Concluding the first 2025 test session for its next generation of rain tyres at Circuit Paul Ricard in France, Pirelli comments that it has acquired reams of data essential to its further development work. The focus of this joint testing with the McLaren F1 Team was the wet and intermediate tyres for the 2026 season, when the regulations will stipulate the same 18-inch rim diameter as the current ones, but with a slightly smaller width and external diameter on both the front and rear axles.
Pirelli and the McClaren drivers used the 2.15-mile long ‘2A version’ of the track for Wednesday and yesterday’s testing. Day one saw Oscar Piastri complete 120 laps, with a best time of 1’07”008, while yesterday Lando Norris completed 123 laps, with a best time of 1’07”956. Between them, they covered 522 miles, all on a wet track.
On Wednesday the weather was dry, while yesterday was punctuated by intermittent rain, and Pirelli artificially irrigated the track’s surface with water tankers and sprinklers. By doing so, it ensured that conditions were as uniform as possible to allow the most effective evaluation of the test data gathered with the various prototypes.
Plenty of vital information
“The first test session of 2025 proved very useful,” comments Mario Isola, Pirelli Director of Motorsport. “When testing wet weather tyres, it’s not easy to consistently reproduce the same track conditions to get reliable data, but over these past two days we were able to acquire plenty of information that will be vital when it comes to defining the new intermediate and extreme wet tyres.
“It’s going to be a very busy start to the season for those of our engineers working on development: after this test at Paul Ricard, we have a further two test sessions in the coming two weeks. Both of them are in Spain and will focus on dry weather tyres. On 4 and 5 February, McLaren and Ferrari will be on track at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit and then, on 12 and 13 at Jerez de la Frontera, Alpine will be working with us on both days, while McLaren and Mercedes will do one day each,” Isola concludes.
