Ferrari's Carlos Sainz says Pirelli has done a good job producing a tyre for F1's 18-inch wheels that can be pushed harder while suffering from less degradation.
All F1 teams save Williams took part in Pirelli's 18-inch wheel tyre development program last year, but the product had yet to be trialed on Grand Prix racing's new ground effect designs.
But last in Barcelona, during the first three sessions of pre-season testing, there was remarkably little talk about tyres and compounds, which reflected a job well done by Pirelli.
"I did quite a bit of testing last year, I think I did three or four days in total with the compounds," said Sainz when asked to comment on the new rubber supplied this season.
"And they look like they are suiting well this new generation of cars, and they look to be at least allowing you to push a bit more on them. And compared to other years, maybe a bit less overheating, a bit less deg.
"But there's still deg, they're still a tyre that degrades a tyre that overheats.
"But the scale of it for me personally, I feel like it's a bit better. And the work done by Pirelli last year and the development seems to start to pay off a bit."
Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas echoed Sainz's comments, but insisted that Pirelli's new tyres felt better on this year's all-new design than on last year's mule car.
"I have to say they've actually been feeling a bit better than I was expecting," said the Finn.
"Based on what I felt in the in the test in Abu Dhabi at the end of last year. In Abu Dhabi, we were experiencing quite a bit of graining, here that's been actually a minimal issue.
"So with the limited amount of laps I've got so far they've been actually okay, but we will see better in Bahrain."
Of particular interest to Sainz was the larger lap delta that appeared to exist between Pirelli's range of compounds, at least as sampled at the Circuit de Catalunya.
"There looks to be also quite a big step from compounds, which is something that in the last few years, for example, the C2, C3 and C4 were all very close to each other," commented the Scuderia charger who topped the lap count in Barcelona.
"And here there seems to be, at least around Barcelona, quite a big step in grip from one compound to another.
"So it could maybe mix up things in races a bit. So in that sense some extra differences
there compared to last year."
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