Pirelli prepares for the Jerez tests
For the first tests of the season, in Jerez, the single manufacturer for Formula One will provide 25 sets of tires to each team, with only the super-soft tires not being included since they are the only ones unchanged from 2011.
As Jerez prepares to vibrate under the roar of Formula One V8s, the teams are getting ready to unveil their new cars as well as the new Pirelli tires, which were presented by the Italian manufacturer on January 25 and 26 in Abu Dhabi.
Each year, teams are allowed to use one hundred sets of tires per car for testing, and for this week of testing on the Andalusian circuit, each team will have 25 sets of the new Milanese tires. Free to choose the tires at their disposal, all the teams have selected the new soft, medium, and hard compounds for this first of the three winter testing sessions, excluding the super-soft compound, the only one that hasn’t changed since 2011. In case of rain, drivers will also have the new Cinturato intermediate or wet tires, with green and blue sidewalls, at their disposal.
If the teams already have some data on the new compounds, tested during the young driver tests in Abu Dhabi last November, this will be the first time the regular drivers will hit the track with the 2012 tires, which are squarer to increase the contact surface with the ground and thus improve the grip level and longevity of the Pirelli tires, a development made necessary to compensate for the loss of grip expected from the ban on exhaust-blown diffusers: “After a successful first season in 2011, we are determined to help deliver an even better show this year, which is why we have revamped our entire tire range,” explains Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport director. “At this point, the priority for the teams should be to discover the new tires, and it will be interesting to see what approaches they will take in this regard. Last year, it didn’t take long for the teams to understand the characteristics of our tires, and we’re sure that will be the case again since there will be fewer surprises this year as the teams have a better idea of what to expect from our products. This high pace of development and responsiveness is what makes Formula One our ultimate research tool, enhancing Pirelli’s status as a global leader in the High-Performance sector.”
The Milanese manufacturer should also take advantage of the Jerez tests to evaluate its new electronic system for real-time data collection related to tire temperature and degradation level.
