Pirelli’s 18-inch Formula 1 wheelrim testing programme resumed this week after being suspended for 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr split three days of running at Jerez driving a Ferrari mule car, with the first day including some running in wet conditions but the rest in the dry once the track had dried from intermediate conditions on the second morning.
Our 2022 #Fit4F1 @F1 18-inch tyre development test at @circuitodejerez finished today with 125 laps completed by @carlossainz55 for @scuderiaferrari on slick, intermediate and wet tyres. #F1 pic.twitter.com/xVTujc4FZE
— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) February 24, 2021
Sainz said he left the test with a “relatively positive” impression of the new tyres.
This was Sainz’s first taste of the tyres in Ferrari machinery, although he did complete 39 laps on them for McLaren at Paul Ricard in November 2019 early in the development programme, pictured below.
“The first impression has been relatively positive considering how young the 18-inch project is and how little testing we’ve done so far,” said Sainz.
“You can definitely start feeling differences [compared to the current tyres] and there’s definitely some things still to keep developing, but the first signs and the first feeling has been relatively positive.
“We need to wait until you feed those tyres into next year’s car, which is going to be a completely different animal.”
Pirelli is conducting an extensive test programme this year with mule cars supplied by the majority of teams.
This programme was up and running in the closing stages of 2019, with a Mercedes test at Yas Marina using George Russell pictured above, but was suspended when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
The switch to 18-inch wheels was originally planned for 2021, as part of F1’s comprehensive technical rule changes that were postponed to next year given the financial impact of the pandemic.
The day-and-half of running this week has also helped Sainz to build more experience behind the wheel of Ferrari F1 machinery ahead of his first season with the team.
Sainz had already tested the 2018-specification Ferrari SF71H at Fiorano, but with just three days of pre-season testing in Bahrain next month to split between the two drivers, the extra mileage at Jerez will have helped his preparations for the season.
“Carlos has progressed very well, he is very well-integrated,” said team principal Mattia Binotto.
“His feedback to the engineers have been good, his speed on track has proved to be good and developing day after day.
“It will take still some more time, so we’re not expecting him to be fully integrated 100% at the start of the season but again, each single day will be important.
“I believe he will be ready for the start of the season, if not 100% very close because he is not a rookie, he is a professional driver.”
Sainz also hinted that he had suffered a minor accident during the test when asked about rumours of a crash.
While he stressed that the tests, which are run by Pirelli with F1 teams providing the cars, drivers and capacity to operate them, are confidential, he did offer a hint at the nature of any such incident.
“Obviously Pirelli testing is completely private so honestly answering questions is difficult for me because I don’t know how much we can tell contractually about what happened in the test,” said Sainz when asked if he had crashed.
“But if something happened that I’m not going to tell you, it was very minor.”
