Michelin: Ferrari must falter

The head of the French rubber manufacturer said that Michael Schumacher's second win in a row at the Malaysian Grand Prix yesterday (Sunday) illustrated that Michelin runners Williams, Renault and BAR are already too far behind the Italian team to make a concerted bid for the World Championship title.

Asked if any team was capable of challenging Ferrari, Dupasquier said: "No, not in the near future. Ferrari and Bridgestone, like last year, have to make mistakes to help us a bit.

"All our partners are competent, they have resources available and they are experienced. The problem is to really put everything together. They are just missing a few little things. Last year, Ferrari made so many errors that they gave us a nice opportunity. We spoiled it, but we had it last year, definitely."

Ferrari had to wait until the last race of 2003 to clinch the World Championship title, but the dominance displayed by Schumacher so far this season is reminiscent of his comfortable cruise to the crown in 2002.

Many Michelin-shod teams were hoping that the heat of Malaysia would favour them rather than Bridgestone but, as in Australia two weeks ago, cooler than expected conditions aided a Ferrari team that was confident in its choice of hot weather Bridgestones anyway.

Dupasquier blamed the teams his company supplies for the shortfall in performance between them and Ferrari, and said Michelin is doing just as good a job as Bridgestone.

"Bridgestone will never be ahead of us," he declared. "Do not confuse Ferrari and Bridgestone. If they had Michelin tyres on their car, there would be no championship any more. We are not at fault, but everyone has to push. It is a total. If you have one weak point anywhere, it doesn't work."