Michelin too soft - Dupasquier

[Adam43]

Austosport are running a story on their website and also in the mag tomorrow about Michelin. Apparently the teams have been asking for quicker tyres and they gave them this! At the expense of durability.

"It is our job to try and go as fast as we can, but this time we went a bit too far," said Michelin motorsport boss Pierre Dupasquier.

"Our teams keep saying, 'go faster'. We try and then you find a limit. We'll definitely have a more conservative compound from now. Maybe we will lose some grip, maybe not."

Autosport promise more in tomorrow's mag, so this isn't the full story.

I think this is what we all thought. It will be interesting to see how much of a change is introduced. It has mainly been Williams suffering and McLaren have been able to cope. So will the new tyres be better suited to the Williams? Maybe McLaren have had a set-up compromise to deal with it and they won't suffer too much.

This could be the disadvantage of supplying two top teams, or we could see the advantage of having two top teams pushing through development.

[Valve Bounce]

Did this have anything to do with JPM having this argument during morning warm up and coming out very late, or was that another issue?

Valve[img]http://www.**************************/smilies/bouncy.gif[/img]

[Adam43]

No it was another issue! Please let it be another issue! There is another thread about that! I just wondered what effect this might have on the Williams and McLaren tyre situation. I also wondered how much difference there was between the two tyre compounds brought to each race.

[Jukebox]

Obviously the Macs are an ace when it comes to setting up cars, the fact that they are using the same tyres (of different compound or not, am not sure) as Williams did means that William should buck up rather than complain because they should also come up with better setups to decrease tyre wears like what the Macs did.

They can't expect to have everything so perfectly done by the book, they simply have to make do with the loss in other areas in order to maximised the usage of the tyres.

[Mr V]

I think the thing is Juke, the Williams was ok at the beginning of the season when the tyres were a bit "harder", now that Michelin have gone softer it's suiting the McLarens more as they possibly have a better chassis. Patrick Head said the other day that Williams and Michelin have been in talks about the tyres but things couldn't be introduced (to suit the Williams?) in time for the Nurburgring race, but will be in place for Silverstone!

[Jukebox]

I agree with you mr v.

I heard that the Macs were pulled by Michelin rather than they made the first move. The Macs had proven that they can give better feedbacks to tyre suppliers and this important to Michelin, maybe it'll be a start like the special treatment Ferrari gets from Bridgestone and everyone knows that the Macs are ****ed at Bridgestone because of that.

Williams have a very powerful engine but their package dosen't seem to be anywhere near. Just imagine the Macs with a BMW engine!

[Mr V]

The problem for McLaren will be that Michelin can't carry on making (too) soft tyres, they have to go harder (like they were at the start of the season) and this may hand the advantage back to Williams.

[Jukebox]

Maybe Michelin have to invest heavily with two separate R&D team for both Macs and Williams. Because their pride comes with success on the track and both of the teams can do just that for them. Similarly to what Bridgestone did, by setting up a workshop at Maranello.

Funny though, i never liked the Bridgestone for my car, i'd rather go for Dunlop. Handling in the wet is a total nightmare with the Brigdestone.

[Mr V]

Originally posted by Jukebox
Maybe Michelin have to invest heavily with two separate R&D team for both Macs and Williams.

This is the trouble for Williams and McLaren, as joint
"lead teams" Michelin have to develop two tyre compounds with both teams in mind, Bridgestone develop two compounds with only one team in mind, Ferrari!

Originally posted by Jukebox
Funny though, i never liked the Bridgestone for my car, i'd rather go for Dunlop. Handling in the wet is a total nightmare with the Brigdestone.

Stop trying to drive everywhere at 150mph!!

[Jukebox]

This is the trouble for Williams and McLaren, as joint
"lead teams" Michelin have to develop two tyre compounds with both teams in mind, Bridgestone develop two compounds with only one team in mind, Ferrari!

That's the sacrifice both of them have to bear, what the GP needs is another tyre manufacturer and each of them works with the top three teams. Works well with Ferrari and it definitely boosted Bridgestone's name in the market and i myself was wooed to buy Bridgestone at first but it didn't suit well with my country's climate, maybe for the Japanese it might.

Stop trying to drive everywhere at 150mph!!

LOL

[Glen]

This came out in one of the other threads - Mclaren's influence will be very much to Williams' detriment. Mclaren have been very easy on their tyres traditionally, indeed this, together with superior fuel economy, was suggested to be the reason that they prevailed over Ferrari until 2000. So - Mclaren will stronglypush Michelin for very aggressive tyres for several reasons...

1. They can cope with them and pick up results (Monaco and Canada).
2. They have less to risk, since 2002 is already a transition year.
3. It helps them all the more, since Williams clearly still have a way to go on the chassis side and WIlliams are their number one rivals.

Which means that Williams ought to watch their relationship with Michelin very carefully.