JUNE 19, 2005

Here is a solution!

It is not the first time in the history of Formula 1 that there have been tyre problems on banked circuits. The same thing happened at the German Grand Prix in 1959 when the F1 teams were in action on the Automobil Verkehrs und Ubungs-Strasse (AVUS) facility in Berlin. This was little more than a piece of motorway with banked loops at either end. Because of fears that there would be tyre problems it was decided to run the race in two heats. The finishing order of the first heat created the grid for the second heat and then the two results were added together to come up with an overall result.

It was an elegant solution to a problem and there may be some possibility of a similar idea being used in Indianapolis. But with only two hours to go before the scheduled start of the race, a solution is needed soon.