The International Automobile Federation (FIA) has recently agreed to a request from Pirelli to provide extra set of tires for some races in the 2011 championship, given the high level of tire wear experienced during the winter testing.
“Weather conditions are likely to be different to what was experienced so far in testing, which is why the teams will be given an extra set of prime tires for use during Friday free practice,” said the statement for Pirelli, arguing the Italian company's call for the race weekend at Albert Park.
Further arguing their decision, Pirelli said the move was done in order to ensure the teams will do “more laps in free practice” to help them “finalize the set-up” for the rest of the weekend. Consequently, the Italian tire maker will provide an overall 12 sets of dry-weather tires to each team over the course of the weekend.
Talking about his company's first official outing in Formula 1 since return, Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery admitted that the Italians have gone over their head to try and provide the series with tires that would ensure entertainment, rather than durability.
“We’re aiming for between two and three pit stops in Australia, which in some ways is against our company DNA as our road car tires are designed to be as durable as possible,” said Hembery. “But Formula One is a very different case, because our remit from the teams and promoter was to provide entertainment.”
“With that in mind, we’re just keen to get going now and it will be fascinating to see exactly how the drivers and teams are going to use our tires to employ different strategies during the race. We’ve noticed a few differences between the teams already in testing, and it’s going to be very interesting to find out exactly how that translates into a race situation.”
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