Pirelli confirms tyre tender application

The FIA invited tyre companies that are interested in applying for the deal, which will determine who supplies rubber to the teams for the 2017, 2018 and 2019 F1 world championship, earlier this week.

Companies have until June 17 to lodge their applications, with the evaluation process set to begin the day after.

Pirelli's chairman and chief executive, Marco Tronchetti Provera, revealed in Monaco that it plans to apply.

"We intend to stay if the regulations are ones that we agree upon," said Provera. "If it will be affordable and if the guarantee of safety we want to have in the contract will be acceptable.

"We want regulations that are similar to the ones we have today but with testing done properly in order to have the best product available.

"Then we want to help create more emotions but always with the highest level of safety."

Testing important

Provera made it clear that one of the key things that Pirelli was particularly keen for was more testing, especially pre-season.

"I think it will be better for all of us and also the teams," he said. "If we wait until February [for testing] then it is too late and the temperature is not the right one."

Pirelli is also open-minded on the type of tyres that it delivers to F1, having been required to produce high-degrading rubber since its return.

"The easiest thing is to do tyres that last 10 races," he said. "That is technologically speaking the easiest solution. What is difficult is to do as we do today, providing different tyres lasting safely for 15-30 laps. That is a good challenge."

Tyre size not crucial

Although Pirelli demonstrated a GP2 car fitted with 18-inch tyres at Monaco, Provera said that his company was not fixed on a particular size for 2017.

"We showed the 18-inches, but we are ready to have also the 20-inches," he explained. "We don't care about it. The technology inside the tyres is based on materials, based on structure and the structure can be 13, 15, or 18-inch – it doesn't matter."