15/08/2002

Q&A with Pierre Dupasquier

1. How important is Panasonic Toyota Racing to Michelin in F1?
It is more than important because we have been a partner of Toyota for a very long time. We began rallying with them in the '90s where we had a lot of success together. Then when Toyota decided to do Le Mans we worked together as well and I still don't understand why they never won that race because they came up with a tremendous car! Mr Tomita (chairman of Toyota Motorsport and managing director of Toyota Motor Corporation) then came to us and said that Toyota was thinking about doing F1 and that it would like us to go with it.

2. Did Toyota's decision to do F1 influence Michelin's decision to return?
Absolutely because when a partner like Toyota asks you to do this you are made to think twice. We were away from F1 for some time but they believed that we could help them. In that situation you say to yourself 'if we say no then we will not be as good a partner to them and somebody else will take our seat'.

3. Does the relationship with Toyota extend outside F1?
We have a good relationship with them on the technical and commercial side because we supply them with a lot of tyres for original equipment.

4. How do you sum up Panasonic Toyota Racing's first season in F1?
It's on the path that we expected. Formula 1 is a very tough business and it requires getting everything together at the optimum level in order to have success. But you can't do it overnight - just look at Ferrari. It took them six years under their current management to begin winning.

5. How difficult is it for Michelin to satisfy all of their teams?
If you look at the technical data from two different Formula 1 cars the difference is very small. Yet there can be huge differences on the track because one car might suffer from slight understeer which over a race distance can be a disaster. Our job is to design a tyre to suit Formula 1 cars in general and having done that we have to adjust it to suit different track conditions. We do that largely by changing the compound and the tyre for Hockenheim for example is not the same as the tyre for Monte Carlo or Montreal or Silverstone. If we bring an improvement to the front end of a Formula 1 car it is perceived as an improvement by everybody. It is then the job of the team engineers to change the car to take advantage of this improvement and so on.

6. So Panasonic Toyota Racing gets exactly the same treatment as BMW Williams and McLaren Mercedes?
Absolutely and for two reasons. First We consider Toyota to be a very valuable and knowledgeable partner. We trust Toyota. Second the rules only allow us to bring two different types of tyre to each circuit for all our partners.

7. Can you help Panasonic Toyota Racing by telling them what others are doing?
We don't talk about cars only tyres. At the end of each day all the Michelin tyre technicians share their information which is then made available to all of our teams. For instance they might have learnt that one of the two types of tyre needs more air pressure in order to perform. We say nothing at all about the cars.

8. How does the Toyota TF102 use its tyres?
That's tricky because the two drivers set-up their cars differently which means that the tyres are used differently.

9. How important is it to Michelin that there is a tyre war in F1?
We like to have competition because without it you don't know whether you are doing a good job. But winning in Formula 1 is about the package - the car the tyres and the driver - so we can never say we are doing a better or worse job than another tyre manufacturer.

10. Is Michelin achieving all of its ambitions by being in F1?
I would say yes although we know that we still have a lot to do.