- Brazilian GP - Pirelli
2014 tyre work can wait until December - Pirelli
Pirelli says the work it had planned for Friday practice at Brazil with its 2014 tyres will now be carried out at its winter test in Bahrain in December.
Pirelli brought sets of development tyres to Brazil for the teams to try in Friday practice, but rain throughout the day meant the conditions were not appropriate for slicks. Pirelli has flagged its lack of testing as a concern ahead of 2014 and was hoping to gather data to compare with the 2013 tyres on Friday, but motorsport boss Paul Hembery said the work could wait for a test it has planned next month. The FIA ruled out using the tyres in final practice on Saturday morning.
"We obviously wouldn't have brought them here if we didn't want to run them. It's just an opportunity lost," he said. "That's life and that's the weather there's nothing we or the teams could have done about it.
"The real reason was just to do some benchmarking against this year's tyre with the new structure and compound on the current car. Just to give us a scaling, in reality. It was an interesting test but not the be all and end all. It will happen later on, in the December test, a little bit in Jerez but more likely in the first pre-season testing in Bahrain."
Pirelli has put the opportunity to test in December out to tender and will evaluate which team, or teams, to choose once it has received its quotes.
"We have a number of opportunities, yes," he said. "If the quotes are competitive then we will go with more than one team. All the teams can send an observer and the data will be managed through our own people."
Hembery added that the main challenge is to select the right compounds for next year and that would be finalised next month.
"The compounding is the last bit we are finishing off really. The structure is more internal integrity that we are looking at - heat resistance in particular and bonding. The compounding work is going to be finalised in December."
The next opportunity to hit the track will then be at the first test in Jerez at the end of January, but due to the cold temperatures and the abrasive nature of the track, Pirelli is waiting for the two pre-season tests in Bahrain to get its most useful data.
"In Jerez I'm doubtful we will get all the information we want and the teams will be working on just getting the cars running and getting reliability. Bahrain is a big step forward for everything, I think. We are going to one of the more aggressive tracks with higher temperatures and we'll know where we are at a much earlier stage. We won't have to go through the first two or three races to truly understand the actuality of the impact of the changes we make and the impact the cars are going to have next season."
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