Dennis: Teams Faced Prosecution at Indy

That is the claim of McLaren boss Ron Dennis, who told reporters at Magny-Cours on Friday that subsequent analysis of the legal situation in Indiana revealed that the teams were open to legal threats as soon as it became obvious that Michelin had problems with their tyres.

His comments have been aimed at further emphasising that there was no way for the Michelin teams to have raced in the United States Grand Prix without a chicane having been built prior to Turn 13.

"The litigation issue is very clear in America," said Dennis is a hastily organised press conference in front of the Michelin trucks. "The subsequent legal information that was passed to us not only demonstrated that if we had raced and there had been an accident that we would have been criminally prosecuted, but even worse, even if we had raced with no accidents, we would have been criminally prosecuted.

"There is a law in Indiana which says if you knowingly conduct an act in which period you know that you are effecting a dangerous act, then that alone is enough for conviction.

"No one seems to understand how we did not have the option of racing in those conditions. The only thing that Michelin would agree to, and it had to be something that they agreed to and put in writing to us, to undo the letter that they'd served everyone on Sunday morning, was that if a chicane had been put in.

"And if the speed had been reduced, then they would have given written notification. And we were never in that position. That's not a negative remark about anybody or anything. It's a simple position that we were in - we couldn't race."