Pirelli's 2014 tyre deal 'done'

Nov.2 (GMM) Pirelli's threat to quit Formula One at the eleventh hour prior to the 2014 season has receded.

A week ago in India, the boss of F1's controversial official supplier, Paul Hembery, said Pirelli must be allowed to do more testing ahead of the next world championship.

"Based on the comments of our chairman (Marco Tronchetti Provera) a few weeks ago," he said, "there has to be some (more) running or we can't do the tyres."

In the days since then, there seems to have been some movement beyond the teams' recent reluctance to help Pirelli with its 2014 preparations.

Together with McLaren, Pirelli is set to test over 1000 kilometres at Vallelunga in Italy, and some tyre testing at Interlagos will also take place later this month.

"We will be bringing a couple of sets of tyres of the prototype for next season to the Brazil race," Hembery said, "for P1 (first Friday practice).

"We're hoping to do a couple of tests in December and January with an old-generation car and there's been some good ideas going forward as to what we could do during the pre-season itself," he added.

The Italian company has already signed deals for 2014 and beyond with the teams and Bernie Ecclestone, and the FIA has given the green light for a new contract.

Asked to comment on the current status of Pirelli's F1 deal for 2014, Hembery said in Abu Dhabi: "It's done really.

"There's one last piece to be done with the FIA. The lawyers are dealing with that -- when you get lawyers involved with anything it tends to add time to whatever you're doing. So it's just rumbling along," he added.