Red Bull: New Pirelli F1 tyres for Silverstone will have “modest” impact

The new tyres derived from Pirelli’s 2024 testing programme have been introduced in order to deal with higher than expected load levels as teams have developed their cars and added downforce.

Teams tested them en masse for the first time on Friday in Barcelona, when they were given two sets of the hard C1 compound per driver.

However, most teams opted not to conduct a direct back-to-back test on the day between the current and future hard tyres, making it more difficult for Pirelli to fully assess them.

The fact that teams opted to only run the Silverstone test tyres indicated that they believed the new construction won’t behave much differently from the current one, in effect using the prototypes as part of their regular preparations for the Spanish race.

As the team with arguably the most to lose should the new tyres prove to have different characteristics, Red Bull was keen to find out what the impact of the new tyres will be.

“Yeah, a little bit,” said chief engineer Paul Monaghan when asked by Autosport if the team had learned much from the testing.

Paul Monaghan, Chief Engineer, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“I won't spill the beans as to what we have derived from it. Not many people ran FP1 in a normal condition against it. But we've all made our measurements, and at the moment it's coming for Silverstone.”

Asked if there was an impact that the team would have to adapt to Monaghan said: “There is an impact. Adaptation, I think we'll be okay at the moment, I guess the acid test is Friday and Saturday or Sunday at Silverstone.

“I know some people carried pressure tap arrays behind the front wheels to see what was going on with that. That's a different level of preparation on some.

“At the moment, I would say the impact is modest. But I could be well proven wrong at Silverstone, couldn't I?”

Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough said his team had gathered some useful information with which to prepare for the British GP.

"We sort of banked a lot of data on the measurement side,” he said. “We will then process that data and turn up hopefully at Silverstone and then be in a stronger position.

“So there weren't huge differences, but we haven't done good high fuel long runs, with the programmes and everything else we were trying to achieve. It was more of a data-driven exercise for us.”

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur was a little more sceptical about what the Italian team had been able to learn from the Barcelona running.

"It's not an easy one when you do five laps with a proto tyre to have a clear picture of this,” he said.

“We did thousands of laps with the current one, and we are still not able to understand it! Don't ask me to understand the new compound [sic] in five laps.”

Mario Isola, Racing Manager, Pirelli Motorsport, talks to a Ferrari team member on the grid

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Meanwhile, Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola suggested that the new construction will have a neutral effect.

“The feedback was that they are all transparent,” he told Autosport. “And also it is supported by the fact that some teams were using the proto to understand the C1 compound. So the construction is not really making any difference.

“Alpine was the only one using the baseline, the normal construction, and the other teams were using the proto.

"But Barcelona is a quite well known circuit and they know if the tyres are behaving as expected or not. Also talking to the team no particular comments or issues.”