MotoGP: Michelin man admits poor effort

Michelin boss Jean-Philippe Weber admits the French company simply hasn’t work hard enough to fend off Bridgestone.

In a brutally honest assessment of Michelin’s performances in the new 800cc era, with only four wins from 13, Jean-Philippe Weber said: “Our tyres seem to work in a more narrow range.

“We have been world champions for many years and maybe we didn’t work as hard as our competitors to push and work out the performance of the tyres. We weren’t sleeping before but that’s competition, you want to be faster than the others.”

Jean-Philippe Weber recently threatened a Michelin pullout of MotoGP if Yamaha and Honda’s factory teams switched to Bridgestone next season, but is hoping for a compromise in the negotiations to modify the current tyre regulations for 2008.

Internal discussion at Michelin favoured relaxing current strict testing bans and increasing to 40 from 31 the number of tyres each rider can use at an event – which Bridgestone vetoed at Misano.

“We have been in contact and have to put together some proposals, and we have to find a new compromise,” said Jean-Philippe Weber, hoping to persuade Bridgestone to make concessions.

 “Last year we gave a concession and were more flexible about the tyre regulation than they were.

“Already when the tyre regulation came out the tyre companies had to discuss a lot before they found an agreement and once again I think we will have to discuss a lot.”