Norris leads Hamilton and Leclerc as Ferrari and McLaren kick off tyre test at Barcelona

McLaren’s Lando Norris headed the Ferrari duo of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on Tuesday because the Scuderia and the Woking-based outfit kicked off the two-day Pirelli tyre take a look at on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. F1Technical’s lead journalist Balazs Szabo reviews on Day 1 of the Pirelli tyre take a look at.

Following their on-track exercise at Fiorano and Barcelona over the course of the final two weeks, Ferrari continued to rack up extra mileage at present, this time with McLaren in the course of the season’s first slick tyre Pirelli tyre testing.

The Milan-based tyre provider has already staged a tyre take a look at final week, having labored with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on the Paul Ricard circuit, placing its give attention to the moist and intermediate tyres for the 2026 season, when the laws will stipulate the identical 18” rim diameter as the present ones, however with a barely smaller width and exterior diameter on each the entrance and rear axles.

The Italian tyre provider labored with McLaren, utilizing the three.463 kilometre lengthy 2A model of the Le Castellet monitor. On the primary day Oscar Piastri accomplished 120 laps, with a finest time of 1’07”008, whereas the second day noticed Lando Norris full 123 laps, with a finest time of 1’07”956. Between them, they coated 840 kilometres, all on a moist monitor.

Pirelli has now kicked off its first slick tyre take a look at of the 12 months, concentrating on it 2026 merchandise. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton shared driving duties on Tuesday, utilizing the 2024 F1 Ferrari, albeit in ‘mule’ model. The aerodynamic tweaks meant that Ferrari geared up its 2024 F1 automotive with a smaller entrance and rear wing in a bid to simulate the decrease downforce ranges which can be anticipated for subsequent 12 months’s in depth technical overhaul.

The seven-time world champion set a benchmark of 1m15.9s which was a tenth of a second faster than what Leclerc managed to attain. McLaren’s Lando Norris was considerably faster than the Ferrari pair, setting a 1m.15.2 on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Pirelli’s motorsport director Mario Isola has revealed that the Milan-based firm will conduct two extra take a look at working earlier than the pre-season testing kicks off on the Bahrain Worldwide Circuit..

“It’s going to be a really busy begin to the season for these of our engineers engaged on improvement: after this take a look at at Paul Ricard, we have now an additional two take a look at periods within the coming two weeks. Each of them are in Spain and can give attention to dry climate tyres.

“On 4 and 5 February, McLaren and Ferrari will probably be on monitor on the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit after which, on 12 and 13 at Jerez de la Frontera, Alpine will probably be working with us on each days, whereas McLaren and Mercedes will do someday every,” Isola concluded.

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