MOTOR SPORT: Michelin's headquarters at Clermont-Ferrand are just over 100 miles south of the venue for tomorrow's 10th world championship round. It is difficult to imagine a more crushingly embarrassing - or expensive - build-up to one's home grand prix than that endured by the French tyre manufacturer.
At the centre of the controversy is Pierre Dupasquier, Michelin's idiosyncratic competitions director. Now 68, he will retire at the end of the season after spending his entire 43-year career with Michelin.
It is a poignant end to a lifetime's loyal service, exacerbated by the barrage of increasingly personalised attacks on the French company from the FIA president, Max Mosley.
"There has been too much finger pointing in this matter and that is not the right way," said Dupasquier yesterday, in clear reference to Mosley's criticism.
"Everybody sometimes makes a mistake, and in this case we should have ensured the consequences did not get through to our customers.
"But this is all part of the risks of racing. Wings can break, engines can fail, tyres can have problems. I quite understand the problems of managing the federation of such a complicated sport, but I have to say the FIA did not do anything to minimise the problems at Indianapolis.
"I think we need consensus and the ability to talk to each other in this business, but that's not always able to be the case."
In the light of Mosley's strong attacks on Michelin, there has been speculation that the FIA president wants the French company to leave racing so that Formula One can be supplied by just one tyre manufacturer. Dupasquier threw his hands in the air at the suggestion.
"If they want a one-tyre formula, why don't they just say so?" he said. "Then I can go fishing."
Dupasquier admits he is still confused as to the precise reason for the failures on the banked turn 13 at Indianapolis a fortnight ago. "We have attempted to replicate this tyre failure on test rigs since the race and initially were unable to do so," he said. "But the notion that we took a risk is not true. We've simulated the conditions and are trying to work out what happened there.
"We don't just take a risk and say to the driver: 'Here's a new tyre, let's try it.' At Indianapolis there were a lot of different factors coming into play: the longitudinal strain on the tyre with the car accelerating flat out, the effect of the banking. It just proved too much for the construction we had designed."
Tomorrow's race around the Circuit de Nevers is a crucial opportunity for Michelin to demonstrate in front of its home crowd that its problems were a short-term setback.
Dupasquier believes Michelin's offer to atone for its shortcomings by refunding the ticket costs for all spectators at the US Grand Prix is as far as the company is prepared to go. This flies in the face of hints from the governing body that Michelin should shoulder any additional costs stemming from the mass withdrawal, a figure believed to be as much as 45 million.
Guardian Service
