Pirelli’s 2011 tyres are currently only about one second off the pace of the sport’s existing supplier Bridgestone.

The Italian marque, arriving in F1 next year to replace the departing Bridgestone, is currently embarking on a track testing programme with a 2009 Toyota.

Anecdotal reports after the recent Monza outing, with Nick Heidfeld at the wheel, indicated that the white car was about 3 seconds slower than the lap times recorded during the Italian grand prix two weeks ago.

“So far our results are very encouraging,” said Pirelli chief executive Francesco Gori, according to motorline.cc.

“We have already done more than 4000 kilometres with very good results.

“If you consider that we are using a car from 2009 and therefore not as developed as the current cars, we are currently only a second off the lap times with the current tyres,” he added.

Heidfeld, now returning to racing with Sauber and replaced at Pirelli by Romain Grosjean and Pedro de la Rosa, said in Singapore: “I believe it will be a good tyre that we will see next year.

“So far they have been reliable, no technical problems whatsoever.  The grip level is within the range, so it looks positive for now,” added the German.