The two days of Pirelli wet weather tyre testing in 2017 size have concluded at Paul Ricard in France. Pascal Wehrlein took the wheel for Mercedes on both days. He was in a mule car that has been modified to simulate next year’s downforce levels.
On the first day conditions remained sunny with ambient temperatures reaching 25 degrees centigrade. There was some wind that made it quite tricky to maintain a consistent level of water on the track between one run and the next.
Wehrlein covered 80 laps in the morning and ended the day with a total of 135 laps under his belt.
The test concentrated exclusively on the wet weather tyres in 2017 sizes:
Intermediate: 305/675-13 at the front and 405/675-13 at the rear;
Full wet: 305/680-13 at the front and 405/680-13 at the rear;
In total 135 laps were covered during the second day, which added to the 135 laps driven yesterday.
The next Pirelli test session will feature Mercedes once more at the Catalunya circuit
The team will test the latest generation Pirelli slick tyres from 12-13 October. The session will be at the Montmelo circuit close to Barcelona in Spain.
From 14-16 October Red Bull will resume the testing programme of the new 2017 sizes. The Austrian outfit is the third team to have taken on the task of testing Pirelli’s 2017 tyres. It will be back in action at a dedicated slick tyre test in Abu Dhabi, also using a mule car specifically for this purpose.
Meanwhile the teams agreed both 2017 pre-season tests to be at the Barcelona circuit after deciding this was the most practical option. There was a discussion about sessions in Bahrain or Abu Dhabi but there was no agreement on that.
Next year’s pre-season tests will be from February 27th to March 2nd and from March 7th to March 10th,while the first race is expected to be in Australia on March 26th.
