The chicane was not the answer

I agree with Semi's comment that the chicane was not the answer - Barichello said exactly the same thing (f1racing.net) as Charlie Whiting, and Whiting is one of the few respectable people in F1 management.

Barichello also suggested the most sensible option within the rules, that the teams could run through the pits every couple of laps to avoid turn 13, although a busier pitlane has it's own safety issues.

My mate Nick and I came up with probably half a dozen ways to solve the problem this morning. My favourite is to amend the rules to allow tyre change at any pitstop, each time incurring a 10 or 20 second penalty. You would never do it unless you really had to - but if all Michelin teams pitted 5 times for tyres (Michelin said it would be safe if they changed tyres every 10 laps) then they would have been racing each other for the minor points. This would also have legitimised the points haul by the Bridgestone teams as a reward for being well prepared.

Of course the problem is not that no options were given the go-ahead : no options were seriously entertained by Max or Bernie. In the words of Neil Crompton, "The answer is no - what's the question?". And that is the real problem. The Indianapolis owners were not asked about the feasability of the chicane, the FIA did not suggest any ideas to solve the problem, even their pseudo-suggestion of "drive slower" had no meat to it about how accidents might be avoided behind heavily breaking Michelin shod cars...

Now the FIA is blaming the teams and looking for a rule to penalise them under (Michelin teams summoned by FIA [f1.com]), Race boycotts are a realistic option (grandprix.com), and I don't want to have to wait for 2008 to see another F1 race!