Before the start at least, everyone in
Formula One was on their best behaviour in Indianapolis last week. All of them talked positively about racing in America and how important the United States GP was to their teams and sponsors.
As I reported from Montreal the previous week, all the
F1 team bosses said it was essential to have at least one world championship race in the USA, and many of them said it would be great to have two races in the United States, as well as a top US driver or team.
After last year's debacle, both Michelin and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway gave away many thousands of tickets this year. People who hadn't gone to the race in a few years received packets of free tickets in the mail and it's difficult to imagine that the IMS made any profit on this year's race. Of course, from both the Speedway's and the
FIA's points of view, this race is all about prestige rather than profits, and
Bernie Ecclestone and Tony George were due to sit down this week to hammer out an agreement for extending the IMS' contract to stage the USGP. All of us await the results of those negotiations with baited breath, and your guess is as good as mine about the outcome.
Meanwhile, FIA president
Max Mosley reiterated his declaration at the British GP three weeks ago about creating an homologated, or 'frozen', engine formula for 2008. Mosley said this is not a matter for debate. He insists the homologated engine is inevitable and the engine manufacturers and teams must accept the FIA's plans without any further debate. But that doesn't address the questions about next year, best defined by
BMW's motorsports boss Dr Mario Theissen.
"Will there be a complete design freeze? Or will there be some sort of engine homologation?" Theissen pointed out, "Everybody, every manufacturer, every team agrees that we support homologation, and I think a compromise will be found between a complete design freeze and allowing for some development and being able to catch up for deficiencies.
