McLaren to blame for Monza tyre problems

Ron Dennis says that McLaren is probably to blame for the team's tyre problems at the track in Monza. Michelin quickly deduced that Kimi Raikkonen's sliced left rear looked like a puncture, the McLaren boss called it 'delamination trouble' after Montoya's tyre problem.

Ron Dennis "We obviously had some delamination trouble with both cars- but the problem was probably down to our set-up rather than the tyres. That's just part of the sport. Michelin chose the best tyre compound for this race, in my opinion, and despite the difficulties we were able to score a great victory."

Michelin's Pierre Dapasquier agreed that extreme tyre wear on the outside edge of a carcass would tend to point the car.
Pierre Dapasquier "Despite McLaren's magnificent victory, the team obviously had some kind of tyre issue today. When we saw Kimi Räikkönen's cut left rear we were curious about the cause, but Montoya's late-race incident illustrates there was a problem of some kind and we will look at this closely with our colleagues from McLaren.
Tyre wear on the outside edge of a carcase is extremely unusual here - normally it's the inside shoulder that bears the bulk of the load down the long straights. We had no problems at illustrates why F1 should remain an open competition between rival companies."

Nick Shorrock, Director of Michelin F1 Activities "The overnight rain didn't change the nature of the track a great deal. All our cars ran on the same tyre compound and the race panned out according to plan, with the exception of two specific incidents. Despite those, however, McLaren scored a terrific win - and it was another fantastic result for us."