Pirelli confident test teams will gain little advantage

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Pirelli is confident Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull will gain little advantage over their rivals as a result of testing the 2017 tyres this year.

The three teams are preparing mule cars which will feature increased downforce to help test next year’s wider tyres. Testing begins at the start of August and will end with all three teams taking part in a day of testing in Abu Dhabi after the final race of the season. Pirelli wants the race drivers to be involved to ensure the best feedback but racing manager Mario Isola is confident all the measures are in place to ensure every team receives the same information.

“We did our best to avoid this situation and that’s why all the data will be shared with all the teams,” Isola said. “So also the teams that are not going to test will receive detailed reports, will receive all the driver comments, all our analysis, some models that we will develop in the next months… So we are going to provide the same information.

“Don’t forget the tests are blind also for the teams that are testing. So they know they are testing tyres but they don’t know if it’s a base, if it’s a prototype, what is in the prototype, if it’s a difference in compound or construction, they don’t know anything. They are just receiving a run plan, blind, prepared by Pirelli. We know what is inside the tyre, they don’t know.

“They receive the report exactly as the other teams. All the teams are receiving the same information. Of course it’s difficult to say if it’s an advantage or not but we had a lot of meetings and discussions to avoid giving an advantage to the teams that are testing.”

And Isola said there was no way Pirelli was going to be able to deliver such a radical change in tyres without carrying out track testing of the product.

“There were meetings, there were discussions, because it is quite a sensitive subject. So we had to work in order to find the best way to do that. What is clear is it is impossible to develop a tyre for Formula One - that is in this case so different - without track testing. It’s impossible.”

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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.