McLaren: Gary Paffett satisfied with Pirelli tyres

McLaren test driver Gary Paffett praised Pirelli after the first day of testing in Valencia for having made great strides since the first test session on the new tires took place in Abu Dhabi in November last year.

The Woking team have chosen to wait until next week to reveal the 2011 car, and are instead using the 2010 car for this week's Valencia test to set benchmarks on Pirelli tyres.

“Today's test with the 2010 car should allow us to obtain information on the behavior of the Pirelli tires,” Paffett said.

“The tires have changed since we last used them in Abu Dhabi last year, and they will change again before the start of the season.”

“Today we established a good base and then I did some long runs. Fortunately, the wear problems we experienced in Abu Dhabi are definitely resolved."

Paffett believes Pirelli is on course to succeed in its goal of encouraging more exciting racing with greater variation in tire behavior.

“It's useful for understanding how tires degrade, and how the balance changes once that happens,” Paffett said.

“The mediums seem to last longer and the super-softs a lot less, but that's exactly what you want from a tire. – And that should lead to different strategies in the race.”