Anticipating the chance of rain over the course of the opening couple of races, Pirelli has been granted one day of wet running during the opening pre-season test at Barcelona.

The Italian manufacturer has already been given the green light to hold a two-day pre-season test running one of the mule cars used over the course of last year's 2017 preparations, but was keen to have all the teams run on its new wets before Melbourne.

While the pre-season tests in Spain have usually featured some wet running due to the seasonal conditions, the new agreement will see the track artificially dampened should the first three days of running escape the attention of the weather gods.

Pirelli's wets came in for fierce criticism in Brazil last year and the situation is compounded by the fact that not only have the majority of teams not yet run on the new tyres, Melbourne is likely to be the first time a race will feature a standing start following a Safety Car period, though this has yet to be officially approved.

Ironically, Pirelli spent much of last year pushing for the pre-season tests to be held in Bahrain, fearing the unpredictable weather in Spain threatened to compromise its programme.