Pirelli insists it cannot sit back and think that it has done enough with its tires to guarantee exciting races in 2011, despite the first three events of the year having been deemed a success.
The Australian, Malaysian and Chinese races all produced mixed-up grands prix thanks to the nature of the 2011 tires, and that bodes well for a spectacular remainder of the campaign. Yet, despite the sport's bosses, drivers and fans all welcoming the way the racing has been made more thrilling so far, Pirelli reckons the lessons of the first events are that there is no guarantee things will continue in the same way.
"It is going to vary race to race, and circuit to circuit, depending on what type of surface it is," said Pirelli's director of motorsport Paul Hembery. "The next race in Istanbul is very tough on tires – and is probably the worst for us as a tire maker. So that will change again the type of strategy needed in a race. But we have had a lot of credit from a lot of people about the nature of the races so far and, if we continue like that, we will have a great season."
Hembery believes that the next few events could well be very different from what has been experienced so far, with the punishing Turkish and Spanish venues followed by the tricky Monaco and Montreal ones.
"I think Turkey will be similar to Sepang in terms of tire wear, if not even worse because of the very, very abrasive surface. After Spain, we have Canada and Monte Carlo, which will be with our super-soft and soft tires."
One area that Hembery believes Pirelli needs to improve is in extending the life of the harder-compound tires. The evidence from the two most recent events is that teams are automatically using the softer tire in races because its durability is not much less than the hard – meaning that, over a stint, it is much quicker.
"We are looking at maybe doing work with harder compound so it can do a few more laps," he said. "What we realized in these last few races is we are missing three or four laps of durability, particularly with the harder compound on abrasive surfaces. What we don't want is the teams to adopt the same strategy."
Pirelli is due to evaluate a new experimental hard compound in Turkey, with a view to introducing it at either the Spanish or British races.