Teams sample Pirelli’s wet-weather tyres in Barcelona

The Formula One teams encountered wet weather for the first time this year on the final day of a four-day test at Barcelona: the second of three official pre-season tests. The other three days were dry, enabling the teams to run through the complete range of P Zero tyres – all of which are new for this year – on a circuit that they are all familiar with. However, some unusually cold conditions restricted the amount of meaningful data that could be accumulated. The final pre-season test of the year also takes place in Barcelona next week, from February 28 to March 3.

Paul Hembery (Pirelli motorsport director): “The teams experienced quite high degradation in Barcelona, and that was really down to the weather conditions. The conditions we had in Barcelona are far from typical of the rest of the season, with much cooler ambient and track temperatures than we would normally race in, and even some rain on the final day. This put the tyres outside of their usual working ranges, which led to problems such as graining. The conditions were particularly unsuited to the supersoft tyre, due to the circuit layout and the roughness of the surface in addition to the cold temperatures. Coupled with the fact that teams are still making big set-up adjustments to their new cars and trying out our complete range of our tyres to optimise the package, we saw levels of degradation that are not typical. Once we get to Melbourne the tyres should be much more within their intended working range, which will eliminate the unusual amount of degradation that some teams have experienced.”

Testing Facts:

— The teams are allocated 100 sets of tyres per car per year for testing purposes. After an initial contact with the 2013 range for the first time in Jerez, they again concentrated on expanding their knowledge of the new tyre characteristics this year, and how they interact with the new cars: all of which were present for the first time in Barcelona.

— Ambient and track temperatures were cool: generally between 10 to 15 degrees centigrade ambient, which was on the whole cooler than the previous Jerez test. This led to some graining, which occurs when a tyre slides if it is not up to temperature, with the friction against the track surface tearing off strips of rubber.

— With most of the initial work on new cars already completed in Jerez, the teams were able to also focus on longer runs and race simulations with varying fuel loads. Between two and three pit stops are expected at the first grand prix in Australia: some of the teams that carried out race simulations stopped the equivalent of four times in Barcelona, demonstrating that the ideal target should be met in the more typical conditions of Melbourne.

More Testing Facts:

— The time difference between the slick compounds was in the region of 0.5s per lap, but the unusual weather conditions in Barcelona meant that this was not entirely conclusive.

— Most laps of Barcelona: V Bottas – 355 laps; F Alonso – 283 laps; M Chilton – 241 laps

— The teams sampled the Cinturato Green intermediate and the Cinturato Blue full wet tyre for the first time on Friday. The wet-weather tyres have a new rear construction this year, which improves traction at the rear in particular and reduces snap oversteer.

— The fastest overall time of the test set by Fernando Alonso on day three (1m21.875s) comfortably beat the fastest time during testing last year at Barcelona: 1m22.030s (set by Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus).

-Barcelona is an extremely technical circuit that tests most aspects of a car’s overall performance. The most stressed tyres at the Circuit de Catalunya are those on the left.