[smr2018test]
Pirelli has confirmed its schedule of tests for the 2018 F1 season. All 10 teams will have the opportunity to contribute to tyre development during the championship.
“We have been able to distribute one dry session to each team,” said sporting director Mario Isola. “All the teams replied in a positive way so we are going to test with all the teams, one dry session.”
“Talking about wet we have [fewer] sessions so we have three teams who were available to test in wet and we allocated a wet test to each of these three teams.”
Isola predicted lap times will continue to fall at the resurfaced Circuit de Catalunya in next week’s test and would “probably” fall as low as 1’17.
“We ran a test three weeks ago here with GT cars,” he explained. “At the beginning the Tarmac was very oily, very greasy. Then we had one day of heavy rain. And after that day the Tarmac was really clean and the level of grip was very high, and the lap time for GT cars was a lot faster.”
“So indications, considering they are running in 1’19 in this condition, I would say that probably next week we see one step in lap time. 1’19 was the best time last year so I can imagine they can improve from this 1’19 more than one second.”
“Obviously it’s difficult to judge how much of this because of the new cars, because of the track, because of the tyres. We can make some assumptions but at the end of the day when you have that many elements changing it’s difficult.”
2018 F1 tyre testing calendar
Venue | Tyres | Team/s | Date |
---|---|---|---|
Shanghai* | Slick | Force India | 17-18 April |
Fiorano | Wet | Ferrari | 19-20 April |
Circuit de Catalunya | Slick | McLaren and Haas | 15-16 May |
Paul Ricard | Wet | Mercedes | 30-31 May |
Vallelunga | Slick | Toro Rosso | 14-15 June |
Silverstone | Slick | Red Bull and Williams | 10-11 July |
Paul Ricard | Wet | McLaren and Haas | 5-6 September |
Paul Ricard | Slick | Mercedes and Ferrari | 20-21 September |
Suzuka | Slick | Renault | 9-10 October |
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez | Slick | Sauber | 30 October |
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2018 F1 season
- McLaren staff told us we were “totally crazy” to take Honda engines in 2018 – Tost
- ‘It doesn’t matter if we start last’: How Red Bull’s junior team aided Honda’s leap forward
- Honda’s jet division helped F1 engineers solve power unit problem
- McLaren Racing losses rise after Honda split
- Ricciardo: Baku “s***show” was Red Bull’s fault
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
1st March 2018, 20:32
Clever to test at Paul.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd March 2018, 3:19
The best time last year in testing was 1:18.634, though.