Scuderia Ferrari will test Pirelli’s wet tyres at Fiorano on Thursday and Friday, as part of the Italian manufacturer’s Formula 1 tyre testing programme for the coming season, with all 10 teams contributing to the development of its 2019 slicks. The complete schedule includes sessions that take place on the Tuesday and Wednesday immediately after the Chinese, Spanish, British, Japanese and Mexican Grands Prix.
The post-Brazilian Grand Prix test has been dropped for 2018. Last year’s planned running with McLaren at Interlagos was cancelled for security reasons after Pirelli staff were targeted by thieves on the Sunday evening after the race. Scuderia Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren will also undertake additional wet weather running for Pirelli, split between Fiorano and Paul Ricard, which both have sprinkler systems.
“We’ve defined the calendar with all the teams,” said Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola – “It is good that we have been able to distribute one dry session to each team. We offered to test to all the teams, and all the teams replied in a positive way. Talking about wet tyres, we have less sessions, we have three teams who were also available to test on wets, and we allocated wet tests to these three teams.”
The usual tyre testing format applies, with the teams testing “blind” without knowledge of what the compounds they are running on, and no opportunity to test their own development parts.
Pirelli also prefers teams to use their race drivers, or experienced testers, if possible.
2018 Pirelli testing schedule
April 19-20 Fiorano Wet (Ferrari)
May 15-16 Barcelona Slick (McLaren/Haas)
May 30-31 Paul Ricard Wet (Mercedes)
June 14-15 Vallelunga Slick (Toro Rosso)
July 10-11 Silverstone Slick (Red Bull/Williams)
September 5-6 Paul Ricard Wet (McLaren)
September 20-21 Paul Ricard Slick (Mercedes/Ferrari)
October 9-10 Suzuka Slick (Renault)
October 30 Mexico Slick (Sauber)
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