Pirelli Motorsport had to re-jig its plans for the 2025 F1 tyre test at Silverstone after rain hampered a lot of slick compound running.
Day 1 –
Today saw the start of the sixth development test of the year for Pirelli tyres. After those in Barcelona, Jerez de la Frontera, Le Castellet and Mugello, this week, Formula 1’s Global Tyre Supplier is in the UK, on the same track which hosted yesterday’s British Grand Prix. Three teams were in action today, all of whom are based within an 80 mile radius of the track: McLaren ran Mick Schumacher, while Alexander Albon drove for Williams, with Haas calling on Pietro Fittipaldi.
The test programme was meant to focus on finalising the construction of the 2025 tyres, while continuing development of the compounds, which given the severe nature of the track, involved looking at the hardest solutions. Unfortunately, the weather meant it was impossible to run with dry weather tyres and so the programme shifted to looking at new solutions for the Intermediate tyres, also comparing their behaviour with and without tyre blankets.
In all, a total of 201 laps were completed, 53 by Schumacher (best lap 1’37’’428), 86 for Albon (1’41”116) and 62 for Fittipaldi (1’42”124). The test session continues tomorrow when driving duties will be in the hands of Lando Norris (McLaren), Logan Sargeant (Williams) and Oliver Bearman (Haas).
Day 2 –
This was the second and final day of the Pirelli test at Silverstone. Once again, McLaren, Williams and Haas provided cars to support Formula 1’s Global Tyre Supplier, driven by Lando Norris, Logan Sargeant and Oliver Bearman respectively. The work centred on development of compounds and construction for 2025.
Once again today the weather was changeable, with rain slowing proceedings in the morning, while the sun made a few brief appearances in the afternoon. With yesterday given over entirely to work on the intermediate, the first part of the day involved a comparison between it and the rain tyre, while later on the cars were finally able to run on slicks, trying to make up for the time lost. A total of 273 laps were completed, 95 by Norris (best time 1’30”987), 86 by Sargeant (1’32”161) and 92 by Bearman (1’29”481).
“First of all, I want to thank McLaren, Williams and Haas for their support,” commented Mario Isola, Pirelli Motorsport Director. “We are well aware it’s not easy to find the time and energy for a further two days of testing in such a packed calendar as we have this year, even more so off the back of a very busy triple-header. Unfortunately, bad weather meant we were unable to complete the programme we had planned for the slicks, focusing specifically on assessing compounds for use on very severe tracks like Silverstone.
“Yesterday, we were able to complete a lot of running on the intermediates, but even in this case, the data has to be analysed taking into account the very variable conditions of the track surface, which means it was not too representative. But the weather is something we cannot control and so we must adapt and that’s precisely what we did in conjunction with the teams.”
Here’s more from Haas: https://x.com/HaasF1Team
Here’s info from Pirelli test in Mugello
Here’s Pirelli in last test at Paul Ricard
Here’s info from Pirelli test in Jerez
Here’s info on Pirelli test in Suzuka
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[Note: The story is as per press release]
