World tin-tops’ ‘2005 Indy’?

The decision to cancel the World Touring Car Cup races last weekend on the Nurburgring Nordschleife because of Goodyear tyre safety fears, just 15 minutes before the first, couldn’t be anything other than painful, costly and humiliating for everyone with skin in the game. But it was the right call, or more accurately as Honda’s William de Braekeleer put it, “the least worst decision”.

You could say this was an ‘Indianapolis 2005 moment’, but let’s keep some perspective. Back then at the US Grand Prix, on one of Formula 1’s darkest