F1 | Pirelli: Mercedes and Red Bull run at Monza, Ferrari at Fiorano

Pirelli continues its work in preparation for next season. As happened after the Japanese and British Grands Prix, the Milanese manufacturer remained for a few more days in Monza after the conclusion of the Italian Grand Prix held last week.

At the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, in fact, the action on the track has resumed, with three teams that will be running between today and tomorrow for two days of extremely important tests for the Italian tyre manufacturer, currently busy defining the compounds for 2025 after having worked on a new tyre structure in the last tests.

In fact, over the course of the year, Pirelli has a total of 40 days of testing organised 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 simulations in the factory.

To continue this development program, Mercedes and Red Bull took to the track today at the Monza track. For the Silver Arrows, George Russell drove the W15, while for the reigning world champions, Liam Lawson took the wheel of the RB20. The English Mercedes driver completed 127 laps, the distance of more than two Grands Prix, the fastest in a time of 1:20.747. The New Zealander stopped at a total of 104 laps, the best of which in 1:22.126. For Lawson, this is an excellent opportunity to continue to gain confidence with a Formula 1 car in view of next year, given that Helmut Marko has confirmed several times that the New Zealander should be present on the 2025 grid.

Racing Bulls will join the field tomorrow, again with Lawson at the wheel, on the VCARB01. Pirelli had originally planned to test a possible C6 here at Monza, but more generally, work has focused mainly on the softer compounds, given that last weekend the protagonists were the C3, C4 and C5, currently the softest in the range.

Tomorrow Pirelli will also be busy at the Fiorano track, where, thanks to the support provided by Scuderia Ferrari, Oliver Bearman will be behind the wheel of an SF-24 to work on the development of wet tyres. accumulating kilometres in view of the Azerbaijan GP where he will replace Kevin Magnussen at the Haas. The choice is not accidental, because with its irrigation system, the Italian track allows the track to be wetted more easily, even if there are not many fast corners in which to transmit so much energy to the tyres.

George Russell, Mercedes, Pirelli test in Monza

Photo by: Pirelli

The Maranello team had already taken to the track in May at Paul Ricard in a test session to try the full wet tyres. It is no mystery that on several occasions the drivers have complained that the full wet compound does not have excellent performance, unlike the intermediate, so much so that as soon as possible they tend to return to the pits to make a pit stop, given that there is a rather marked competitive gap between the two compounds.

For this reason, Pirelli is working to reduce the heating on the heavy wet tire, in order to guarantee better performance and more linear degradation. Furthermore, the intention remains to also test the intermediate that does not need blanket warmers, in order to have a product similar to the full wet, which already does not need to be preheated.