Having concluded the World Championship last Sunday, Formula 1 experienced another day of testing again on the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi, with all ten teams involved on the track with two cars each.
The program was divided into two parts. One single-seater was reserved for young drivers to gain experience behind the wheel of a Formula 1 while the owners rode in the other, being specifically dedicated to a tire test. Furthermore, by virtue of the fact that the compounds approved for 2024 are the same ones used this year, in fact, this second part was essentially an opportunity to try to optimize the car-tyre package. The data collected, also thanks to the possibility of mounting additional sensors on the single-seaters compared to the standard configuration used on race weekends, will be shared with Pirelli.
There were eleven young talents on the track. Williams was the only one to split the day into two parts: the Italian-Argentinian Franco Colapinto, fourth in F3 in 2023, ran in the morning and then passed the wheel to the British Zak O’Sullivan. Many of the young drivers repeated their efforts in the first free practice session last Friday. This is the case of Robert Shwartzman with Ferrari, Oliver Bearman with Haas, Fredrik Vesti with Mercedes, the new F2 champion Theo Pourchaire with Alfa Romeo, Felipe Drugovich with Aston Martin, Jack Doohan with ‘Alpine, by Pato O’Ward with McLaren in addition to the aforementioned O’Sullivan.
Photo by: James Sutton / Motorsport Images
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23
Among the starting drivers were George Russell (Mercedes), Sergio Perez (Red Bull), Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz ( Ferrari), Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri), Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo), Alex Albon and Lodan Sargeant (Williams). Haas did not field either of the two drivers who raced in 2023 but entrusted the car to reserve Pietro Fittipaldi, who can no longer be classified as a rookie having contested two Grands Prix, both with the American team.
The best time ever was achieved by Esteban Ocon in 1’24″393 while the fastest youngster’s award was won by Pato O’Ward (1’24″662). The temperatures were obviously very high: the asphalt remained between 25 and 44 degrees and the ambient temperature remained between 24 and 34 degrees.
The sets of dry tires available were 10 for the starters (one set for C1 and C2, three sets for C3 and C4, two sets for C5) and eight sets for the youngsters (two sets for C3, four sets for C4, two sets for C5).
In total, 2184 laps were completed, divided as follows according to the compounds: 125 on C1 (6%), 138 on C2 (6%), 718 on C3 (33%), 942 on C4 (43%) and 261 on C5 (12%). To give an idea of the amount of work carried out in a single day, last weekend 2681 laps were completed, equal to 14158 kilometres.
However, Pirelli’s track season has not ended in Abu Dhabi: next week, in fact, a test will take place in Magny-Cours (France), dedicated to the development of wet tyres, carried out in collaboration with Mercedes.
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