Pirelli's Paul Hembery doubts they'll win any 'James Bond prizes' for their 'secret' test

Pirelli Motorsport Director Paul Hembery doubts the company will win any "James Bond prizes" after shedding fresh light on the controversial 'secret' tyre test held with Mercedes earlier this month.

Yet, according to Hembery, transparency also has its limits. Pirelli is working on a 2014 tyre even though it has yet to sign a new contract to remain F1's sole supplier next season. Assuming it stays on, Pirelli says it will give teams more information in September - but not before. "They're private research and development tests for ourselves. At the moment, we don't have a contract with all the teams and you can understand that there are some things that remain confidential," Hembery said. "In common with most industrial companies, you perform your own research and development in a more reserved manner. "It's proprietary information to Pirelli. It's not relevant to the teams. As for Mercedes, they merely provided a service for us." Even so, Pirelli Racing Manager Mario Isola said that some very basic information on the modified 2013 tyre has been distributed. "We gave them some general indication of the development that was done for the 2013 tyre," he added. Something that particularly irked Mercedes' rivals at the weekend was that it had involved their current car. According to Hembery, though, this was a red herring. "We wanted something a little bit more representative because the stresses going into the tyres next year will be very, very great," he said. "It's been suggested in some quarters that we asked for a 2013 car; that's not true. We asked for a representative car. "Our understanding is that there was good discussion between Mercedes and the FIA on the subject. "Whether it's '11, '12 or '13...to be perfectly honest, from a tyremaker's point of view, that's all we need to have." Pirelli has its own test car, a 2010 Lotus-Renault, but Hembery said it couldn't be used because "it was down in the Philippines for a promo run". Of greater relevance, however, is that "the Renault is 4s slower than the current cars". But what of the contention of some of Mercedes' rivals that they weren't asked to test? According to Hembery, memories are short. "On March 12th last year, we did point out to the teams that there was provision in our FIA contract for us to perform 1,000km of tyre testing," he said. "The response to that was limited, we have to say." Pirelli was limited in its own response to the statement issued by the FIA after the Monaco GP, in which the governing body said it wasn't made fully aware of the test nor received assurances that all teams had been given the same opportunity. Isola merely stated that "we informed the FIA of the fact we had this opportunity to run a 1,000km test and usually we keep them informed on all our testing programme". For his part, Hembery reiterated that "the teams were informed back in March 2012 that there's an opportunity to do 1,000km testing. From the first line of the FIA press statement, it clearly states that they knew there'd been a request to do a test with Mercedes". The matter is still outstanding, with the governing body currently deciding whether to refer it to its International Tribunal. "We've replied to a series of questions. That's in the FIA's hands. We'll wait and see what else they need," Hembery added. "As we've always done with the FIA, we've provided total assistance and support."