Williams confident despite Michelin row

Michael told AUTOSPORT, he said that Michelin may have to use a brand new, untested tyre design in Italy: "I think it is something that we have to react to. It is like any other performance problem on the car except it is generated from a different area. We have set out a test programme to try and solve it.

"The most important thing in this situation is to remain focused and keep your eye on winning races because that is important for the title - it is easy when you have one big problem for everybody to focus on that."

The FIA has told teams that it now intends to measure front tyre width after races rather than when tyres are new. The limit on width is 270mm, and it is believed that Michelin tyres run closer to the limit than Bridgestone's.

"Our test programme at Monza will focus on the problem," said Michael. "But it is unlikely that any solution we come up with will come without a loss of performance.

"I would say that it is most likely that this situation will require a new tyre design for everybody. This is not just a problem for Williams, but every team that runs Michelin tyres. At the moment we think that we will need to run a new front tyre, but until we have done the testing we cannot say for sure.

"We are not 100 percent sure under what conditions we can make the existing tyre not exceed the new FIA limitations. We will find out really quickly on this first day of testing."