Lucas di Grassi has earned himself the official test driver seat with Pirelli. There are at least five tests left to do in 2011. He will be in charge of developing the new generations of tires for Formula 1.
"Lucas has impressed us not only with his pace, which is vital if we are going to accurately simulate racing conditions, but also his technical feedback to the engineers. I'm delighted to welcome Lucas into the team," Pirelli's director of motorsport Paul Hembery told Autosport.
Pirelli is also discussing with teams of new directions to take in 2012 as well as trying to find a solution to its lack of access to modern cars, its 2009 Toyota coming to the end of its 'useful' life.
"The car doesn't have the right sized fuel tank, and it doesn't have the DRS. The 2013 regulations are probably going to be less downforce and higher top speed, so we need to sit down and find a solution," explained Hember.
"It is easy for the teams to say no, no, no. But we genuinely need a solution and one that doesn't lead to accusations that we are favouring one team over another. We are not interested in that.
"Maybe we do test sessions where we change the car every time. Or all the cars have McLaren Electronics so we could block the channel for the team so no data could be read from the test, or we could make it available to everyone. There are a number of ways to do it."
As far as changes go, Hembery has put it in the hands of the team to help them find solutions and let them know which ones of theirs they like and dislike.
"At the end of the day we are a partner of the teams and the teams also need to give their point of view. We can have all the ideas in the world but at the end of the day if they don't want to do it, they don't want to do it," he said.
"Lucas has impressed us not only with his pace, which is vital if we are going to accurately simulate racing conditions, but also his technical feedback to the engineers. I'm delighted to welcome Lucas into the team," Pirelli's director of motorsport Paul Hembery told Autosport.
Pirelli is also discussing with teams of new directions to take in 2012 as well as trying to find a solution to its lack of access to modern cars, its 2009 Toyota coming to the end of its 'useful' life.
"The car doesn't have the right sized fuel tank, and it doesn't have the DRS. The 2013 regulations are probably going to be less downforce and higher top speed, so we need to sit down and find a solution," explained Hember.
"It is easy for the teams to say no, no, no. But we genuinely need a solution and one that doesn't lead to accusations that we are favouring one team over another. We are not interested in that.
"Maybe we do test sessions where we change the car every time. Or all the cars have McLaren Electronics so we could block the channel for the team so no data could be read from the test, or we could make it available to everyone. There are a number of ways to do it."
As far as changes go, Hembery has put it in the hands of the team to help them find solutions and let them know which ones of theirs they like and dislike.
"At the end of the day we are a partner of the teams and the teams also need to give their point of view. We can have all the ideas in the world but at the end of the day if they don't want to do it, they don't want to do it," he said.