The development comes after world champions Mercedes raised concerns towards the end of last season about the 2017 rules, questioning whether the tyres would be able to cope with the increased loads.
Among other issues, Mercedes pointed out that current F1 cars are approaching historic highs in terms of downforce and power and that, if the sport pressed ahead, Pirelli would have to deal with loads to which no other racing tyre has ever been subjected.
Bullshit. The fastest lap of the
2005 Malaysian GP, for instance, was nearly seven seconds quicker than the fastest lap of the
2015 Malaysian GP, and it was set by a car equipped with V10 power,
significantly more downforce, and (grooved) tires that were 43+ laps old.
A cynic might say the tire argument is just a red herring designed to protect those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, especially since no one knows how the 2017 tires will be constructed...
A Pirelli spokesman said: "With the new tyre sizes proposed for 2017, we think the load capacity of a tyre built to the current construction would increase by about 10%. But nobody knows what structure we will choose for 2017 yet.
"Everything will be calculated much more carefully when we start testing."