Newly announced McLaren driver Lando Norris successfully completed a two-day Pirelli tyre test at Paul Ricard.
The FIA Formula 2 Championship driver was named the new McLaren driver for the 2019 Formula 1 season on Monday as a replacement to Stoffel Vandoorne and within no time, he was back on track for the tyre test on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Carlin racer drove the 2018 McLaren F1 car around the France’s Paul Ricard circuit which was artificially made damp for Pirelli to test and collect data on their intermediate and wet weather tyres for the 2019 season.
Norris completed 140 laps on Tuesday whereas he did 114 on Wednesday in a total of 254 laps across the two days. While he ran the wet weather compound on Day 1, he used the intermediate on Day 2 as per Pirelli’s information.
The Italian manufacturer will be back to Paul Ricard to test the slick tyres for the 2019 season on September 20-21 with the two 2018 F1 title contenders Mercedes and Ferrari scheduled to run.
In the last few weeks, Pirelli has confirmed that the 2019 tyres will no longer be named as per the 2018 season with the return of plain names like soft, medium and hard for fans and everyone to better understand the tyres.