Michelin points to Austrian unknowns

"As far as tyres are concerned, we don't know the A1-Ring terribly well. It is one of the circuits at which we don't test between races. Recent investigations show that the nature of the surface has evolved considerably since last season and that might have a significant influence on performance."

The character of the track is dominated by the Styrian mountains, with lots of elevation and occasionally extreme weather conditions. More hills means more reliance on horsepower which, in turn, means more stress on tyres.

"The previous round of the world championship took place in Barcelona where the main straight runs downhill," says Dupasquier. "This weekend in Austria the pit straight is shorter, but runs uphill. Why is that significant? Simple. The sharper the ascent, the more engine power comes into play.

"The weather in this part of the world can be scorching hot or extremely cold and wet. We have developed a new wet-weather tyre for this track. The tread pattern is the same as the one we took to Spain, but if it rains the temperatures are likely to be quite low and we bore that in mind when choosing a suitable compound.

"Following the communication from the FIA to the teams, we will also have present tyres for extreme weather conditions."

From a driver point of view the circuit presents some tricky set-up issues. There are lots of high-downforce corners and an equal mix of left and right-handers making a good aerodynamic set-up essential.

Toyota's Olivier Panis describes one common solution: "Austria is a dusty track on the first day and to find the tyres is not so easy, because the track conditions change a lot. It is a very understeering circuit, which is why we have some cars using scrubbed front tyres and new rear."

The game will be up soon enough, though, when the cars start running in earnest. "Saturday's qualifying session should tell us where we stand," says Dupasquier. "I hope certain elements of the Spanish GP won't be repeated, because a number of incidents forced out several drivers who were capable of representing Michelin on the podium."