Charles Leclerc completed Pirelli’s two-day test at Fiorano for the development of the 2026 wet-weather tyres. The Monegasque driver, at the wheel of the Ferrari SF-25 mule car—specifically modified to fit next year’s narrower tyres and with reduced aerodynamic load simulating the agile 2026 cars—completed a total of 110 laps.
The best overall time was 59.210 seconds, achieved on slick tyres during the vehicle validation run in the morning, before the track was artificially wetted. On intermediate tyres, the best performance was 1:06.180.
Mario Isola, Director of Pirelli Motorsport, expressed his satisfaction: “First of all, I want to thank Ferrari for the hospitality and the technical and sporting support, along with the commitment of its drivers. These were two very useful test days that allowed us to complete the on-track development work for next year’s intermediate and full wet tyres.”
“Now we will carefully analyze the data collected and finalize the definitive solutions. It is never easy to work on developing tyres for wet conditions, because the track surface conditions are difficult to replicate consistently, and the influence of temperature is very significant. This year it was even more so because the experimental single-seaters obviously cannot exactly replicate the loads and behavior that the new 2026 regulation cars will have.”
“We had to make the best of the situation, and I believe we achieved some interesting results that will allow us to provide the teams next year with an improved product, in terms of both performance and operating window, compared to the current one.”
The next Pirelli test session for the 2026 slick tyres is scheduled to take place at Silverstone the week after the British Grand Prix.
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