Monaco Preview Quotes: Michelin
Pierre Dupasquier, motorsport director: "We are moving from the high-speed sweeps of Barcelona to something completely different - the tight confines of Monaco, with its many slow corners. It is never easy to prepare for the Monaco Grand Prix because it is difficult to find any circuits with similar characteristics. There is nowhere else quite like it. The streets of the principality are an asphalt patchwork that ordinary cars and trucks use on a daily basis. Many parts of the circuit frequently have to be resurfaced and we can but hypothesise about the effects this might have
"We use fairly soft compounds in Monaco because average lap speeds aren't particularly high and the surface is not too abrasive. Even so, we have to pay careful attention to the rear tyres because cars are forever accelerating fiercely out of slow corners - it is vital that traction control systems are set up correctly, because that can influence wear rates. If a car's rear tyres start to wear more than its fronts, it will begin to oversteer and the driver needs to be much more sensitive with the throttle - especially when exiting slow corners.
"Controlling the rate of tyre wear is always the biggest challenge in Monaco, but Michelin has traditionally done very well here. Having won this race for the past three years, we will be doing our utmost to make sure our partner teams have everything they need to maintain that winning streak..."
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