Pirelli has confirmed that its 2021 prototype testing will be postponed until later in this season so that they have enough time to evaluate the tyres. Formula 1 teams had been scheduled to test next year's tyres in FP2 of the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone and the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona.
The trial run for Silverstone was not conducted after tyre failures were witnessed by several formula 1 teams at the British Grand Prix. The Spanish trial run was also cancelled.
Pirelli has confirmed that the tests have been further delayed and scheduled during race weekends in the autumn season which will mainly include two circuits- Nurburgring and Portimao.
Pirelli has decided to retain the current tyres for third season but plans to try making the tyres durable and refined to withstand the downforce levels put forth by the F1 cars. Since there are no opportunities to test the tyres outside the races, FIA has decided to allow test of prototype tyres in the first 30 minutes of FP2 session of Friday. All drivers have to completely run on these tyres according to FIA 2020.
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Pirelli F1 Tyre Chief Mario Isola explained,
“The plan was at the beginning to have some tests on prototypes at Silverstone 2 [70th Anniversary GP] and in Barcelona, but we decided to postpone that for two reasons.
“First, so we can evaluate a further step with the new prototypes. And second, it was possible because we have an extended European season, so it is also possible to consider other races after the middle of September to test prototypes.
He added that, “This is the plan from our side. The drawback is that the testing is now set to take place at tracks Pirelli has limited familiarity with, namely Nurburgring and Portimao. However, Isola says that can be overcome.
He says that, “We haven’t discussed yet with our R&D department which are the circuits that are more representative. I’m not very worried about the fact we go to new tracks because in any case we have a baseline, which is the normal tyre they use for the weekend.
“So even if we don’t have data before going on these tracks, for sure we will collect data during the weekend and we can make a comparison with the prototypes.
“It is right to say that going on tracks like Barcelona that we know very well, we have a lot of data, is better.
“But for me it’s better that we take a bit of time to rethink the prototypes and do something that is a slightly bigger step in the right direction.”
