Pirelli: debut for the 2015 tires in the Abu Dhabi tests

Pirelli F1 – The last F1 tests of the season, which ended today in Abu Dhabi where the last GP of the championship took place on Sunday, saw the debut of the 2015 version of Pirelli tyres. They were not tests expressly dedicated to Pirelli: all the teams continued their technical work program.

Each team had 135 sets of tires available for testing this year. For these two days in Abu Dhabi, each team received 10 sets of 2015 tires to replace the same number in 2014 specification. Pirelli brought the new P Zero medium, soft and supersoft tires to the track in the already definitive 2015 version. The majority of the teams tested the new tyres, which are an evolution of those seen in the race this year and not the result of a completely new project.

Many teams also tested new drivers and technical components with a view to 2015. The sessions were mainly held in the heat of the day: the times are therefore not comparable with those recorded in qualifying and the race during the GP weekend, when the temperatures were in drop due to the late hour. Nonetheless, the pilots who tested them expressed a positive opinion on the new 2015 specifications.

Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport director: “We are very happy with the first impressions reported by the drivers: the improvements we wanted to make with the new tires are already appreciable. These are not radical changes: we have made some small changes, in particular in the crown area of ​​the rear tire which influences the footprint area. This new construction optimizes temperature distribution: heat spreads more evenly, aiming for better performance and traction. We have also introduced a new supersoft compound, created with a view to better mechanical resistance. Even with the new 2015 range our objective remains the same: Grands Prix with two or three pit stops. Now it remains to be seen how much the performance of the single-seaters will improve: we expect a lap time improvement of a second or more per lap compared to 2014, which will obviously have a decisive influence on the behavior of the tyres.”

The tests in a nutshell:

Both days we tested hot and dry weather. On Tuesday the asphalt reached 44 degrees (33 degrees in the air); Wednesday 43 degrees for the asphalt and 32 for the air..

Pascal Wehrlein (Mercedes) set the fastest time of the two days, lapping on the 2015 soft tires in 1m42.624s in the closing stages on Wednesday.

Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) completed the highest number of laps on Tuesday: 114. Wednesday's record goes to Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) with 112 laps.

The teams had medium, soft and supersoft 2015 specification tires at their disposal, as well as the entire 2014 range. In total, the 2015 specification tires completed 454 laps; the 2014 tires totaled 903.

The next test session will be the first of 2015, from 1 to 4 February in Jerez de la Frontera, southern Spain. Two test sessions will then follow in Barcelona: 19-22 February and 26 February-1 March, immediately before departure for Australia where the first GP of 2015 will take place.