Pirelli boss says F1 teams are too paranoid

Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery is used to being the centre of controversy in recent times and his latest comments won’t do anything to change that.

Discussing the ability for Pirelli to complete meaningful testing during tyre development Hembery said,”We are not interested in helping one team over another, we just want to do our job. We don’t care if we do tests with five different teams, one after the other.

“The paranoia levels are high because the competition levels are high, but at a certain point that has to be let go to let us do our job.”

Hembery explained simulators can be helpful, but even that has pitfalls. “You can do a lot of things on simulators and even there I cannot use just one simulator, because then I will be told I am biasing one team over another,” he added. “That has to change. We have to have some things done differently.”

Perhaps in a bid to make a clear statement Hembery added that the controversial secret test with Mercedes in May, for which both parties were punished, was the most valuable test program he has overseen. “It sounds terrible when I say it but the best tyre test we have done for three years was with Mercedes at Barcelona.

“Looking at it in a selfish way, from our point of view, it was the best tyre test we have done. We had hard cars, hard drivers, working professionally and giving us exactly what we want.”

While much of the Pirelli drama is grist for the mill as far as F1 chatter goes, it does keep everyone on watch as to what will happen in 2014, with Pirelli’s involvement yet to be confirmed. It would still seem the most likely outcome that Pirelli will remain in F1, but who knows, perhaps even Goodyear could return after a 16 year absence?

[Source: Eurosport]