Michelin Still Committed to F1

Motor racing's governing body, the FIA, has firmly placed the blame for the events on Michelin's shoulders by claiming that the tyre company messed up in not bringing a back-up tyre to the event that was safe enough to race.

And amid suggestions that the Indianapolis farce could be the catalyst that forces Formula One to switch to a single tyre manufacturer formula, Michelin insist that they have no question marks themselves about remaining involved in Grand Prix racing.

"We are so committed to this discipline and we see so many advantages in being part of Grand Prix racing," said Michelin director of worldwide racing Pierre Dupasquier. "We have so much passion put into this, like our partners and you, the journalists, that there is no question about our presence.

"We are particularly happy to be involved in Formula One, because we can develop our technology and that's what we want to do."

Dupasquier has rubbished any claims that the Indianapolis circumstances would never have come about if F1 had been a single-tyre formula - and he cites the example of the numerous tyre failures in the recent NASCAR event at Pocono as proof.

"You know better than I what happened last week at Pocono, where there was a NASCAR race with a huge accident caused by a tyre failure," he explained. "And there they have just one tyre manufacturer involved, as per the regulations.

"So, it's not the solution for the problem. You can argue we would have done a different tyre if there was no competition, but what could have happened is that we would send here tyres that weren't specifically developed for Indianapolis and the results could have been even worse.

"No one would have had the means to do all the work we did since Friday and would have been able to take the decision we took."