Pirelli will take advantage of new regulations requiring Formula 1 teams to use part of their second practice session to conduct tyre tests at two upcoming races.
F1’s official tyre supplier will bring new compounds to the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone and the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya.Under F1’s revised rules for this year, teams are required to participate in mandatory tests of new tyres when provided by Pirelli during the second practice session.
“We intend to use the option of having the first 30 minutes of FP2 available for our tyre development test during the second race in Silverstone and during the race in Barcelona,” Pirelli head of car racing Mario Isola confirmed today.
Teams decided to continue using Pirelli’s 2019-specification tyres this year after rejecting new compounds which were developed last season. However the subsequent decision to postpone new technical regulations – and the introduction of new 18-inch wheels and tyres – until 2022 means the current chassis and tyres will remain in service for another year.
Although F1 will require teams to change the designs of their floors next year to reduce downforce, concerns remain that the performance of the 2021 cars could place severe demands on what by then will be two-year-old tyre designs.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
While Pirelli cannot organise a full testing programme at present due to the disruption caused by the pandemic, it is producing some revised tyres which could be used next year.
“The idea is to test different solutions and improve the integrity,” said Isola. “That means that these tyres can work at a lower pressure and a few other solutions with a target to reduce the overheating.
“These prototypes are for 2021 and if we collect enough information from the second race in Sivlerstone and Barcelona the target is to freeze the construction and compounds for 2021 with these two validations.
“It is not a new tyre, it is not a complete new construction. As I told you in some previous meetings it is impossible for us to have a proper development during the season. It is not in our plans.
“But obviously we would like to test a few ideas to improve the integrity considering that teams are going to develop the cars and therefore to add downforce to the cars for next year.
“The technical regulations will be modified to reduce the downforce at the beginning of the season but it is possible that we have at the end of 2021 an increased level of downforce and therefore we would like to test these prototypes.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2020 F1 season
- Pictures: Wrecked chassis from Grosjean’s Bahrain fireball crash to go on display
- Bottas vs Rosberg: Hamilton’s Mercedes team mates compared after 78 races each
- F1 revenues fell by $877 million in Covid-struck 2020 season
- Hamilton and Mercedes finally announce new deal for 2021 season
- F1 audience figures “strong” in 2020 despite dip in television viewers
Patrick (@paeschli)
17th July 2020, 20:36
Let’s hope they can push these new tyres through for 2021 so that we can avoid last year’s fiasco
S
18th July 2020, 4:21
All they need to do is not let the teams decide.
They should use whatever they are supplied with.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
18th July 2020, 10:43
teams self police more and more, what a farce f1 has turned to. Like kids playing ball.