Pirelli wants to revamp colour coding of tyres for 2012

Formula 1's official tyre supplier opted for different coloured logos on the four compounds for this season - with silver [hard], white [medium], yellow [soft] and red [super soft] being chosen ahead of the start of this season.

However, the colours have not proved easy to tell apart at times - especially at those races where the medium and hard tyres have been used.

Pirelli director of motorsport Paul Hembery has said that there will be a rethink ahead of 2012, not only on the colours used but also the way the tyres are marked.

"I think we need to have a little bit of variety there and we need to improve the marking, certainly in the harder and medium compound with the silver and white," he told AUTOSPORT.

"So we need to differentiate that and give more colour, so the tyres are recognisable when they are going around. We are working on it. We haven't got the solutions yet and maybe we could even have a contest for people to choose Pirelli tyre colours next year."

Hembery has said that the biggest issue Pirelli has is in sorting out how to apply colours to the sidewalls of the tyres - rather than what colour they should be.

"It is more the process - the colour itself we can decide very late," he said. "The thing that takes time is working out the process for getting the colours on the tyres. It might sound very simple but when you are trying to print and put something on a curved sidewall, and it also has to be something that resists going over kerbs and rubbing, it is a rather convoluted process.

"There are not that many people in the world who do that, it is something you have to invent yourself and perfect yourself, but we are working on it."

Hembery also said that with the company using stickers as its current markings, there were no plans to introduce a glow-in-the-dark element for next weekend's Singapore GP as Bridgestone did last season.

"For this year, no," he said. "We are using a sticker, which means when the tyre is being cured, the label is put on its side then. With labelling technology as it is now, you cannot get the fluorescent pigments into it."

Pirelli has also now totally ruled out the idea of qualifying tyres being made available next year, after proposing the idea as one of many changes that could come into force if teams wanted them.