Paul Hembery says the 2013 Pirelli tyres will not have high levels of degradation

Pirelli's Director of Motorsport Paul Hembery says the high levels of tyre degradation witnessed during pre-season testing will not be the norm in 2013.

The latest generation of the Italian manufacturer's rubber was one of the main talking points during the second round of testing in Barcelona with Sergio Perez, a driver renowned for looking after his tyres, declaring the wear levels as "extreme" and "very surprising."

However, Hembery says the cool temperatures in Barcelona were to blame and does not expect drivers to be forced into a multitude of pitstops in Australia.

"The teams experienced quite high degradation in Barcelona, and that was really down to the weather," said Hembery in a Pirelli statement.

"The conditions we had in Barcelona are far from typical of the rest of the season, with much cooler ambient and track temperatures than we would normally race in, and even some rain on the final day. This put the tyres outside of their usual working ranges, which led to problems such as graining.

"The conditions were particularly unsuited to the supersoft tyre, due to the circuit layout and the roughness of the surface in addition to the cold temperatures. Coupled with the fact that teams are still making big set-up adjustments to their new cars and trying out our complete range of our tyres to optimise the package, we saw levels of degradation that are not typical.

"Once we get to Melbourne the tyres should be much more within their intended working range, which will eliminate the unusual amount of degradation that some teams have experienced."