Schuey not worried by Michelin

McLaren has opted to join Williams on Michelin rubber for 2002, while Ferrari will be the lead team using Bridgestone and Schumacher says that the most amount of performance gain this year is to be found from tyres. The German is confident that winter development work from Bridgestone will pay off.

"My first impression is that we have made significant improvements through the development done by Bridgestone over the winter, which obviously makes us happy," said Schumacher. "To me, tyres is the biggest area for improvement compared to other areas of F1 this year, and as the people of Bridgestone are so determined, I am sure they come up with loads of new ideas and better versions."

Michelin is thought to have developed a special qualifying tyre for this year and McLaren test driver Alex Wurz managed to set a new lap record during testing at Barcelona this week in last year's car. However, while Schumacher expects the lead Michelin squads to provide his main opposition, he believes McLaren may struggle early on as it adjusts to using different tyres.

"I expect it to be quite a tough season," he said. "I expect Williams to be even stronger than last year as they might have sorted out their problems, but I also see McLaren being strong. However, they have changed supplier and I could imagine them having some difficulties in adapting, at least at the beginning."