Montoya Takes Italian Grand Prix

Juan Pablo Montoya has won the Italian Grand Prix delaying Fernando Alonso’s attempts to become world champion. The Renault team of Fernando Alonso and Giarcarlo Fisichella took the remaining podium spots. At Monza, all of the top eight points scoring cars were running on Michelin tyres. The highest placed Bridgestone shod vehicle was Felipe Massa’s Sauber-Petronas, which came ninth. The results are good news for Michelin. Whatever happens during the course of the next Grand Prix race, Michelin is now mathematically assured of manufacturers/drivers championship victory.

Meanwhile the French manufacturer has hinted it will quit Formula 1 if the sport’s governing body insists on moving to a single supplier from 2008. “All I know is that the principle of control tyres (a single supplier) in no way corresponds with the vision of Michelin’s directors, and that goes for all the types of motor sport in which Michelin is involved,” said Michelin Competition director, Pierre Dupasquier. “The true spirit of racing means having two tyre manufacturers, or even more,” he added.

The Michelin team boss said the FIA’s proposal to switch to a single supplier would reduce the role of the tyre “to that of a banal component with no other added value than permitting Formula 1 cars to be mobile. That is something we cannot accept.”

The Frenchman also said that there was a risk that one team could be favoured to the detriment of the other. Some commentators have interpreted this as an allusion to Ferrari’s ‘special relationship’ with Bridgestone.

“If I wanted to favour a given team, I would develop tyres for that team by optimising [the] balance,” said Dupasquier. “Then I would reproduce this tyre for everyone. Even if the tyres were allocated at random, the team being favoured would profit from this development whatever happened.”

The last sole tyre supplier to F1 was Bridgestone in 2000.