Disgrace (Indy spectators' behaviour)

[Hazard]

Originally Posted by Speed

Look what JV said about the issue and what he'd do...
Jacques Villeneuve, a past winner at the hugely popular Indy 500, admitted that he might not have finished his 'Bud' had he stood in the crowd. "I'd probably to the same thing," said the Canadian. "But it's not Ferrari's fault that our tyres don't work. I'm not sure that F1 will ever recover in America now."

http://www.f1racing.net/en/news.php?newsID=90269

I'd like to hear the actual wording of the question before judging that answer. I highly suspect that one's been taken out of context.

[GP Racer]

A very few beers get thrown, at the worst sporting scandal in our countries history, and thats worth a thread? Please! How much worse it could have been elsewhere...

[Menelaos]

Guys, they're lucky this gp was not in Greece. Believe me things could be much worse. Most greek guys are totally unable to understand that drivers don't need to be killed because the FIA has robbed you.

Anyway, I sincerely hope those idiots who threw things will be severely punished. The FIA and all 10 teams (including the ones that did NOT race) must take legal action to identify these people and send them to trial. I'm very glad some of the fans have already taken legal action against the FIA, they were very right to do so, but the FIA must also take legal action against those idiots who could have killed innocent people, either drivers or marshals (in case of an accident they are not 100% safe).

[eatapc]

Originally Posted by Tony Clifton

The best place for this to have occurred was a place like the US or Japan. The US and Japanese race fans don't know how to really riot.

The national championships in college football and basketball often produce riots after the game -- but those are drunken celebration riots by college students. You're right that U.S. race fans are not the types to have an angry riot, but I suspect that race fans in general are not as rowdy as football fans.

Don't forget that there were tens of thousands of foreign tourists attending the USGP; these people were so passionate about the sport that they travelled (at great financial cost, and in some cases with great difficulty, given the post-9/11 travel restrictions) all the way over here to watch a race that didn't really happen. A dozen or so idiots out of 150,000 at Indy is pretty remarkable, but I think we would have witnessed the same general ratio of good behavior to bad if this fiasco had occurred at another F1 venue. Maybe at Monaco they would have been hurling tins of caviar instead of beer.

[Chicago76]

1-I think there were even more people there than the track estimated. I have been to every F1 race at Indianapolis, and this was the 2nd largest crowd I saw behind the inagural. I think lowering the estimate was a really small step at damage control. Not that it mattered if 125K or 175K saw that mess out there.

2-From my view (in the Northwest Vista and the two neighboring stands), there were probably 9 or 10 cans thrown. This area probably accomodates about 30-45K and is located coming off the straight and through the first series of turns. Cans thrown from this location posed no threat to the drivers because the cars cut into the road course at this point. At best, the cans can only hit the unused part of the speedway oval. I did see a spectator get hit, however.

3-Someone trying to get a can on the track is no small feat. The restraining fence has pretty small holes, so throwing a can at the mesh had maybe a 1 in 4 chance of getting through. Throwing it over the fence would not be easy either, depending on where you were seated. I think that if people saw that it was easily done, things would have been much uglier.

4-Security stood no chance. There was one security person at each entrance to the stands. In my section, there were probably 50 rows containing about 1500 people. They were totally outmanned for anything like this.

5-I walked out when several of the most upset fans did after 5-10 laps. Those that were throwing cans were easy to recognize on the way out and fell into two categories: foreign fans who had travelled half way around the world and Americans with a bit of NASCAR in them.

6-The worst thing I saw occurred when I was exiting the facility. An Italian guy was irate and threatened a kid who was selling race programs.

It wasn't pretty, but I really think all things considered, this could have been much worse.

[Don K]

Throwing bottles on a race track is very dangerous.



But apart from the danger,
Fans in America throwing bottles at F1 drivers is not really different from
fans in France throwing bottles at American Cyclist Greg Lemond, just because he is about to beat their local favourite in the deciding stages of the Tour de France.

[Menelaos]

Yes of course, that goes without saying, any such action is totally unacceptable.

[eatapc]

Originally Posted by Don K

Fans in America throwing bottles at F1 drivers is not really different from fans in France throwing bottles at American Cyclist Greg Lemond, just because he is about to beat their local favourite in the deciding stages of the Tour de France.

Equally dangerous but fundamentally different in motivation and intent.

Now if two thirds of the riders in the Tour had pulled out because a supplier announced that its tires might fail catastrophically during a stage in the Pyrenees, and the Tour officials refused to put in speed bumps to slow the riders down during one particularly steep decent, as requested by that manufacturer, then we'd have a somewhat more analogous situation.

[Dixie Flatline]

I've seen a few letters to a couple of Formula One sites that finger the Central and South Americans for the behaviour.

Whomever is responsible should have a look at themselves. The sport is dangerous enough as it is without having to dodge missiles.

[LongJohnSilver]

I was there and the throwing of cans and other objects was pretty limited. Most hit the catch fence and fell on the safe side. The worst thing I saw thrown was a rented seat back. For $7 you could rent a two cushion seat that attached to the bench seats. Some one through theirs, luckily however, the stands are about 20 feet from the fence, giving them no chance of getting it over and onto the track.

Obviously it is completly unacceptable to throw things onto the track. A mature adult should realize that it is not worth risking human injury or death, nor was it the people on track who were at fault.

My hat (and airhorn) goes off to the Marshalls who risked their own lives to keep the track clean. In this respect we were lucky that there was only 6 cars racing as it provided enough gaps between traffic for them to pick up the debris on the track.

And yes, you can bring coolers with food or drinks into the track. They check them (albeit very breifly) for glass bottles or any illegal things. Some Italian-Canadian fans who sat behind us in Qualifying brought in a full smoked Salmon, head skin and all which they pulled apart and passed around on a paper plate. They also had some wine in plastic bottles. Quite a nice and fun bunch.

[Dutton]

It is, first and foremost, a ridiculously dangerous thing to do. Beyond that, what I didn't get was how illogical it was..... tyring to punish the only cars that raced....

Who knows what nationality the people were, but who cares? The point is the peoples' actions were ridiculous, not speculation over their nationality (as seems to be the general consensus).