Pirelli has planned to carry out a three-day tyre test at the end of this year as the final straw for the testing of its 2021 tyres for Formula 1. Furthermore, all 10 teams have agreed to provide mule cars for testing the 18-inch tyres.
Formula 1 is officially switching to 18 inch low profile tyres from the current 13 inch tyres for the 2021 season. Intensive testing has already been done by Pirelli as a part of Pirelli's development program. 2020 though will see the company put the finishing touches on the tyres with the final levels of testing to be carried out during the season. A three-day test was arranged following this year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix so that all the teams can provide their modified mules for the testing of the new tyres.
Mario Isola, Pirelli Head For F1 and Car Racing, was quoted as saying:
“We are now focused on the 18-inch tyre,” Isola told RACER. “We already started our tests but we just finalized before Christmas the whole test plan for 2020. I’m happy that all 10 teams are providing a mule car for testing, not just because we can test and develop our tyres with all the teams, but also because in Abu Dhabi 2020 we have the opportunity to have all 10 teams with mule cars testing 18-inch tyres.
So we will have three days of testing with the 18-inch tyres — that is a good validation of the product before starting the 2021 season, in that case also with new cars, because we will have mule cars and not the 2021 cars.”
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While tests are also carried out during the course of the season on mules with the next test being with Ferrari at Jerez the following month, Isola suggested that having all 10 teams and confirmed 2021 regulations will definitely help smoothen the process of the year-end testing for the tyre manufacturer.
He added:
“During the season they just provide mule cars. They have the option to use a 2018, 2019 or 2020 car modified in order to fit the 18-inch tyres. The other positive point is that due to the fact that in October they finalized the 2021 regulations, now we have an idea and the teams have an idea of the level of performance expected for 2021.
That means that they can tune the mule car in order to be representative of the 2021 performance and characteristics like weight distribution and other elements that are important for us. We need to test with a car that is as close as possible to the future car, even if it’s different in terms of performance, downforce and weight distribution.”
The news comes after the all 10 teams voted in unison to retain the 2019 tyres for the 2020 season after completing two days of testing for the 2020 compounds in Abu Dhabi.
