Michelin not expecting easy season

After rival Bridgestone dominated the championship last year with the Ducati Marlboro of Casey Stoner, Michelin saw its traditional top rider Valentino Rossi switching to the Japanese rubber, and its new leading man Dani Pedrosa injuring himself in testing.

Pedrosa crashed at the beginning of testing in Sepang on January 22nd, and missed the following test sessions at Phillip Island and Sepang. He rejoined testing yesterday at Jerez but is still not yet back to full fitness.

"It's going to be a very interesting season... It's not going to be easy. We know," said Biabaud at Jerez.

"We are not worried, but we feel worried for Dani," the Frenchman replied when asked if he thought it dangerous that Honda have put too much pressure on Pedrosa.

"Dani is missing the start of the year, [but] we have had good feedback from the other riders who we didn't think we'd get as good feedback from through the winter."

Reigning 250cc champion Jorge Lorenzo and Frenchman Randy de Puniet have joined the Michelin ranks this year, and Biabaud is impressed with their feedback.

"It is certainly at least at the level we expected, maybe even more in fact for Lorenzo," he said of the Fiat Yamaha rider. "Randy was solid, very solid, and (Tech 3 Yamaha's) Colin [Edwards] seems to be very comfortable in the team at the moment so that helps also.

"This is why Dani is a big question mark at the moment, because at the end of the season he was at a very good level indeed."

Biabaud explained he is worried that Michelin and Honda may not be able to carry out their scheduled programs by Monday, the last day of this Jerez test, because of the weather.

"The most important thing for us is when Dani is going to feel 100%, but at the same time Honda are working a lot on the bike," he said. "They have a lot to test, so how are we going to finish on Monday? I don't know, especially with the rain that is forecast.

"We have some important steps with [tyre] architecture and compound. There is huge work going on at the moment. What we need [to know] by Monday is which is best.

When asked if Michelin were going to make different tyres for Honda and Yamaha, Biabaud said: "We tested the same thing with all the teams because we had some important evolution to test ourselves rather than design a tyre for each bike straight off.

"That refinement will come, but not just right now. We need their feedback for that step. This is a very important test session."

With the debacle of the threatened single tyre rule at the end of last year, Michelin was initially angry and then sore at having lost Rossi's marketability and feedback.

But in the words of Biabaud, things have mellowed since then, at least on the surface.

"Life goes on. We are happy because we did not get a mono-brand tyre rule, and [so] we could reiterate our involvement in MotoGP. Okay, we don't have that many bikes and we have the problem with Dani at the moment, but things can happen to other riders.

"We don't feel angry, no. The whole thing blew out of proportion, but it was not our fault."