Mat Coch writes:

McLaren is working on the assumption that Pirelli will remain as the sport's sole tyre supplier for 2014 and beyond, the team's Managing Director Jonathan Neale has revealed.

With its existing contract set to expire at the end of 2013, Pirelli has been eager to sign a new deal since pre-season testing. However, negotiating a new deal has been a drawn out process from the start, one which has not been helped by the media attention the tyres have received throughout the season.

Speaking during the latest Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in, Neale confirmed that in the absence of any other information, and with time fast running out for any new supplier to announce their interest in the sport, teams have little alternative but to assume Pirelli will remain.

"We are assuming, I don't know whether there's any foundation for that, but somehow the process will continue with Pirelli," he said.

"If we were to get a late change from somebody else coming into the sport at short notice of course we would work around that and work with whoever the FIA chose that to be."

However such a curve ball is unlikely thanks to the International Tribunal over the Mercedes tyre test in Spain at the start of the European season. While punishing Mercedes the Tribunal effectively cleared Pirelli of any wrong-doing, in doing so all but forcing the FIA's hand in re-signing a new contract.

It's understood that the new tyre contract is about ninety per cent complete, which means McLaren's assumption is based on the only logical conclusion one can draw; Pirelli will once again supply Formula One's tyres for 2014 and beyond.