amaist

Please, don't use that case as a supporting point in rants against lawyers. As much as I dislike frivolous lawsuits and the whole dirty game of settlements this case had good merit.
The lady got 3rd degree burns from scalding hot coffee. Such coffee is actually not fit for human consumption as it will burn your mouth. No decent coffee shop would serve it that hot as it is dangerous. Anyone can stumble and spill whatever they are carrying. Accidents happen. But serving ridiculously hot coffee is preventable.

As for USGP they should hold it in a more fun place. I just got back from downtown Montreal. It seems that the race itself is an afterthought. Everyone is too drunk to care. I bet if the Michelin fiasco happened in Montreal there would be about 10 people who notice.
How about New Orleans as part of some rebuilding project? Vegas is a great spot, as well. Just don't run it in July or August. Do it as one of the final races of the season. Great TV ratings in Europe (prime time there due to time zones) and if its a close championship it's even better.

ltc

George,
Hasn't Bernie and Max (along with the help of Ferrari) essentially made the GPMA a moot point?
With almost everyone signed up (re: figured out exactly how much $$ it would take from Bernie and commercial revenue) with the 'new' Concorde Agreement, how relevant is anything the GPMA says?

Geo

That is a good question and one I've been pondering myself.

However, I think the bigger point here is that the manufacturers have categorically stated that the US is vitally important to them and that one USGP may not be enough. Many of the manufacturers have said this independently and the GPMA has stated it as a body.

Back to the relevance of the GPMA, I think it will be interesting to see how it plays out and if the GPMA stays together. I think and hope it will. They may not have created their own series, but if they can continue to hang together they should be able to wield some influence, especially with the sale of FOM to CVC Partners. The next year or two will be interesting.

pedsurg

Wow, a supporter of the MacDonalds coffee fiasco! You don't see that everyday. I suppose the pyschic deserved several million dollars award when she claimed she loss her powers after a CT scan of the brain.
Jack

JasonAndreas

The federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) are not just performance standards, they are also design standards. When you don't take those standards into account during the design of your <insert type of product here> it can substantially increase your initial product costs to eventually comply. It goes both ways over the atlantic.


One of the major reasons PCNA lost the Turbo lawsuit was because they tried to pull one over on the jury.






I always wondered how much of a loss Ferrari would have had for the year had they not agreed to Bernie's plans and received the XXX million cash infusion. And how much that would have hurt the now-cancelled IPO?

Geo

Before you are too in awe, you should become more familiar with the case. Micky D stepped on it's own Johnson. There was a great article in the the WSJ on this case 11 or so years ago. By the time I got through reading it I had a whole new (and nearly 180* change) in my perspective. There is good info out there if you really want to know about it.

The 930 case against Porsche IMHO is totally stupid. Juries can be filled with idiots (which I guess makes Bernie's and your points).

pedsurg

I'm familiar with the article. The gist, as I recall, dealt with how poorly MacDonalds treated their famous coffee drinker after the burn. Stupid: yes; noncaring: yes; Looks terrible to a jury of their peers: (that's a joke) you bet. But we are all paying dearly from this one case of may years ago. Haven't had a decent HOT cup of Jo in years. : ) Read the journal article from last Friday. I'm sure our driving events are on someone's target.
Jack

9-kevin-11

Ditto on the McDonalds case...

IIRC, the woman asked that McDonalds pay her medical bills - for the burns - something like $20,000... The local restaurant refused, so she took them to court... Along the way, an internal memo got released - showing that there was a policy to serve coffee extremely hot - to keep people from coming back for refills...

I really hate the Porsche case though...

Cory M

It blows my mind that someone can be driving over 2 times the legal speed limit, lose control, crash, and not be held responsible for the accident, but that the manufacturer of the car can be held responsible. If this moron was driving within the limits of the law there would have been no accident.

Palting

That's our American Justice system.

pedsurg

You use that "justice " word pretty loosely. : )
Jack

amaist

I am not going to guess at what your tastes are in coffee but, as for myself, I don't feel like putting something in my mouth that causes 3rd degree burns. Hot coffee does not mean burning hot coffee but I am not much of a coffee person so I may be off base here.

pedsurg

Agreed, but the real problem is when your carry/wear a hot cup of coffee between your legs and then complain about the consequences.

If the coffee is/was too hot to drink "the market" would cause an eventual adjustment. Seem to recall a recent major change in MacDonald's coffee re taste/quality. Not legally mandated; market mandated.

Jack

Garen

Wow. I hadn't read the details about the 930 case. It seems that the alleged change by Porsche management to the memo is what did them in. Juries usually like to punish "evil doers" regardless of how lame the actual responsible party is. I doubt that the outcome of the crash would be any different if they were in a "driver friendly" Civic, and were traveling at the same speed (of course, that would be asking a late 70's Civic to get up to 60mph on a residential street, which would be very challenging!!).

Oh, as for the original topic, yeah. I agree. Most of the decisions that have recently been made to F1 seem really lame from a spectator, non-competitor point of view. From track locations to speed reduction measures to engine packages to qualifying rules, etc.

amaist

I think they are concentrating too much on making a good television spectacle. At the track experience suffers greatly from it. As Bernie does not make any direct money from spectators he does not care. There are plenty of track owners and national governments willing to pay him a huge fee for the privilege of hosting an event. Until they smarten up we will not see much improvement for on-site fans.