Teams agree to change rules to allow for 2017 Pirelli testing

The company's representatives met with the FIA's Charlie Whiting and team bosses to discuss a testing plan for the coming months, and an agreement was made in principle to change the 2016 Sporting Regulations.

The changes still have to pass through the F1 Commission and World Motor Sport Council in order to be formally ratified.

Teams were asked some time ago if they would be willing to provide test cars, and five – Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, Red Bull and Williams – have indicated an interest in doing so.

Testing will be split into two stages, and will be undertaken initially with cars from 2012-14 running current tyre sizes but with experimental 2017 compounds and so on. This comes under the 'TPC' section of the rules, or Testing of Previous Cars.

The next step will be running 'mule' cars, which will be 2015 machines with suspension adapted for the 2017 tyre sizes. This is regarded in the rules as 'TCC,' or Testing of Current Cars.

Given the changes involved, this will take a lot longer to prepare for, and will obviously be more expensive for the teams concerned.

Possible advantage for teams

“We'll go through the exercise now and just see which teams Pirelli want to work with,” Red Bull's Christian Horner told Motorsport.com. “I think the ball is in Pirelli's court, or actually the FIA's court, as to who is going to conduct some of the testing.

"We have a running V8 show car which travels around the world and already exists. Obviously there's a bit more work involved in the other version.

"Pirelli will cover the costs of the older car running, and they'll make a contribution to the costs of the other running. We'll do our best to support with the equipment we have.”

Horner admitted that teams want to do the testing because they perceive that there's an advantage to be gained.

“Obviously that paranoia inevitably exists, and I am sure every team would rather be doing the mileage than not, and obviously you're always going to learn something.”