Hembery isn't incorrect, but his comment failed to acknowledge the difference between the problems the two suppliers suffered. When running on Bridgestone tyres teams hadn't experienced the chunking the Pirelli tyres demonstrated in testing. Longevity was a feature of the 2010 Bridgestone rubber, which allowed drivers to complete almost an entire race distance on a single set, changing tyres only to comply with the regulations and often at the last moment. By contrast the 2011 spec Pirelli's seemed to fall apart the moment they were bolted on to the car during testing.

The exception for Bridgestone was Canada where degradation was excessive and became a critical factor in the Grand Prix. As drivers scrambled for grip fans enjoyed one of the most enjoyable Formula One races in recent memory. That event was the blueprint for Pirelli's return to Formula One. "We were asked to recreate Canada," Hembery told me during a meet and greet event on the Thursday evening ahead of the Australian Grand Prix. It was a throw away line which I treated with scepticism at the time. In retrospect the Australian Grand Prix weekend wasn't quite Canada but it wasn't Italy 2010 either, where Red Bull ran Sebastian Vettel on a single set of tyres before stopping the German on the last lap or so. Last weekend was somewhere in between though leaning more towards the Canadian side of the equation. It was a deliberate decision, one encouraged by the Formula One Teams Association and Bernie Ecclestone, who saw tyre wear as a relatively simple way to spice up the racing 'product.'

Initially Pirelli wasn't even in the picture when it came to the tyre supply for 2011. In a rare press conference held over the Australian Grand Prix weekend race director Charlie Whiting revealed that the FIA was in fact talking to another supplier. "The FIA weren't involved in the choice of tyre supplier," he revealed during the relatively candid discussion.

"We entered into discussion with another tyre supplier, a French one," he continued. "At that time we didn't have a tyre supplier at all, Bridgestone were pulling out, and they were the only ones that expressed any interest.

"Some teams came along with a proposal from Pirelli and ultimately all the teams chose the Pirelli option. What they discussed with Pirelli I don't know. All we did was enter in to a contract with Pirelli to make sure that they provided the same tyres, equal tyres, in complete fairness to all competitors. That's our job. They had the two offers on the table that was the one they unanimously went for."

The press conference gave an interesting insight into the process, the FIA claiming to have done nothing but sign the final deal while teams discussed the finer details, such as tyres that would last forty percent race distance.

Forty percent seemed a distant dream in testing however, Hembery claims the degradation, which at times saw strips torn from tyres, was exactly what they'd expected. According to Hembery the 2011 Pirelli's are designed to work in a specific temperature range, the conditions seen during pre-season were simply too cool.

"Before midday it barely got over ten degrees," he recalled of the final Barcelona test. "We were getting up in the morning and the windows on the car were frosted which means the ground is actually almost frozen underneath.

"The tyre becomes fragile with cold weather because of some of the ingredients you use in the tyre to create grip. They're ingredients that need a certain level of temperature to activate. They weren't being activated, so you get a fragility in the compound so it tears.

"Even if you get a superficial temperature of maybe twenty five degrees, which we had I think for two hours one afternoon, the reality is the bulk temperature of the surface is actually very cold."

Famed for having four seasons in one day the temperature in Melbourne was higher. On Friday and Saturday temperatures nudged closer towards twenty degrees Celsius despite the grey and overcast conditions, meaning degradation during practice was noticeably less than that seen during testing. Come Sunday the weather improved further still, with a bright sun doing its best to raise temperatures to the mid twenties. The warmer conditions allowed the ingredients in the tyres to react, a situation the team at Pirelli fully expected to happen.

Yet despite Pirelli's confidence in the product new regulations were hastily introduced to allow drivers another set of rubber on Friday. According to Hembery this was more to satisfy the concerns of the teams themselves. "We had one set extra, and that was because we felt it was fair for the teams to have one set to do set up work because we knew our own data was unrepresentative." It's not an option that will be available every race weekend, only when it's required; a subjective regulation to be implemented if and when deemed fit.

In essence it meant tyre testing during winter was a pointless exercise, since temperature made data misrepresentative. The cold winter conditions were not expected during the season; hence tyres were developed for a warmer European summer. While a relief for the teams it does highlight the dependency the Pirelli tyres have on conditions which are outside of its control.

"It's almost impossible to make a compound that would go from five degrees centigrade through to fifty," admits Hembery. "That's true of road car technology; you have winter tyres for winter countries. So from that point of view we knew that we had to have higher working temperature range compounds."