Schu brothers talk up tyres

Asked about his victory in Melbourne, Schumacher Sr repeated comments he made earlier in the week (see AUTOSPORT magazine) and attributed a large part of his performance advantage to Bridgestone. He denied that the pendulum could swing towards Michelin at Sepang.

"It may have been the case early last year that Michelin was strong in hot conditions but I think that from Magny-Cours onwards Bridgestone upped its game and there have been further steps since then, so I'm very confident here. In any case, it's more complex than purely temperature. I seem to remember that Michelin was pretty competitive at Imola last year too..."

Ralf Schumacher, meanwhile, claimed that Michelin will be closer to Bridgestone in rainy conditions, which his brother used to his advantage in the Malaysian race last year.

"The situation has improved on the rain side, there's no doubt about it," Ralf said, "but just how good or bad the situation is, we'll have to wait and see. At the moment I wouldn't necessarily think that Bridgestone has an advantage in wet conditions."

Schumacher Jr is also convinced that a new Michelin dry tyre in Malaysia will solve an early performance drop-off characteristic and help close the performance gap to Ferrari.

"Last year," he said, "we were very far away in Melbourne and then suddenly a lot closer at Sepang. It's just a shame there was the start incident. Even in Melbourne a fortnight ago we still had to scrub-in tyres, but the situation should be a lot better with the new tyre here. We think we don't need to do it any more but we'll have to look at all the circumstances. Last week we had consistent performance at the test in England."