“Hey, F1. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” The headline in The Indianapolis Star on Monday 20 June 2005 summed up the post-race feeling after Formula 1 had trashed a marketplace it desperately wished to cultivate. That irony had seemed lost on those in power, specifically FIA president Max Mosley, as a pig-headed political conflict reduced round nine of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship to a farce.
The arrogant insult heaped upon 150,000 spectators was summed up by two photographs running side-by-side beneath the newspaper’s scornful headline. One image showed 20 F1 cars leaving the grid to begin the parade lap. The other picture, taken a few minutes later from exactly the same angle, laid bare the sham of just six cars taking the start from a desolate grid.
