Pirelli insists that there is no mystery to its 2012 tires, and that teams fully understand exactly what they need to do to get the most out of the rubber.
However, the Italian company believes the big fluctuations in form, and various struggles that some teams are having, are the result of those squads not knowing how to get their cars working with the rubber.
Amid an ongoing focus on the impact Pirelli is having on the racing this year, with five different winners in the first five races, its motorsport director Paul Hembery said: "I would say all the teams understand the tires – what they don't understand is how to make the interaction between the car and the tires do what they want. That is the real challenge.
"They know exactly what is going on with the tire. You talk to some of the tire experts at teams that, on the outside, appear to be suffering, and the tire guys explains exactly what it is doing. It is not the tire – it is the interaction between car and tire to get the tire in to the window that maximizes the performance. I am not trying to shift responsibility, but it is that."
"The biggest issue teams have faced this year is getting their tires into the right operating window, so they are not too hot that they overheat and degrade, and not too cold that they do not deliver the necessary grip."
Although that operating window is not any narrower this year than it was last year, the 2012 tires do operate at higher temperatures. That factor, allied to the fact that tires are having less energy put through them this year because of the move away from blown diffusers, could explain why there have been so many struggles.
"It has moved," said Hembery of the temperature range. "It isn't particularly higher, it has moved higher. But it varies, and it depends what tire you are talking about.
"There is also the fact that we see the cars oversteering a lot more this year, and if you are oversteering you are sliding, and that can overheat your tires. That wasn't evident last year because a lot of the cars were very stuck to the ground in simplistic terms, with very little movement on the rear."