Michelin’s $22.5m refund

By way of apology for the United States Grand Prix fiasco, Michelin have offered to refund all tickets for the 2005 United States Grand Prix and buy tickets for 20,000 spectators at the 2005 race to the same event in 2006, at a total cost of up to USD22.5m (GBP 1.4m / EUR 2m). This represents one-eight of the tickets sold for the 2005 race, leading to speculation that the remaining seven-eighths may be paid for by the seven Michelin client teams.Hopefully Michelin’s generosity will be matched by the teams and the FIA, all of whom had a role to play in the unfolding of the farce, and may lead to a more positive conclusion to this sorry episode than was first expected.