Dupasquier: ready to stop Ferrari

Dupasquier is widely acknowledged to be one of the most colourful men in the pit-lane. He has a no-nonsense approach to his job and is not afraid to let his feelings be known - even if that meant through last season he kept letting the world know that he believed Ferrari and Bridgestone would not be beaten to a race win in 2004.

Jarno Trulli, Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya proved him wrong through the year, though, but the wounds of last year's drubbing were not easy to fix. All winter Michelin has been keeping focused on striking back in style this year - with new tyre regulations set to throw up plenty of surprises.

But despite some impressive pre-season testing times, autosport.com's Jonathan Noble finds Dupasquier in a slightly cautious mood about his chances for 2005 - even if behind the public words there is a glint in his eye about the challenge that lays ahead.


I think you will remember at the last (pre-season) test session in Imola, Michael Schumacher proved they were much quicker than the previous car - and that was the car. He himself compared the two cars. Did our partners recover that kind of improvement from the competition? Did we help them? How much? We knew that every time we tested the car we had a reference, so we knew the kind of improvements we produced. Was it enough? That is difficult to say.

It is important to remember that at the first race last year in Melbourne, Michael in the very first timed lap on Friday morning was 1m25.6s and the pole of the year before was 1m26s! 'Oh my god,' I thought.. I closed the book and went to have a beer. It was such a demonstration of competence. It was their new car according to data, unstable circuit conditions and putting all these things together to achieve that kind of result. What was behind it? It was absolutely amazing.

The other thing is that our two major partners McLaren and Williams, at the beginning of the season, were completely dominated by BAR. BAR was new with us and they were not supposed to be this way. How was BAR compared to Ferrari? Definitely improved, but the two guys (McLaren and Williams) were not as competitive at the beginning. I won't tell you exactly the results of our analysis but we don't think we did a bad job. But yes we do think we had to improve significantly this year in certain directions, and certainly this year with the durability of the tyres. Those are the things we have worked on


We find mostly a significant improvement in wet conditions. We knew we were behind Bridgestone in this area in F1, amazingly, because we do a good job somewhere else but we fixed it. We improved on traction, grip and in wet conditions the same thing - we had a very good point. All of our drivers, including people like Ralf, who are good in the rain were a good reference for us. In the past, they were saying, 'Guys get some grip'. When you get the grip in wet conditions then you have to adjust your tread design to specific conditions. For example, remember the start of the Brazilian GP, with the traction and grip at the start we were great compared to our competitors. Then afterwards it seemed that things did not change even though the conditions did change. We saw a very high rate of wear for Bridgestone in the drying conditions, and when they stopped their intermediates were slicks. For some reason the water stayed two or three more laps and it was a disaster for them. We knew before we had less capability in our design to absorb the water. So we tested and managed with some opportunity to be with the right circumstances. That was the positive answer from last season.


The attempt to make more durability and enough durability to do 400-500km has had a direct interaction on tyre compound and construction. So the performance may be significantly affected, particularly on circuits that were already critical for us. Some circuits were not like that before and we will be very close to previous performances. On others we will really work on the endurance and we may have significant differences - and maybe surprises. Also, from one car to another car with a slight difference of downforce, it could have consequences at the end of the race - especially over the last 10 laps.


It is very hard. For example, 400km at (the old) Barcelona has nothing to do with 400km in Monte Carlo or Hungary. We have done a lot of virtual work, we have simulated things, and we know that there were low temperatures this winter. And what can you do? Nothing. People run their cars but we have to close our eyes. When the temperatures is warmer it is better, so we are working in more virtual conditions than before.


There is an answer. It was a mistake that Ferrari decided with Bridgestone to make the narrow tyre on the front. They admitted, Bridgestone not Ferrari, they said, 'we told them they had to go to a wider front tyre but they did not want it'. That was a mistake. They went to it finally, after following Michelin, but it was clear there was a loss of performance with the narrow tyre. Working with just one team tends to drive the tyre companies to mistakes, and we don't want that. We don't want to win only, we want to understand. And then having teams with a good level gives us a nice level of technical knowledge.


It will not make any difference in the short time. The reason why (we made the changes) is to prepare for my retirement. The management thought it was wise, and I felt in the same way, that we needed to bring in new people. That is what it is. The potential is there, the resources are the same, and the results will come in the same way.


There is no particular optimism. It is determination. It is desire to do the best we can with a new book that we have to read out. Confident? Yes, confident that we have experience, determined partners and therefore we have all the ingredients to succeed. Meaning for us to develop a better tyre and an improved product to cope with the new rules. It will be just in the middle of the season, between Bridgestone and us, that we will see how we are doing. At the beginning of the year we may see some strange things.


We know from experience that downforce level and management of downforce is critical for tyre wear and tyre performance. That is obvious. But as a driver when you feel problems, like if you begin to have understeer, if you don't set-up your base according to this behaviour then you will not finish the race. The teams and us will not have the capabilities to check on the understeering tendency. The driver is going to have to compensate more. It will be interesting, because a stupid driver will have a hard time. Smart drivers will win. Remember some times that Jackie Stewart, I cannot remember the year, but lots of drivers were blowing engines up and he never had a problem. Someone asked him, 'How do you do it, do you have a special deal with Cosworth, not to break the engine?' No, he said, I just look after it well.


We still believe that a single tyre manufacturer for F1 will degrade the image of fans on F1. They know that it is 100 percent everywhere. Every part of the car is important and the tyres are an important part of the car. With a common tyre for everyone, I have told Max and Bernie with that, 'be careful'. We want to be told whether we are doing a good job or not, that is competition for us. And if there is no competition then our position must have to be resold, with maybe a different formula.


It is likely to be an issue at the beginning. A puncture is different because that is an accident, it is easy to take care of it, but a high rate of wear on the front left, or the rear left, that will need to be managed and, at the beginning of the year, there may be some interesting situations.


It has to finish the race first. And it will be quick as long as it is not on the canvass, because then you are in trouble. That is a big wear problem!


Yes. Mainly because of the treaded tyres. On slick tyres the situation is easier to manage, but on treaded tyres there will be some strange events. It will be an interesting year, but I don't know if it will be more exciting.