The Renault F1 team was hit with a warning by the FIA after the French outfit mixed up its tyres during the Pirelli development test conducted in FP2 at Portimão.
Teams were compelled to test Pirelli's 2021 prototype tyres in the first 30 minutes of Friday's afternoon practice, with one driver in each outfit trialing a single set of the experimental rubber on a long run while the other tested two sets - a baseline and a prototype set - back-to-back.
But confusion ensued in the Renault camp during the trial when the team unintentionally mixed up the two sets allocated to Daniel Ricciardo, the Aussie running three tyres from one set, and one tyres from another.
The blunder was reported to the FIA stewards who subsequently investigated the issue. Renault was let off with a warning as the mistake was inconsequential, save for the fact that Pirelli was deprived of conclusive data.
"Unfortunately, it wasn’t very useful because they made a mistake," commented Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola. "Knowing what was the specification of Renault, we have to exclude these two sets from our analysis.
"It happens, because the prototypes are black without labels on the side. Obviously with the race tyres, you have different colours, and you recognise immediately if you have three tyres that are white and one tyre that is yellow.
"With the prototypes they have only the number of the set on the sidewall, not the colour, so it was a genuine mistake.
"It is clear that it is difficult to draw any conclusions from two sets that have been mixed, but it is what it is."
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