Ferrari to be Hobbled by Third Car Rivals

Ferrari's rivals have been handed a further boost in their hopes of being able to knock the world champions off the top spot this year, with the Italian team's tyre supplier Bridgestone admitting to autosport.com that it is at a major disadvantage because of Michelin's ability to run third cars.

With Ferrari already believed to be mildly concerned about the pace of the F2004M, as speculation grows the team is considering bringing its F2005 in earlier than originally planned, the head of motorsport of the team's tyre supplier now fears that circumstances could further hinder its hopes.

That is because McLaren, one of Michelin's top teams, has qualified to run a third car during the Friday practice of grand prix weekends â€" and the new tyre and engine regulations for 2005 mean that the extra mileage for that machine will be massively important in choosing the right tyres.

Speaking to autosport.com about the situation, Hirohide Hamashima admitted that Ferrari is not going to have an easy time in picking the right tyres for a grand prix weekend â€" because the only teams it supplies that can run a third car are the back of the field Jordan and Minardi outfits.

"It is highly advantageous for a top team to run a third car," said Hamashima. "Michelin can find a good reference point there and there is nothing we can do to prevent that.

"It is most likely the third car will try both soft and hard compounds. From that we can get a general idea on how the tarmac is, but after all it is another company's products so it is difficult to calculate our reference point. We will have to learn to make a correct choice from the limited mileage."

Hamashima adds that the fact it knows it will not be able to call on the use of a third car means it may have to take a more conservative approach to its tyre choice for the first few races of the campaign â€" while rivals Michelin can be more aggressive because they know they will be able to experiment more.

"We would like to find out how things are on a Friday, but not many of our teams will want to run because they would like to save the engine mileage," he added. "The only way to find out is to do a race distance on the Friday and then we can find out the tarmac conditions and climatic condition â€" but only teams with a third car can do that. The third car is going to be the key.

"We have already decided on the two specifications we will bring to the track, so we have had to have an educated guess to bring in the correct range. For the first few races, there could be a huge difference between Michelin and us â€" especially if one brings a conservative range while the other brings an aggressive range."