Pirelli has entered the following stage of making ready its smaller tyres for the 2026 System 1 season, with Ferrari and McLaren conducting check work of its tougher tyre compounds at Barcelona this week.
Quite a lot of consideration has gone to Lewis Hamilton persevering with his preparations together with his new Italian employer alongside team-mate Charles Leclerc and McLaren’s Lando Norris, nevertheless it can’t be careworn sufficient that lap instances from the two-day check on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya are solely meaningless, closely relying on the run programmes requested by Pirelli to check its smaller prototype tyres for 2026 and its compounds on the tougher finish of the dimensions.
Whereas Hamilton may have benefited from extra seat time in a Ferrari from final 12 months, with the newest procedures, steering wheel, Ferrari energy unit and so forth, the largest benefactor from the check is Pirelli itself. The Italian tyre producer is up towards it to check and produce tyres which might be narrower – 25mm on the entrance and 30mm on the rear – and smaller in diameter, from 720mm to 705mm-710mm entrance to rear, for use on vastly completely different vehicles subsequent 12 months.
The issue for Pirelli is that it has no consultant vehicles to check its new rubber on because the new-for-2026 vehicles function considerably decreased drag and fewer downforce generated by the ground and diffuser.
Preliminary plans to scale back general downforce by 40 p.c have been watered all the way down to round 15 p.c following considerations over slower lap instances, which at the moment are anticipated to be extra consistent with present efficiency ranges. However the brand new technology of vehicles is considerably completely different in how and the place they generate efficiency, so Pirelli has to depend on the imperfect resolution of mule vehicles – equipment from 2022-2024 with trimmed wings – to gather real-life knowledge from its new rubber.
Following an preliminary check with Aston Martin in September – in its 2022 mannequin – and up to date wet-compound working at Le Castellet, Ferrari and McLaren carried out work in Barcelona in newer vehicles with considerably decrease wing ranges, showing with totally flat mainplanes extra akin to one thing you’ll see in Baku or Las Vegas somewhat than on the high-downforce Montmelo circuit.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24 throughout Pirelli check
Picture by: Pirelli
The general downforce ranges of those mule vehicles might be comparatively near the start-of-2026 specs, however as a result of the vehicles are so completely different it’s nonetheless tough for Pirelli to appropriately reproduce the hundreds its tyres might be subjected to. It’s due to this fact counting on being usually fed simulations from groups to remain forward of the curve.
“The primary assessments had been primarily devoted to know how the mule vehicles are working, as a result of clearly they’re completely different,” Pirelli’s motorsport chief Mario Isola instructed Motorsport.com. “The one factor we are able to do is to constantly ask for up to date 2026 simulations from the groups, principally. We should replace our know-how and replace our building based on the info that we obtain.
“We can not simply depend on the mule vehicles as a result of it gained’t be wise, and we’ll proceed to supply them a digital mannequin of the tyre to make use of of their simulators they usually come again to us with their suggestions. And that is the fitting route we must always proceed in.”
Each lowering downforce general and altering how it’s generated may have a serious impression on the character of the hundreds 2026’s smaller tyres are going to be subjected to. For Pirelli it’s due to this fact essential to get the inner building of its new tyres in the fitting ballpark. Any additional fine-tuning can then be achieved by tweaking the compounds.
The Italians are usually not simply taking anticipated 2026 efficiency under consideration, as F1 squads at all times have a tendency to seek out fast beneficial properties in the beginning of a rules cycle, and Pirelli due to this fact has to have sufficient headroom to account for increased tyre masses additional down the road.
One necessary problem added to the combo is the upcoming X-mode, a DRS-like type of energetic aerodynamics which modifications the angle of the entrance and rear wings on the straights for increased high speeds, versus the usual configuration which is dubbed Z-mode.
“We can not generate these downforce ranges with the X-mode and Z-mode, it’s not possible,” Isola defined. “So, we’ve got to know what one of the best compromise for testing is and once we attempt to correlate the info from simulations with knowledge collected on observe. Step one is to outline the profile and building. From the check we had with Aston Martin we’ve got a superb place to begin, I might say. Compound growth is the second step.
Mario Isola, Racing Supervisor, Pirelli Motorsport
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Pictures
“We all know that it’s a problem, as a result of in any case groups don’t need to lose any efficiency in comparison with the present vehicles, and the tyres are smaller, with decrease loading capability and so forth. We’re additionally once more testing new supplies and new concepts as a way to have a tyre that’s not heavier however nonetheless in a position to maintain the load and to maintain the identical efficiency that the present tyres have.”
It’s not the primary time Pirelli has been chasing a shifting goal with one hand tied behind its again. However Isola identified the problem for 2026 was maybe barely simpler than in 2017, when F1 moved to larger and wider vehicles with way more downforce, which on the time was not possible to copy with a mule automotive. F1’s transfer to ground-effect based mostly vehicles for 2022 was additionally a difficult proposition.
“It is a very comparable state of affairs to what we had for 2017 and 2022 once we needed to develop a whole new tyre for a whole new automotive, so it isn’t one thing new to us,” Isola mentioned in an earlier roundtable.
“In 2016 it was tremendous tough as a result of it was anticipated to have vehicles with a lot increased downforce and the efficiency was 5 or 6 seconds faster than the earlier 12 months, so it was not possible to copy this type of efficiency.
“However the best way you obtain the load with the present vehicles is totally completely different in comparison with the brand new one, for instance. And on the straights, we’ve got quite a lot of load now, whereas in 2026 at excessive pace we must always have much less load. So, the comparability shouldn’t be the identical.”
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