- Tyres
Pirelli in the dark over 2014
Pirelli is in the dark over the demands that will be placed on its tyres in 2014, with teams reluctant to give out information on their new cars.
Following numerous issues throughout 2013, motorsport director Paul Hembery has said it is imperative the teams work closer with Pirelli and that it is allowed to test tyres properly ahead of the new regulations next year. However, speaking to the official Formula One website, Hembery said the teams were understandably cagey about giving out information on new cars in case it found its way to competitors.
"We've done a survey of the teams and how they envision the cars looking and it is very clear that the development speed of the teams will be very fast," Hembery said. "But, of course, at this stage the teams will not give us any more information because this is a competitive environment and I am sure they don't want to be compromised. So we have taken worst-case scenarios based on the data that we have and we are working towards that. Having that in mind, we have to be a little bit more conservative."
Asked to clarify on the "worst-case scenarios", Hembery said Pirelli has to ultimately make tyres for a car which doesn't exist.
"What I meant was related to top speed, lateral loads, vertical loads, aero loads, the loadings on the front and the rear. You have to create a car bringing together all the data from all of the teams - a car that doesn't exist, that is a fictitious car, but which is the worst-case scenario in terms of the parameters we're looking at.
"Of course with the huge changes in regulations the teams will, step-by-step, learn to understand what they really mean and we'll need the data very early on to understand where they are. We'll then keep asking to be updated during the season. In pre-season nobody will give too much information - as I said, this is too competitive an environment - but once we are running we need to be very clear on where the journey's going as we don't want to repeat the errors of this season."
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