Hi Lee,
"Its not like its a new track, it was perfectly fine last year"
The track surface was changed around the bend that caused all the problems. Michelin were not aware of this and neither were the teams.
On a related note the tyres do suffer a very different loading regime to any other circuit at Indy. Not an excuse but perhaps a mitigating circumstance.
"they bough the wrong tyres to the race, did Michelin have ANY tyre they could have ran the race with? Ie harder compound? if so could have the flown them in, and switched them in the pits, as I understand the rules that you CAN change the tyres if they are deemed unsafe?"
They tried to do this but as they could not identify (nor prove on a test rig etc) in the timeframe exactly what was causing the problem they were not able to supply a tyre that they could guarantee would work safely.
As Pierre Dupasquier (spelling?) said this was the worst race event of his career.
Ian