SPIELBERG, Austria -- Pirelli says it may be able to lower its tyre pressure prescriptions at upcoming races if the FIA's new procedure for checking pressures has the desired effect.
Since the Italian Grand Prix last year, the FIA has enforced Pirelli's pressure perscriptions at each grand prix to make sure undue stress is not put through the tyres. In order to stop teams working on ways to reduce the pressures when the tyres are fitted to the car -- and therefore gain a competitive advantage -- the FIA will now check pressures before the tyres are fitted rather than when they are on the car. It is believed the new procedure will eliminate any tricks the teams found to heat up the tyres while they are checked on the car before cooling them on track to reduce the pressures.
"Yes we are working with them [the FIA] to improve the system of checking the prescription," Pirelli's motorsport director Mario Isola said. "With this new system, to check the tyres before they are fitted on the car, the pressure, we have a consistent system to measure it independent from the session.
"So in FP1, FP2, FP3, quali and race we measure all the tyres in the same way, we have consistent numbers in all the sessions, so we are 100 percent sure that only the blanket is heating the tyre and teams are quite happy because once they fit the tyre they are not allowed to bleed air but they have a reference pressure.
"I can give you a result in a couple of races when we have some numbers to evaluate but for me the system is working so let's see what is going to happen."
Tyre pressures have become a sensitive issue in F1, with many drivers saying Pirelli consistently set them too high for the circuits. Following Friday practice in Austria, Fernando Alonso complained that F1 is the "the only category where you cannot setup your own car".
But with some teams finding ways to lower their running pressures, Pirelli has had no choice but to go conservative across the board. If the new system ensures running pressures consistently remain within the limits Pirelli is targeting, then Isola said the tyre manufacturer would consider lowering the pressure prescriptions from the historic highs that have featured at rounds so far this year.
"Of course. The starting pressures are based on simulation or our analysis, but then on our analysis basically we consider a qualifying lap and a race lap, and you measure the stress on the tyre and the stress on the tyre is linked to the running pressure.
"That is something that at the moment we are not enforcing, because we are enforcing the starting pressure. So depending on the running pressure, if now that we have changed the system, we measure higher running pressure, it means that we can drop down a little bit on the starting pressure, depending on the number that we measure because the target is to run at a certain pressure."