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Interview with Michelin's Nick Shorrock

Next week's United States Grand Prix will mark the return of Formula One to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway following last year's fiasco

The event was a major embarrassment for the sport and for Michelin, whose seven teams withdrew before the start of the race due to tyre safety concerns.

Just a few days ahead of this year's Grand Prix, Michelin's Formula One director Nick Shorrock talks about the 2005 event and the measures they have taken to avoid a repeat of one of the sport's blackest days.

Q. What are the feelings about returning to Indianapolis a year on from the events of last year?

Nick Shorrock: What is important is that what happened in 2005, we have been able to analyse, understand and bring about the right solutions. Also in doing that, we have obviously exchanged data on several occasions with our partners.

That information and the context of 2006 has been used to develop the products for 2006, and I think that we are now looking forward to racing in Indianapolis next week.

Q. Do you think there is too much media hype surrounding the return next week, or is it still a big consideration for Michelin?

NS: I think that what happened, happened. We have not gone back on it. We have done the necessary work to try and understand the incidents and bring about the solutions. We have tried to get on with business and make sure we have got a performing product, as we demonstrated at the conclusion of 2005 when Michelin tyres won the world championships.

Q. Is it too simple to say that the return of pitstops in Formula One has guaranteed that there will be no repeat problems this year? Even last year, if there had been pit stops, there would not have been a problem because the teams could have stopped to change tyres...

NS: I don't think you can make the analysis. The context of 2005 is different to that of 2006. Tyres were designed to run in 2005 mode, as they are designed for 2006. I don't think you can compare the two years.

Q. Has the factor of last year's race made an impact on your tyre choice for this year, in terms of needing to be a little conservative to guarantee 110 percent that there will not be a problem?

NS: It is certainly not conservative. What has been important is that first of all we understood what the problems were last year, and from a design point of view that has been understood and built into 2006. The next point was then making sure we have got competitive tyres, because there is a lot of demand from our partners to have those competitive tyres available.

What we were doing last week for example, we were testing at Monza and Le Castellet testing our latest rubber solutions, and hopefully we have the right product next week.

Q. Do you have a specific tyre for Indianapolis and the demands of Turn 13, or is it just a normal type of tyre for high-speed circuits?

NS: Indianapolis is one of the tougher, if not the toughest, tracks on the F1 circuit. Our approach is that we look at detail at each of those tracks and we try and bring the tyre that is appropriate for those conditions.

If you look at Barcelona for example you get very high thermal loads, at Silverstone and Indianapolis you get high mechanical loads so the design of tyre you bring is different for those tracks. That is what we have done. We have applied that and once we do that we then put around the outside the rubber that is appropriate to our partners.

Q. What is the biggest challenge of Turn 13?

NS: There are three things, and it was a combination of those three things last year. There were the lateral loads, the speeds that were being seen at Turn 13 and the time subsequently we had for those vertical lateral loads and the speed. It was a combination of that and we have been able to demonstrate that very clearly subsequently that if you reduce any one of those three parameters and take it out then you don't get the problem.

Q. Will the forces be higher this year because of the improved tyres and car performances, or will the switch to V8s make it less of a problem?

NS: What is very clear is that when you look at 2006 cars, the straight line speed is reduced and the speeds in the corners are probably slightly faster. Given that it is a V8 and not a V10, we take the information from our partners and look at the different loads and use that to simulate what is required for the tyre.

I would not like to go into the details of what we got from our different partners, because that is confidential information, but having seen and understood what happened in 2005, we have built that into the tyre in 2006.

Q. What it is going to be like for you emotionally going back there a year on from a difficult weekend?

NS: I am not sure. First and foremost the most important thing is that we have a successful meeting in terms of the result. The team at Michelin has done an awful lot of work, as a company but also with our partners. And that is not just for Indianapolis, but also since then.

In order to win the championship last year, and given that it is our final year this year, we must do the absolute necessary to make sure that our partners are successful, because if they are successful we will be successful and that is the only way that we can leave F1.

Q. Will a win there this year mean more than at other venues, because of what happened last year?

NS: It will be very satisfying, but it will only be another one in the records. One of our partners will have won, that is important, it will add to the string of victories that we have been able to achieve.

Certainly it would be nice to win at Indy because we have not done that since we have been back in F1 in 2001. So it is a combination of things, and the most important thing is that we have a good product that allows one of our partners to succeed.

Q. And where do you think Michelin stand against Bridgestone heading into Indianapolis? Does the track suit one tyre or another?

NS: I have a bit of a problem subscribing to that as a philosophy, because people say certain tracks are Bridgestone tracks or certain tracks are Michelin tracks. For example, people say Imola is a Bridgestone track. Why? When you look at our performance this year we didn't win but technically we were better than Bridgestone.

Going back to Indy, if you look at five years, 2001 to 2005, podiums, it is very, very close, eight for Bridgestone and seven for Michelin. So that is all the more reason for adding three more podiums to bring us back into it.

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