THE boss may have tripled his salary but the business of Formula One is suffering and its most important market is getting ready to bang its doors shut without a decent apology from the sport that served up its greatest sporting humiliation. Accounts for Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One Administration that runs Formula One’s commercial empire suffered a sales slump of $81 million (about £45 million) last year as Michael Schumacher browbeat a worldwide audience into submission with his total dominance of the sport.

Ecclestone hardly noticed, though, as his salary rose to $4.1 million. But he should be concerned because, if sales are going to recover, the United States is a prime target and the rebuilding of Formula One’s reputation is a priority after the race that never was in Indianapolis. Michelin, which could not guarantee the safety of its tyres to the seven teams who pulled out of the US Grand Prix, has already offered a ticket refund to the 120,000 spectators.

That is not enough, according to Max Mosley, president of the FIA, the governing body, who believes Michelin should pick up the tab for a free US Grand Prix in 2006, a bill that could run to at least $50 million. But the tyre company, on home soil this weekend for the French Grand Prix, is not for moving, particularly in the face of Mosley’s verbal onslaughts.

Edouard Michelin, the company’s president, has had a torrid few days dealing with Mosley and his offer to the United States is not conditional. As Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin’s sporting director, put it with more than a hint of sarcasm: “We have said we screwed up at Indianapolis but we are not open to negotiation. We have made a statement and that is it.

“It is nice of the FIA to have good ideas. It would have been interesting if they had that many ideas before the race in Indianapolis.”

Burying their embarrassment is a priority for Michelin, which does its biggest business in the United States. Hundreds of Michelin staff will be here this weekend and they will see a race, unlike the Americans, but there will be no lack of opportunity next year if Ecclestone has his way. He has asked the FIA to mark off a record 20 dates on the Formula One calendar in 2006, a request that was met with a groan in the paddock.