Pirelli will continue preparations for the new Formula 1 season at the final European test in Barcelona, which begins tomorrow.
All 12 teams will take part at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain as this is the final opportunity for them to sample all four dry tyres from the Pirelli range – from the Bahrain test onwards only the compounds that have been selected as the prime and option for the races will be supplied.
The tyre company will bring an evaluation version of the supersoft and soft compound, as well as the medium and hard compounds. Using feedback from the teams, and the extensive data collected by Pirelli engineers, modifications have been incorporated into the tyres.
“We managed to collect a lot of data from our test with all the teams in Jerez and we've been very busy evaluating it to see what we can learn,” said Paul Hembery, Pirelli’s motorsport director. “What's interesting is that the emphasis during testing is changing: as the teams get up to speed with their new cars the work has become much more focussed, with some longer runs and potential race set-ups being evaluated. We've also got some evolutions of the supersoft and soft tyres, which was always part of our development schedule.”
“Barcelona is a track that both ourselves and all the teams are very familiar with, so I'm sure we will come back with plenty of information once more,” he added. “The track characteristics are quite different to the two circuits that we have tested at before, which enables the teams to experience the behaviour of our tyres under a wide range of circumstances: something that will be crucial to formulating race strategies as the year goes on.”
