Pirelli have threatened to revert to supplying “conservative” tyres that ensure one-stop races in 2014 if Formula One’s teams and ruling body fail to legislate for an alternative before next season.
Pirelli chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera met commercial ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone in Abu Dhabi two weeks ago to make it clear that if the sport wants to retain variable and intriguing tyre strategies next season it should write it into the regulations.
According to motorsport director Paul Hembery, Pirelli has lost patience with facing criticism whatever it does – a situation that has arisen this season – and will in future only do what is required by the rules.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas, Hembery said: “We just want to be told what to do. We want a clear input and want it clearly defined, because the characteristic this year is that people have maybe forgotten what we were asked to do.
“That has got lost somewhere in the passage of time and that is the important thing that we want to make sure is resolved. Somebody needs to tell us what they want to do.”
Pirelli were briefed to add entertainment by creating fast-wearing tyres that ensured multiple pit-stop races, but this resulted in a backlash after several high-speed tyre failures at the British Grand Prix in June.
Drivers threatened a boycott if the tyres were not made safer and as a result Pirelli reverted to an older form of tyre amid further criticism that it favoured Red Bull and other teams.
This left the Italian company in a dilemma.
The teams are reluctant to support a move for mandatory two-stop races because of fears that drivers will all stop on the same lap, but they have supported Ecclestone’s strategy, in tandem with the International Motoring Federation (FIA), to request multi-stop contests.