In the wake of claims that the tyre nominations for the Brazilian Grand Prix were "dangerous", Pirelli has announced a change of compounds.
Originally the hard and medium compounds were nominated leading to a number of drivers, most notably Felipe Massa, to criticise the choice.
"Dangerous, very dangerous,' the Williams driver told reporters at Sochi. "I have no idea why they chose medium and hard and it's completely unacceptable.
"I already spoke to most of the drivers, I spoke to the FIA, I spoke to everybody, so more than what I did I think is difficult," revealed Massa.
Announcing its original choice for Interlagos, Pirelli said: "The two hardest compounds in the range have been nominated. While Interlagos is the shortest lap of the year, the energy demands are high as the anti-clockwise track essentially consists of a series of non-stop corners, with a high level of asphalt roughness."
However, it was argued that drivers anticipated that conditions at the Sao Paulo track would invariably be wet and cold and that the harder tyres would not provide sufficient grip when drivers made the switch from wet/inters to slicks. There was further concern at the fact that the track has been resurfaced.
Indeed, with changeable conditions expected to be the order of the day, and the sport still in shock in the wake of Jules Bianchi's tragic accident in Suzuka, the drivers appeared to have a case.
Consequently, today the Italian manufacturer has issued the following statement:
"After a meeting of the Tyre Working Group, the tyre nomination for the Brazilian Grand Prix has been changed, following Pirelli's proposal and with the unanimous agreement of all the teams.
Although the hard and medium nomination has been used in Brazil for the last two years, the recent resurfacing of the Interlagos track has prompted the change to medium and soft. This new choice is the same nomination as the United States Grand Prix the weekend before."
"We've always said that we would be open to any changes if they were required," said Paul Hembery. "After further technical analysis of the impact of the revised circuit surface, together with a risk assessment suggesting a low probability of compound overheating due to extreme track temperatures, we have made this change with the unanimous agreement of all 11 teams."
Interestingly, the move comes after world championship leader Lewis Hamilton and reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel called on Pirelli to improve its wet-weather tyres for 2015 and beyond.
Citing the recent Japanese Grand Prix, the drivers claimed that the limitations of the current (full) wets are forcing drivers to switch to Inters even though conditions might still be too wet for them.
They're not great tyres, that's no secret," said Hamilton, according to BBC Sport. "There's always going to be spray but we need to work hard. It's an area that's not always focused on so much. The slicks are always being improved and worked on but there is not so much focus on the wet. You want a tyre that clears the water. And not forcing us to go on to the inter because it's so much quicker when it's probably not safe enough to do so is something I think the FIA and Pirelli will work on."
"If you have a lot of water, you obviously need to have a tyre that gets rid of a lot of water very well so you don't suffer aquaplaning," added Vettel. "The problem we have is that the extreme tyre has an extremely narrow window. The intermediate is quicker so as soon as you have got rid of most of the water you try to put the inters on, taking a lot of risk into account, just because it's a quicker tyre. That's something we need to work on."
However, Pirelli argues that its 2014 'extreme' wet tyre is an improvement on the 2013 version, the current wet tyre dispersing 65 litres per second at 300km/h (186 mph) compared to its predecessor's 50 litres per second.
"These are comments by drivers that have not been made in an official way to us," said Paul Hembery. "Of course, if Pirelli was requested by the teams and the FIA to reconsider the technical capability of the wet tyre, Pirelli would do it immediately. But so far Pirelli does not see any realistic technical need to change the wet tyre.
"There is a working group coming up quite soon and it is quite likely this will be considered there," he added. "And if it is, we are open to the idea of modifying the tyres. Every change we make has a deep technical basis and does not just follow comments from one person, as not everyone has the same view.
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