Pirelli wants help in the future following Mercedes test row

Ahead of an FIA International Tribunal hearing to which both Pirelli and Mercedes have been summoned because of the three-day Barcelona run, there has been an increased focus on the fact that the tyre company has so little testing access.

Paul Hembery, its motorsport director, says that it is vital the situation changes if Pirelli remains in F1 - and he hopes that the fallout from the Mercedes test situation will make people more open to assistance.

Are we now heading for Flintstones F1?

"We've been constrained clearly in every direction we have looked," Hembery told AUTOSPORT.

"It is very hard when you are being criticised: you know you can solve things or change things, and you are not allowed to. That is something we don't want to have to go through again.

"It is clearly not fair from our point of view. We are here to help the sport. We want to make sure that every team has the same service and product and make sure we deliver for the fans what we have been asked to do.

"We do win every race, but the difference is we don't care who wins. But we do care about what is said.

"We hear and read all the time the comments that we see, and it is clearly not something you expect to get from a sport where we are a partner."

Hembery believes that a good starting point to make Pirelli better able to do its job would be more access to testing, but he thinks that F1's tyre supplier should have a bigger influence on the rules too.

"We have to look at the process of change. The first thing is the test. We don't know yet the full details of next year's car, we have got some indications from the power train about what that might do, but we are not going to get on a car until February.

"We also found it useful when we had a tyre working group, where each team had a representative, and we met at the races. That was very good from a practical working point of view.

"But in terms of change, it is something we need to look at with the FIA. We get full support, and Charlie [Whiting, F1 race director] is fantastic.

"He gives us a great collaboration, but maybe the way we manage change, we need to be able to do that without relying on the teams.

"It should be down to the FIA in collaboration with ourselves. That happens with most other championships that we are involved in."