Pirelli welcomes extra F1 pre-season testing

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Pirelli welcomes extra F1 pre-season testing

Testing will be increased from three days ahead of the 2022 season

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Friday 20 August 2021 15:21

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Pirelli motorsports boss Mario Isola has welcomed the additional F1 pre-season test next year.

F1 enters a radically changed era next season with new cars that aim to create more exciting racing by reducing the amount of dirty air created by the advanced aerodynamics showcased on current cars.

Pirelli will introduce new 18-inch tyres and despite numerous tests taking place during the current campaign on the compounds, teams will have just six to eight days of testing with the tyres fitted to the next generation machinery ahead of the first race next year.

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This is increased from the three days afforded this season in Bahrain and speaking to GPFans Global, Isola said: "That is good because obviously with the new car, it's not just about understanding the tyres.

"They will be setting up a car that is not something similar to what they have now, with cars that they know very well.

"There is always a bit of unpredictable stuff that happens during a test.

"Probably if I look back a few years, like what happened in the past when we had the bigger change in the technical side like in 2017, they dedicate the first session to the car.

"Usually, they use a standard compound or a couple of compounds in the middle of the range, depending on the circuit in order to set up in the car to understand the car, to test new parts.

"The second session is more dedicated to tyres, understanding of the tyres, going through all the range of compounds.

"Next year, we will have a complete new range of compounds so they also need to dedicate some time to understand the new compounds because it was not possible to just upgrade the current family of compounds because the target is really challenging, so we had to design a new family of compounds.

Pirelli warns of restrictions of one-car tests

Unlike free practice sessions, pre-season testing will only see 10 cars on track at any time with each team's drivers sharing driving duties in one car.

Isola warned this will impact the data collection across the tests.

"Let's say the baseline was necessary, that is in the middle of the range and from the C3, we'd arrive also C2, C1 on one side and C4, C5 for the soft side, but they are all new," added Isola.

"So the teams need some time to test their short runs, long runs, and it takes time.

"Don't forget that during the pre-season testing, they have only one car, not two cars with two drivers, so they have half of the amount of information compared to a normal race weekend."