Pirelli: the second official test in Jerez concluded

The second Formula One group test concluded yesterday in Jerez with a great performance from the Pirelli tires during four days of testing in southern Spain.

After the first official pre-season tests held in Valencia, the teams of the top championship had the opportunity to once again taste the entire range of Pirelli tires by lapping on a circuit with very different characteristics compared to the previous one and which hosted a Grand Formula One award last time in 1997. In recent days in Jerez there have been different temperatures, from more to less mild, with even a sudden downpour of rain in the last ten minutes of the final day. In these situations, the Teams concentrated on testing only the dry compounds, already chosen for the test sessions.

The teams showed off a vast number of very different on-track strategies: many teams ran with their new drivers on the new single-seater, while other teams focused their attention on the new technical regulations. Most of the work dedicated to the new tires was carried out by the teams during the last two days of this test session, giving the opportunity to collect an increasingly important amount of information as the level of confidence with the tires increased. on track.

The characteristics of the Jerez circuit, which includes a great variety of medium and fast corners, meant that the supersoft tires were not as protagonists on the track as the soft, medium and hard compound ones. In fact, the teams preferred to stay on the track longer to simulate typical race situations, for the first time this year after the expansion of their development programs.

During the four days of testing in Jerez, four different combinations of single-seater and driver set the fastest lap on the track, thus underlining the strong degree of adaptability that the Pirelli PZeros present on very different mechanics. And this is the pace of developments in Formula 1: in tests, the best times were, on average, more than three seconds faster than the times achieved by Pirelli during the first private tests carried out on the same circuit last September with the Toyota TF109 .

“We have collected a large amount of information which we will now carefully analyze before the next tests which will take place in a few days in Barcelona,” says Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport Director. “Unfortunately, there have been various red flags during these four days due to cars that ended up off the track and other complications not related to the tyres. For this reason, some teams were unable to complete the entire program as they had intended. This situation had a slight impact on us too, but from a general point of view I must say that our tires showed great reliability when covering long stretches on the track, even more so than in Valencia. From what we have learned so far, I believe that there is still a strong probability of seeing two pit stops per race, which could also be reduced to just one on some circuits or become three on others, based on the characteristics of the individual cars and the race circuit . Many drivers have confided in me that our tires will be able to give a high level of entertainment to the competition which, in fact, is exactly what we want."

The 12 teams of the top championship will immediately leave for Barcelona for the last European test before the start of the season, on the Circuit of Catalunya. Unlike Jerez, Montmelò is a very familiar track for the various Formula One teams as it is widely used for testing, as well as the circuit of choice for the Spanish Grand Prix. Pirelli will bring its perfected version of the supersoft and soft tyres, as also recommended by the Teams following the first official test which brought the latest version of the PZero tires to the track.