its a good point that nothing is guaranteed & we do rarely hear from the pirelli themselves its normally the commentators as a spokesperson. but Bridgestone have still alot of racing knowledge in single seaters, i was just watching the indycar from road america & they've been supplying them for 23 years now. so they have single seater knowledge & not coming from a stand still.
of course their is physical degaradion but no thermal, so you can run as close as you want for as long as you want. but then the unknown is how would they cope with the extra downforce as they were 14 seconds slower than F1 at COTA compared