Q & A: Michelin's Shorrock on WRC

AUTOSPORT talked to Michelin's motorsport boss Nick Shorrock about progress so far.

Q. There has been some speculation about some punctures, some early development issues with the tyres, but overall the teams seem pleased. What do you think?

Nick Shorrock: I think what you say is right, but when we decided to go into the World Rally Championship we committed a dedicated team to this project and we will continue to work on this. We're very pleased with the programme and the way things are going. Rally is very important to us as a company, it's rally which is closer than any other discipline to the normal road-going products.

Let's rewind a little bit, Michlein has an ongoing development programme across all of the sporting disciplines. In July, when we began working on the return to the WRC, we knew there wasn't a lot of time ahead for us [before the start of next season], but even though we have been away from WRC we have not stopped the year-in, year-out developments. We know we have still got some work in front, but we are looking forward to the start of next year.

Q. To that end, Jean Todt has talked of his desire to see one set of tyres being used for a whole day or even for a whole event. Is this possible?

NS: Why not? Let me put this into some context for you. In 2005 and 2006 at Le Mans, the teams using our tyres were doing a stint of 160 kilometres, coming in and changing tyres and drivers. In 2010, the winning Audi car was able to do four stints, that's 650 kilometres on one set of tyres without any impact on the other parameters such as safety or lap times.

Q. You talk about wanting more competition next season, but Citroen, Ford and Mini will all run on Michelin. Isn't that essentially a control tyre scenario?

NS: It's very good of you to say that they will all run on our tyres, but we haven't confirmed our partners for next year yet - despite there being a lot of supposition. We want open competition in the championship, that's why we are here. The regulations suit us well and the conditions are right. We'll have to see who runs our tyres.

Q. What's the commitment from Michelin?

NS: We're not in this for the short-term, we've returned to the WRC and we're looking at a longer-term programme. Our vision for the WRC is to run in a competitive series where we can show the technical ability and performance of our tyres. At the same time, we want to demonstrate how we can have less of an impact on the environment with our tyres. We're ready to contribute to the show and the great spectacle that is the WRC.

But one of the great spectacles from tyres in the WRC was some of the classic tyre battles on events like a wet-dry Corsica or snow and ice Monte. Without the ability to change tyres and force those choices, how do you contribute to the show? By making sure that all of the teams and drivers are on the right tyre.

Obviously, the regulations state that we can't change tyres so often as we used to, but you don't do that in every day life, so why do it in the WRC? This is another way which makes the sport closer to everyday drivers on the road. There's going to be plenty of sparkle and entertainment in next year's championship and we'll contribute to that.