Pirelli plans to test a new hard compound tyre in practice at the British Grand Prix, which will be easier for teams to work with, but has admitted it is wary of introducing it for races because of fears it could have an impact on the tight world championship battle.
Paul Hembery says his company is seriously concerned about making any change to the tyres because it could change the competitive situation in F1.
"There is a big point to make that if we make a change, particularly with the way the championship has been played this year so close, we don't want to risk creating an advantage for a particular team," he told AUTOSPORT.
"So if you imagine, suddenly, for races 10, 11 and 12 one team starts running away, then we're going to come under all the criticism.
"We'll test because we want to understand the effect and impact, but it's not necessarily going to happen that we bring it to the races. We've got to be very careful because there's a big difference with the teams on where they are with the tyres at the moment.
"We talk to the technicians, so then they're trying to find the success of finding that key of keeping the performance at the highest level for as long as possible.
"They would be rather upset, I think, if suddenly it was a little bit easier, and the people that have worked so hard felt that they were getting there, and another team then gets there. You need to be careful with things like that because it changes during the championship."
