Championship concerns for Michelin

Michelin's Pierre Dupasquier is concerned that the amount of teams using the French manufacturer's tyres could in fact aid Michael Schumacher's championship chances this season. Six teams now run on Michelins and Dupasquier thinks Schumacher, who's Ferrari uses Bridgestones, doesn't have to win consistently to be able to rack up enough points to win the title.

"In my opinion Michael Schumacher could easily win the title by coming fourth in every Grand Prix while our drivers take points off each other," he told Gazzetta dello Sport.

Ferrari is the only top team Bridgestone supplies, while Michelin partners front runners McLaren, Williams and Renault. Michelin appears to have made much progress over the winter, especially with wet tyres, which has always been Bridgestone's strong point.

Dupasquier finds it difficult to predict Michelin's progress as Ferrari has spent much time in private testing over the winter. "Ferrari has so far only tested by themselves, so this doesn't allow us to really judge the work of our Japanese competitors, but I think they've really improved their performance over a single lap," he commented.

"On the other hand, it doesn't seem like the same happened over longer distances. At least by what little we could see. We have made steps forward with the dry-weather tyres, but especially with the wets."