Sergey Sirotkin completes the first Pirelli Motorsport’s 18-inch F1 tyre test at Paul Ricard, with Esteban Ocon finishing off the 2020 prototype run.
After starting off the double test run on Thursday at Circuit Paul Ricard, both Renault’s Sirotkin and Mercedes’ Ocon continued with their respective programmes on Friday to complete the two-day test.
Sirotkin had the 18-inch F1 tyres at his disposal with the black rims as the Russian completed 119 laps in all, making it a grand total of 213 laps across the two days of running. The next to test is McLaren.
At the same time, Ocon undertook 106 laps in the 2020 F1 prototype compound, which is the same number as Thursday, as the Frenchman had a total of 212 laps all across the two days.
For now, the in-season running of the 2020 tyres is complete unless Pirelli pushes on for a special run if they feel the need of extra track time. They will have the spec run by all the teams in the post-season Abu Dhabi test.
Speaking on the tests, Prelli’s Mario Isola said: “We were delighted to open up a brand new chapter at Paul Ricard, with the debut for our 18-inch tyres – which will change the face of F1 – taking place alongside our latest development test for next year’s 13-inch tyres.
“Renault provided a 2018 mule car for the 18-inch test, with Sergey Sirotkin driving to mark this historic moment. We completed our planned programme as expected, covering 213 laps with the 18-inch tyres over two days.
“This was very useful for us to take a first look at the new generation of tyres and start shaping the development path that we will follow for the remainder of this year and next year.
“Of course, it is hard to read too much into this test as these are still very early days, but we have accumulated all the preliminary data that we wanted in good weather conditions, so thank you very much to Renault and to Sergey for their availability.
“With the 13-inch 2020 tyres, we covered 212 laps over the two days thanks to Esteban Ocon and Mercedes. The work consisted of assessing a range of prototype slick tyres, as we begin to finalise next year’s specification: the last season of 13-inch tyres before we move on to 18 inches in 2021.”
