Pirelli have announced 2 extra sets of experimental tyres will be made available to teams for practice at Abu Dhabi this weekend. http://www.planetf1.com/driver/18227/7298697/Pirelli-to-experiment-with-tyres-in-UAE Seems daft to me that teams are expected to waste setup time with experimental tyres because of the ban on in season testing. Surely the FIA need to relax their testing regulations just a little bit.
Well the teams will have to test the tyres otherwise risk already being behind for 2012, so Pirelli won't be worried They've got the young drivers test coming up so I don't know why they just didn't give them a load of tyres to play with, I doubt the teams won't be doing everything in their power to eak out as much car testing as possible there.
These tyres may not even get used next year. So do teams like McLaren and Ferrari go for race setup during practice in order to try and secure 2nd place in the WDC, while Red Bull and the rest of the grid have the luxury to try out tyres that may well be used next season? There should be a designated tyre testing day for all teams if you ask me.
1st 2nd and 3rd are all confirmed in the wcc now. Realistically only 6th to 8th is left to fight for, but still they should probably do another tyre test if they're planning any drastic changes.
Maybe it's so they can compare data collected now, with data after refining the tyres? (Assuming the tyres will be tested at the young driver tests)
I think it's just part of the development process, but it's hindered by the testing ban. I don't think tyre development/testing should be restricted in the same way as regular car testing. As people have mentioned drivers like Vettel could sacrifice an un-needed race win and spent the entire practice sessions getting to know next years tyres.
