Share this article on LinkedIn Email

Formula 1 tyre testing using current cars is a "monumental step forward" for Pirelli, according to its director of motorsport Paul Hembery.

Every team must dedicate one of its eight in-season test days to tyre testing, with Mercedes, Williams and Caterham doing so in the post-Bahrain Grand Prix test earlier this month.

Hembery believes this will make a significance difference in development of its 2015 tyres.

"To be able to go from a race and then try a few solutions on the current cars was a monumental step forward from running around in a three-year-old car," said Hembery when asked by AUTOSPORT about the value of the test.

"It did help a lot being able to verify a couple of particular parameters on an actual car.

"We are learning for next year and had one small look at running again with no [tyre warmer] blankets and we have to write a technical report for the FIA on that.

"Also, we are looking at profiles and structures."

One of the objectives for the 2015 is to increase the 'footprint' of the tyre so that the load is not being concentrated in too narrow a band.

"If the cars go as quick as we think they are going to go [next year], then maybe there are a few things we would like to change in the footprint to reduce the concentration in the centre," said Hembery.

"We are also working on less marbles again as this [current tyre] is our interim solution."

Hembery also warned that the one area where Pirelli is struggling is with wet-weather testing.

While the regulations designated that one day is set around for wet testing, the attempt to do this at Jerez pre-season proved ineffective.

"If we do need to do more work on the wet tyre, we don't know how we could do it because there's only a small amount of simulation work you can do and you still need to go on a wet circuit," said Hembery.

"We've made a good step forward on the wet tyre this year but if we had to do anything else we'd probably have to go to the teams and say we have to come up with another session of some sort."