Pirelli is not expecting Formula One to adopt low-profile tyres in the future, despite demonstrating 18-inch wheel rims on a GP2 car in Monaco.
The possibility of a switch to low-profile tyres has been discussed for some time and last year Pirelli produced a test tyre to illustrate what an F1 car on 18-inch wheels would look like. But despite other single-seater series looking to develop low-profile tyres, Pirelli thinks F1 will stick with the familiar high sidewalls and 13-inch rims albeit with wider tread at the rear.
"I've got a feeling we'll end up with a much wider tyre, but on a 13-inch rim," Pirelli motorsport boss Paul Hembery said. "That's my feeling for the direction we are going."
Pirelli's rival manufacturer Michelin recently said low-profile tyres would be one of the conditions for it entering the sport in the future, while Pirelli insists it will remain open to satisfying F1's needs.
"We are quite pleased with the decision to move to a 420mm-width tyre, we feel that gives a very big visual impact. Today we make tyres for high performance cars much wider than the ones in F1, so that makes it a little bit more visually important.
"The hole in the middle? 13-inch, 18-inch or 19-inch, they need to decide what they want to do. There are two schools of thought: go towards 18- or 19-inch because it's closer to road cars and another school of thought that all of our other current circuit tyres are 18-inch so, bizarrely, keeping 13-inch differentiates F1 from what everyone else is doing.
"I think the marketing department would like to keep 13-inch and a nice big sidewall for the branding, which we don't have to pay for - every cloud has a silver lining! We will do what the sport wants and we will try and find solutions to what they want."
Hembery said the cost of developing a car for low-profile tyres, the added weight of the larger rims and the overall look of the tyres are the main reasons the sport is against abandoning the current tyres.
"The rims are 4.5 kilos more per corner than before on he GP2 car, so the unsprung mass is dramatically more - it's a big wheel. There's cost, but also the belief that Formula One should have a certain type of look, so it does look like an F1 car.
"The tyres have defined that for a great many years now and I don't think there will ever be a perfect solution to that. Would we [Pirelli] sell more tyres by having 19-inch tyres in F1? Probably not, in reality."