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Pirelli plays down fears over test team advantage
Pirelli insists it is doing all it can to prevent the Formula 1 teams helping its tyre development get an advantage, despite fears from Williams' Pat Symonds that the trio will have an 'enormous' boost.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Jul 14, 2016, 10:11 AM
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Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari are heavily involved in Pirelli's preparations for 2017. They have been running old cars in recent weeks for compound work, and are preparing hybrid cars to help run the wider tyres in an extensive programme that starts in August.
Their involvement has led to concerns from Williams technical chief Symonds, who thinks they will have a huge head start in knowing what is needed for next year's rubber.
"I think it's an enormous advantage and I think it's something we need to consider," said Symonds. "Even in this sort of blind testing they do, there always is the advantage in that the comments you make steer the direction of the tyres."
But Pirelli's racing manager Mario Isola says that a lot of effort has gone into the test plans by both his company and the FIA to ensure that any gains by those involved are minimal.
"We have done our best to avoid this situation, and that is why all the data will be shared with all the teams," he explained.
"The teams that are not going to test will receive detailed reports, will receive all driver comments, all our analysis and some models we will develop in the next months. We will provide the same information.
"Don't forget the tests are blind for the teams that are testing. They know they are testing tyres. They don't know if it is base, if it is a prototype, nor what is in in the prototype - if it is a different compound and construction. They don't know anything
"They receive a run plan blind, prepared by Pirelli. We know what is inside the tyres but they don't know. They receive the report the same as the other teams.
"Of course it is difficult to say if it is an advantage or not. But we had a lot of meetings and discussions to not give a disadvantage to those that are not testing."
Best solution
One of the conditions of Pirelli staying in F1 was that a proper testing plan for 2017 was put in place.
And although the programme has left some outfits uneasy, Isola is clear that there was no better way of Pirelli getting things ready for next year.
"We are talking about testing, and tyre testing since we started in F1 is never an easy subject to discuss," he said.
"I think that now we have found a very good solution. If we don't have all the teams that are happy, I am sorry for that. But we have to find a solution, and we need also the tools to do our job in a proper way.
"In 2009 we had a Toyota car, which was good solution as Toyota stopped being part of the championship. It was the ideal solution, but we don't have one team stopping each year so we need to find a solution."
2017 tests
Isola also said that Pirelli planned to make the most of more in-season tyre testing next year to help further refine its products for 2018, where it hopes to use 2017 cars.
"We want to use the opportunity in 2017 for developing in 2018," he explained. "Probably we will have more teams that are interested in testing, and that is something we will see at the end of this year."
Additional reporting by Jamie Klein
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