By Michelin Sport (09/09/2004)
September 9 2004

Fresh from its recent success in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa – where Kimi Raikkonen scored a comfortable victory – Michelin has made fruitful preparations for this weekend's Italian GP. With Formula One's summer testing ban finally at an end, Michelin spent a productive week evaluating tyre compounds at Monza – one of grand prix racing's landmark circuits. First opened in 1922, it appeared on the inaugural F1 world championship calendar in 1950 and has subsequently been omitted from the schedule only once, in 1980. It has hosted more world championship grands prix than any other track and this weekend's race will be its 54th.

Michelin is no stranger to success in Italy and has scored six of its 74 F1 grand prix victories at Monza, courtesy of Jody Scheckter, Alain Prost, Rene Arnoux, Nelson Piquet, Niki Lauda and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Pascal Vasselon, Michelin F1 programme manager, commented "Pre-race testing at Monza went very well for us. Antonio Pizzonia set the week's fastest lap in his Williams-BMW and several of our partners performed very competitively.

"As at most circuits, tyre manufacturers have to deliver a compromise when finalising tyre compounds for Monza. Despite the loads imposed by ultra-quick corners such as the Parabolica, tyre wear isn't physically excessive. Combined with the sustained high speeds down the long straights, this lack of wear generates significant tyre temperatures. Consequently, we can't afford to run compounds that are too soft. We will bring four different dry-weather options to Monza. Michelin has performed very well at Monza in recent seasons and our encouraging testing form indicates that our engineers have struck the right balance once again."