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Pirelli in 'the most bizarre situation' over 2014

ESPN Staff
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Pirelli has agreements in place with the majority of the teams for 2014 and beyond © Sutton Images
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Pirelli is in "the most bizarre situation" with ongoing uncertainty over its 2014 contract, according to motorsport director Paul Hembery.

There has yet to be any official announcement over who will be the tyre supplier next season, with Pirelli's current contract running until the end of 2013. Despite having many agreements in place and commercial contracts beyond that time, Pirelli's future is still not certain with rumours Michelin is interested in a return to the sport.

With a Concorde Agreement yet to be signed Hembery doesn't know when Pirelli might get confirmation for the future but he says the tyre manufacturer is having to plan ahead regardless.

"It's the most bizarre situation we're in really," Hembery said. "We've got our agreements in place with the vast majority of people involved; there's not a clearly defined process but we're going forward, getting the teams signed up, we've got the promoter signed up, we're working on 2014.

"We can only work with what we're being asked to do. We've got cooperation from the teams, we've got cooperation from the promoter and we've had ongoing cooperation from the FIA so until somebody tells us any different we don't really know what we should be doing differently."

However, Hembery said one bit of breathing space Pirelli has been given relates to the September 1 deadline for providing the teams with tyre information for next year.

"From the data we've given the teams we're going to go for October 1st so we've got a few more weeks. That was done a few weeks ago back in Germany when we had a meeting."

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