Pirelli found a recent single-seater for its tests
Pirelli has finally found a new single-seater to conduct its tests. Paul Hembery did not wish to elaborate, stating only that it was a more interesting solution than the Toyota TF109. He also revealed that the Italian manufacturer was considering several former drivers not present in F1 in 2012 to lead these tests.
Pirelli is searching for a recent single-seater to replace the Toyota TF109 – used by Toyota during its last season in Formula One and updated to 2010 standards for Pirelli. The teams did not seem to agree to provide a recent single-seater to Pirelli for its tests because they feared one of them might gain an advantage.
Paul Hembery, the competition director at Pirelli, revealed that the manufacturer had finally managed to find an interesting solution for him. An announcement should be made in the coming days.
I have a recent single-seater to conduct the tests. During the course of next week or a little later, we should inform you. We must first announce it to the teams before discussing it with you (the press), but it’s a good solution, Paul Hembery told Autosport.
Hembery also revealed that Pirelli wanted to have a driver with experience for testing the 2013 tires. Lucas di Grassi might therefore not be renewed as a test driver for 2012. The Brazilian could be replaced by Jarno Trulli, Vitantonio Liuzzi, or Adrian Sutil, who raced in F1 in 2011 but have not found a seat for 2012.
«You can imagine that from a management point of view, our interest is to have someone with experience. We will evaluate our options and take references from people who have worked with multiple drivers.»
It’s an important decision for us because we don’t want someone who will get in the car and try to prove they should be in F1, going flat out and spinning every two laps – it’s a very specific job that we need.
Paul Hembery also stated that he was in favor of developing even softer tires for Formula 1 in 2012, but he first wants to see how things will unfold at the beginning of the season, particularly in Malaysia where it is often very hot and the tires could suffer.
I think we would probably like to see more softer compounds, more aggressive degradation, but ask me the same question after Malaysia where it is always hot. I think we should be cautious and not draw too many conclusions and I think it will be better when we have data from several races, added Hembery.
