Indy Boss Expects 2006 Race to Go Ahead

Speculation about the future of the race has been rife since the tyre fiasco that marred this year's Grand Prix - and it was widely believed that last month's events would lead Indianapolis chiefs to cancel their Formula One contract.

But although George believes that spectator figures will be badly dented by what happened this year, he claims that he sees no reason at the moment why the race will not go ahead in 2006.

When asked by The Indianapolis Star about his feelings of making a success of next year's event, he said: "I don't have a great deal of faith as we sit here today. But we have an agreement (with Formula One Management) to have a race and until we feel compelled to try to change that, it's certainly our preference to have it."

George is still clearly unhappy about the way Indianapolis was made a victim of the problems suffered by the teams.

And although Michelin has been blamed entirely for the course of events, after they failed to bring suitable tyres, George claims that Formula One must still take collective responsibility for what happened.

"They need to stop looking at a microcosm and start looking at the whole picture," he said. "They need to look at this as (a problem of) 'the F1 community' - period."