JULY 1, 2005

Trouble at the GPDA?

The Grand Prix Drivers Association is to meet this afternoon in Magny-Cours and the word in the paddock on Friday morning was that there is likely to be trouble between the majority of the members and Michael Schumacher, one of the directors of the organisation, about what happened and Indianapolis and what has happened since. There was a hint of the tensions yesterday during the FIA press conference when the subject came up. Nineteen drivers signed a letter to the FIA as part of the evidence put forward by the F1 teams at the FIA World Council meeting on Wednesday.

The letter was not signed by either Ferrari driver, nor by Jordan drivers Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan.

"As far as I understand, it was an initiative from Renault," said Schumacher. "I don't recall they called me, first of all. I would have been surprised if they had anyway. Just to make clear, this was not a GPDA thing. I think we just have different opinions about it, which is only natural so I would not have signed it."

Michael later reiterated the point.

"As I said, the GPDA was not involved in that one because it's nothing to do with circuit safety or where you have to look for an issue where you have a problem with something, here it is a mechanical situation, from one team to another, which is not a subject matter for the GPDA to get involved in."

However this led another GPDA director Jarno Trulli to respond.

"I received the document direct from the GPDA," said Jarno. "We all know how many people are in the GPDA and probably most of us here are GPDA members. So, I don't really understand the situation and I will try to understand it better tomorrow when we will have a meeting. Anyway, we will all get the information from the GPDA by email. So nobody can say I didn't get the message. You can only say I didn't agree. That is my opinion. But I think it is better to discuss it more."

The Grand Prix Drivers Association is to meet this afternoon in Magny-Cours and the word in the paddock on Friday morning was that there is likely to be trouble between the majority of the members and Michael Schumacher, one of the directors of the organisation,

A number of the drivers are known to be very upset at what happened in Indianapolis and there are likely to be ructions when the drivers get together. Perhaps we may even see a change in the list of directors.