Michelin Drivers Confident of No Problems
Top Michelin drivers have said they are not concerned about suffering any problems at this weekend's French Grand Prix or at the Italian Grand Prix in September following the tyre debacle at Indianapolis
"I think the tyres will perform exactly the same [as before] and I think the Indianapolis problem was a very specific problem of that configuration of the circuit," said Championship leader Fernando Alonso, "and what happened there and after the times and the performances the tyres gave to us in the last test last week, I think we are more competitive than before.
"I think the tyres are extremely, extremely good for this race and for Silverstone as well and I have no worries at all."
The nature of the Monza circuit, with very high speeds and lots of kerbs, is not a reason of concern either, according to McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen.
"No, I'm not worried about it," said the Finn. "I think the circuit is completely different, even if it is a high speed circuit, but the corners aren't as high speed as the one at Indy. It was also a banked corner at Indy so I think that was a small part of the problem."
Toyota's Jarno Trulli, whose teammate Ralf Schumacher crashed heavily at Indianapolis after a tyre failure, echoed Raikkonen's thoughts.
"I'm really not concerned," Trulli said. "What we had in Indianapolis was a strange situation and it was quite far away from where we are based, so it was difficult to react for Michelin and conditions were different from the previous season so all these things mixed up created, well we know what happened.
"I think Monza will be a normal Grand Prix with no problems."
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