Michelin admits to tyre worry

The French company was trounced by Bridgestone at the opening grand prix of the season in Australia, when the Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello dominated proceedings all weekend.

Michelin teams were hoping that the hotter temperatures expected at Sepang this weekend would suit their rubber better than the Bridgestones, which undoubtedly benefited from unusually low temperatures in Melbourne.

Cars using Michelin tyres have won in Malaysia for the last two years, and Renault's Fernando Alonso used the tyres to become the youngest ever pole position winner there in 2003.

But Michelin's F1 programme manager Pascal Vasselon has not offered much inspiration in the run-up to the second race of the season. He said: "Preparing suitable tyres for Sepang presents one or two obvious difficulties.

"This is usually the hottest race of the year and track temperatures can reach 55 degrees. This isn't a problem in itself but it is not practical to test in Malaysia and we have to develop tyres for these conditions while running at European circuits during the winter. This makes it difficult, as conditions are very different."

To make things worse for Michelin, Japanese company Bridgestone is talking up its chances for Sepang despite its traditional role as underdog at the event.

Technical manager Hisao Suganama said: "We have tested long and hard for races like Malaysia and the time has come to see if we have done our homework.

"Consistency in the heat is one area we have concentrated on. A significant part of our winter development programme was dedicated to making sure we are competitive in the heat. We know we have made important improvements and I'm looking forward to showing off our progress just as we did in Melbourne.

"We finalised the tyre specification during testing in Spain and, although weather conditions did hamper us a little, we got some excellent data which suggests our teams should be competitive in Malaysia."