After the Monaco GP which ended with the victory of Charles Leclerc last Sunday, Ferrari and Pirelli moved to France about 200 kilometers from Principality for a private test session to allow the Milanese manufacturer to continue the development of the tires with a view to 2025.
Over the course of the year, in fact, Pirelli has a total of 40 days of tests organized together with the FIA and the various teams taking part in the championship, thanks to which it can work and evaluate its prototypes directly on the track. After the Barcelona tests, always carried out with Ferrari before the start of the world championship, Jerez and Suzuka, with the latter immediately after the Japanese Grand Prix with Sauber and Racing Bulls, the Italian manufacturer stopped at Paul Ricard to two days of testing.
On Tuesday, Carlos Sainz took to the track, having the task of carrying out comparative tests of different compounds and constructions in view of 2025. Already in Suzuka, Pirelli had evaluated different prototypes and said it was close to identifying the construction to be approved in view of next season, but this week’s test served to gather further details before arriving at a final decision.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
Photo by: Pirelli
It must be kept in mind, in fact, that Pirelli must respect deadlines for the approval of its products by the FIA: last year, the deadline for construction was around mid-September, while for the compounds there was greater flexibility, being able arrive until the beginning of December.
Considering the characteristics of the Paul Ricard track, used on the first day in the version used in the latest editions of the French Grand Prix from 2018 to 2022, the work on the compounds was mainly oriented towards the softer compounds, with the aim of reducing the heating of the tyre, one of the topics requested by the pilots. At the end of the first day, Sainz completed 138 laps (17 on the short version of the track) for a total of 768 kilometers travelled.
If Tuesday was dedicated entirely to testing the dry tyres, the second day proved to be fundamental for testing new solutions for the wet tyres. The choice of the French track was not random, given that it can be artificially wet, increasing or decreasing the quantity of water to evaluate more characteristics of the tyres.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Ferrari
On Wednesday, Charles Leclerc, fresh winner of the Monaco Grand Prix, took to the track at the wheel of the SF-24, lapping on a 3.523 kilometer version of the track that was artificially wet thanks to the circuit’s irrigation system. This allowed us to test both full wet tyres, Pirelli’s big priority, and intermediate ones. In recent years, riders have complained that the heavy wet compound does not guarantee excellent performance compared to the intermediate one, so Pirelli, despite its limited use, has decided to continue development.
Also thanks to this test, the goal is to find a prototype that provides better performance, while at the same time highlighting less overheating and, consequently, less marked degradation than now. In total, the Monegasque completed 160 passes on the 2 wet compounds, covering 585 kilometres.
“They were two days of very useful tests, during which we were able to carry forward not only the development program of the compounds and constructions for the slicks but, finally, also try solutions on the extreme and intermediate wet tires that we had not been able to. tested last winter” said Mario Isola, Pirelli Motorsport Director. Organizing tests in the wet, in fact, is not so simple, because the manufacturer must organize a specific test on a track on which it is possible to irrigate the track, or hope for rain.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Ferrari
Even in that case, however, it is difficult to have direct comparisons between the different prototypes, because sometimes the water level on the track is not constant. There are circuits that have an artificial irrigation system, such as Fiorano, which however has few high-speed corners that are demanding on the tyres. Paul Ricard, although it is not particularly strict on the tyres, can still provide useful information: “The circuit’s irrigation system allows the water level on the asphalt to be kept constant in order to be able to compare the different prototypes”.
“Of course, many factors must be taken into account that are impossible to reproduce in the tests, such as the weather conditions, because today at Paul Ricard there was beautiful sunshine. Furthermore, the track is not one of those particularly severe for the tires but we have However, a lot of data has been collected which will now be analyzed to see in which direction development should continue”, added Isola.
“The test program for dry tires is further ahead, for which we are now close to defining the construction and compounds for 2025. They were 1350 kilometers of very fruitful tests and I would like to thank Ferrari and its drivers for the support they have given us.”
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