Pirelli are confident that their predictions ahead of the 2017 season are correct, and are happy with the testing data that they have seen so far.
In the wake of new regulations, Pirelli's tyres have been re-designed to allow drivers to push for longer on them, rather than conserve them to prevent heavy tyre degradation.
"I drove 20 laps with the soft tyres, and I was able to attack for 20 laps," Williams' Felipe Massa told Auto Motor und Sport at the Barcelona test.
Pirelli's technical boss Mario Isola said: "Last year, no one could have driven 20 laps with the soft tyre in Barcelona. Because you would have lost 4 to 5 seconds. Now the degradation is 1 to 1.5 seconds."
There are some fears however, that the low degradation tyres will means that Grands Prix will feature predictable one-stop strategies, but Isola says that they have a plan in case this happens.
"We built the tyres we were asked to build. If it turns out that the races are more boring, we are ready to change our approach for 2018."
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Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
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Posts: 1,804
Tyres will play a very key role in 2017 i think