Pirelli: No mystery to 2012 tyres but teams are struggling to get them to work with cars

However, the Italian company believes the big fluctuations in form, and various struggles that some teams are having, are the result of those outfits not knowing how to get their cars working with the rubber.

Amid an ongoing focus on the impact Pirelli is having on the racing this year, with five different winners in the first five races, its motorsport director Paul Hembery said: "I would say all the teams understand the tyres - what they don't understand is how to make the interaction between the car and the tyres do what they want. That is the real challenge.

"They know exactly what is going on with the tyre. You talk to some of the tyre experts at teams that, on the outside, appear to be suffering, and the tyre guys explains exactly what it is doing.

"It is not the tyre - it is the interaction between car and tyre to get the tyre in to the window that maximises the performance. I am not trying to shift responsibility: but it is that."

"The biggest issue teams have faced this year is getting their tyres into the right operating window - so they are not too hot that they overheat and degrade, and not too cold that they do not deliver the necessary grip."

Although that operating window is not any narrower this year than it was last year, the 2012 tyres do operate at higher temperatures. That factor, allied to the fact that tyres are having less energy put through them this year because of the move away from blown diffusers, could explain why there have been so many struggles.

"It has moved," said Hembery of the temperature range. "It isn't particularly higher, it has moved higher. But it varies, and it depends what tyre you are talking about.

"There is also the fact that we see the cars oversteering a lot more this year, and if you are oversteering you are sliding, and that can overheat your tyres. That wasn't evident last year because a lot of the cars were very stuck to the ground in simplistic terms, with very little movement on the rear."