F1: Williams sees advantage in 2017 tire testing

Williams believes there could be an advantage from carrying out testing for Pirelli that will focus on the new Formula 1 rubber for 2017.

Williams is one of the teams that has indicated an interest in supplying a 2015 car for modification to allow Pirelli to do conceptual work on current-sized tires with a view to aiding development work for the new size and specification of tire planned for 2017.

"Naturally they bring a load of tires and they say, 'Which ones do you like?' and you say, 'Those ones' and that's where it moves on," said Williams technical director Pat Symonds. "It's not exactly scientific, but the fact is you've said you like those ones and someone else might have gone, 'I like those [different] ones,' so things tend to go in your direction."

Symonds said modifying the 2015 car will be a demanding project but will provide useful information as teams ramp up their preparations for the 2017 regulation change.

"It's quite an undertaking," he said. "It could pay off. It's not all wasted work in terms of the front end of the car. A lot of good layout that we're doing will ... I won't say that we're making parts that will go onto next year's car but we're just learning how to lay out that sort of stuff.

"The rear's actually quite easy to do and the aerodynamics – although we need to perhaps talk to [FIA race director] Charlie [Whiting] because he's been a bit prescriptive on how we do things – we were planning to do some stuff like that."

Symonds said Pirelli will pay for the testing but the finer details have yet to be worked out.

"We know what Pirelli are paying per kilometer but we don't know all the peripheral bits that make such a difference."

Originally on Autosport.com