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Pirelli 'ready to face' F1 tyre war

Cape Town - Although Pirelli are "ready" to face a tyre war should F1 go in that direction, Mario Isola believes having one supplier makes more financial sense.

Pirelli become Formula 1's sole supplier at the start of the 2011 season, replacing Bridgestone.

Bridgestone had been F1's only supplier from 2007 after Michelin withdrew from the sport.

And while Pirelli has often stated they do not want a tyre war, the company's F1 boss says they'll deal with it if Formula 1 opts to go that route again.

"If they decide to come back to this situation as we said in the past, we are ready to face also this new challenge," Isola said.

"It is a new challenge because if you're a sole supplier you have some targets.

"You supply the same tyres to everybody so you can have a tyre with high degradation, with different targets.

"If we are in competition with our tyre supplier the target is just performance. It is clear. It's like for teams.

"Their target is safety for sure but safety is a target, it's always there, it's always a priority but after that it's just performance."

For now, though, Isola believes Formula 1 will stick with just one supplier.

"The direction of Formula One is still to have one supplier," he added.

"Obviously what is changing quickly but the single supplier is saving money for everybody.

"If you introduce, again, what they call the "tyre war" or multiple suppliers you have to consider that in the past it was necessary to have additional test sessions or in the past the teams had a proper tyre test team and obviously this means additional costs.

"If they want to reduce the cost, this is probably not the right direction."

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