Pirelli completes crucial final tyre test at Silverstone

Just days after the British Grand Prix, Formula One’s sole tyre manufacturer Pirelli concluded a crucial final tyre test that took place on the same venue at Silverstone.

The breaking news from the tests revolved around eight-time F1 race winner Daniel Ricciardo, who will make a shock return to Formula One, replacing Nyck de Vries from the Hungarian Grand Prix. The former Formula E and Formula 2 champion was ousted from the Italian team after just ten races into his debut season as a full-time F1 driver.

However, the tyre test was not only important for Red Bull to assess Ricciardo’s current form, but it was crucial for Pirelli as well as it held a crucial final test session with its 2024 tyres. The Milan-based tyre manufacturer was worked with Haas, Red Bull and Williams for two days, evaluating their 2024 F1 tyres that do not require heating blankets.

Red Bull worked with Daniel Ricciardo on both days while Haas nominated Kevin Magnussen for the first and test driver Pietro Fittipaldi for the second day of running. At Williams, it was Alexander Albon to get behind the wheel of the FW45 on the opening day while the second day was the turn of Logan Sargeant.

In total, over 3000kms were clocked with the 2024 tyre at Silverstone with Day 1 running on partly wet surface and Day 2 running in significantly better weather conditions.

Following the test, Pirelli’s Head of Motorsport, Mario Isola commented: “They were two days of very intense testing and I would like to thank the teams and drivers involved for their support.

"The variable weather, especially on the first day, made the job more difficult than we expected, since the asphalt conditions were not as consistent as we would have liked, but we tried to make the most of the time available — for example, to study the behavior of the new intermediate tires.”

The Italian stated that Pirelli’s engineers will be now analysing the data they collected during this year’s test sessions before the F1 Commission makes its final decision on whether the new tyres make their way into the sport.

“Now comes the most important part of the work: the analysis of the data on the unpreheated compounds, which will be compared with the data collected in previous tests.

"It is on the basis of this data that the F1 Commission - which includes the FIA, F1 and the ten teams involved in the championship - will have to decide on July 31 whether to introduce slick tires without preheating starting in 2024, placing them on the same level as the rain tires, which have no longer required tire heaters since the Monaco GP, and the intermediate tires, which will debut at the first Grand Prix next season,” Isola concluded.