Response from Michelin?

[Sodemo]

Does anyone know if Michelin have issued a press release post Sepang?

It would be interesting to hear their (Pierre Duspasier's-?) response to the weekend.

[Red]

Michelin's day Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director
"I would like to pay tribute to Juan Pablo Montoya and Jenson Button for the way they drove today. Neither put a foot wrong. Juan Pablo chased hard after the leader and set the quickest lap of the race, more than two seconds faster than any driver went in last season's corresponding fixture. Button faced fierce pressure all race and fully deserved his first F1 podium finish. This event illustrated the close, competitive nature of grand prix racing and it was pleasing to see four of our partner teams record strong points finishes."

Pascal Vasselon, Michelin F1 programme manager
"Temperatures in the race were not quite as high as we had anticipated but the two dry-weather compounds we chose continued to deliver consistent performance, just as they have all weekend. As for the damage to the right rear tyre of Mark Webber's Jaguar, there is clear evidence that this was caused by contact with another competitor."

[climb]

Expectably, their press release is out of topic; this is a hard defeat for them, much more than in Australia; infact, if in 2003 the two tyre manufacturers proved very different according to the temperature, this year were expected to catch up in the conditions where they used to be weak.
Now, after two races, apparently only BS have done their homework, improving a lot in the heat, whereas Michelin are still weak in the cool, and no more dominant under hot temperatures.
Tough times for them; I'm just wondering whht are they thinking about it at BAR...

[Damon]

I doubt BAR would be any better off on Bridgestones. They work exceptionally well on the Ferraris, but the Saubers were nowhere. The Bridgestones are so good on the Ferraris because they are produced with that cars specific needs in mind.

[climb]

Considering the heat, Massa's eight place shouldn't be understimated; Sauber and Ferrari are on two completely different levels so it's a hard task to compare them.

[Testure]

Don't forget that Ferrari, indeed most of the Bridgestone runners, ran less fuel in qualifying than Williams and BAR. Looking at when the cars pitted or at the fastest laps in the race, it seems to me that Michelin still have an advantage. Ferrari's success is more down to Ferrari than Bridgestone, I think.

Actually, read the race report from grandprix.com, it makes a number of good points. Quote:

Michael Schumacher later shrugged off the difference in the length of stints but it was of key importance. Ferrari had qualified with a lot less fuel than had Williams and yet Montoya had been pretty quick. In other words, Ferrari's advantage in qualifying had been artificial. Given what was learned in Melbourne about Ferrari's aerodynamic advantage, it was fair to say that in Malaysia the Ferrari was ahead not because the Bridgestones were faster nor even because they were more consistent than the Michelins. It was because the car was better. In other words, in the hot conditions Michelin still has a tyre advantage.

[Mr V]

Originally posted by climb

Now, after two races, apparently only BS have done their homework, improving a lot in the heat, whereas Michelin are still weak in the cool, and no more dominant under hot temperatures.

Whilst i have to say, i agree with what you've said here climb, according to Martin Brundle, during yesterdays race. Michael took a calculated gamble going with the softs, and the tempreture was a lot lower than it historically has been, (just as we saw in Oz), had it been hotter, Rubens might have picked the better tyre. How it would have faired against the Michelin, had it been hotter, who knows?

*if there is a god, he must be a Michael Schumacher fan* [/JOKE]

[Gt_R]

Response from Michelin? From Autosport:

""Dupasquier blamed the teams his company supplies for the shortfall in performance between them and Ferrari, and said Michelin is doing just as good a job as Bridgestone.

"Bridgestone will never be ahead of us," he declared. "Do not confuse Ferrari and Bridgestone. If they had Michelin tyres on their car, there would be no championship any more. We are not at fault, but everyone has to push. It is a total. If you have one weak point anywhere, it doesn't work."""

There seem to be this evident blame culture among top runners from Michelin camp. So far we've heard Michelin blame teams for the loss, JPM blame Ferrari for 2nd... when's Ron gonna speak up too? too busy solving the problems on his hands.

[Redblurr]

yes, I also heard that McLaren did not give Williams any tyre testing data for the first time in X amount of time

[Speed]

Rain was at start, right ?
No high temps then..., I guess.
Bahrain will be a different story...

[grumpy1]

Correct me if I'm wrong but MS said he was running light during quailifying.The second car on the grid was green wasn,t it?They use Michelin don't they?MS stated in the press conference afterwards he had nothing more to give and was lucky to take pole.
Unfortunatly we will never know how much fuel MW was carrying thanks to Ralf but it would have been interesting to find out.
Damon & testure have it right when they say its about Ferrari being so far ahead.As Pierre D says put Michelins on a Ferrari and there is no championship.

The Grumpy1