Abu Dhabi Testing: Pirelli Prepared for 2015

During the two days of private testing held on Tuesday and Wednesday, the teams had the opportunity to test the tires that Pirelli will offer next season.

Each team thus received 10 sets of 2015 tires, medium, soft, and super-soft, with the option to use them at their discretion. However, the teams used the 2014 tires more – 903 covers compared to 454 for the 2015 tires.

If the drivers were not as fast as during the Grand Prix, the Italian manufacturer believes that any comparison is pointless due to the very different weather conditions. The initial feedback has been positive, to the great delight of Paul Hembery, director of Pirelli Motorsport.

We were delighted with the initial feedback from the drivers regarding our new tires. This indicates that the progress we aimed for has been evident on track. We have made some modifications, particularly to the belts of the rear tires. This new architecture optimizes heat dissipation in the tire, which should lead to increased performance and better traction. We are also offering a new super-soft rear compound, designed to enhance mechanical resistance. With our 2015 range, our objective remains the same: to enable between two and three pit stops during the race.

Pirelli expects the 2015 cars to be one second faster than the 2014 single-seaters. The tires will therefore need to adapt to this evolution in performance: « One of the major factors will be how the different single-seaters have progressed. We expect them to be a little more than a second faster per lap compared to the 2014 models, and this will necessarily impact the functioning of the tires, » explains the director of Pirelli Motorsport in a statement.