17/02/2011
NEWS STORY
 |
Pirelli has announced that it will be taking an "evolution" of its soft and super-soft tyres to Barcelona for this week's four-day test which gets underway tomorrow (Friday).
All 12 teams contesting this year's championship will take part in the test, which marks the final opportunity for on-track running in Europe ahead of the first Grand Prix of the season in Bahrain next month.
Pirelli will take an evolution version of the super-soft and soft compound PZero tyre, as well as the medium and hard compounds. The modifications have been incorporated following feedback from the teams and from the extensive data accrued by Pirelli's engineers.
This will be the final opportunity that the teams have to sample all four dry tyres from the Pirelli range - super-soft, soft, medium and hard - as from the Bahrain test onwards only the compounds that have been selected as the prime and option for the races will be provided.
Unlike Jerez, the Circuit de Catalunya is an active Formula One race venue having hosted Spain's Grand Prix since 1991. It is favoured by the F1 teams for test and development due to its combination of fast, medium and low-speed corners, making it ideal for honing car design and set-up.
"We managed to collect a lot of data from our test with all the teams in Jerez and we've been very busy evaluating it to see what we can learn," said Pirelli's motorsport director, Paul Hembery. "What's interesting is that the emphasis during testing is changing: as the teams get up to speed with their new cars the work has become much more focussed, with some longer runs and potential race set-ups being evaluated. We've also got some evolutions of the super-soft and soft tyres, which was always part of our development schedule.
"Barcelona is a track that both ourselves and all the teams are very familiar with," he continued, "so I'm sure we will come back with plenty of information once more. Once more, the track characteristics are quite different to the two circuits that we have tested at before, which enables the teams to experience the behaviour of our tyres under a wide range of circumstances: something that will be crucial to formulating race strategies as the year goes on."