Formula One News

Formula One News » Pirelli completes second F1 test Posted on 02/09/2010

Pirelli motorsport director, Paul Hembery has said the manufacturer is ‘slightly ahead’ of where it expected to be following its second test this week at the Le Castellet circuit in the south of France.

The Italian firm won the tender to supply tyres exclusively to the FIA Formula One World Championship from 2011-2013 earlier this year, and since then has begun a ‘concentrated campaign of research and development’ to prepare for its first F1 season in 20 years.

With the initial shakedown work at Mugello last month proving to be ‘extremely successful’, Pirelli continued its development programme at Paul Ricard, working on both constructions and compounds as per the planned schedule with Nick Heidfeld again at the wheel of the Toyota TF109.

“Throughout both days of the test, the car and the tyres performed perfectly. The performance of the new rubber, as well as its consistency and reliability, fully matched expectations,” Pirelli said.

“We’re very happy with the progress we’ve made so far, which actually puts us slightly ahead of where we expected to be at this point in time,” Hembery added.

“We worked through an initial development programme that has given us a useful insight into the performance of our prototype tyres under a wide range of conditions, corners and speeds.

“We’ve been hugely encouraged by what we’ve seen up to now, and that’s been helped by both Nick’s clear and precise feedback, as well as all the different possibilities afforded to us by the Paul Ricard circuit.”

Pirelli’s test programme will now continue in Spain in two weeks’ time, although before that the company will take to the track at Monza for the finale of this year’s GP3 Series from September 11-12, which is exclusively supplied by Pirelli in its inaugural season.