By Phil Huff
July 14 2005

Lucky Strike BAR Honda are set to be cleared of any wrongdoing following the Michelin saga at the United States Grand Prix after the FIA recommended that the guilty verdict for all the Michelin teams be cancelled. New evidence presented by the teams showed that they could not race against the instructions of Michelin, and were contractually obliged to stand down. The FIA, equally, could not change the licensed configuration of the Indianapolis circuit in order to allow the teams to run.

Given that, the FIA have accepted that the teams were not to blame for the fiasco, which tends to suggest that the blame is now being laid at Michelin's door. While many, including Max Mosley, have expressed their opinion that Michelin were exclusively to blame, the FIA cannot punish them directly as they are just a supplier to the teams.

The cases against the teams was therefore designed to indirectly punish the tyre manufacturer, with Mosley saying recently that "we can't impose a penalty on Michelin because they have no more relationship with us than any other team supplier. We are able to indirectly put pressure on them through their teams and this is one of the things we are doing at the moment."

The development now opens up the possibility of the FIA attempting to force Michelin from Formula One, despite the fact that a number of teams have contracts with the supplier for 2006.

The full statement from the FIA reads...

Following receipt of a dossier of new evidence relating to events at the 2005 United States Grand Prix submitted to the FIA by BAR, McLaren, Renault, Sauber, Toyota and Williams, the FIA Senate met in Monaco on 14 July. Ron Dennis attended the meeting, having been appointed representative of six Michelin teams. He was accompanied by Christian Horner from Red Bull Racing.

Having examined the new evidence and discussed it with Mr Dennis and Mr Horner, the Senate was satisfied that the teams were contractually bound to follow the instructions of their tyre supplier and that their tyre supplier had expressly prohibited them from racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in its licensed configuration. Recognising that for both sporting and legal reasons it was impossible for the FIA to authorise a change to the circuit configuration and that both the FIA and the teams could have faced serious legal difficulties in the United States had they not observed to the letter their respective rules and contractual obligations (particularly had there been any kind of accident), the Senate was of the view that having regard to this new evidence, disciplinary proceedings against the teams had ceased to be appropriate and were no longer in the interest of the sport.

The Senate will therefore recommend to the World Motor Sport Council that the guilty verdict of 29 June against the teams be cancelled. It is anticipated that this recommendation will be put to the World Motor Sport Council by means of a fax vote in the next few days.