Trulli says too early to judge slick tyres

Bridgestone is evaluating two types of slick tyres at this week's test, the final one of the season for the non-grooved rubber.

Toyota's Trulli was one of the drivers testing slicks yesterday, and the Italian was pleased with the performance of both compounds.

But with track temperatures reaching 52 degrees Celsius, Trulli reckons the conditions were not the best to judge the performance of the tyres.

"It was basically about collecting data, so we have a better idea what's the work to do in general to look at 2009," Trulli told autosport.com.

"The rules changes will be massive. The tyre changes will be massive so we are trying to collect as much data as possible, and I must say the impact for us was quite big.

"The two compounds here are working pretty well. But we are in a very, very hot condition so it's difficult judge them. I'd wait until the winter time. At the moment we can test them and they are very reliable and consistent and it shouldn't be a problem for the moment.

"But as I said, we it's still premature to give any comments on the tyres. But it was important for us to collect data and to start working on track for 2009."

Trulli also worked with simulated 2009 downforce levels and admitted the driving was tricky.

"It's difficult, as there's no downforce," he said. "You recover some of that with the tyres but not totally. So it will be interesting to see how much improvement the teams can do to cope with this loss of downforce."