Winter testing is always a moment of special importance for the teams, but it is even more so this year due to the new technical regulations, as well as for the category’s tire manufacturer, Pirelli , changing compounds.
The Italian brand will use the data collected by all the teams on their new tires in a particularly demanding circuit to adjust the parameters related to the use of their compounds throughout the season.
But as is often the case, in these pre-season tests there are not always the right conditions to test the wet tyres, so sometimes the drivers are forced to discover them for the first time during the Grand Prix.
To avoid this, Pirelli has confirmed in a statement that if it does not rain during the morning of this Friday, February 25 in Barcelona, the circuit will be artificially wet during the lunch break before the cars take to the track to complete the last four hours in the wet.
Regarding the allocation of tires, Pirelli has indicated that each team will have 41 different sets of tires at their disposal (35 dry compounds, 3 intermediates and 3 wet ones), within which they will only be able to use 30 in total between the three days. Therefore, each set of wet tires used will be one less set of slick tires to use; So this means that, in theory, some team could have chosen the option of not racing in the rain in order to use all 30 sets of dry tires, something that will be discovered in a few hours.
Furthermore, the range of these new Pirelli 18-inch dry tires have the same designation as in recent years, from hardest (C1) to softest (C5).
