Indianapolis ? All Michael Schumacher wanted to do was repay a favor. All he did was set off another round of controversy about sportsmanship, team orders and the legitimacy of another Ferrari “victory.”

When the five-time world champion slowed down on the last lap of the U.S. Grand Prix to allow teammate Rubens Barrichello to pass him, it was payback for the Austrian Grand Prix earlier this year when Barrichello was ordered to let Schumacher pass for the victory.

Click to see a photo gallery of all the action.

Now Schumacher’s kind gesture is greeted with the kind of skepticism usually reserved for Soviet elections and miracle cure-all products advertised on late-night infomercials.

“There was no plan, in all honesty. It was just that I felt he deserves to win this race,” Schumacher said in the post-race press conference. “We have a fantastic team and we always supported each other. And today I thought it was a good opportunity to go equal over the line. We tried, we failed by a little bit.”

A very little bit.

Only one-hundredth of a second separated the two cars, the closest finish in the 52-year history of Formula One racing.

For all his gallantry, the media skewered Schumacher with questions about the wisdom and ethics of his decision.

Asked a reporter from the Washington post: “Yes, Michael, I’m an American journalist and this is my first Formula One race. Certainly I don’t know the politics of your sport, but could you please help me understand why the American fans who paid a good bit of money to come here, why they shouldn’t be resentful or offended that they’ve seen a sporting event where the outcome was manipulated?”

“Michael, Why do this so obviously? You must have been aware that another staged finish is going to draw criticism of Formula One?” asked a longtime motor sports writer.

“Michael, for the good of the sport, would you consider going to your management and saying, ‘Well, next year no team orders at all. Let’s just let me and Rubens fight every race any way we can and let the best man win,’?” asked another who wouldn’t let the subject drop.

Schumacher, visibly tiring of the same question being asked different ways, said, “We’re wearing the racing overalls and there are certain people who make decisions for what us guys have to do. It’s not for us to tell them what will be done.”

And the man who won the race was simply smiling.

“I don’t think I will be worrying thinking that Michael let me by,” the buoyant Brazilian said. “Today was a payback (for Austria) and I’m completely happy with the situation.”

Team orders are part of racing and always will be. It’s unlikely that the sport will see anything like this again soon because of the unexpected outrage it has generated.

Ferrari has dominated this year – winning 14 of 16 races to date – that they can be considered the ’27 Yankees of F1. Some people, however, seem intent on trying to them into the cheating “Black Sox” instead. It’s an accusation of no merit.

All Michael Schumacher was trying to do was repay a favor.

Meanwhile, back on the track, two of the best drives of the day were by Juan Pablo Montoya in his Williams and Jacques Villenueve in his BAR.

Montoya tangled with teammate Ralf Schumacher on the first turn of the second lap. The accident knocked Ralf Schumacher’s rear wing off his car.

He pitted for a replacement and rejoined the fray a lap down. He was never a factor.

Montoya, backed by a sizable contingent of Colombian fans, charged back.

He clawed past Villenueve, the Renault of Jarno Trulli and the Sauber of Heinz-Harald Frentzen. He also benefitted from the untimely demise of the McLaren-Mercedes of Kimi Raikkonen.

Though Montoya has yet to win a race this year (only Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard are non-Ferrari winners this year, with one victory apiece) and had only one win last year, he is the future of F1.

Villenueve drove this week like a man trying to justify a reported $20 million salary for next year. A brilliant qualify run and a valiant sixth-place finish capped a string of successful performances for the team.

However, BAR bosses have a tough decision looming: pay Jacques his money and hope for the best, or hire a less-expensive driver (either Mika Salo, who won’t be back with Toyota next year, or veteran Jos Verstappen) for $3 million and sow and plow the other $17 million into engineering?

Villenueve is a skilled and proven driver. But the team isn’t going to develop a better car if they are spending their money on personnel instead of testing and development.

Renault’s Trulli also drove a solid race. He leapt from eighth to fourth by the second lap and fended off most challengers. McLaren’s David Coulthard finished third.

Female driver wows the crowd

IRL driver Sarah Fisher came to the U.S. Grand Prix to run three demonstration laps as part of a promotion for one of her corporate sponsors, TAG/Heuer watches. The diminutive driver, who stands barely over 5 feet tall, received the biggest ovation on Friday when she took to the track in a McLaren-Mercedes. Encouragement from loud cheers to banners proclaiming “You go girl” greeted her.

She did not disappoint.

Fisher’s three laps were not at full-throttle but they were fast enough to impress the crowd, her sponsors and the normally skeptical F1 crowd. “Every American driver knows that Formula One is the pinnacle,” she said.

Asked if she would ever drive in F1, she said, “If it was the right team and the right people. I don’t see any reason a woman can’t compete in Formula One.”

Should Fisher pursue a Formula One ride, she would have a steep learning curve. Her open-wheel driving experience is entirely on U.S. oval tracks.

Of the 17 races in the F1 season, two of the 13 turns at Indy are the closest the cars come to oval racing.

What was the biggest difference between IRL cars and Formula One cars? “The biggest difference was in acceleration and deceleration,” but ultimately “a race car is a race car.”

And about that first acceleration? “The first time was ‘Whoa, Thank God this has traction control.'” She drove Kimi Raikkonen’s backup car – carefully. “I didn’t want to put it in the wall.”

Fisher started racing at age 5 and has been doing it for 17 years. She turns 22 this October. She is determined to continue racing and knows that her ability and spirit will take her far. “As long as I can do what I have the ability to do, I’ll keep providing the results to win.”

American champions prepare new team

Though the Ferrari domination surprised no one, an announcement by U.S. racing legend Dan Gurney did. He announced that he and his partners would field an all-American F1 team in 2003.

Gurney, who had four F1 wins during a successful career in the early 1960s, is teaming up with America’s first world champion, Phil Hill, who won in 1961 driving for Ferrari, and other business partners. “I’d like it to be a U.S. Formula One team with U.S. drivers,” he said. “If we have our way, we’ll see you here next September.”

Gurney said they have a commitment from Ford-Cosworth to supply engines, and “we could have a signed contract in a couple week’s time.”

“This is the perfect time for this to happen.”

This would be the first American-owned team to take to the track since a one-year effort by longtime CART car owner Carl Haas in 1986. The last sustained American-led effort was Roger Penske’s team in the mid-1970s.

McLaren team principal Ron Dennis thinks Gurney’s effort would benefit the sport, but wonders if Gurney knows quite what he’s in for. “As long as they have the budget and choose the right people, its something we should welcome,” Dennis said. “I don’t think they know how steep the learning curve is.”

A formula to American success

There hasn’t been and American drive in F1 since 1993, when Michael Andretti raced half a season for McLaren with lackluster results. Danny Sullivan, winner of the 1985 Indy 500 and an F1 driver in 1983, aims to change that.

He leads an effort by Red Bull energy drinks to develop young American talent in European racing series that feed into F1. Sullivan announced the names of the 14 American drivers, in their late teens and early 20s, that will vie for a coveted F1 ride.

Later this fall, the drivers will run test cars on tracks in Europe. The field will then be narrowed to four, who will race in European junior formula series for the year. One or two drivers will make it for further sponsorship and race seats.

Formula 1 fast facts

• Juan Pablo Montoya won’t slow down after the final grand prix in Japan. He and his fiancill be married two weeks after the race in Cartegena, Colombia.
• About 250 media members representing 20 countries reported and photographed the race. About 20 percent of the European and Japanese reporters were female. There were few U.S. women and fewer people of color.
• Many of the teams that carry tobacco sponsorship changed their car’s paint schemes for the weekend. It is all fallout from the national tobacco settlement reached between state attorneys general and the tobacco industry. Marlboro logos were dropped from the Ferrari cars, Lucky Strike from BAR and Benson & Hedges from Jordan. Cigarette brands that don’t market in the states ran their normal livery.
• Jaguar announced it will continue its nameplate in F1. After several years of high salaries and poor results, officials at Ford, which owns Jaguar, were wary of constantly pouring money into Jaguar F1. However, a series of points-paying finishes, including the team’s first podium finish – Eddie Irvine’s third place at the Italian Grand Prix – gave reason for hope.
• Seen at the track: Ray Evernham, former crew chief for NASCAR champ Jeff Gordon, who now oversees Dodge’s NASCAR effort; CART team owner Carl Haas; 1969 Indy 500 champ and 1978 F1 champ Mario Andretti; three-time F1 world champ Jackie Stewart; 2001 and 2002 Indy 500 champ Helio Castroneves; and former “ER” actor Anthony Edwards.
• Chances are that James Bond will be driving a Jaguar in his next film. The Jag-F1 cars sported “007” logos on their mirrors.
• The financially troubled Arrows team did not make the trip to Indy. Rumors of an impending sale continued but no buyer has emerged.
• Best bumper sticker of the weekend: “I’m not only perfect I’m Brazilian too.”
• Best quote of the weekend (as reported in the Indianapolis Star): Michael Schumacher speculating on the mayhem if the tightly controlled F1 paddock let in as many people as NASCAR does: “I think we would be late for all sessions. Imagine letting Italians into the garage. That’s a little complicated to handle.”
• Jenson Button and Heinz-Harald Frentzen made it three for three at the USGP. Both drivers had driven all three races at Indy for three different teams. Button drove in 2000 for Williams, 2001 for Benetton and this year for Renault. He has signed to drive with BAR next year. Frentzen finished third in 2000 for Jordan, raced in 2001 as a late-season replacement for Prost, started this year driving for Arrows, and competed this year for Sauber. Frentzen will continue with Sauber next year.
• If 100,000 or so people in one place can look sparse, that was the USGP at Indy. The upper deck of the grandstands were filled (the better to see all the track), turn one was packed as was the infield section, but there were plenty of seats to be had at race time.
• As another sign that the United States is on a war footing, a military flyover before the start of the race was done not by fighter jets, but by C-130 cargo transporters.
• Next time you fill up at the gas station, consider this: Formula One cars use about 3 liters of fuel per lap. That works out to roughly 0.3 miles per gallon.

– Phil Wilke is a free-lance writer who covers auto racing. He can be
reached at pwilke@ixks.com.