Pirelli has entered the subsequent stage of getting ready its smaller tyres for the 2026 Components 1 season, with Ferrari and McLaren conducting take a look at work of its more durable tyre compounds at Barcelona this week.
Plenty of consideration has gone to Lewis Hamilton persevering with his preparations along with his new Italian employer alongside team-mate Charles Leclerc and McLaren’s Lando Norris, but it surely can’t be pressured sufficient that lap occasions from the two-day take a look at on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya are solely meaningless, closely relying on the run programmes requested by Pirelli to check its smaller prototype tyres for 2026 and its compounds on the more durable finish of the dimensions.
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Whereas Hamilton could have benefited from extra seat time in a Ferrari from final yr, with the most recent procedures, steering wheel, Ferrari energy unit and so forth, the most important benefactor from the take a look at is Pirelli itself. The Italian tyre producer is up in opposition to it to check and produce tyres which can be narrower – 25mm on the entrance and 30mm on the rear – and smaller in diameter, from 720mm to 705mm-710mm entrance to rear, for use on vastly totally different vehicles subsequent yr.
The issue for Pirelli is that it has no consultant vehicles to check its new rubber on because the new-for-2026 vehicles characteristic considerably diminished drag and fewer downforce generated by the ground and diffuser.
Preliminary plans to cut back total downforce by 40 p.c have been watered all the way down to round 15 p.c following issues over slower lap occasions, which at the moment are anticipated to be extra in step with present efficiency ranges. However the brand new era of vehicles is considerably totally different in how and the place they generate efficiency, so Pirelli has to depend on the imperfect resolution of mule vehicles – equipment from 2022-2024 with trimmed wings – to gather real-life information from its new rubber.
Following an preliminary take a look at with Aston Martin in September – in its 2022 mannequin – and up to date wet-compound working at Le Castellet, Ferrari and McLaren performed work in Barcelona in newer vehicles with considerably decrease wing ranges, showing with totally flat mainplanes extra akin to one thing you’d see in Baku or Las Vegas fairly than on the high-downforce Montmelo circuit.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24 throughout Pirelli take a look at
Photograph by: Pirelli
The general downforce ranges of those mule vehicles shall be comparatively near the start-of-2026 specs, however as a result of the vehicles are so totally different it’s nonetheless tough for Pirelli to accurately reproduce the masses its tyres shall be subjected to. It’s due to this fact counting on being usually fed simulations from groups to remain forward of the curve.
“The primary checks had been primarily devoted to grasp how the mule vehicles are working, as a result of clearly they’re totally different,” Pirelli’s motorsport chief Mario Isola informed Motorsport.com. “The one factor we are able to do is to repeatedly ask for up to date 2026 simulations from the groups, mainly. We should replace our know-how and replace our building in accordance with the info that we obtain.
“We can not simply depend on the mule vehicles as a result of it received’t be wise, and we’ll proceed to offer them a digital mannequin of the tyre to make use of of their simulators and so they come again to us with their suggestions. And that is the precise route we must always proceed in.”
Each decreasing downforce total and altering how it’s generated could have a serious influence on the character of the masses 2026’s smaller tyres are going to be subjected to. For Pirelli it’s due to this fact essential to get the inner building of its new tyres in the precise ballpark. Any additional fine-tuning can then be finished by way of tweaking the compounds.
The Italians aren’t simply taking anticipated 2026 efficiency into consideration, as F1 squads at all times have a tendency to seek out speedy positive factors firstly of a rules cycle, and Pirelli due to this fact has to have sufficient headroom to account for greater tyre masses additional down the road.
One vital problem added to the combination is the upcoming X-mode, a DRS-like type of lively aerodynamics which modifications the angle of the entrance and rear wings on the straights for greater prime speeds, versus the usual configuration which is dubbed Z-mode.
“We can not generate these downforce ranges with the X-mode and Z-mode, it’s unimaginable,” Isola defined. “So, now we have to grasp what the perfect compromise for testing is and once we attempt to correlate the info from simulations with information collected on observe. Step one is to outline the profile and building. From the take a look at we had with Aston Martin now we have an excellent place to begin, I’d say. Compound growth is the second step.
Mario Isola, Racing Supervisor, Pirelli Motorsport
Photograph by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Pictures
“We all know that it’s a problem, as a result of in any case groups don’t need to lose any efficiency in comparison with the present vehicles, and the tyres are smaller, with decrease loading capability and so forth. We’re additionally once more testing new supplies and new concepts so as to have a tyre that’s not heavier however nonetheless capable of maintain the load and to maintain the identical efficiency that the present tyres have.”
It isn’t the primary time Pirelli has been chasing a shifting goal with one hand tied behind its again. However Isola identified the problem for 2026 was maybe barely simpler than in 2017, when F1 moved to greater and wider vehicles with rather more downforce, which on the time was unimaginable to duplicate with a mule automobile. F1’s transfer to ground-effect primarily based vehicles for 2022 was additionally a difficult proposition.
“This can be a very comparable scenario to what we had for 2017 and 2022 once we needed to develop an entire new tyre for an entire new automobile, so it is not one thing new to us,” Isola mentioned in an earlier roundtable.
“In 2016 it was tremendous tough as a result of it was anticipated to have vehicles with a lot greater downforce and the efficiency was 5 or 6 seconds faster than the earlier yr, so it was unimaginable to duplicate this type of efficiency.
“However the way in which you obtain the load with the present vehicles is totally totally different in comparison with the brand new one, for instance. And on the straights, now we have a number of load now, whereas in 2026 at excessive velocity we must always have much less load. So, the comparability is just not the identical.”
Images from Pirelli Barcelona testing
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