Tyre manufacturer will bounce back: Michelin chief
Michelin are determined to recover from the shock and shame of their 15 million dollars tyre blunder in the United States.
Michelin are determined to recover from the shock and shame of their 15 million dollars tyre blunder in the United States by regaining top form and winning again, motorsport director Pierre Dupasquier said on Thursday.
The indefatigable, if diminutive, Frenchman, who has worked for the Clermont Ferrand based French tyre manufacturer for 43 years, added that if anyone was culpable for the mistake that led to the six-car race fiasco at Indianapolis, it was him.
"But I am not resigning, nor am I retiring early," he said. "I am due to retire anyway at the end of the year and, until then, we will continue, fighting and working, to do our best. We have to recover from this."
Michelin have promised to refund all the 125,000 fans who paid for tickets and to pay also for 20,000 free passes for spectators for next year's race in an act designed to mend relations with the disillusioned American public.
Only six cars raced after seven teams pulled out on safety grounds, Michelin having said that they could not guarantee the safety of their tyres on the high-speed Indianapolis track.
Defending world champion Michael Schumacher of Germany won the race, recording his first win of a troubled year on Bridgestone tyres in his Ferrari.
Dupasquier, 68 next month, who drinks red wine for breakfast every morning, proved he retained his enthusiasm by completing a lap of the Magny-Cours circuit on a pair of in-line roller-skates, known as 'blades', in heavy rain.
"Do I look like someone who is giving up," he said with a grin. "No, I am not giving up, but I admit that if it is anybody's fault - what happened that is - it is mine. But Michelin are not going to sack me and I am not resigning.
"It is not the Michelin way. We are going to do all we can to make better tyres, make sure this never happens again, make faster tyres and win more races."
Asked what he felt in reaction to Wednesday's meeting of the World Motor Sport Council of the Federation Internationale de l'Autmobile (FIA) in Paris, where the seven Michelin-tyred F1 teams were found guilty on two of seven charges brought against them in the wake of the Indianapolis fiasco, Dupasquier grinned again.
"You know, we are not interested in this, not the history of it or the reactions, because we are not one of the competing teams. We are their partners, their suppliers. So we don't want to say anything like that.
"But we do want to go on racing again and I would like the Formula One family to work together again. This shows that the family has collapsed and we need to repair that. Of course, we know it was our fault - we did not have the right tyres.
"If it is anyone's fault it is mine. But there were a lot of ways of carrying on with that race and I think there might have been 200 possibilities. But it did not happen. We are all part of a global team and now we have to do something for the sport. For Formula One.
"That is why we have made our promise. And you know when Michelin says it will do something, it will do it. That is the Michelin way. We do not need any advice about this from Mr (Max) Mosley (FIA president). We know what to do."