Ralf was joined by his BMW WilliamsF1 Team boss Sir Frank Williams and by Team Technical Director Patrick Head.

The visit to the Michelin factory was included into the trip to Monaco for this weekends Monaco Grand Prix. For Schumacher it was his first visit to Michelin, while for Sir Frank it was his third, following a similar stop-over last year on his
way to Monaco and a visit earlier in 2002 with his other driver, Juan-Pablo Montoya.

Ralf and Sir Frank were greeted by Michelin's motorsport director Pierre Dupasquier and visited the company's head-quarter buildings, where they were joined by Michelin's two Managing Partners, Edouard Michelin and René Zingraff. Patrick Head meanwhile was taken by Michelin's F1 Project Manager, Pascal Vasselon on a visit of the company's Ladoux Research and Test Centre.

After lunch Schumacher was shown around the F1 tyre production department by Pierre Dupasquier, where he met many of the Michelin staff involved in the company's Formula One project.

Ralf said: "I was very amazed to see these tyres being made for the first time. I was particularly surprised to see how many people are working on the project and yet by how calm it all was. I was even more surprised to find out how much was done by hand and yet each set of tyres is so consistent and the quality is so good."

The visit ended with a short press conference for local journalists before the trio continued their journey to Monaco.