Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsPirelli

Pirelli welcomes agreement on future F1 tyres

Pirelli motorsport boss Paul Hembery has welcomed agreement from Bernie Ecclestone and the drivers regarding the tyres they want in F1 in future.

Having previously been asked to produced rapidly degrading tyres which deliver two to three pit stops, it appears Pirelli’s requirements will change in 2017 as the drivers have called for tyres which they can push on throughout a race. With Ecclestone lending his backing to the request as well, Hembery told F1i Pirelli is happy to have consensus on what the sport would like.

“We welcome it, we genuinely do,” Hembery said. “We get caught between a rock and a hard place because we are just trying to provide the sport with what it wants. If the sport is all in agreement with what it wants then we are happy to do it. We don’t want to seem like we are defending a position because we’re not; we’re only trying to do what they ask us to do.

“It now seems that they all want it to be done in a certain way which is a bit different to the past, which we welcome.”

It is hoped a meeting between Pirelli and key F1 stakeholders in Milan on February 2 will define the exact requirements of the 2017 tyres. However, Hembery has warned restrictions on tyre testing will have to be lifted to allow Pirelli to deliver major changes, revealing the tyre manufacturer is not even allowed to test with an old F1 car.

“Subsequent to the meeting then we’ll require from the sport an adequate and suitable test plan which will allow us to deliver the performance required.

“We’re prohibited from testing our own historical F1 car. I can’t go and get a 2012 V8 to test with, the reason we’re not testing is because we’re prohibited.

“The FIA would have to make changes to the regulations. Clearly you don’t go tyre testing with 10 teams. Like we have done when we had the Toyota and we had the Lotus, you need one car and our own peace and quiet where we can go and test lots of different solutions and different products.

“Then we’ll be able to deliver what’s required. But if we have to go testing with ten cars and do it all in one day that’s not a tyre testing schedule, that’s just a feel-good factor because the teams don’t want one team to have an advantage over another.

“The point we’re making is tell us what you want and all agree on the target, that’s really important. Then secondly make provision and give us a clear indication of how we can go testing. We need a clear indication of how we can go and develop and test the product to deliver what has been requested of us, bearing in mind today we are prohibited from testing on any historical Formula One car.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.