BackF1 tyre supplier Pirelli open to making wider tyres
FIA said on Thursday that bids are welcome to become the sport's sole tyre supplier from 2017-19
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Monaco: Formula One tyre supplier Pirelli welcomes a switch to producing wider tyres in the future, seemingly hinting that it is prepared to extend its contract beyond next year.
After French manufacturer Michelin said wider 18-inch tyres are the future of the sport, Pirelli insists it is prepared for such a move—and demonstrated this Saturday with a test drive on a GP2 series development car.
Pirelli’s contract as F1’s tyre supplier expires at the end of 2016.
The Italian company said in a statement on Saturday that it tested the 18-inch tyre in two other sessions this year, recording lap times that are equivalent to the current 13-inch tyre.
“We are ready to adapt ourselves to whichever regulations may be adopted in future," Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery said. “We’re open to what the sport wants to do."
F1’s governing body FIA said on Thursday that bids are welcome to become the sport’s sole tyre supplier from 2017-19.
With the sport looking to win back disgruntled fans, F1’s strategy group—comprising of six teams, the FIA and F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone—met last week to propose new measures to make the sport more attractive. Among the favoured proposals was a move toward making the cars look more aggressive with wider tyres.
Pirelli chief exective Marco Tronchetti Provera added that Pirelli would be happy to continue in F1 providing the regulations can be agreed upon and costs are affordable.
Pre-season testing started this year in February in somewhat chilly conditions in southern Spain. Tronchetti Provera says it would be better to do this in Bahrain as was the case before.
“More testing would be better for all of us, also for the teams, and with warmer testing," he said. “If we wait until February it’s too late and the temperatures are not the right ones. It’s in the interests of Formula One and all the teams to do that."
Tronchetti Provera is also against the strategy group’s proposed idea to allow teams a free choice of dry tyre compounds during race weekends as from next year.
“I think the responsibility to choose the tyres remains, and has to remain," he said. “I think we can find a way to provide safe tyres, giving also some flexibility. But the basic choice of the tyres has to be made by us." AP
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