F1 Test | Mercedes, Bottas: “2019 tires very similar to those of 2018”

Very important tests took place in Abu Dhabi this week in view of 2019, where the new tires that will be used by the teams next season were tested. On the Yas Marina track, the teams had both 2018 and 2019 tires available, so they could conduct a direct comparison and obtain important data when designing the new cars.

As explained by Pirelli, the tires for next season will be different from those we saw this year: 2 less compounds, delta between the various revised compounds, new construction and new materials which should allow for less blistering and to reduce the overheating of the tire itself. After trying both solutions during the Abu Dhabi test, Valtteri Bottas expressed his opinion regarding the new tires: “The differences are minimal. The internal structure is thicker, which should mean there should be less blistering” – said the Finn -. “But the outer surface of the tire continues to heat up as before. This means that we can do one lap at most, but then we will still be forced to manage them. As far as we're concerned, we focused on long runs, obtaining a lot of data that we will analyze during the winter and learning a lot about the new tyres" concluded the Mercedes number 77.