Pierre Dupasquier Q&A

"Yes, more than happy. But you don't always know why you win. We just concluded that Williams did a tremendous job, that the car was good, was fast in some circumstances. But in other circumstances we didn't know why it wasn't fast. For example we knew in Spa, when Fisichella managed to be on the podium for Benetton, that probably something was wrong with the Williams car, but there was no certitude. Definitely with McLaren we will have a benchmark."



"At the beginning Frank said, 'I like Ron Dennis, he's a friend, but it's another competitor.' But now he's happy, he says, 'It's the right decision, now we know what's going on.' Definitely if our four top cars, McLaren and Williams, don't work, then we have a tyre problem. But if one of them works, the problem is somewhere else. For example in the first day of testing at Barcelona in the rain, McLaren was immediately 1.5s faster than the Williams. So Williams said, 'We have to work on the car.' In F1 when you get a result it's the total package of aerodynamics, chassis, engine and tyres."



"I'm not sure whether we'll find ourselves in this position. The cars in F1 are very close to each other. They are different in that you can win or lose a race, but technically the specification is very close to each other - same weight, same power, same aerodynamics. But small differences make a car win or lose. So if we make an improvement on the front tyre for one car, there's a good chance that it will be an improvement for all the cars. If it changes the balance then we have to understand whether it's an improvement, or just a change of balance, and if the car has to be adjusted to take advantage of it or not. I'm sure the engineers we are working with are knowledgeable and intellectually honest enough for us to sit down and see where is the improvement, and who has to change something."



"Last year we had tyres that didn't need to be scrubbed, but they didn't like it! We don't do that on purpose. Our construction is different from Bridgestone's. We offer very soft rubber, because of the specification of the rules, and that can make them tricky to use them for the first 10 or 12 laps, so that's what it is. We've tried to work on this with the grooves, with some tricks, but it seems like it doesn't work."



"For example, when we supplied everyone in 1981 the British teams did not have a Michelin radial in their hands before, and they dominated immediately, and Alan Jones won the first race in the Williams. I believe that our partners and ourselves still have a lot to discover, and it will not be easy, but I'm confident that Adrian Newey is working hard to try to understand what's going on, and see how we can take more advantage of our tyres. At the beginning we did not know how to use our tyres either, and then we discovered that. Now the use of Michelin tyres is well known. All the engineers from McLaren will have looked very closely at what we did last year. The technique and the way to use them is better known than at this time last year."



"It's not easy to use our tyres 100 percent, but if you manage that, believe me you are in front, easily. It's like anything else. If an engine has a peak of 900bhp for 50 revs, it doesn't make any sense if you can't use them. But if you manage to use them, then you will have tremendous power. Last year when we had a good package, we were absolutely dominant, and no one could contest the position of Ralf or Juan Pablo when they were in front."



"I don't think so, because with the points system to be World Champion you can lose no opportunity to score maximum points. And Michael [Schumacher] will not use one opportunity, because no one in Bridgestone will be in front of him. If anyone has the nerve to be in front of him, somebody will tell them that it's not the right thing to do, I'm sure! I hope that many of our drivers will score points, and even first places, but it doesn't make a World Championship. But we don't know yet. We'll see how the cards are distributed this year."