Pirelli's Mario Isola believes the Italian manufacturer has put together a range of tyre compounds which gives teams strategy flexibility for 2018.
Isola collected the feedback from teams and drivers from this week's tyre test in Abu Dhabi where everyone had a chance to sample Pirelli's 2018 selection, featuring a new pink hypesoft tyre.
"The feedback from the drivers was positive and the hyper soft turned out to be 1 second faster than the ultra soft," Isola told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
"The other compounds were a little closer together in performance than we expected, but it's not a problem because we are not obliged to bring similar compounds to the races and skipping a step will mean more flexible strategies," he added.
Isola underscored the fact that Pirelli's range, designed to reduce blistering and be less sensitive to pressures and temperatures, will still allow for a one-stop strategy, although two stops will likely be the norm next year.
But the Italian manager also believes its new tyres will broaden possibilities for car design.
"We wanted to leave the door open for one stops, yes," he confirmed.
"We believe that these tyres will allow designers to be free to explore two schools of thought: making a car either very fast but hard on the tyres, or kinder with the tyres in order to exploit the softer compounds," Isola said.
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