Milan: Tyre supplier Pirelli welcomes plans for Formula One teams to hold a mid-season test next year at Ferrari's Mugello circuit, motorsport head Paul Hembery said on Wednesday.
At the same time he expressed disappointment that the Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul Park, near to the factory where the Italian company makes its grand prix tyres, had been dropped from the 2012 calendar.
"It is a good circuit, a great facility and such a shame that it never captured the imagination of the public there," he told Reuters at a fan event at the company's Milan headquarters.
He said there were no plans to hold a private test at the Istanbul track.
"It still would be logistically difficult for us because it's not the tyres getting there, it's the whole structure of the test team," he pointed out.
Pirelli, who took over from Bridgestone this season as Formula One's sole supplier, are planning to do less private track testing next year having previously used old Toyota F1 cars to gather data.
"We're moving more towards simulators and simulation data," said Hembery.
"We have also the mid-season test, as the teams have now agreed to, which will help us a lot, being able to get on 2012 cars mid-season.
"That will be a huge advantage for us because we can start already showing them tyres for 2013."
Testing during the season, other than for straightline aerodynamic runs and promotional filming purposes, is currently banned as part of agreed cost-saving measures.
Hembery said the teams had agreed to a week of testing, probably at Mugello near Florence, in May once the championship returns to Europe after the opening long-haul races.
The regular pre-season February tests will stay at Spain's Barcelona and Jerez tracks.
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