Pirelli demands more tyre testing for 2017

2017 F1 season

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F1’s official tyre supplier Pirelli has demanded an increase in testing if it changes its tyre dimensions for 2017.

Motorsport directory Paul Hembery said an increase in wheel widths has been “more or less confirmed with all the teams now”. However to accommodate such a “dramatic change” Hembery said an increase in testing “has to be a condition for staying in”.

Hembery believes the new wheel sizes will require “a very serious testing programme in the future”.

“If we are going to carry on in 2017 there are very dramatic changes to the tyre sizes involved and that needs a proper testing programme.”

“In years gone by tyre suppliers in Formula One have been able to test for 100,000km every season and we’re currently unable to use any Formula One car whatsoever to do testing.”

“We are working with the teams behind the scenes and I believe that going forward we will find a solution that will allow us all to be a lot more comfortable.”

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Keith Collantine
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14 comments on “Pirelli demands more tyre testing for 2017”

  1. Its all well & good saying there needs to be testing but when all but 3-4 teams are struggling to actually afford to go racing, Who’s going to pay for it?

    Its also fine to then say the teams who can afford to test should be allowed to conduct the testing but your then giving those teams an even greater advantage than they already have by giving them a much greater understanding of the tyres than the rest.

    Also kind of hard to find the time when the season is so compact with 20-21 races.

    1. An option would be for Pirelli to build or buy their own generic f1 car for testing and use data from teams to set it up for accurate results.
      Of course f1 doesn’t usually go for simple solutions…

      1. I think asking Pirelli to build a car would be too expensive for Pirelli (the level of sophistication on the cars is crazy now), unless teams offered to supply parts of course. It’s tricky, ideally you want an open test, but then if smaller teams can’t attend then the big budget teams move further and further out of reach.

    2. @gt-racer
      It’s a sad state of affairs when the potential cost is the biggest obstacle to testing something as important as tyres, especially when/if they’re going to change them as much as they could be for 2017.
      Testing in general has become so expensive, I’m not even sure it could be made less costly. Which brings us down to who pays, and I suspect that’s an argument that will last quite a while.
      I wonder how many miles of testing Bridgestone completed at Fiorano between seasons, I’d guess probably more in one mid-season than Pirelli have had since they became supplier.

  2. FOM considers them ‘first class partners’, so I’m sure Bernie and CVC will buy Pirelli a year-old Force India or Sauber to use and pay for it to be modified for chubby tyres, and also cover track hire, engineers, mechanics and so on.

    1. Don’t they already have a Lotus?

      1. They used to use a 2009-spec Toyota but the cars have moved on massively since then.

        1. @alec-glen They started out with a 2009 spec Toyota, Then in 2013 got a 2010 Lotus.

          Not actually sure what (If anything) they have now other than GP2/GP3 cars.

          1. @gt-racer Ahh, must have missed that. Difficult spot for them indeed.

  3. It may be difficult but Pirelli are right, surely. Though I think the change to wider tyres is a mistake, given that an excess of torque over grip was the whole idea of the current spec and seems to work pretty well at generating moments, mistakes and passing opportunities. Anyway they must test the things.

  4. Why bother?

    The tyres will still suck. They still won’t have any competition fueling development. Criticism will still not be tolerated. Lifelong fans will still be disappointed.

    Why bother.

  5. Hey Pirelli, buy or rent yourself a 2014 Sauber/Lotus and do it by your own instead of whining when you’re at fault. Can’t stand people who keep moaning from year to year without doing or trying to do a single thing.

    1. Umm, that decision is not up to Pirelli. You can’t just rent a year old F1 car…

  6. Testing with what? The 2017 cars won’t be ready by the time Pirelli needs to have tyres created. Test with a 2016 car? Well then make tyres and use the FIA and FOM to give you some FP1 time for some races.
    Case closed. But the 2016 car still wouldn’t be representative.

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