Pirelli completed its test of the new 18-inch tires the series plans on bringing in 2021. Renault provided a 2018 mule car for the 18-inch test, with Sergey Sirotkin driving to mark this historic moment. the planned program covered 213 laps with the 18-inch tires over two days.
“We were delighted to open up a brand new chapter at Paul Ricard, with the debut for our 18-inch tyres – which will change the face of Formula 1 – taking place alongside our latest development test for next year’s 13-inch tyres.” said Mario Isola – Head of F1 and car racing for Pirelli.
There is certainly the issue of continued development of the current tire and also creating a migration path to the 18-inch tire for 2021.
“This was very useful for us to take a first look at the new generation of tyres and start shaping the development path that we will follow for the remainder of this year and next year. Of course, it is hard to read too much into this test as these are still very early days, but we have accumulated all the preliminary data that we wanted in good weather conditions, so thank you very much to Renault and to Sergey for their availability.”
Using the 13-inch 2020 tyres, Pirelli covered 212 laps over the two days thanks to Esteban Ocon and Mercedes. The work consisted of assessing a range of prototype slick tyres, as Pirelli begin to finalize next year’s specification.
