Zoom Michelin intent on another successful year

The following is a press release written by Frédéric Henry-Biabaud, Michelin Competition Director, stating the French tyre manufacturer's clear objectives for the coming year.

"At the start of the 2007 season, Michelin set itself a number of objectives. One year later, it's clear to see that the company has once again shone in endurance racing through the performance of its products.

For Bibendum, it's a full house: a 10th win at the Le Mans 24 Hours, a ninth consecutive title in the American Le Mans Series with Audi and a fourth consecutive title in the Le Mans Series with Peugeot. For 2008, our objective is to win as many races as possible!

Actually, one of the big objectives we want to achieve this year is to further enhance our credibility amongst manufacturers through success on the race track. When we start a new series or a new championship, it's often with a car manufacturer and we never want to let them down.

And certainly not at Le Mans. It's our home battlefield! Losing at Le Mans is out of the question. It's true that we supply a lot of teams, but in the end it's those teams that have chosen us, because we give them good tyres and top quality service. At the Le Mans 24 Hours, it's important to have a tyre partner that knows a bit about the race.

Nonetheless, every year we are careful not to become complacent: all it takes is one false move for our reputation to suffer. Le Mans is one of the high points of the endurance racing season. Le Mans is simply an iconic race on every level. I'd put Le Mans as a thing apart from everything else. It's a focal point of our relationship with our partners, as well as being a very popular event in its own right. Le Mans is a race that can really demonstrate strength in depth for any company.

The company has decided to intensify its endurance racing programme and to stop at nothing to support both its partners and the championship organisers. There are three things that justify this decision. First of all, we are involved in shaping the tyre rules as a full-time technical partner. Secondly, we hope that these endurance championships will be around for quite a while. Last but certainly not least, we benefit from healthy opposition.

Endurance racing matches the philosophy of all our products and it's a discipline that corresponds perfectly with our brand values: performance, consistency, and longevity, whether that's over 100 or 100,000 kilometres."

© CAPSIS International