USA: Michelin aim to repeat front-running pace

By Michelin Sport (17/06/2004)
June 17 2004

Hot on the heels of Canada, Michelin, Lucky Strike BAR Honda, and the Formula One world championship moves on to Indianapolis for its fourth race in five weekends.

Michelin first competed at America's most famous motorsport venue in 2001 and has frequently shown race-winning pace, although a variety of circumstances have so far prevented the company breaking its victory duck.

Michelin has a very successful F1 track record elsewhere in the United States, however. It has scored nine of its 73 world championship victories here, courtesy of Carlos Reutemann, Gilles Villeneuve, Alan Jones, Niki Lauda, John Watson and Nelson Piquet. Michelin's six partner teams and 12 drivers aim to add to that proud record on Sunday.

"Michelin enjoys the challenge of Indianapolis," says Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin motorsport director. "It's a circuit of stark contrasts with the longest straight of the season and a tight infield section. It is a challenge for tyre manufacturers to develop tyres that will withstand the build-up of heat generated by more than 20 seconds on full throttle yet provide enough grip to maximise traction through the tighter parts of the track. I am confident our tyres will be capable of repeating the front-running performance they have shown here in the past."

"The Indianapolis track is obviously highly specific, but not in fact exactly for the reasons you might imagine," adds Pascal Vasselon, Michelin F1 programme manager. "The banking is not that difficult for the tyres, despite the extreme loads and speeds, since this helps get the tyres up to temperature more easily. In wet or dry conditions, a good first lap is therefore not a problem. We of course took this into account when finalising our choice of tyres, which we did following tests at Monza and Silverstone. We will have just two types of tyres available at Indy for our partner-teams."