Pierre Dupasquier Q&A
The jury is still out on just how competitive Michelin is at the start of its 2001 campaign. It's widely thought that Ralf Schumacher's strong performances have been boosted by Michelin, but the fact that the company's other cars are not in the ballpark suggests that the French rubber does not provide a significant advantage, and that Ralf - and the Williams BMW - are flattering the tyres a little. Indeed, one Prost insider said that had Ralf been on Bridgestones in Malaysia, he would have beaten his brother to pole! The true story will emerge in the coming weeks. Adam Cooper asked Michelin competition boss Pierre Dupasquier for his thoughts on the season so far
"First of all we have to say that there are the Ferraris, and then there are the others! Points are not that important. We can't understand why Ralf could be so quick in the second third of the race, and Mika couldn't be fast, and then both of them stopped to refuel, and Ralf didn't work again, and Mika was flying! We'll find out, but it was interesting."
"It's alright, it's OK, but we'll go step by step. It's better than nothing."
"Well, when one car can do it, it means that the tyres can do it."
"Busy, we feel busy. We know we have a lot of things to learn. We are discovering the tracks, and the new rules with the treaded tyres. We developed last year constructions for this rule, and we are finding our way a little bit in terms of where we have to go with the compounds. But it's coming along, and we are working very closely with our teams, and it's improving."
"No, I don't think we'd do anything differently, according to the rules. If we had the opportunity to use a full F1 team, drivers and car a little bit earlier it would have been better, but it was not allowed by the rules, so we have no regrets."
"It's too early to say anything about it. We'll see at the middle of the season, and mostly next year."
"We don't care. We just do the best we can, work with our teams, and see what the results are."
"It's normal work. We do the same thing in rallying, in motorcycles. At Le Mans our partners give us a hard time because they want to do two stints, three stints or four stints. But that's racing. If you don't like that, you don't race."
"If we make a victory, it's because the others are bad. We don't know enough yet, for sure."
Share Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments