Heidfeld: Safety is paramount

Nick Heidfeld believes seven Formula One team bosses were right to pull out of the United States Grand Prix, claiming the Indianapolis farce was preferable to a serious accident.

Only six cars started yesterday’s race after all 14 Michelin users pulled into the pits on the warm-up lap amid fears over tyre safety.

Ralf Schumacher crashed heavily on the banked final turn at Indianapolis on Friday due to a puncture and Michelin advised their teams not to race unless changes were made to the corner.

Proposals to introduce a chicane were vetoed by world governing body the FIA and seven teams decided their cars were not safe to race.

Heidfeld claims that brave decision was the right one, fearing the repercussions of a high-speed tyre failure.

The Williams driver said: “We would like to drive but there is nothing we could have done about it from a drivers’ side of things.

“It was clearly Michelin’s decision. If they tell us it’s not safe we have to follow their instructions. Michelin said if they put a chicane in they would be happy to drive.

“I didn’t have a problem but we saw on one of our tyres there was a small issue and the problem is you never know how that would progress over more laps. We might have simply been lucky because on some cars we saw big troubles.

“It was a difficult decision to make for Michelin but in the end they put the safety of the drivers and spectators first.

“It is very hard and difficult now but imagine if we had run and there was a big crash, it would have been even worse.”

Jenson Button saw his fine third place in qualifying come to nothing when he joined his 13 colleagues in trundling into the pits instead of onto the grid.

The BAR-Honda driver looked downcast walking to his car pre-race and offered his sympathy to over 100,000 fans who were forced to sit through 73 largely uneventful laps.

However, the 25-year-old spelt out the drivers’ determination not to race if their safety was in question.

“There’s not much we can do,” he said. “It’s terrible for the fans, but we have to think about our safety first. It’s not safe to drive around.

“There has been a lot of discussion trying to resolve the issue but we couldn’t risk it, it’s too dangerous.

“We’re sorry for the fans, it’s obviously disappointing for them. We have just got to look forward to Magny-Cours [in two weeks].”

Michael Schumacher won the six-car race from Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello with Tiago Monteiro claiming third for Jordan, their first podium since 2003.

The other Jordan of Narain Karthikeyan was fourth with Minardi pair Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher fifth and sixth respectively.