GreenBkk Formula 1 | Pirelli: Additional tuning still needed

Pirelli: Additional tuning still needed

Credit: PlanetF1.com (www.planetf1.com)

Pirelli reckon that with just a bit of "additional tuning" their tyres will be ready for their return to Formula One next season.

Following several tests using a 2009 Toyota chassis, Pirelli handed the teams their first taste of the 2011 tyres in Abu Dhabi last week in a two-day test.

According to Pirelli's tyre research and development director Maurizio Boiocchi, the teams and drivers were impressed with the tyres, although he admitted there is still come fine-tuning to be done.

"All the teams gave common feedback that we will follow over the next week to improve and optimise the tyre which is, in my mind, already more than good," he told Autosport.

"We are very happy about the performance, especially taking into account that on August 19 we turned a wheel for the first time at Mugello and three months later we ran with 12 teams.

"Everything that we did with the simulations and computer models was really helpful and based on that, and the work with the Toyota, we developed the solutions that we used during the test.

"We have some additional tuning to do on the compounds and rebalance the stiffness of the tyre front and rear to improve the characteristics even more, but these were two fantastic days. We would have signed for this when we first started this adventure!"

Boiocchi also put paid to concerns about how the Pirellis would react with next year's cars given the new 2011 regulations.

"We are designing the tyres for the 2011 cars, for which the rules will be changed and there will be different downforce characteristics with the single diffuser at the back of the car," he said.

"There are a lot of differences and we are developing the tyres according to the future needs.

"The test was about checking what we have. The test was about checking the tyres with performances levels that are very different compared to the 2009 Toyota.

"The downforce, aerodynamics and lap times are totally different. We achieved a very tight correlation between the two things and what we now need to do is very clear from the two-day test."

Credit: PlanetF1.com (www.planetf1.com)