. And maybe it was a blessing in disguise that this didn't happen when it was booming in America and shoved it all down the toilet. Yeah, imagine what Twitter would have been like in 2005. Had we seen all that go down? My goodness me, that would have been carnage.

Anyway, that is it. That is the end of a short view back to the past. I hope you've enjoyed this P1, Patreon exclusive. Sorry, I feel like I'm doing some sort of advert and maybe even also sort of interlinking with P1 after dark here. But Tommy, what are your final thoughts as we round out this 2005 USGP chat?

I hope you enjoyed that one because it was probably going to be one of the chunkiest of short view back to the past. It's more of a long old... Really getting your money's worth this week. Absolutely. And that is it.

Thank you everybody for watching and listening. No, not watching. You're only listening because it's an audio exclusive. See you very soon. Lots of love. Bye! Bye! One is a Stack production and part of the ACAST created network.