Pirelli has floated the idea of increasing the width and diameter of the rear tyres for next season in a bid to ensure they can cope with the increased wear.
With Formula 1 introducing new V6 turbo-charged engines next season, the torque demands will be far greater than at present and Pirelli have expressed concern that without enough data, they’re in the dark as to what demands the tyres will need to cope with.
In an effort to gain more information, Pirelli requested the teams supply expected performance data to aid their development, however only a handful of teams obliged.
As such, the FIA is believed to have stepped in and demanded the teams supply the requested information before the end of next week, as well as extending Pirelli’s finalised structure/compound deadline by a month.
With the performance data the supplier already has, it believes widening the tyre would be the best solution to ensuring it can cope with the demands of a turbo-charged engine and the new ERS-K unit which produces an additional 161bhp for 33.3 seconds per lap.
The idea has been put to the teams, however they are believed to be against it as it would require complete re-designs of their rear-suspension layout to cope with the larger wheels.
A decision is expected to be made toward the end of the summer break in August.
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