Sebastian Vettel, Alexander Albon and Esteban Ocon completed the extra Pirelli Motorsport F1 tyre test for the 2020 season at Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona.
Following the completion of the original schedule in September, Pirelli along with the F1 teams wished to undertake more testing of the 2020 tyres and after getting the word go for it, the run was scheduled for this weekend ahead of Japanese GP.
It co-incided with the F2’s test of the 18-inch Pirelli tyres for 2020, which will make its F1 debut in 2021. The Barcelona track was thus shared between F1 and F2 with Ferrari and Red Bull Racing running on Monday and Mercedes on Tuesday.
For Ferrari, it was Vettel behind the wheel as the German undertook 145 laps in all, while Red Bull had Albon, who did 115 laps. As per earlier information, Jake Dennis was poised for the Pirelli test but it looks the change was made with Albon driving.
Both finished off their run on Monday to fly off to Japan for the grand prix this weekend. Ocon was the sole F1 runner for Pirelli on Tuesday as the Frenchman did 144 laps to make it a grand total of 404 laps across the two days of running.
There are no more scheduled run for the 2020 tyres until the FP1 of US GP, where Pirelli will have a trial run of the new compound. After that, they will have two days of testing at Yas Marina Circuit after the completion of the 2019 F1 season.
Meanwhile, for the 2021 F1 season, Pirelli completed its first run with Renault last month at Paul Ricard. Next up scheduled is McLaren at the same circuit in November with Mercedes to finish off in December – the details of both is not revealed yet.
“We had a busy couple of days in Barcelona, alternately testing our 2020 tyres for both F1 and F2,” said Maria Isola. “On Monday, Sebastian Vettel completed 145 laps for Ferrari while Alex Albon drove 115 laps for Red Bull.
“On Tuesday, Esteban Ocon drove 144 laps for Mercedes, making a combined total of 404 laps over two days. In F1, the aim of the test was to validate the latest specification of 13-inch 2020 tyres following the most recent guidelines agreed with the teams.
“We carried out plenty of running with the three top teams over two days, which enabled us to collect the data that we wanted. As a result, we are now in a position to nominate the 2020 specification. Many thanks to all three teams and drivers that took part. In F2, we ran the 18-inch tyres as part of our scheduled test programme.”
And we’re delighted to have #Seb5 @ScuderiaFerrari joining us too. Both he and @alex_albon will be doing one day here @Circuitcat_eng today before they head off to the #JapaneseGP #Fit4F1 🇪🇸✈️🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/xVn7O49L73
— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) October 7, 2019
We’re @Circuitcat_eng for two days of 2020 #Fit4F1 tyre testing in some distinguished company. @alex_albon gets the action underway for @redbullracing. #F1testing @F1 pic.twitter.com/7C3CmjQUbe
— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) October 7, 2019
As promised, here’s @OconEsteban in the @MercedesAMGF1. He’s our #F1 representative for today. A busy day of testing ahead @Circuitcat_eng for both @f1 and @FIA_F2, trying out their different #PZero tyres for next year. And it’s looking like a nice day for it! #Fit4F1 pic.twitter.com/Ul3BKbRpGW
— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) October 8, 2019
To kick the afternoon off, we’ve got a bit of @FIA_F2 18-inch tyre testing for next year @Circuitcat_eng. What do you think? #PZero #Fit4F2 pic.twitter.com/7PDxzgb8Qm
— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) October 7, 2019
Here’s the compounds list the teams and drivers will have for Japanese GP
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