Behind closed doors, Pirelli is stamping its feet as it pushes to prepare for 2014.
International reports, including in Spain’s El Mundo Deportivo and by Italy’s Italiaracing, say the sport’s tyre supplier wants all the major F1 teams to take their 2013 cars to two tyre tests in Abu Dhabi in November and December. “We can’t carry on going round in circles and decide to do nothing,” Paul Hembery said recently. “Something has to change.” Pirelli’s frustration is with the lack of cooperation from the teams amid the Italian marque’s tumultuous 2013 season, where the criticism of its products has been at fever pitch.
So the reports say Pirelli will demand the Abu Dhabi tests when F1’s new strategic committee meets next Monday. “Pirelli wants the same treatment that Bridgestone and Michelin had, when they could test their tyres at length,” read the El Mundo Deportivo report.
Correspondent Raymond Blancafort said that if the teams or the FIA refuse, Pirelli president “Marco Tronchetti Provera could leave F1 without tyres” for 2014. Italiaracing’s Massimo Costa added: “Pirelli is tired of tainting its name because of a formula one in which it is forbidden to test in a proper way”.
Info: GMM, Image: Daimler Media
