After two rainy days at Magny-Cours last week and a Tuesday day again hit by bad weather at Mugello this time, Pirelli finally had a quiet day this Wednesday to work on both the 2025 and 2026 Formula tires 1.
Indeed, like the day before, two programs were planned. On the other hand, unlike the day before, driving could be carried out without problem; It must be said that, this Tuesday, the conditions in Tuscany were such that the safety helicopter could not even fly, which therefore greatly limited the running of the single-seaters.
Regarding the programs: for the first, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz shared the Ferrari SF-24 while Liam Lawson was at the wheel of the Red Bull RB20, as a reserve for the Austrian team. The New Zealander, who will drive for Visa Cash App RB from next week at the United States Grand Prix, replacing Daniel Ricciardo, was working with the Scuderia drivers on finalizing the compounds for the 2025 F1 season. Given the characteristics of the Mugello, it was rather the “hard” spectrum of the range which was at the center of the running.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Pirelli
At the same time, McLaren showed up in Italy with a modified car in order to work on the 2026 tires. After Aston Martin a few weeks ago, this was the first run with the 2026 tires for the brand and its driver Lando Norris. prototypes of the slightly narrower tires which will accompany the new generation of F1 and which are logically at a much less advanced stage of development than the 2025 tires.
The start of the day, on a still wet track, was an opportunity for the three cars to run on intermediate compounds, providing useful data to Pirelli. From 11 a.m., however, it was possible to drive on tires for dry conditions. A total of 390 laps were covered, distributed as follows: 118 for Norris (with a best time of 1’21″302), 116 for Lawson (1’23″219), 79 for Leclerc (1’21″053) and 77 for Sainz (1’21″890).
Last week, at Magny-Cours, it was Mercedes who were struggling, with only 29 laps on a wet track for Mick Schumacher on Tuesday October 1 and 86 laps, still in the rain, for George Russell the next day. However, the days were not completely wasted as work could be carried out on the tires for wet conditions.
The rest of the tire tests will take place at the Mexico GP, where EL2 will serve as a full-scale test for the 2025 tires, while Alpine will in turn test the 2026 prototypes on November 13 and 14 at Magny-Cours, there also with a modified car.
Related News :