After the Monaco Grand Prix, which concluded with Charles Leclerc’s victory last Sunday, Ferrari and Pirelli moved to France, about 200 kilometers from the Principality, for a private test session to allow the Italian manufacturer to continue developing the tires for 2025.
Throughout the year, Pirelli has a total of 40 test days organized with the FIA and various teams participating in the championship, allowing them to work on and evaluate their prototypes directly on track. After the Barcelona tests, also with Ferrari before the start of the season, and the tests at Jerez and Suzuka, the latter immediately after the Japanese Grand Prix with Sauber and Racing Bulls, the Italian manufacturer stopped at Paul Ricard for two days of testing.
On Tuesday, Carlos Sainz took to the track, tasked with conducting comparative tests of different compounds and constructions for 2025. Already at Suzuka, Pirelli had evaluated different prototypes and mentioned being close to identifying the construction to be approved for the next season, but this week’s test served to gather further details before reaching a final decision.
It should be noted that Pirelli must meet deadlines for FIA approval of its products: last year, the deadline for construction was around mid-September, while for the compounds, there was more flexibility, extending until early December.
Given the characteristics of the Paul Ricard track, on the first day, used in the version utilized in the recent French Grand Prix editions from 2018 to 2022, the work on the compounds was mainly oriented towards the softer compounds, aiming to reduce tire heating, one of the issues requested by the drivers. By the end of the first day, Sainz had completed 138 laps (17 on the short version of the track) for a total of 768 kilometers.
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While Tuesday was entirely dedicated to testing dry tires, the second day was crucial for testing new solutions for wet tires. The choice of the French track was not accidental, as it can be artificially wetted, increasing or decreasing the amount of water to evaluate more tire characteristics.
On Wednesday, Charles Leclerc, fresh off his Monaco Grand Prix victory, took to the track in the SF-24. He drove on a 3.523-kilometer version of the circuit, which was artificially wet thanks to the track’s irrigation system. This allowed for testing both the full wet tires, Pirelli’s top priority, and the intermediate tires. In recent years, drivers have complained that the heavy wet compound does not perform as well as the intermediate, so Pirelli, despite its infrequent use, decided to continue its development.
Thanks to this test, the goal is to find a prototype that offers better performance while also reducing overheating and, consequently, less marked degradation compared to now. In total, the Monegasque completed 160 laps on the two wet compounds, covering 585 kilometers.
“These were two very useful test days, during which we were able to advance not only the development program for the slick compounds and constructions but finally also test some solutions for extreme wet and intermediate tires that we could not test last winter,” said Mario Isola, Pirelli’s Motorsport Director. Organizing wet tests is not simple, as the manufacturer needs to arrange a specific test on a track where the surface can be irrigated, or hope for rain.
Even then, it is difficult to have direct comparisons of different prototypes, because sometimes the water level on the track is not consistent. Some circuits have an artificial irrigation system, like Fiorano, but it has few high-speed corners that challenge the tires. Paul Ricard, although not particularly harsh on tires, can still provide useful indications: “The circuit’s irrigation system allows maintaining a constant water level on the asphalt to compare the different prototypes.”
“Of course, many factors must be considered that are impossible to replicate in tests, such as weather conditions, because today at Paul Ricard it was sunny. Additionally, the track is not one of those particularly severe on tires, but we still collected a lot of data that will now be analyzed to see which direction to continue development,” added Isola.
“The dry tire test program is further along, and we are now close to defining the construction and compounds for 2025. It was 1350 kilometers of very fruitful testing, and I want to thank Ferrari and its drivers for the support they have given us.”
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