Michelin has been resurgent over the first three races of the 2008 season. It’s hard to believe that this is the company that had many of the top riders and teams scrambling around for an alternate solution at the end of 2007.
Michelin has been under close scrutiny by the world media and fans since the start of the new season, with the French company promising a backlash against the dominance of Bridgestones.When the season opened in Qatar, it very quickly became apparent that due to the cooler ambient temperatures provided by the night’s atmosphere, that it appeared to favour the French manufacturer. Michelin were keen to prove that their result in the opening round wasn’t a fluke as they headed into round two at Jerez. They weren’t to be disappointed, with Pedrosa and Lorenzo making sure that Michelin has outscored Bridgestone 2/1 in the podium stakes at both rounds of the championship.
Estoril also provided little in the way of relief for Bridgestone, who for the first time this season managed to dent Michelin’s stranglehold in qualifying, by getting one of their runners in the form of Valentino Rossi onto the front row in third place. Rossi did managed to lead the race in the early stages however he was soon sliding back down the order behind eventual winner Jorge Lorenzo and runner up Dani Pedrosa both on Michelin’s.
So after three rounds of the championship is it fair to say that Michelin has made the dramatic backlash to their Japanese rivals they had promised? Michelin’s performance on the track this year has certainly been impressive, but in my honest opinion I would have to say that the jury is still out, after what would appear to be meteoric return to the top. If you read between the lines, Michelin have so far been dominant in cool conditions at Qatar and impressive at Jerez and Estoril, which have always been problem tracks for Bridgestone tyres. Jerez was the only track that Bridgestone didn’t manage to get on the podium at in 2007. Yet in 2008 they managed to break Michelin’s dominance through the Yamaha of Valentino Rossi.
So although it may look at present as though Michelin has bitten back at the competition, with lots of development over the winter it may be providing a false result.Estoril didn’t provide any further answers to the debate of whether Michelin have managed to battle back. At last years Estoril race Michelin managed to provide a tyre that could sustain the distance of the race with Rossi and Pedrosa bringing home a one, two podium, while Stoner could only finish a distant third for Bridgestone. Whereas, in 2008 it was Lorenzo and Pedrosa on Michelin shod bikes that took the one – two from Rossi on Bridgestone’s in third.
A second factor of Michelins new found form could also be the vast improvement of the new Honda and Yamaha machines. Both machines have made large strides forward over the winter. The speed difference between Ducati and their competitors has been vastly reduced. Part of Michelin’s decline from the top of MotoGP last season must go down to the fact that both Honda and Yamaha’s development of their 800cc machines fell below their own high standards. With both Pedrosa and Rossi stalling over signing new contracts with their respective teams, both Honda and Yamaha have been busy developing new chassis’s, engine’s, and more in an attempt to retain their dominance in the top flight of racing.
On the other hand, Suzuki and Kawasaki who enjoyed success with Bridgestone tyres in 2007 have both struggled with their new evolution of their respective packages. Obviously if the bike fails to perform then the tyres can’t mask the issue and it will appear that the tyres are not as good as they once were. Personally I do think that Michelin have been hard at work over the winter developing new, improved, durable compounds for the field, but at the same time I feel that what we are seeing at the moment may not be a true reflection of the real situation. The true test will be when we get to the tracks with the hotter climates, where the Michelin tyres failed to perform in 2007. If Michelin can get a tyre that works at Laguna Seca, Misano and Phillip Island then maybe it will be Bridgestone who has to go back to the drawing board in 2009.
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