Pirelli Concludes First F1 Test, Next in Barhrain
Having brought its first Formula One tyre test to a satisfactory conclusion, Pirelli reports that its next private test will take place in Bahrain from 12 – 16 December. There will be another private test session in Europe during January, before all the teams reconvene at the beginning of February for the first official test.
Paul Hembery, Pirelli's motorsport director commented: "We've passed our first test with full marks. All the teams have done plenty of laps and everyone has worked very hard. We've focused on the development of the front tire and that has given us the most satisfaction. On Monday, we begin to analyze the data collected over the last two days"
Each team completed an average of 80 laps a day for a group total distance of over 10,000 kilometres (5500 kilometres on the Yas Marina circuit during day two adding to the total of 5000 kilometres driven during day one). A total of 15 drivers were on track today: one per team apart from Force India, McLaren and Sauber, which used two drivers.
“It was hard work, but a very positive and educational experience for us,” commented Paul Hembery, adding: “We know that this was only our first test, but we think that we’ve passed it with full marks. The comments from the drivers are very encouraging: they especially enjoyed the performance of our front tire, which is an area that we have worked on considerably. This was one of our objectives, and I’m delighted that we have hit our target. Throughout these two days we’ve tried out the medium and soft compound tires and we’ve had good results from both of them, particularly in terms of wear rate.
“During the two days of testing here in Abu Dhabi we’ve racked up nearly 11,000 kilometres with all the teams: that’s more than we have accumulated in three months of private testing. They have also been 11,000 very interesting kilometres, given that we were testing for the first time with the current cars, rather than the 2009-specification Toyota that we have used up to now. Furthermore the teams have begun to test different solutions specifically for 2011, giving them further development directions. We’ve now collected a huge amount of data and opinions, which we will start to analyze on Monday as we prepare for the next tests in Bahrain at the beginning of December. After then, we will have finalized our product and we can look forward to the next official test with all the teams at the start of February.”
The best times from day of the session were as follows:
Fernando Alonso (Ferrari): 1.40.529 (105 laps)
Rubens Barrichello (Williams): 1.41.294 (101 laps)
Sebastien Buemi (Scuderia Toro Rosso): 1.42.145 (98 laps)
Timo Glock (Virgin): 1.44.783 (83 laps)
Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber): 1.42.110 (43 laps)
Robert Kubica (Renault): 1.41.614 (91 laps)
Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India): 1.42.416 (47 laps)
Pastor Maldonado (HRT): 1.44.768 (65 laps)
Gary Paffett (McLaren): 1.41.622 (46 laps)
Sergio Perez (Sauber): 1.42.777 (46 laps)
Paul di Resta (Force India): 1.41.869 (35 laps)
Michael Schumacher (Mercedes): 1.40.685 (74 laps)
Jarno Trulli (Lotus): 1.44.521 (83 laps)
Oliver Turvey (McLaren) 1.41.740 (30 laps)
Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull): 1.40.825 (66 laps)
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