Australia Preview Quotes: Michelin

Pierre Dupasquier, Competition Director: "We know Melbourne is a track that changes a lot during the course of a race weekend - and it is not like traditional racing circuits. The roads are open to everyday traffic for most of the year and that means the surface is very dirty at the start of the weekend. Teams are liable to choose a variety of different tyres and strategies so it is a bit early yet to know what the best tactic might be. We won't know the answer to that until the meeting begins in earnest. For this race Michelin has selected tyre compounds that are best described as 'medium hard'. This circuit has lots of quick sections and places quite high lateral loads on tyres. The penalty for carrying a heavy fuel load is significant, too - about 0,4 second per lap for every 10 kilos."

Pascal Vasselon, F1 Project Manager:

The Winter Development Programme: "The main thing was to make the most of our latest range of tyres, which was introduced during the second half of the 2002 season. That was the focus of our development and we obtained some good results. At the same time we also worked on two new types of construction - and they look promising, too."

One Range of Tyres: "All our development work is heading in the same direction with our partner teams and we have set up a beneficial test programme. Between us we have yielded some encouraging results that have allowed us to concentrate on a range of tyres. This contains an extensive range of options ranging from soft to hard and we'll be taking five different types to the first race in Melbourne, although we anticipate that some of our partners will run on the same compound."

Discretion is the Key: "Teams do not know which tyres their rivals have selected. Although all our partners contributed to the test programme that dictated the nature of this year's tyre range, things are different during the season and confidentiality is guaranteed at each grand prix."

If it Should Rain: "We have made some very positive progress in this domain, too. This year it is more important than ever to make sure your wet-weather tyres are up to the job, because you are only allowed to bring one compound per race. We have had to develop a tyre that best suits the needs of every partner team. One type of tyre cannot give optimal performance in all conditions and the wet can be very variable. This is not a straightforward issue and a degree of compromise is involved. For Melbourne we have come up with a tyre that's designed to work in a wide range of conditions, from an extremely wet track to one that's drying (not including strong rain). It goes without saying that we will be developing specific rain tyres to suit different tracks throughout the season."

Tyre Allocation: "Drivers are allowed 10 sets of a single-specification, grooved, dry-weather tyre and 7 sets of wets per weekend. Teams that take part in Friday morning's test session will be allocated 6 sets of tyres per driver. With wet tyre choice having been reduced from 3 options to 1 since last year, Michelin will be taking about 1200 tyres to every grand prix."

How Soft Dare We Go?: "We don't know what's the real importance of the qualifying on Friday? Will it be essential to set the best time to be the last one on track Saturday? Things will depend on teams' individual strategies and how much fuel they choose to run, but the softest tyre won't necessarily be the fastest. An extra-soft compound could begin to wear out before the end of a qualifying lap if a car is heavily laden with fuel - and that will be exacerbated at tracks that place a high lateral load on tyres."