Tyre war heating up

Michelin reckons it has made significant developments over the winter, while Bridgestone thinks it has solved the problems that saw it lag behind its rival in the heat of the European summer.

Pascal Vasselon, the head of Michelin's F1 programme, said: "We have made significant progress since last year. When our partners confirm a good development, that becomes our new benchmark, and we try and improve our product from that baseline. Since the start of the winter, we have gone through several different levels on this scale.

"We have made good progress on a significant proportion of the tyre specs we will use at Melbourne. Our choices will be finalised this weekend, according to the data collected by our partner teams during their testing this week," he added.

Meanwhile, Bridgestone's technical manager Hisao Suganuma has admitted its tyres were second-best last year in hot conditions, but believes the problem has now been solved for 2004.

"We have found a way to counter it," he said. "That probably will not happen with immediate effect, but within the season - at least by the summertime in Europe - we should have some good solutions in place."