Q & A with Pirelli's Paul Hembery

In an office occupied until yesterday by Bridgestone in the Abu Dhabi paddock, AUTOSPORT caught up with the company's motorsport director, Paul Hembery, to discuss what Pirelli hopes to achieve in the upcoming test.

Q. What are the objectives of the test for Pirelli?

Paul Hembrey: It's our first chance to collaborate with the teams because we've been working with an ex-F1 team [Toyota] during testing. So step one is to build relationships; we start the official test season on February 3rd and it's far better that we have at least had an introduction to who we are working with now rather than turning up and having to go through a logistical learning curve.

In terms of the product, it gives us the opportunity to have 12 cars of feedback. We don't know the 2010 car, we want to know how it differs from our test car and next year we will work out how the 2011 car compares to the other two. It's our first opportunity to know where we are in terms of the product. We are quite confident that we have something that the drivers can use, but we don't understand yet what their comments will be. We have some ideas because we've now worked with three recent F1 drivers [Nick Heidfeld, Pedro de la Rosa and Romain Grosjean] who have given us remarkably similar feedback so we are confident that we have a good baseline.

From a good baseline, we might still have some work to do - we are honest enough not to be arrogant and turn up after three months and think everything is going to be perfect. We are open to learning and understanding, we want to listen to the feedback from all of the teams and that will enable us to finish our work read for the start of the pre-season tests.

Q. How close are the tyres that will be used in this test to the ones that will be used for testing?

PH: The construction is pretty well locked. There are a couple of minor modifications that will happen between now and February. In terms of compounds, it will give us the chance to understand our grading of what a medium and a soft tyre is. We read what was used by the previous tyre supplier during the season, but there is no substitute for getting onto a circuit yourself and getting the feedback from the drivers. We might have to change the range of our compounding because maybe our medium is a hard or our medium is a soft - we want to know where our compound levels are.

Q. And you're not trying to replicate what Bridgestone did with the compounds, you're trying to do something more extreme?

PH: Extreme, or more compact in the sense that we want to have four compounds that have a degree of similarity. It's a 20-event season and the surfaces and temperatures that you will encounter are vastly varied, so you have to come up with four solutions that cover that. There are a number of circuits where we won't be able to test, such as street circuits, so there will be a degree of learning throughout the season.

Q. Is Pirelli's plan for this test to give the teams each eight sets of tyres and then test them however they want to?

PH: By and large, it is. There are four sets each day and there's a medium and a soft choice. The circuit will spend a little time getting cleaned up on the first day of running and we'll probably get a bit of pickup and a few vibrations, which is normal when you go onto a circuit that is covered in another tyre-maker's rubber. We will see what the teams come back with.

Q. So you haven't tasked certain teams with specific programmes?

PH: Well, they are quite limited in the sense that they have four sets of medium and four sets of softs. They will probably be trying to understand the differences between the setup they have had with their previous supplier until one day ago and the direction that we are going in in terms of the product.

Q. What support are you giving the teams for this test?

PH: Each team has got an engineer. They are people that come either from Pirelli Motorsport globally or from the R&D department. They won't be the people that will be the team engineers in 2011, we are at the point of making job offers for the people that will perform that role. But they are people who have been involved in the F1 project and in motorsport, so they are specialists. So far, we have had tremendous collaboration with the teams in preparation for this test.

Q. How important are the headline laptimes from this test?

PH: Based on the young driver test I think we've found someone who is a second-and-a-half quicker than Sebastian Vettel! That is the perfect example of how different days, different times, different conditions affect things. It's not very important because the track changes a lot. I'm quite sure that there are not any drivers who are a second-and-a-half faster than him in the same car at the same circuit two days after! That serves as a good demonstration of how things are influenced by conditions.

We have never set out looking for laptimes. That's not to give you excuses about whether we are slow or fast because we haven't a clue, to be honest. Maybe we like the surface that has been created and we have a great time! But it has never been an objective given to us and it's not something that we have been able to chase.

Q. So as long as you are in the ballpark, you're happy?

PH: The important thing for us is to provide a reliable product that is driveable. Drivers need to be able to use the tyres and feel comfortable on them. Three drivers have driven on it, and there have been no adverse comments from them.