After a long winter break, it’s finally time for the first day of school with the start of pre-season testing in Bahrain. Three extremely important days of testing for the teams, who will thus have the opportunity to study the tires in depth to prepare for the start of the championship, scheduled for next week again on the Sakhir track.
The weather characteristics of the Bahraini track, from high temperatures during the day to milder temperatures in the evening, offer a wide variety of conditions from which to extract data. Among the novelties, this year Pirelli will introduce a sixth compound that will be positioned between the C2 and the C1 of 2022 (which will take on the name of C0) to broaden the range and reduce the wide delta between the two compounds found in last season .
“The need for a new C1 emerged in some races, such as the one in Barcelona for example. “In that case the C1 proved to be too slow and for this reason all the teams focused on a three-stop strategy in order to avoid the hard”, explained Pirelli’s motorsport manager, Mario Isola on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi tests at the end of the season, in which the teams had the opportunity to get a first taste of the new tyres.
One more option for the teams that joins a new construction that should make it possible to reduce understeer, limiting those problems at the front that many riders had harshly criticized: “The main objective of the new generation of construction is clear, reduce understeer”.
“It was a common problem throughout the season, especially in low-speed corners. Among the objectives we set ourselves there is also the reduction of wear on the front axle, a less significant aspect in the first races of 2022 to then grow progressively during the season hand in hand with the development of the single-seaters”, added the Italian engineer.
McLaren Pirelli tires and rims
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
During the pre-season tests, the C0 will be indicated with white lettering but without the side band, which will instead distinguish the new C1. The same goes for C2 and C3, which however will be distinguished by the yellow colour, while the C4 and C5 (without side bands) will continue to show the red colour. The prototype C3 (produced in a Turkish backup plant instead of in Romania) will have no indications, but will remain clean in order to differentiate it from the standard compounds. The work on the C1 will be extremely important during the tests, because the new solution will make its debut right in Bahrain alongside the C2 and C3.
The new tires will also allow you to ride with lower pressures. In the tests that run from 23 to 25 February, the minimum value imposed by the Italian manufacturer is significantly lower, ie 21 and 18.5 ps respectively on the front and rear, almost 2 psi less than last season.
By the same author, read also:
