Pirelli says lack of 2014 tyre testing no major setback

Although Sebastian Vettel completed one lap in damp conditions on the prototype 2014 rubber, Pirelli did not get any meaningful running from today's running.

"Obviously, we wouldn't have brought them here if we didn't want to run them," said Hembery when asked by AUTOSPORT how much of a setback today has been.

"It's just an opportunity lost, that's like and there is nothing we can do about it or the teams can do about it.

"The reason we wanted it is that we wanted to do some benchmarking against this year's tyres with the new compound and new structure on the current car, just to give us a scaling.

"It was an interesting test, it's not the be all and end all."

While some teams have complained that they have missed out on understanding of how the new tyres will affect the aerodynamics of 2014 cars, Hembery is adamant that this is not a major concern as all teams remain on a level playing field.

He does not believe that Red Bull will have learned much from the single, slow lap Vettel completed.

"It's the same for the teams and I don't think it changes too much," he said.

"If they are getting the data at the same time then it's a level playing field. It just gives a little bit of an indication about finalising everything for next season.

"I can't imagine they [Red Bull] gained a huge amount in the conditions we were in over one lap."

Hembery added that Pirelli had asked whether the 2014 tyres could be made available for use during Saturday morning practice but that was ruled out.

"Further to the discussion in the team managers' meeting yesterday, and having discussed the matter at length with the stewards, I can confirm that in accordance with article 25.4(b) of the sporting regulations the two sets of development tyres provided for use in P1 and P2 today may not be used in P3," said a statement from FIA race director Charlie Whiting.