Pirelli needs to have more tyre testing before 2014 season, insists Paul Hembrey

Paul Hembrey

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembrey has said that the tyre manufacturers would require more testing before the 2014 season.

Pirelli, who currently has only one testing session scheduled before next season, has been criticized throughout the season by drivers including Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber about the quality of the tyres.

“We certainly need to do some work – and a lot more compound work. We want to change a little bit the philosophy. This year was aggressive compound wise, perhaps too aggressive in some instances, and we have to improve the mechanical strength of the compounds to get less marbles and less ripping next year – as it will be amplified by the new power plants,” Hembrey told AUTOSPORT.

Hembrey added that the Formula One’s new rule-making body Strategy Group should ensure about the tyre testing provisions for next season.

“We are trying to clarify right now, with the way this sport is structured going forward, the best way to make sure that we get the correct inputs. And it needs the ability to test – and also make corrections after testing. We don’t want to be held between individual interests. We want the sport to ask us. If the new Strategy Group is going to function, we want them to tell us what they want, and we will follow it,” he said.

“And, if changes are to be made, it should be approved by a body like that, that has a mixture of teams, FIA and FOM. That will be the ideal situation, otherwise you end up with lobbying and you fall between the interests of the teams,” Hembrey added.