Home F1 Pirelli covers good mileage with Ferrari, McLaren in F1 ’26 tyre test

Pirelli covers good mileage with Ferrari, McLaren in F1 ’26 tyre test

05/02/2025

Pirelli Motorsport completes first dry running of 2026 F1 tyres in 2025 in Barcelona with Ferrari and McLaren regular drivers in action.

Day 1 –

Pirelli’s second test session of 2025 got underway today at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit, the track located near the Spanish town of Granollers. Having already taken part in the two-day session at Paul Ricard, McLaren F1 Racing was again working with Pirelli on 2026 tyre development, joined this time by Scuderia Ferrari HP. Three race drivers were on duty today, with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc sharing a modified SF-24, while Lando Norris was at the wheel of the MCL60, specifically adapted to support testing with the FIA Formula 1 World Championship’s sole tyre supplier.

Last week’s work for the Pirelli engineers focused on the intermediate and extreme wet tyres and this time the programme centred around development of the slicks. Specifically being tested were various combinations of construction and compound, the latter from the hardest end of the range, from the C1 to the C3, as they are well suited to the Spanish track which is particularly demanding on tyres. A total of 332 laps was completed: Hamilton doing 87 (best time 1’15”930), Leclerc 86 (1’16”060) and Norris 159 (1’15”215). Testing at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit continues tomorrow, when Oscar Piastri will drive for McLaren, with Leclerc and Hamilton again in the Ferrari, the former in the morning and the latter in the afternoon.

Day 2 –

Second and final day of testing for Pirelli at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit, once again in conjunction with Scuderia Ferrari HP and McLaren F1 Racing. The same three drivers were working with the Pirelli engineers today on development of the 2026 tyres, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton sharing a Ferrari SF-24, while Oscar Piastri was at the wheel of a McLaren MCL60. Both cars had been adapted to suit the prototype tyres designed around the new technical regulations that will come into force next year, being narrower than the current ones by 25 millimetres at the front and 30 at the rear.

A total of 300 laps was completed today, 74 by the Monegasque driver, 74 for his British team-mate and 152 for the Australian. Here are the fastest recorded lap times, although they have no real significance given the different work programmes carried out for Pirelli by the two teams: 1’14”971 for Leclerc, 1’16”759 for Hamilton and 1’15”815 for Piastri.

“It was a very useful session, particularly when it came to providing a comparison between the various different constructions for next season, as well as experimenting with some compounds from the harder end of the range,” commented Pirelli Motorsport Director, Mario Isola. “The Barcelona circuit is known as one of the most demanding for the tyres in terms of the energy exerted and degradation, therefore the information we have gathered over these two busy days will be very important for the future development of this generation of tyres. It’s a really demanding start to the year with four test sessions even before the season begins and I want to thank all the teams that are working with us, because we know how busy they are at the moment.”

Following on from last week’s test in Paul Ricard and this one in Barcelona, the team of Pirelli engineers are heading further south next week, for two days of testing at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, in Andalusia on 13 and 14 February. Alpine will be taking part on both days, while McLaren and Mercedes will do one day each. The final pre-season test will take place at Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit on 2 and 3 March with Alpine and Williams running both days. This same venue will then host the only three day test when all teams will run their 2025 cars prior to the opening round, the Australian Grand Prix.