Michelin: optimum performance in Melbourne

The Renault F1 Team's Technical Partner is amid final preparations: this
week's testing will allow them to confirm tyre choices for the first race.

Pascal Vasselon, head of Michelin's F1 programme, discussed the
areas currently being worked upon, and the results gained two weeks ahead of
Melbourne.

Q: Have you confirmed your choices
for the first race?

Pascal Vasselon: 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. As for Renault, every lap they complete at imola is
important for Michelin: we weren't as competitive at this track as some
others in 2003, and this test will also allow us to take a look at the first
European race of the season.

Q: You are testing in very different
conditions to those you will find in
Melbourne...

PV: That's true. Having said that, we have developed over time
an extremely effective system of extrapolation which, according to the
circuit and the temperatures, allows us to predict the results we would get
in Australia. There's a little bit of mental gymnastics involved! The
process is based partly on a digital model, and partly on our experience at
the track. It is becoming more and more reliable.

Q: Will the tyres in Melbourne be
significantly different to those used in
Suzuka at the end of 2003?

PV: Yes. 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.

Q: Is Melbourne a difficult circuit
for Michelin?

PV: Let's say that along with Imola, Albert Park is the circuit
at which our competitive advantage has not been quite so impressive in
recent years... and that's in spite of a 100% Michelin podium in 2003! We have
tried to make the most of all our testing in order to provide an omptimum
performance envelope in two weeks' time.

-renault-


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