For the past few seasons, testing has been restricted to Spain as a means of helping reduce costs for teams.

However, with F1 undergoing such a dramatic change in car regulations for 2017, Pirelli thinks it better that pre-season running takes place in venues where track temperatures are more akin to what will be found for the early races.

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery told the official F1 website: "We would prefer to go somewhere like Bahrain or Abu Dhabi.

"The temperatures will be representative and we know the tracks very well. We definitely would want to go to representative tracks."

Although Pirelli has an extensive 2017 test plan under way, it knows that the true extent of the forces exerted by the quicker cars will only be fully realised a few weeks before the start of the season.

It admits it may need to change its products early in the campaign if there are any shocks – but potential issues would be highlighted better by warmer winter running.

"If we have any surprises - if the cars then are very different to what we had envisioned - then we will have to react to that," he said.

"Probably not for the first race, but at least when we have some really good winter testing we should know in advance how it is likely going to be - what changes are needed."