'No change' after Pirelli's China buyout - Hembery

Mar.28 (GMM) Pirelli's F1 project is "business as usual" despite the EUR 7 billion takeover of the historic Italian company by China.

It emerged earlier this week that state-owned China National Chemical has secured control of Pirelli, which until now has been in Italian hands for more than 140 years.

Pirelli chief executive Marco Tronchetti Provera, however, will keep his role.

And the marque's F1 boss, Paul Hembery, told reporters in Malaysia that despite the Chinese buyout, it is "business as usual".

"We've had many different international shareholders over the years," said the Briton.

"They've bought into the management team and an integral part of our vision and our work is also formula one so from that point of view, no change," added Hembery.

He said the bigger issue is the direction F1 is taking for the future, amid talk of more powerful engines, wider cars and potentially also bigger tyres with a lower profile.

Hembery said the details of the future regulations could affect Pirelli's approach to the forthcoming tender process for the next F1 tyre supply contract.

"Of course," he said, "if you're going to go through a tendering process, you would like to understand what those changes are and what the sport's going to look like.

"Assuming we get some of that visibility, and it looks good and we do hear some good suggestions coming through, if the sport allows the change to happen ... then we're very happy," said Hembery.