Robert Kubica warned against making predictions about 2011 form based on the first Pirelli tire test, reckoning that not only will the cars be different next year, but he also expects Pirelli to alter its tires before the new season.
The Pole described the Abu Dhabi test, which concludes today, as nothing more than an initial data-gathering exercise for teams to get a first impression of how the Pirellis behave.
"It was the same when we swapped from Michelins to Bridgestones, you have to adapt the car setup and just get an idea about the requirement of the tire," said Kubica when asked if Renault had made substantial setup changes for the new tires. "You don't have to go deeply into the setup [in this test] due to the fact that I think the tires will change quite a lot for next year."
He pointed out that the new rules would see different car characteristics and that the Abu Dhabi track conditions featured an unusual amount of rubber down following a full grand prix weekend plus the young driver days.
"It's still a very early stage," said Kubica. "There is no point to go so deep into the balance or setup here as next year the cars will be different and we might have completely different track conditions. It's just to get the basic idea of the new tires."
Kubica agreed with other drivers' suggestions that the tires seemed to have a high wear rate. Pirelli has declared from the outset that it will offer "aggressive" compounds following feedback that races with high tire wear provide more entertainment.
"There is no concern about quality. I think we can say that there will be some concerns about wear, but I assume that the tires will change from now to the beginning of the season," said Kubica. "It's a very early stage and if there are problems, it's better that they come now than in March! If there was a car that could do 60 laps on one set of tires I didn't see it...
"It can vary from car to car, but the general problems that people are having are the same. Some have a big problem, some have a small problem, but it's something to take care of."