Pirelli hails 'very important' blanket-less Barcelona tyre test

Pirelli head of motorsport Mario Isola hailed the importance of its two day test at Barcelona where Mercedes and Ferrari put to the task a selection of compounds proposed for 2024.

Between them, the two teams racked up 600 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, and George Russell and Mick Schumacher splitting the workload for their respective teams onboard their 2023 cars.

"These were two very important days of testing as we gathered plenty of useful information to come up with the best possible choices for next year," Isola explained.

"In terms of construction, there are still just a few details to fine-tune, while during this test we began to identify a solid development base for the compounds; especially for the middle of what will be the 2024 range."

• Read also: Schumacher 'learned a lot' during 'fun' test with Mercedes

Isola confirmed that the running in Barcelona this week was conducted with blanket-less tyres.

As part of the sport's sustainability efforts, F1 plans to ban tyre warmers from next season. However, the FIA, the teams and F1 have yet to vote on the proposition.

"All the running took place without using tyre blankets," added Isola. "We verified a few interesting things on track.
"Now we move on to a complete analysis of all the data so that we head into the next test, at Silverstone after the British Grand Prix, as well prepared as we can be.

"After that we will draw some conclusions from all the work done over the last few months and present the FIA, F1 and the teams with the complete picture, so that the best decisions can be taken using all the information available."

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