Pirelli needs 'better communication' with drivers

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery has accepted the need for better communication with the drivers to avoid further conflict over tyre development in 2016.

Relations between the tyre manufacturer and several of the leading Formula One drivers on the grid including four time world champion Sebastian Vettel soured after tyre issues at the Belgian Grand Prix, including a spectacular and very public blow-out on Nico Rosberg's Mercedes.

Hembery robustly defended Pirelli from criticism at the time about the direction the company was going with tyre development, but admits that more has to be done to ensure that drivers understand why certain decisions are made - and also to being them into the process so that they have a say.

"The drivers will have to be involved obviously in the testing and will have to have a strong understanding of what's been done and why it's being done.

"It's not us saying we're doing it on our own, it's because their employers [the teams and the commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone] are asking us to do it.

"There's an element of communication there, and of course the drivers in the past we've not been able to use them for testing so it's also very important to us that we have access to some of the top drivers to do the testing because they need to understand what's happening, why it's happening and buy into the process of definition of the final product."

An early opportunity to get the drivers involved will come at the start of December in the post-season test session due to be held at Abu Dhabi two days after the final Grand Prix of the year.

"We're focusing on the Tuesday which is going to be a long-running day. We need to get about four or five thousand kilometres of testing done," Hembery explained of the current plan for the session. He indicated that to get all the data Pirelli needs, five or six teams - rather than just two or three - will be required.

"We're focusing on the Tuesday which is going to be a long-running day. We need to get about four or five thousand kilometres of testing done.

"If you get one team going six hundred, eight hundred kilometres in a day's test than that's already a pretty tough program. That's what, a couple of grand prixs? So it's going to need four or five teams.

"Unfortunately GP2 and GP3 are taking on Wednesday to Friday. They've got a program set up and they need to their work. But if we have the right number of teams then we have the lights there so we'll have to do a very long day of running.

"We need to do it. We need to do it to get that new super-supersoft tyre, but we also for ongoing integrity work. We've got a moving target with the cars and there's a few things we'd like to change structurally to ensure the stability of the tyre into next season. We have to do it for safety reasons."

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