Final F1 test still too cold for conclusions

Formula One’s teams have completed the third and final testing session in Barcelona prior to the season opening Australian grand prix. While times set by Mercedes teammates Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso showed improvements on 2013’s second test at the same location, the weather in Spain was once again colder than anticipated, meaning that Formula One will enter the opening stages of the season with a degree of uncertainty about how they will perform on the new Pirelli P Zero slicks especially. However, lengthy practice in wet conditions during the first two days of the four-day meeting allowed teams more time on the Cinturato Blue and Green – wet and intermediate respectively – tyres, which could provide valuable data for the season ahead. While it is always a mug’s game to make too many predictions following practice, especially given the unpredictability of the first half of the 2012 season, the pace of Mercedes could shake up the established top three manufacturers.

Paul Hembery, Pirelli’s motorsport director, once again explained why the lower temperatures made judging the performance of tyres difficult again: “the weather conditions were still too cool to be typically representative of what we will face over the rest of the year. Consequently degradation was still high as the tyres were not able to operate within their intended working range for most of the test.”

While clearly not ideal, Hembury also labelled the test “useful”, explaining that the tyre supplier is not concerned by the lack of more representative testing: “[This] is a familiar situation for both us and the teams, as it was exactly the case in pre-season testing last year too, so this is not of any great concern.

“The wet weather over the first two days gave the teams a valuable opportunity to assess the intermediate and wet tyres, which have been evolved to offer better traction this year, and to evaluate crossover points. Generally speaking, everyone was happy with the wet weather tyres, which shows that our work in this area has paid off. As this was the final test session, it was useful for the teams to have the opportunity to run through every tyre in the range as they complete their preparations. Now we’re looking forward to getting to Australia, where our tyres will be able to function properly within their working range, and we hope to see an exciting race with between two and three pit stops per car.”

Pirelli’s final testing statistics

All teams are allocated 100 sets of tyres per year for testing purposes, with 35 sets available for the final test in Barcelona. Some teams focused on the soft and medium compounds, since they will be used in Australia, and given the higher degradation due to the weather – temperatures peaked at 18 degrees centigrade over the weekend – and the Barcelona circuit, the supersoft tyres did not often enter the equation, except for some running qualifying simulations. Having said this, the fastest time of the test, set by Mercedes’ Rosberg on day four (1.20:130) with a new set of soft tyres, was significantly faster than the previous week’s benchmark, and about a second and a half faster than the best testing times in Barcelona last year.

The time difference between the slick compounds was around half a second per lap, which Pirelli saw at the second test. The manufacturer expects the performance gap to be slightly bigger in Australia, allowing for greater tactical options.

In total 39,970km were driven in pre-season testing. In Barcelona the fastest three times were recorded by those who spent most time on track: Rosberg recorded 251 laps; Alonso 222; and Hamilton 230. Pirelli brought 451 sets of tyres to Barcelona, which equals 1804 tyres; most of these were split between the soft, medium and hard compounds. 363 sets were actually used, including almost all of the medium and soft slicks and the wet weather options. The longest runs included one of 30 laps on the medium compound, while the Cinturato Green and Blue wet weather tyres completed 47 and 48 laps respectively.

Related news:

• Final F1 pre-season testing to begin in Barcelona
• Barcelona provides wet weather test for Pirelli Cinturato F1 tyres
• Pirelli reveals F1 P Zero tyres at first 4 GPs