The south of France is not normally known for torrential
rain, but Pirelli has successfully completed two days of wet
running at the Le Castellet circuit in the south of France
while preparing for its return to Formula One.
An advanced sprinkler system at the Paul Ricard High Tech
Test Track is able to accurately dampen the track to any
specified level of wetness for testing under rainy
conditions.
Over the course of the two days, driver Pedro de la Rosa
completed 826 kilometers in the Toyota TF109. The test was
aimed exclusively at refining Pirelli’s array of two rain
tires: Extreme Wet and the Intermediate.
The Extreme Wet is used for full rain conditions while the
Intermediate is a transition tire that copes well with
conditions between dry and wet. These tires were previously
run in Valencia at the beginning of October, and plenty of
progress was made throughout the two days at Le Castellet,
according to the company.
Pirelli was able to test both types of tire comprehensively
within a wide window of conditions, gathering some extremely
useful data about each tire’s behavior on a wet, damp and
drying track. As a result, the design of the rain tires have
now been finalized and significant progress has been on the
definition of the compounds.
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British driver Ben Hanley also tested the Extreme Wet tire
for GP2. Unlike Formula One, the GP2 regulations do not
permit an intermediate tire, meaning that the GP2 Extreme
Wet has to be versatile to cope with a wide range of rain
conditions.
Wet weather testing will continue next year, but for now the
European phase of development has come to end, and Pirelli’s
team heads next to Abu Dhabi, where the Formula One racers
will have their first taste of the new rubber in a two-day
test.
The tire maker will take two types of slick tire to the Abu
Dhabi test: The medium tire as the prime and the soft tire
as the option. Each of the 12 Formula One cars will have
eight sets of tires available over the course of the two
days, meaning that Pirelli will take nearly 500 tires to the
Middle East.
“We’re very pleased with the outcome of this wet test
session,” says motorsports director Paul Hembery. “The
sprinkler facilities at Paul Ricard allowed us to carry out
all the work that we intended in consistent conditions and
maximize our time there to the best effect,” he
notes.
“With our European campaign over we now head to Abu Dhabi,
which will be the first indicator of where we are really
at,” says Hembery. “It’s still a big step into the unknown,
but we believe that we have a solid foundation of products
now with which to make more progress after less than three
months of running to-date.”
For more information visit www.us.pirelli.com.
