Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Pirelli 2026 tyre testing, Circuit de Catalunya, 2025

Hamilton, Norris and Leclerc test prototype 2026 F1 tyres in ‘mule’ cars

Formula 1

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Formula 1’s official tyre supplier Pirelli tested the latest version of its new, narrower tyres for next season at the Circuit de Catalunya today.

Ferrari and McLaren supplied cars for the test. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc drove last year’s SF-24 which had been modified to suit the tyres intended for use on cars which should be lighter than current designs.

At McLaren, Lando Norris used a car based on the 2023 MCL60, again modified to provide more representative testing data. McLaren also conducted a test for Pirelli last week at the Paul Ricard circuit in France, working on the intermediate and full wet weather tyres.

In dry and sunny conditions at the Spanish circuit, the three drivers covered a total of 332 laps. Norris, having his car to himself, covered 159 laps of the Spanish Grand Prix venue, close to two-and-a-half race distances. He set the quickest time with a 1’15.215.

Hamilton, who crashed a 2023 Ferrari when the team tested at the circuit last week, did 87 laps, one more than his new team mate. His best time of 1’15.930 was a tenth of a second faster than Leclerc’s.

The drivers used examples of the hardest tyres in Pirelli’s range, from C1 to C3. They ran a variety of constructions as Pirelli hones the designs which are 25mm narrower at the front and 30mm narrower at the rear than those used since 2017. The FIA said last year it hoped for a greater reduction in wheel sizes in 2026, but did not want to risk an increase in tyre overheating, which would detract from the goal of its new regulations.

Both Ferrari drivers will continue to test tomorrow while Oscar Piastri will take over from Norris in the McLaren.

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Pirelli tyre test pictures

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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24 comments on “Hamilton, Norris and Leclerc test prototype 2026 F1 tyres in ‘mule’ cars”

  1. I’ve got a feeling this will be Ferrari’s year, unironically, for once

    1. If they can reduce driver mistakes and engine-related DNFs, Ferrari would stand a serious chance of winning the constructors championship.

      Incidentally, is there a comparison table of driver errors? For example, Teams with the most driver errors, or drivers within teams with the greatest percentage of driver-related errors. [mistakes on track or poor judgment calls leading to lost points.]

      1. “poor judgement calls” would be trickier to quantify then it initially seems. There are plenty of “poor calls” made when at the time said call was made it was the right thing to do.

        1. Kind of true, but it is just an impression or do Red Bull tend to make better strategy calls in general? (compared to Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren, for example)

    2. It is always “Ferrari’s year” at the start of the season.

  2. Question on the “modifications” made to accommodate the new tires. Does that include suspension geometry and set ups thus giving the participating teams an advantage? Teams may run older cars but if the suspension design is 2026 relevant where is the fairness? Or do all teams get to run the new tires in tests?

    Same goes with testing “older” cars rule. Is there a scrutineer that checks that while the chassis is old, the electronics may well be modified to have 2026 in mind. Or the suspension design, shock absorbers, brakes, wings, etc. altered from 2023 cars to be test bed for 2026?

    1. Modifications solely concern aero to my understanding & all the data from tyre tests is always shared with all teams, so zero advantage in any case.
      Of course, modified cars are only permitted for designated tests in preparation for upcoming technical regulation changes, which is perfectly normal.
      Otherwise, the older cars used for any track running have to be in the same form as they were in their active seasons, which is the whole point of allowing older car use without restrictions as nothing can be gained anymore due to outdated factors.
      Finally, all teams can do these designated tyre tests with modified cars if they wish to.

      1. If you are testing shock absorbers with a newly derived non Newtonian fluid to moderate bounce and compression rate progressively during low to high braking loads, a 2023 car will be as useful as a 2025 one. As there is no scrutineering on parts used on 2023 cars, any hosts of new components can be run. Want to try an new type of clutch (maybe a six discs one that prevents wheelspin as in Top Fuel Dragsters with mechanical slider fingers) you can easily do this in a 2023 car. Want to test if a new wing carbon layup (even if geometrically to 2023 specification) achieves the non bend FIA test it can be done on a 2023 car.

        1. Sounds like you started with the conclusion.

        2. The cars need to be as they last raced for these tests, apart from the modifications which are to specification and are open and shared with all competitors. Changing in a fancy component might be possible if one can argue it is needed for the mule, but since the data needs to be open to judge by Pirelli and shared with the competition, it also clearly shows what you are up to and seems like an eminently silly move.

        3. Gerrit, the answer is that the teams have to agree any modifications to the cars with the FIA prior to any testing taking place, and must demonstrate that any modifications are specifically required for the purpose of the test.

          All other components must otherwise match the specification of parts that were used on that car during the season, which will be checked against the homologation documents that the teams have to submit to the FIA for those components. In the cases you speculate about, the FIA would reject those modifications and not allow the team to participate in a test until it switched back to the original components (not to mention that at least some of those components are already illegal and, being components that have to be homologated before the season begins, would be rejected by the FIA before they even raced).

          Additionally, yes, teams are required to arrange for a representative of the FIA to be present during the test session itself to monitor the components that are used, any changes in set up that are made and to monitor the data that is being collected. In the latter case, the teams are required to agree with the FIA and Pirelli what sensors are fitted to the cars and what data is collected – that data is then transferred to Pirelli who, after processing it to remove any data that is particularly sensitive for either the teams or the FIA, will then distribute it to the other teams.

        4. Appreciate your enthusiastic thinking but a F1 clutch pack is absolutely light years beyond Top Fuel drag machines.

          I mean light years

          If it is a topic your interested in then I suggest F1 Engineering – a book recently published and advertised on this site. It is as comprehensive a book (pretty much a degree course) into F1 engineering as I have seen. Currently being used by my step son in his degree – he works for Ricciardo engineering – long time engineering company who have a thing or to do with F1 amongst other things – do a web trawl. He gained an apprenticeship there and as a retired lecturer and hmi inspector – it has been probably one of the best I have seen in this country.

          Absolutely knocks the slightly odd Newey book into the far flung weeds both in content knowledge and accessibility.

          Fascinating how far F1 has come.

  3. McLaren & Ferrari may have both used the circuit yesterday, but they certainly weren’t using it simultaneously as teams tend to book circuits for their own use.
    Nevertheless, while Ferrari indeed used SF-24 with modifications for the upcoming technical regulation changes as permitted, McLaren somewhat surprisingly still used MCL60 with modifications, albeit they used MCL61 with modifications at Circuit Paul Ricard, not that the particular model hugely matters when modifications are in effect.

    1. I wonder whether it was a matter of availability/logistics of the available chassis for McLaren @jerejj

  4. teams share for TPC and mule car testing quite often

  5. Hoping the prancing horse doesn’t end up being the mule….

  6. Curious why Mclaren used 2023 car instead of 2024?

    1. probably drag to down force ratio was closer then last year’s car. Although I don’t think they changed too much mech wise, last year’s MCL looked like a hooked up version w/ data + optimizations.

      Now … if we could look in to the investment fund that owns McLaren and their links to FIA’s MBS. ;) Perhaps there could be some inside juju going on w/ respect to the way the FIA is changing their rules.

  7. Today leclerc was 1.8s faster then Hamilton.
    Just a fact without meaning.

    1. it’s easier to learn from a car that is being hobbled in known directions, than it is to push a car to the max over and over again. At least w/ respect to setup. I think HAM is still figuring out setup and looking to ‘obscure’ the real margin to Charles.

      Hopefully HAM can get in the Simulator with what he has learned, and see if it’s valuable to train his reflexes against his teammate to see if he can learn anything with respect to setup and balance to performance changes.

      Ultimately he will have to ‘checkout’ and go in to the zone to realize his fastest times, but it he will have to figure out the tricks to putting the car in a good place, so that he has ‘options’ for qualifying, and understand what he’s losing / gaining with respect to setup and race pace. The good news is this isn’t the last few years with Merc where the engineers are blowing him off, which means HAM will have to be putting in a ton of time to learn as much as he can in as little time as he has.

    2. “The two-day test is controlled by Pirelli, who decide upon the run plans for the teams and drivers”

      A fact, with meaning.

    3. I get the impression you’re still hoping that LH fails.
      Is “accentuate the negative” your motto?

      Me? I’m waiting to see if Ferrari can do what I’ve been wishing for them to do for years and win a WDC (and possibly a WCC)
      Meanwhile, I will continue cheering Merc, although I think they need someone better than Russell to maximise, and Williams – cheering Sainz. Keeping an eye on Piastri too.

      Maybe I can be happy every weekend, to counter-balance your misery?

    4. The times at these sort of tests are pretty meaningless.

  8. Watching Hamilton in a Ferrari is going to be strange.

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