Pirelli ready to supply 18-inch F1 tyres by 2016
Pirelli could provide 18-inch tyres to Formula 1 from the start of the 2016 season should the sport want them following its first test of the larger wheels
Lotus completed 14 laps during the morning of the final day of the Silverstone test with Charles Pic at the wheel, using four of the five sets of the 18-inch rubber Pirelli had for trial.
While the evaluation of the larger wheels is aimed at a potential switch in 2017, with 19 or 20-inch rubber also a possibility, Pirelli motorsport boss Paul Hembery confirmed that it would be possible to make the change a year earlier.
But this would require sufficient notice, meaning that F1 would have to give the change the green-light before the end of the year.
"The regulations are talking about 2017 at the moment but we feel ready for 2016 if they wanted to bring it forward a year," said Hembery.
"The priority today was to show people what a current F1 car would look like with a change in rim.
"You know have images and we will supply the people in the Strategy Group and the F1 Commission with images so that they can make a decision on the future regulations on fact rather than computer-generated ideas."
While there was little to be gained technically in today's running, the laps completed did demonstrate that the rubber behaved as expected, with Lotus having only made minor changes to the suspension and clearances to accommodate the bigger wheels.
The tyres are built to pass all standard F1 safety testing procedures and, according to Pirelli, could form the starting point for development of race tyres should a change been made.
Pic lapped well off the pace during his brief runs on the tyre, but performance was not the objective of the test.
"We weren't looking for performance," said Hembery when asked by AUTOSPORT about what Pirelli learned today.
"We confirmed what we knew, which was that the front tyre will create a very aggressive turn-in, the driver will have a very direct response from the front tyre.
"We know that there will be big variations in pressure until we do some more detailed studies on how to control pressure.
"We know that there will be a lot of sensitivity to camber.
"So we were just confirming things we know and the areas that you would start working on over the next period of time if, this is the way the sport will go."
Lotus has not returned to the track since completing its running in the morning on the 18-inch wheels, but if it does so it will switch to conventional tyres.
FRIC ban a 'total surprise' to McLaren F1 team
Pedro de la Rosa thinks test reduction is bad for Formula 1
Top 10 Brabham drivers ranked: Piquet, Lauda, Gurney and more
Its 30 years since the Brabham team started its last world championship grand prix. Time to pick out the best drivers of the once-great Formula 1 squad.
Why F1 2022 tech isn’t all about porpoising and sidepods
Once fears over identikit Formula 1 cars were allayed by visibly different approaches to sidepods and floors, other novel design features have cropped up around the rest of the car.
Bottas feels greater "human effect" on F1 car performance at Alfa Romeo
Valtteri Bottas feels he is able to have a greater "human effect" on the performance of his Alfa Romeo Formula 1 car compared to what he found at Mercedes.
Norris: Long-term McLaren F1 deal allows for better work-life balance
Lando Norris believes his long-term Formula 1 deal with McLaren has allowed him to strike a better work-life balance and relax more away from racing.
The 10 stories to watch out for across the rest of the 2022 F1 season
It’s 13 down, nine to go as the Formula 1 teams pause for breath in the summer break. But what can we expect to happen over the next three months from Belgium to Abu Dhabi? Here's the key storylines to keep an eye out for the rest of the 2022 season
The inconvenient truth about F1’s ‘American driver’ dream
OPINION: The Formula 1 grid's wait for a new American driver looks set to continue into 2023 as the few remaining places up for grabs - most notably at McLaren - look set to go elsewhere. This is despite the Woking outfit giving tests to IndyCar aces recently, showing that the Stateside single-seater series still has some way to go to being seen as a viable feeder option for F1
How a bad car creates the ultimate engineering challenge
While creating a car that is woefully off the pace is a nightmare scenario for any team, it inadvertently generates the test any engineering department would relish: to turn it into a winner. As Mercedes takes on that challenge in Formula 1 this season, McLaren’s former head of vehicle engineering reveals how the team pulled of the feat in 2009 with Lewis Hamilton
The under-fire F1 driver fighting for his future
Personable, articulate and devoid of the usual racing driver airs and graces, Nicholas Latifi is the last Formula 1 driver you’d expect to receive death threats, but such was the toxic legacy of his part in last year’s explosive season finale. And now, as ALEX KALINAUCKAS explains, he faces a battle to keep his place on the F1 grid…
The strange tyre travails faced by F1’s past heroes
Modern grand prix drivers like to think the tyres they work with are unusually difficult and temperamental. But, says MAURICE HAMILTON, their predecessors faced many of the same challenges – and some even stranger…
The returning fan car revolution that could suit F1
Gordon Murray's Brabham BT46B 'fan car' was Formula 1 engineering at perhaps its most outlandish. Now fan technology has been successfully utilised on the McMurtry Speirling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, could it be adopted by grand prix racing once again?
Hamilton's first experience of turning silver into gold
The seven-time Formula 1 world champion has been lumbered with a duff car before the 2022 Mercedes. Back in 2009, McLaren’s alchemists transformed the disastrous MP4-24 into a winning car with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel. And now it’s happening again at his current team, but can the rate of progress be matched this year?
Why few could blame Leclerc for following the example of Hamilton’s exit bombshell
OPINION: Ferrari's numerous strategy blunders, as well as some of his own mistakes, have cost Charles Leclerc dearly in the 2022 Formula 1 title battle in the first half of the season. Though he is locked into a deal with Ferrari, few could blame Leclerc if he ultimately wanted to look elsewhere - just as Lewis Hamilton did with McLaren 10 years prior