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USA: No movement as Michelin face the FIA
By Phil Huff
June 19 2005
With the start of the United States Grand Prix less than two hours away, the possibility of there being a genuine race is receding rapidly as the FIA refuse to back down to demands from Michelin.
Following an earlier exchange of letters, the FIA made it clear that the teams affected by Michelin's failure to provide a safe tyre have the option of slowing for the final banked turn, changing tyres through the race, or running a new untested tyre. The latter options would likely lead to the exclusion of a team from the results.

With reference to our letter of June 18 and having collected the results of our in depth analysis from France and the USA, we confirmed that with the tyres on which we have qualified we are not able to sufficiently guarantee the total safety of the drivers.

As a result we reached the conclusion that we will not compete with these tyres in the current configuration of the circuit.

We therefore reiterate our request to have a significant reduction of vehicle speed in turns 12/13.

We request that the FIA consider favourably this request and we remain at your disposal for further information.
The FIA's position was made abundantly clear earlier, with the governing body now refusing to discuss the matter further.
Thank you for your letter of today's date.

As explained in our earlier letter, your teams have a choice of running more slowly in Turn 12/13, running a tyre not used in qualifying (which would attract a penalty) or repeatedly changing a tyre (subject to valid safety reasons).

It is for them to decide. We have nothing to add.

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