2005 United States Grand Prix - Aftermath

Aftermath

The win, Schumacher's only victory of 2005, moved him from fifth to third in the drivers championship. Rubens Barrichello moved from sixth to fourth, and the Ferrari team moved from fifth to third in the Constructors Championship. Both Jordan and Minardi scored points, leaving BAR-Honda as the only team not to have scored any points up to that stage of the season. However, these changes in the championship standings were dwarfed by the recriminations over the failure to find a solution which would have allowed the Michelin-shod teams to race.

Bernie Ecclestone, in answer to a question by ITV's Martin Brundle in an interview just before the start of the race, described the future of Formula One in the United States and the future of Michelin in the sport as "not good". He also said that the "incident's not the fault of the teams, to be honest with you."

The race was labelled a farce, and David Coulthard said, "It throws into doubt the future of the race in US". Some pointed to the previous disagreements between the teams and Max Mosley (which had led to the threatened creation of the Grand Prix World Championship as an alternative to Formula One) as a critical factor in the failure to reach a compromise and felt that the events at this race had greatly increased the risk of a complete rupture.

Minardi boss Paul Stoddart said immediately after the race that nine teams – all but Ferrari – agreed not to race, and had Jordan not reversed its decision at the last minute, Minardi would also have boycotted the race. In his later, lengthier, statement, he indicated that although it had been Michelin's failure to provide a reliable tyre which had initiated the events, he laid the full blame for the failure to reach some accommodation (which would have allowed a race to happen, for the benefit of the many fans who had paid considerable money for travel and tickets) at the feet of Max Mosley and the FIA, with a small share of the blame going to what he characterized as the obstructionist Ferrari team leader, Jean Todt. He furthermore called for Mosley's resignation.