Pirelli: Hembery, “The F1 cars are faster this year”

Pirelli F1 – “Once again in Barcelona, ​​as happened in the first test in Jerez, we had quite low temperatures and even a few drops of rain, but the teams still covered a lot of kilometres. All compounds, with the exception of full rain, were used, even if the laps on the intermediates were not very significant.

Montmelò is well known for being a technical and varied circuit, an ideal testing location for investigating every aspect of tire behaviour. It is still too early to draw conclusions about the upcoming season, but lap times already indicate that the cars are faster this year: some drivers have set times lower than last year's pole.

The teams have worked through a very varied programme, including the pit stop procedure, in order to familiarize themselves with the 2015 Pirelli range. This work will continue here in Barcelona with the third pre-season test session starting next Thursday and will end on Sunday. We are also pleased to announce that, as was the case last year, Pirelli will be the Sponsor of the “Formula 1 Gran Premio de España” in May and the “Formula 1 Magyar Nagydíj 2015” in July”.

Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport Director

In addition to the usual range of 2015 tyres, in Barcelona the teams were also able to test a medium compound prototype, used by Pirelli solely with a view to future development. Furthermore, the teams that had not used the winter hard prototype tire sets assigned to them in Jerez were able to bring them here to Barcelona.

Each Scuderia has a total of 2015 sets of tires available for all tests in the 110 season, compared to 135 last year. This is because only 4 days of testing are scheduled during the season compared to 8 last year.

Fastest lap and tire choice

Day 1 Maldonado (Lotus) 69 laps 1m25.011s Soft
Day 2 Ricciardo (Red Bull) 143 laps 1m24.574s Soft
Day 3 Maldonado (Lotus) 104 laps 1m24.348s Supersoft
Day 4 Grosjean (Lotus) 111 laps 1m24.067s Supersoft

After four days of testing, 3134 laps were completed; an increase in performance is evident compared to last year's pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix, of 1m25.232s. The 2015 Pirelli tires feature a new rear construction, which distributes temperature more evenly and also contributes to a reduction in lap times. The supersoft tire also features a new compound.

Another four-day test session will be held in Barcelona from February 26 to March 1.

Test numbers

Total number of sets brought to Barcelona: 398
(18 supersoft; 56 soft; 135 medium; 51 hard; 70 intermediate; 44 full wet; 18 prototype medium; 6 winter hard)

Total number of sets used: 261
(11 supersoft; 56 soft; 126 medium; 35 hard; 9 intermediate; 0 full wet; 18 prototype medium; 6 winter hard).

Longest run for each compound:

Supersoft: Felipe Nasr; Sergio Perez; Pascal Wehrlein 5 laps
Soft: Valtteri Bottas 16 laps
Medium: Max Verstappen 24 laps
Hard: Valtteri Bottas 27 laps
Daniel Ricciardo 14 lap medium prototype
Intermediate Sebastian Vettel 7 laps
Full wet 0 laps
Winter hard Jolyon Palmer 14 laps