Pirelli’s F1 boss Paul Hembery has insisted that the Italian firm never considered withdrawing as F1’s tyre supplier following the controversy that followed the tyre failures during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend at Spa.
When asked in Monza if the Pirelli company, amid the negative publicity and talk of teams’ unrest which happened while being locked in a competitive tender with Michelin for the next F1 contract, considered walking away from the sport Hembery said: “No, I think the fallout was rather exaggerated.”
He insisted that the talk of stand-offs between the teams and the tyre supplier was more of a media construct than a reflection of reality.
“We’ve been working extremely well behind the scenes with Maurizio [Arrivabene of Ferrari] and his team and also with Toto [Wolff of Mercedes] and a number of the other Formula 1 teams and the FIA so I think a lot of it’s more in the media rather than a practical situation,” he said.
Hembery explained that he expects Pirelli and the teams to work together positively to make the required changes that Spa possibly brought to renewed light.
“We’re obviously discussing at the moment going forward and there are a number of areas that we need changing to enable that to happen.
“I’ve already mentioned testing, we also want to make sure that we’re all singing off the same hymn sheet so the teams, ourselves and the drivers all know what we’re aiming for and we’ll all agree with what we’re doing, that there’s a common sense of purpose, so that’s really where we’re at.”
Lack of agreement on F1 tyre testing has been thought to be a major impediment to Pirelli in recent years, and Hembery added that should the Italian company remain as the sport’s supplier from 2017 onwards testing would be a condition of Pirelli staying.
“With the proposed changes that have been more or less confirmed with all the teams now with the dimensions of the tyres – going to wider tyres – then yes, it has to be a condition for staying in. You can’t make such a dramatic change without testing.”
