The Day F1 in America Died: The 2005 US Grand Prix Quiz

Answer: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

One of the oldest and most famous race tracks in the world, Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) hosts the Indianapolis 500, one of the most prestigious car races in the world. Specifically, the race was hosted on a special "infield road course" version of the track.

Answer: Ralf Schumacher

The crash, which was caused by a tyre failure, ruled Schumacher out of the rest of the race. He was replaced by Ricardo Zonta, who himself had a tyre failure and crashed. The two crashes led Michelin to use replacement tyres, which were revealed to also have the same problem as the initial tyres.

Answer: Jarno Trulli

The Italian driver, driving for the Toyota team, claimed pole position, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren. The top four cars on the grid were all competing on Michelin tyres.

Answer: Bridgestone

As it was just Michelin's tyres that were proven to not be safe on the Indianapolis track in 2005, this event is believed to be a major part of the reason why Michelin subsequently left Formula One the following year. That left Bridgestone as the sole tyre supplier to F1 until they were replaced by Pirelli for the 2011 season.

Answer: No one

Trulli was one of the many drivers who withdrew from the race due to tyre issues.

In the case of a driver withdrawing from a race post-qualifying, their grid position is left vacant. Thus no-one started from pole position at the 2005 US Grand Prix.

Another notable example was seen at the Monaco Grand Prix in 2021, where Charles Leclerc was on pole position, but then was unable to make the start due to mechanical issues - his grid position was also left vacant.

Answer: Ten

Dupasquier wrote this in a letter to Charlie Whiting, who was then Formula One's race director. Whiting replied by suggesting a potential solution would be for the cars running Michelin tyres to just slow down in the problematic turn 13.

Answer: FIA president Max Mosley threatened to cancel the race

There were plans suggested to include a chicane in the banked turn 13, which was the turn where the Michelin tyre failures happened. However, Bernie Ecclestone, CEO of Formula One Media, reported that Max Mosley, President of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (International Automobile Federation, or FIA for short), threatened to cancel the race if any change was made to the track layout.

Answer: The drivers using Michelin tyres all withdrew from the race

The Michelin runners all returned to the pits at the end of the warm up lap. This left only the cars with Bridgestone tyres to participate in the start: the Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi cars.

Answer: Michael Schumacher

Michael Schumacher had qualified the highest of the Bridgestone drivers in fifth place. By winning the race for Ferrari, he scored his only win of the 2005 season. As both the Jordans and Minardis had lined up at the back of the grid, his only nominal opponent for the win was his team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

Answer: Tiago Monteiro

Finishing in third place behind the two Ferrari drivers, Monteiro became the first Portuguese driver to finish on the podium in a Formula One race. And he sure was happy, as he sprayed the champagne while the Ferrari drivers left the podium sadly.