Michelin - the fallout?

[Super Tourer]

Michelin messed up, they admit and tried to rectify it but couldn't - by that time the matter was out of their hands. The who's and why's of that are debated on another thread -the question here is what will the after effects be for Michelin?

Undoubtedly there will be calls for financial compensation, both from the IMS, the promoter of the race and the fans that attended the race - in the end those calls will end up on Michelins desk, compensating fans and the promoter could cost $40M. Even arguing potentially thousands of law suits could be very costly.

Probably, US lawyers wil be advising TV companies and the like on whether they can claim they have paid for an event that wasn't delivered in it's entirety.

There will also be the question of what constitutes an entry - if those cars had pulled out on Friday, BE would have faced a breach on contract with the US GP promoter over the number of cars on the grid. Some fine print will be poured over but lawyers will claim that 14 of the cars lined up on the dummy grid in the full knowledge that they had no intention of making the start or racing - contractually this will be interesting.

Sponsors may seek compensation for their cars not appearing - it will be a test of their 'partners' loyalty whether they get passed to Michelin - however we didn't hear any of the usual 'we win together and lose together' type talk over the weekend, the teams leaving no doubt that this was Michelin's instruction and problem. This could run into millions of dollars if pursued.

Brand damage - how many F1 fans needing to buy new tyres for their car this week, will not buy Michelin's in protest? Or more starkly Bridgestone delivered a product that Michelin couldn't.

Ultimately their exit from F1?
The FIA have made it clear that they want a control tyre formulae - the debacle this weekend has effectively handed that to the FIA. BE described Michelin's future in F1 as 'not good'. Despite bullish comments about continued commitment to F1, etc, etc I think this will be Michelin's last year in F1 for a while.