Monaco Not a Turning Point, Says Michelin Boss

Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix will not be a turning point for tyre manufacturer Michelin in this season's tyre war, according to the French marque's boss Pierre Dupasquier.

Before Sunday, a Michelin-shod runner had not won a race since Williams driver Ralf Schumacher finished on top at the Malaysian Grand Prix, with the Bridgestone-shod Ferrari of Michael Schumacher dominating in all the other five events of the year.

Last weekend, however, Michelin held the upper hand over the Japanese rivals, with eight of the top ten drivers on the grid using tyres from the French manufacturer. McLaren's David Coulthard went on to win the race, finally braking Schumacher's stronghold.

But despite their dominance in Monaco, Dupasquier has refused to get carried away, and said Michelin will continue working as hard as ever.

"Not really," said Dupasquier when asked if the Monaco race would be a turning point. "We designed a tyre specifically for Monaco and it proved to be very effective, but we will need something entirely different for the next race in Montreal and something different again for the one after that at the Nurburgring.

"We still haven't finalised our choice for Canada. That circuit isn't terribly abrasive but it places a strain on tyres because of the fierce braking, frequent hard acceleration and high cornering loads. It's a difficult race for tyre manufacturers and this weekend's result will have no bearing on what happens there.

"There are several reasons to be upbeat. Not only did we beat Ferrari with a new tyre that performed really well, but we also picked up a lot of valuable data that will serve us well in the future. It's nice to stop Michael Schumacher winning, although I'm not sure that it's possible to keep him off the podium altogether."

Ferrari's technical director Ross Brawn claimed their Bridgestone tyres were superior during the race, and that it was in qualifying where the Japanese rubber was no match for their rivals.

"Clearly, we had the better tyre in the race by quite a margin," said Brawn. "Together with Bridgestone we will work together on qualifying performance for next year because this is a track where qualifying is critical, but we had a super race tyre which allowed both drivers to put in fastest laps."