Bahrain: Michelin partnership working well

Michelin and BAR
By Phil Huff (01/04/2004)
April 1 2004

The inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix presents new challenges to the Formula One teams, but most focus centres around tyres. Lucky Strike BAR Honda technical director Geoffrey Willis admits that there's still a few unanswered questions.

"Bahrain might be an unknown quantity, but we have such good predictive tools nowadays that we can generate a very clear picture of a lap of the track long before we get there," explains the technical boss. "We have access to all the co-ordinates, corner geometries and elevations, so we are able to establish a pretty good baseline."

The baseline helps, but it's not quite as simple as it may seem.

"There are one or two questions still to be answered, however: we don't know how rough the kerbs are, for instance, or whether there are any ripples in the surface that might require us to raise the ride height a little. That's the kind of detail we'll assess when we have a chance to look at the circuit properly on the Thursday immediately before the race.

"When it comes to evaluating tyre wear for an event like this, BAR Honda relies on Michelin's input. So far we have only completed two races together, but they have been the tip of the iceberg in our working relationship. We carried out about 20,000 kilometres of pre-season testing and I was impressed by the manner in which both parties were able to begin collaborating productively within an incredibly short space of time."

So Willis is happy with Michelin?

"Our partnership has started very positively – and the team's podium finish in Malaysia reflected that."