- Pirelli
Pirelli preparing for tyre warmer ban
Pirelli will allocate one set of tyres per team "to test tyre behaviour without warming blankets" at this week's Bahrain test, as it prepares for a ban on tyre warmers in 2015.
The second week of pre-season testing for 2014 gets underway in Bahrain on Wednesday, with the teams allocated 30 sets of tyres each over the four days plus an additional set of mediums to be used without warmers. "These are actually considered to be 'prototypes' as their purpose is to test tyre behaviour without warming blankets, which will be banned from 2015 onwards," Pirelli explained.
The tyre manufacturer will also bring its "winter compound" to this week's test, which was specially developed to ensure rapid tyre warm-up in the cool temperatures at the opening pre-season test in Jerez. It returns in Bahrain at the request of the teams.
Pirelli has allocated 22 sets of tyres per team, including two of soft tyres per team, 10 sets of mediums (plus the extra set allocated for use without tyre warmers), eight hard compounds and two winter compounds. The teams will then get to choose which compounds they use for the additional eight sets of tyres over the week.
"The first test of the year in Jerez was all about the teams getting their first taste of a very different set of technical regulations, so as expected running was limited and evaluating tyres was not a priority," Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery explained.
"On top of that, winter conditions in Europe - even in southern Spain - are not representative of the race conditions we will generally encounter throughout the rest of the season. In Bahrain, we're expecting better weather and more running, which will allow ourselves and the teams to assimilate more data and knowledge of the tyres."
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