Teams get positive first impression of new Pirelli tyres

The Formula One teams had their first impression of Pirelli’s latest grand prix tyres last week, at the opening official Formula One test of the year at Jerez in Spain.

The tight and twisty 4.428-kilometre Spanish track tested most aspects of Pirelli’s new range of 2013 tyres. This allowed the teams to learn about the basic characteristics of the latest-generation P Zero products over four days and form a positive first impression.
The teams now move to Barcelona for the next official Formula One test from February 19-22.

Pirelli Motorsport Deirector, Paul Hembery commented: “The four days spent at Jerez, with most teams running their new cars, gave us all a good general impression of the characteristics of our 2013 tyres on track, with completely new compounds and construction. It seems that we are very much on the right road and the changes we wanted to see are all there: the tyres are faster than their equivalents last year, and they have a wider window of peak performance. Conditions at Jerez were not ideal this year however, as it was an extremely abrasive track – the most abrasive of all the circuits we visit all year – and consequently it was hard to draw any proper conclusions, given that the surface had actually become even more abrasive than last season. We came away with plenty of data for the hard and medium tyres, very little for the soft tyre and none for the supersoft. Now we look forward to the next two test sessions at Barcelona, which will provide another very valuable opportunity for the teams to extend their knowledge of this year’s tyres.”